Try not to get all huffy and defensive when someone whether your client or
One afternoon I was sitting on the top of a tall conifer hedge, clipping the tops, when a voice from below bellowed 'Oi, you son, what do you think you're doing ' I looked down to find an elderly man standing in the middle of the pavement waving his stick up at me. 'What do you think you're doing ' he roared again. Resisting the temptation to be unpleasant, I pointed out the obvious and told him that I was cutting the tops of the conifer hedging as I'd been instructed to do by the owner. 'And...
Summary Fdm
1. A gardening round can provide a good income, provided it's set up and run correctly. 2. Here's a low cost start-up opportunity that's easy and fun to operate. 3. Reliability is often more important to your clients than being the best gardener in the world. You'd don't have to be a wizard at every aspect of gardening in order to start here, but you must be willing to learn new things and listen to what your clients tell you. 4. Make sure you set prices to allow enough return to make the...
Keep it simple
Even the smallest of gardening rounds will require some basic administration systems if you are to be successful. Nothing fancy is required. If you have a personal computer you may wish to keep your systems on your hard drive. But make sure you maintain a back-up disk in case your system crashes and you lose your information. My own personal preference is to keep my client records on a manual record card system. The main advantage of doing it this way is you don't first have to turn your PC on...
Case study
Two years ago, Andy was made redundant. At the age of 48 he wasn't holding out enormous hope of getting another job like his previous one. Wrongly or rightly, he believed that his age would stand against him. Fortunately, at the time of Andy's redundancy, his wife Sally was promoted and received a large salary increase, which meant that financially they had enough to cover their monthly outgoings. Prior to Andy's redundancy, their two small children were looked after by a nanny while both of...
Meeting people for the first time
If you're nervous about meeting people for the first time there are a number of positive steps that you can take to improve your confidence and make sure your meeting goes smoothly. Create a positive image in your mind of how you see your meeting going. If you keep seeing yourself as being confident and positive then you will find that's how you'll be. Work on the positive you Always allow yourself sufficient time to get to your given appointment. Don't book specific times. Instead, say you'll...
Creating a cash flow forecast
The cash flow forecast below Figure 1 can be copied and adapted to suit your own business needs. The principle will remain the same - receipts less payments equals net cash flow. Monthly cash flow may be either positive or negative. Obviously your goal is to maintain a healthy, positive cash flow running through your business. However, this will not always be possible. Unforeseen circumstances may have a negative effect on sales, for example bad weather and the like, or something that requires...
Hiring equipment
I hire the following equipment regularly and would never dream of buying any of them regardless of price. All of these tools would cost a lot of money to purchase and, even if my business were cash-rich enough to afford them, the cost of ensuring they are kept well-maintained and serviced is too great. Hiring is an excellent way of acquiring the equipment you want, when you want it, without having to shell out loads of cash and worry when it's next due for a service. Don't be afraid to...
Preparing a profit and loss forecast
While a cash flow forecast will help you predict what monies are likely to flow in and out of your business during any trading period, you may find it useful to prepare a profit and loss forecast. The difference between a profit and loss forecast and cash flow forecast is that your profit and loss forecast will demonstrate how profitable your business is likely to be based on your anticipated sales and expenditure. It will be particularly useful for any business that sells goods as well as...
Operating costs
The costs involved in starting such a business are relatively low, assuming that you already have many of the tools. Other than those, there are the following costs to consider cost of providing and running a vehicle This is an ideal way for those planning to run a gardening round to bridge that seasonal gap between October and March, ensuring that you keep a steady flow of cash coming into your business. My own experience is that during those awful months when all hell breaks loose with the...
Should your business be VAT registered
Initially it may seem attractive. My own opinion is that there is no great advantage to being VAT registered. Before deciding here are some issues to consider If you are VAT registered you will have to charge VAT on all your labour costs. This means adding 17.5 onto your bills. You will also incur additional bookkeeping as you will need to calculate your monthly or quarterly input and output taxes and either pay any tax due or collect your rebates. If your business is solely concerned with...
Your duties and responsibilities
Employment legislation is a complex subject and I recommend that if you are proposing to take on staff, other than using associates or sub-contractors, you undertake further Your responsibilities will include that you must Not discriminate when employing anyone on the grounds of sex, marital status, disability, race or sexual orientation. Give your employee a written contract of employment within two months of starting. Tell your local tax office that you have taken on an employee. Deduct...
