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Gavin, are you referring to landscaping projects mainly ?
Im maintanence really so i expect a quieter jan and feb - but this area is quite affluent and ive certainly noticed the 'richer' people rushing through a lot of planting projects -- i assume they are trying to get the european plants in the ground before the import complications make things uncertain
Garden maintenance here. New enquiries seem pretty sparse at the moment but I've not done any marketing apart from switch on my Google ad words. Just starting to get repeat customers asking for things to be tidied up. I think it's most certainly due to Brexshit and people are anxious about spending which will hopefully improve if we manage to avoid no deal.
I did get a really inticing enquiry the other day. Voicemail saying they want 2 hours a fournight and can pay me £12 an hour! I was charging more than that 15 years ago!
I hope things pick up for you now the weather is looking good.
Have you asked for feedback from the prospects that haven't committed?
picked up some maintenance but landscaping projects were a no go, every single one ive asked it was "we didnt think it would have cost that much" things like the job was £7k and the budget was £3k, unrealistc expectations
I used to work for a posh kitchen company and for seven years they didn't sell a kitchen in January. One year they bought twenty fold down Tv's that fitted under kitchen wall cupboards as a January give away to customers placing an order in January for fitting in February. The TVs were sold off on EBay in March at slightly more than they cost, I remember the sales designer passing comment to the boss that he wished he had his business acumen after he boss said at least he had made a profit on the Tv's.
That firm was not alone in failing to secure orders in January to carry out work in February, many major companies end up in the same position , so don't beat yourself up about it.
Just crack on and take it as it comes.
Andy
For me, in lawn care in Berkshire, the queries are coming thick and fast. I think reasons 2 fold. Firstly, all the residual damage from last summer leading to lots of renovations needed now, and secondly, the mild winter again. Has definetly felt like spring around here for the last couple of weeks.
BTW, one of those I was quoting for was an estate agent, and for him it's deadly quiet at the moment due to Brexit uncertainty.
It would look like this could be a very good year for the lawn care teams !
You guys certainly had a challanging last year --
With Andy in that Brexit isn't impacting lawn care. We stuck out the tough times last year with snow, a very narrow spring selling window, and an autumn of the public just expecting their lawns to recover 'because it is grass'. All change this year so far. More Feb calls than any month in 2018.
Getting as much information and setting expectations before going to quote is important to save wasted time and money.
I have been steadily busy since the Christmas Break and in the last 3 weeks have been full on with garden maintenance and this week been cracking on with lawn maintenance. This is largely due to the good warm weather.
Whether we like it or not, Brexit is beginning to impact due to the uncertainty and certainly I know of landscapers who are chasing for work as are some tree surgeons. As others have said elsewhere, potential customers have not realised how much things are. My friend is a tree surgeon and he's VAT registers and he feels that's causing him to loose some business plus there appears to be a dearth of tree surgeons competing for business and prices. Hopefully once we have some clarity about which direction the U.K. will go,
then business should pick up.
Wednesday morning comment was passed by a landscape maintenance contractor that there seems to be a lot of tree surgeons chasing As diminishing amount of work thinking they are going to make good money from it.
This morning I drove around fourteen miles to a job and passed half a dozen tree surgeons enroute, more than any other craftspeople who could be identified by the vehicle they drive.
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