Posts

There Will Always Be Someone Else Doing a Cheaper Quote and That Is Harming The Industry

Image
In the reality of this world, there is always someone else who will do the cheaper job, but what they don't realise and the mistakes that I have made are the fact that it's their body and your body on the line for doing the cheaper work.  I can fully understand if you're starting out and getting your name out there for the work to come through (I was the busiest I have been when I was doing that). This is not the case for myself now as I have an established name and many people have used my services. So the industry standard of pricing is what it is worth.  When it comes to being a professional gardener, it comes within the final details of everything in which you do, whether it's rain or shine, nothing comes in the way.  I was doing a garden yesterday in fact. It was sunny at the start and then it started getting grey and dark and woosh, the rain came in hard for a bit. They didn't stop me because I know the worth of my work and the worth in which I rate myself.  N...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do People Really Care About Reviews?

Now this is a really good topic I want to talk about.  And as cliché as it sounds; yes people do care, but also many people don't, as long as the job is done with care and is nice and tidy and clean.  Reviews really do help businesses get seen by even the most unexpected customers. So yes, they do matter.  Since when was the last time you left a review for a company or service you used? I review all the time. I am one of the top 10% of reviewers for Google reviews.  Not only does it help you get recognised as a crucial guide, but it helps you recommend good business.  So will you review the next service you used?  Because it helps massively.
Post a Comment
Read more

👀 The Biggest Misconceptions About a Gardener 👀

Hello,  If you've been reading this far, then thank you for sticking with me.  This is something that grinds my gears a lot about what people think about sole traders in this industry. It's the mis-conception about gardeners just being knock off pirate traders and tonne increasingly cheap.  For many of people, including myself it's getting increasingly harder to find customers who would pay for exceptional gardening, than to find customers who want to pay for average gardening. Most people don't have the funds, but as a gardener and starting a business from the bottom up without any funding from the government and just doing it by myself with my family. It's come to my attention that having this reputation of being a "knock off" gardener isn't my style...  I have standards that I meet for myself.  When I started, I was just getting to grips with it all. It was overwhelming for the most part. Now, there does become issues by I can resolve them quickly a...
Post a Comment
Read more

❌🤑💰 We all feel the pinch 💰🤑❌

Image
This blog post may cause a few triggers, so I apologise in advance if it does trigger you, but as controversial as it may be, it's something I have to talk about... Believe it or not, but running a business and especially a garden business where you have tools to maintain, insurance to pay, fuel to fill them up, fuel to fill your vehicle up and to make sure you have enough to feed your family, pay your bills and housing costs is tough feat to handle.  It's something that we all have to deal with, as it's a part of life. It's easy to go to work and just get a pay check at the end of the month to then have nothing left or even a couple of hundred left for the next month ahead. That, I completely understand. Personally I went through it since I was 14 years old, from starting off doing a paper round, then breaking my femur through my GCSE's which I was neglected by the school as they didn't have the resources and left me with grades that I wasn't particularly f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spring is coming ☀️🐣🌱

Image
Well, the sun is finally shining and the messages are coming in quick and fast and bookings are filling up.  Loads of jobs to do, a lot of exterior cleaning for regular customers and work that couldn't be done last season for other potential customers that I have been connected with.  There's a lot that goes without saying with the work that is needed to be done to prep for the dryer months ahead, and there are many without the time, the resources or the knowledge to keep a garden upto scratch to how it should look and feel.  Getting to know a garden is like getting to know a person, because every single garden has its own personality and vibe (and don't worry, I won't go on a hippy vibe here), it's more like getting a feeling for the shrubbery, the flower beds, what lives there, what is due to come out and go in, what is going to be split once flowered and where they're supposed to go.  As for the lawns, first cuts, transformations of scarification, re-seeding,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Expectation Vs Reality

Image
So let's get into it...  Expectation Vs Reality.  A very controversial topic that I'd like to dive into.  To expect is to dream as they say...  But the reality is, some jobs just cannot be done within a day, as much as people would like, it's just not possible, nor is it viable to even imagine.  Now, I've been to many jobs that have needed more than just a days work and I've had to draft in extra help just to complete it fully. It's not only time consuming, but it's costly because my own profit can be eaten into as with many jobs, people are not prepared to pay for said work to be done to the standard it is needed to be at, so they end up hiring someone who is cheaper and does a shoddy job of it, so it has to be done twice. Which means less money for the customer to play with in the end and that can mean the job ends up being the same as it was when it was first looked at, or even worse because it's either grown out again or it's not been touched goo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Size Does Not Matter...

Image
Welcome to my first blog!  This is where I will be writing all about my experiences within the garden and the business of a gardening business (in my own words).  So, first of all... Size doesn't matter. Now, it's not about anything else but the size of your garden. There is a huge misconception about the size of your garden and the price of work that needs doing. If there is a lot of work to be done, then the amount of work is what will cost either more or less.  If your garden needs a tidy up, or it hasn't been touched in over a year, then more than likely you will find yourself in need of more work to be done to get it to the stage of where it needs to be for spring/summer and so on, so blooms can spread and it can be the healthiest it can be.  I often get people asking me for work and they're expecting to pay little or barely anything at all when they have a small garden. It's not the case in many ways as there are many factors to put in place for the work. ...
Post a Comment
Read more