Beware of setting unrealistic objectives
When I first started my gardening round, clients told me how many hours they would require my services. But when I began to work out what they actually wanted me to do, it was often impossible to achieve this in the limited amount of time they were willing to hire me for. When I pointed this out to them, they either extended my hours to cover what needed to be done, or reduced the list of tasks so that I could achieve them in the time allocated. However, I could have avoided all the stress and...
How To Start Your Own
AN INSIDER GUIDE TO SETTING YOURSELF UP AS A PROFESSIONAL GARDENER This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Mary Power Published by How To Content, A division of How To Books Ltd, Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road, Begbroke, Oxford 0X5 1RX. United Kingdom. Tel 01865 375794. Fax 01865 379162. email info howtobooks.co.uk http www.howtobooks.co.uk All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system other than for purposes of review...
Is your idea viable
So far in business planning you have looked at How much money you need to earn each and every month to keep a roof over your head and the wolf from the door. Analysing your skills. By now you should have a fairly good idea of some, if not all, of the services you are going to initially offer to prospective clients. Cash flow and the importance of keeping money flowing through the business so that you can meet private and business commitments.
Potential earnings
Your earnings will depend on how many lawns you cut and at what price. If you want to make a full-time, profitable business from lawn cutting, my advice is that you aim to cut fewer lawns but charge more because of the quality of your workmanship. Don't underestimate what's involved. Even a self-propelled mower becomes hard work when you're doing it all day. There's a lot of bending down and emptying grass boxes as well as moving heavy garden furniture such as tables and chairs away from the...
Parttime
Running your own gardening business is all about satisfying needs the needs of your customers. One of the main advantages of running a gardening business is that you are not tied to set opening hours as would be the case were you to have opened a shop. This means you can run your business to fit in around your present commitments. Maybe you only want to work one or two days a week. If so, then the way you run your business will differ from those who wish to make this a full-time, all-year-round...
Planning is something we do already
Whether it's just picking up a newspaper to check what programmes are on television, or phoning to book a table at a restaurant, planning is something we do already. There's nothing magical about it. It's part and parcel of our daily lives. So don't let the idea of having to prepare a business plan turn you off. It really is simple. Before I started my business, I bought a book on writing a business plan. It was a lengthy, tedious affair and something that I finally abandoned when the author...
Beware of plans that are too ambitious
Regrettably, many of the gardening design programmes on the television fail to give any indication of what the finished garden is going to cost. Often the costs incurred in creating these gardens probably exceed the value of the house. Bringing in heavy-duty cranes to lift boulders and gigantic concrete supports over the roof of a two-storey semi doesn't come cheap. Neither does the cost of hiring a specially adapted low loader to take stones the size of those at Stonehenge from a quarry in the...
Further education
Colleges offering correspondence courses The Horticultural Correspondence College Freepost 9GW, Chippenham SN 15 2BR Tel 0800 378918 The Institute for Horticultural and Rural Studies Cranmere Road, Okehampton, Devon EX20 1UE Tel 01837 659600 International Correspondence Schools, Freepost 882, 8 Elliot Place, Clydeway, Glasgow, KLC School of Interior and Garden Design Unit 503, The Chambers, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 OXF 4 Highlands Road, Hadleigh, Suffolk 1P7 5HU Tel 01437 828796
Mobile plant nursery
If you enjoy growing plants this is an ideal way to turn a hobby into a business. Provided you have space available in your garden to keep your plants, then this business can be run successfully from home without having to rent any property. It involves you either growing the plants from seeds, or purchasing 'plug plants' and bringing them on then selling your plants at car boot fairs, exhibitions, shows, markets etc. It's a relatively straightforward business to run and can be very profitable....
Learning from others mistakes
John's experience is not unique. Many people who start a business do so with plenty of enthusiasm and a real desire to succeed. However, this is not enough. There are some valuable lessons to be learnt from John's case study It vital that you discuss your idea with those closest to you, particularly those who share your life. Arriving home one day and announcing to your husband, wife or partner that you have given up the day job, and decided to garden full-time for a living, isn't the way to do...
Whats in a name
What you call your business is important. Be wary of using cliched names. There are far too many Joe Bloggs, the West Country's answer to Groundforce, or Mary Silver, Green Fingers Gardening Services. Try to be upbeat and upmarket when deciding on what to call your venture. Avoid choosing a name that suggests what you're offering is cheap and cheerful. Be imaginative, inspiring and remember that your name will be with you for as long as you're in business. When I carried out my initial market...