Primary telephone number:
07795100880
About you and your business ( please complete)
Ive been a gardener for 9 years, i have worked for various different large companies,have just started out on my own! so this site will come in very handy for me..
Business category
skilled gardener
Comments
I make them myself with some free software named Posteriza. Click here to visit their site.
It is a bit of a challenge and can take some time as I print them out on A4 sheets of paper and sellotape them together from the back. I know it sounds like a cobble up job but when it is set in the frame behind the plastic protective sheet it is hard to tell it is not a one sheet printed poster.
I enjoy the challenge of designing and making them to the required size.(the wife watches TV and I mess around on the computer and printer) However unless you enjoy doing this sort of thing it is not cost effective when you count up the time it takes.
The benefit is that you can make as many posters as you want. In the summer I now advertise mostly lawn mowing and as the autumn approaches I change the poster to advertise hedge trimming and winter tidy up. I think I will make a new set advertising pressure washing as I have already done some in this years winter months and I don't know how this recession is going to effect overall trade.
I use my own digital photo as the background and lay the writing above and below. If you are interested to see my first attempt I will take a photo of one of posters in a frame and send it to you. Will need your email address though.
Sorry it was not a simple answer.
Kind Regards
Gordon
Word your leaflets to reflect this and to emphasise that you are a skilled gardener.
Leaflet your good prospects now and then again in the Spring, this will show consistency and that you are committed to building a round in the area, this will in turn give an impression of reliability.
Perseverance works but a word of caution, put a lot of thought into your leaflet, ask friends for their input and feedback and get customer feedback wherever possible. Do a small run of about a thousand leaflets first the refine them in the spring as needed.
Regards
Jim
Maybe you should consider some quality leaflets and drop them yourself through the more affluent letter boxes in your area. A similar strategy helped me to get started and you may be able to pick up a couple of customers in each street thereby saving on travelling.
On build projects travelling isn't such a big issue but if you are doing two or three site a day it will add up to a lot of dead time.
Plenty of money around near you so try the wealthy streets first. You only need to pick up one good client to cover the cost of the leaflets.
Good luck.
I'm in a slightly unusual situation as we don't rely on my business as the main source of income. I have had a lot of support from Cat and my family which has allowed me to build the business slowly. I changed the way I market myself early last year, billing myself as more of an exclusive 'bespoke' gardener. I go to most of my customers one day each week and work a full day (some are half-day gardens and I'll try to double up on those so I still get the equivalent of one garden a day). It makes it much more enjoyable to work in the gardens than doing bitty and repetitive jobs day after day after day and you get to know the gardens that you're working in very well.
In terms of the advertising, there are a few reasons why I only advertise on Yell.com; I'm looking to target people who are 'cash rich, time poor' - people who have the money to pay for a gardener but don't have the time to do their garden themselves. If someone in a busy & important job is in front of their computer all day, they'll look online rather than in the book. Another reason is that I do all my banking and invoices online so I need to know that someone's going to be able to use a computer to pay me.
In terms of the number of enquiries that I get, I would say that if I get one new garden a year, I'm happy. This year I have taken on one large garden (about an acre and a half) and a couple of smaller gardens. That's on top of my existing clients. The benefit of the way I'm marketing myself is that I end up working for clients who are better able to weather the current financial storm - my client list consists of doctors, legal professionals and even the Vice-Chancellor of a University. It's taken me a while to build up that list and I work hard to keep them.
As far as advertising on yell.com goes, all I can say is that it has worked for me so far...
I hope that helps.
Andy
I got all my commercial work through word of mouth plus having my van sign written.
The best advise i can give is
Always be on time and phone if you are going to be late.
Save your money for winter
Invest in tools for winter i.e Power washer
Get your van sign written
I have never placed an advert or posted a flyer. Where i live its a big retirment area so work isnt really hard to find.
If you ever want a chat just give me a phone i will be glad to help m8
Martin
with regard to the quantity of clients I have acquired. Firstly I must say I have been lucky. It started with me meeting a gardener who was rushed of his feet and I agreed to help him out. I was doing weeding (jobs he did not want) and some hedge cutting (jobs he did not have time to do during the height of lawn cutting season) From then on as soon as I was asked through friends and acquaintances if I was interested in doing any garden work I was there. I did anything. It soon snowballed, but I dropped the hourly paid weeding work in favour of lawn cutting. I now will only do weeding for customers who employ me to cut laws and then I restrict that to about 5 hours a week.
Apart from being lucky, right place at the right time, the two important factors I think makes the difference is. Turn up when you you should. If you can not then phone to let the customer know. Don't just miss a customer out ( even if it is pouring with rain) without phoning to apologise. I have gained several customers because the other lawn cutters had gone missing for a week.The other is to do a good job. Make sure the edges are always strimmed, blow all leaves, bits of grass etc back onto the lawn and mow with stripes. I have gained customers because there lawnmower man does not lay down stripes. I will go over a lawn twice, if need be, to make sure the stripes are intense. I do not miss out as I charge a good price anyway. The other thing is and I have read this on this site several times, get to know other gardeners/grass cutters. They are always working next door to you or across the road just say Hi and have a chat. Peoples circumstances can change, they may have more customers than they need, they may wish to reduce the amount of work they do . Just let it be known that you are looking for extra work if they know of any. Last week I spoke to a lawn cutter he is 70 and still doing 6 days a week. I gave him my card and said if he ever needed any help then give me a call. I don't really need any more customers at the moment but that could change.
I use a 4 stroke blower and strimmer and blower (Honda) they are much quieter and don't belch out fumes all over the place. I don't know if it has helped in anyway but i don't think it has done me any harm either.
I have relayed is my experience and what I do and don't do. I am sure there are other Grass Cutters who employ a completely different strategy are are even more successful.
By the way I have never advertised but if you are thinking of advertising do it in the early spring ( when a gardener may have retired or someones circumstances may have changed over the winter months). Also if you use the local press make sure you advertise for say 4 successive weeks this gives readers confidence that you are a consistant trader. I was advised this by another gardenerr that I met.
check out your message thing in the top left hand corner of your page.
Add as much info about your company and what services you offer into your profile page as you like.
Please avoid over advertising but from my experience, if you are a regular contributor to the site your details will be found in wider searches over the internet.
Hope that helps.
Kind regards
Phil
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