Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
I would say that having a chainsaw licence anywhere outside the uk doesn't count for much in my experience, the majority of home owners in the countryside have there own saws and think nothing of felling trees in their flip-flops!
thats great advice cheers do you reckon ex pats would pay extra to have some one come over just to do the work for landscaping obviously rather than little grass cutting jobs
One of the best things I did was to get to know some of the local nurseries who sell these large trees by first buying a few bits and pieces from them, this then progressed to them asking me to come along on jobs which involved English speaking customers as labour/translator, after a while I was being sent all over the country as well as trips to France and Germany taking arctic loads of plants to these countries to be planted in some very well healed customers houses, Giorgio Armani, Dutch royal family to name a few!
I am and was mainly a hard landscaper but if I was to rely solely on hard landscaping I wouldn't have lasted as long as I did. Any Italian will have a gravel driveway and a nice car over a nice driveway and an average car. Again I want to point out that this is my opinion based on my experiences and I'm sure that there might be a way or indeed a country where you could succeed supplying hard landscaping only.
Ps if you do I'd be there like a shot also!!
much appreciated would it maybe be better to travel over gfor soft landscaping
Hi, Im going to ask a rather straight to the point question......... if you are struggling to make it here in your home country as a self employed trader, do you think it will be any easier in a foreign land ????.
Pros: Its sunny
Cons: Foreign language barriers to over come, lack of local knowledge, enough savings to see you through at least 6 months, 10k minimum, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc are all in a much worse economic state than here in UK, there will be, like here in the UK, loads of mondeo men all trying to scratch a living, only they know the locals and can work much cheaper than you could, local laws and regs to conform to, machine availability, service and repairs etc, the list is endless.
Whats happened to your work in your area and why do you think it has gone dead ?. 99% of members on here are stuffed with work.
How do you market yourself here ?
I'm not being sinister or trying to burst your bubble, just asking practical questions. Moving abroad is a huge step when looking to do it on a self employed basis. If you only have experience of a country from a holiday makers point of view, or worse, never been to the country, then I would definately look to get employment with a company in your prefer'd country for a couple of years first, then look to do your own thing, but with unemployment running at 23% + in most of the sunnier climes countries, your going to face stiff competition from experienced local job seekers.
no i much prefer straight to the point rather than beating round the bush i have sent out countless leaflets hand delivered by myself on 2 have came back other advertising is facebook on countless groups on there posting every other day at different times to catch different people iam considering closing it completely as had very little work and i have only 1 contract grass cutting job but thats once a month fo a care home there choice not mine
any advice how to get known more or sholud i just specialise in one thing say paving or decking
In my opinion, local paper adverts are better than leaflets, the return of leaflets is very poor and home owners ( I do any way )just bin them mostly, along with all the takeaway ones that come through my letterbox. They do work but the effort needed and ROI on them isn't good. If your looking to get more grass work, this isnt the best time of year to get it. However there is still a demand from customers for it just now. I would, if your skill set allows, push fencing advertising in the local papers, join Rated people.com for leads, RP generally gets slated on here, but pick your leads carefully and you will get decent work eg: I have picked up work contract sites from them and its generated over £125K of maintenance work for the last 4 years.It does work, just be clever how you set up your RP profile. (happy to help you do that, just pm me).
Most important for advertising is a website, an absolute must these days. I googled you and could only find you on LJN, that needs urgent addressing.
Whats your set up, as in staff, type of work you do, plant and machinery etc etc. Post a full company description up within this OP and you will get lots of advice for routes and advertising options to look at.
Let ljn members see where your at with your business and the advice will come in droves :-).
I think I have found you on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gdk.gm.7 and I think you are going to struggle to connect with people by just listing what jobs you do.
Photographs are very popular on Facebook, so featuring before and after pics of you work with a paragraph or two about the project will help.
Also I notice you mention snow and ice clearing 'using a more economical and efective liquid solution'. What is this exactly, explain to people how you are able to help and what benefits they will get.
Maybe once a month write a short 'how-to' piece on a relevant job in the garden, and again include an image for a little more impact.
I do think it is also important to have your own website, again doesn't have to be full of bells and whistles, a few pages explaining the different work you do, simple black text on a white page.
You should have your own domain name, but you could start with Google Sites http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html and in time through Google buy a domain name, for example, IgkLandscaping.com.
Having read about the experiences of others on the site, it is often knowledge of marketing and promotion techniques that need a brush up really.
yeah thats me yeah a website is a must but lack of funds are holding me back also i know many wont want to and quite rightly dont want to say how much they charge but i dont know if im charging to much or if im not charging enough and people are put off by the cheaper price
really appreciate all the help im recieving
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next