Self Employed Gardener Training Course

Fishingtime

What a silly idea.
Train loads of people up that will then become your competitors.
There are hundreds of gardners out there already and most have never had proper training

Invicta

My sincere thanks to you all for taking the time to reply to my request for advice.

Firstly no it's not Spam but I can see why it might be viewed as such.

I wanted to try and give somthing back to help other people who might be considering going into gardening on a self employed basis as I was trained by people whithout whom I would no doubt still be on £6 per hour temporary work.

I am reasonably happy with my progress especially starting from scratch in such difficult times.

I went to Pershore and the RHS Wisley but there it ended due to death of my father which meant I had to go and get any job I could to help my mother pay the bills.

As an ex ISO9001:2000 and IOSH trained Health & Safety Mnager working in the Defense Industry I do appreciate the H&S Risks.

Despite a relatively high hourly rate I am getting more referalls than I can deal with due to my quality of work so I am not overly concerned about competition infact i could do with finding a few decent local gardeners to share a few jobs with.

I've come across a few Franchise gardening offers myself and I an definetly not interested in this.

My customers are all regulars who trust me so I wouldn't envisage a big problem using various gardens as "outdoor classrooms".

I recently attended a Coppicing and Woodland Mmanagment course which cost £190 for the week which is what got me thinking about all this.

So once again I just want to say a big THANK YOU for taking the time to give me your thoughts folks it is all very much appreciated,
Bernard

System

yoxford2008 wrote: »

What a silly idea.
Train loads of people up that will then become your competitors.
There are hundreds of gardners out there already and most have never had proper training

Precisely! Over the years when I was a carer I couldn't do the gardening ( my mum taught me everything I know about gardening which is a fair bit) so relied on so-called gardeners, they were without exception useless, could cut the grass and very little else, no knowledge of shrubs, plants etc.

My friend having lost her OH is struggling to pay a cowboy who has very little knowledge, certainly no training, and is ripping her off big time...and this is something I hear over and over again from people.

Personally OP, I think it's worth trying it out, I would be happy for my son to have a 'crash course' training to do this ( something he has already mentioned).

theoretica

I am somewhat bemused at the idea that a one week course could cover what you need to know about plants, ponds and lawns... If you want to do this wouldn't lawn care and business management fill a week by itself?

I would suggest you consider taking on a junior though- so you can do the interesting bits and train him or her up through the repetitive lawn mowing, trimming cared for hedges etc.

Invicta

Purbeck - I've sent you a PM with am idea on how I can maybe help your son and he can in turn help me.

Theoretica - I havent been able to work out how I can cover the cost of employing someone. If and when the need arises I tend to try and work with other self employed people e.g. today I had to remove an existing hedge (Lonicera) and replace with new shrubs (Laurel) so I called upon a chap who has his own Mini Digger. We agreed the cost and division of work in advance with my customer, who bought the Laurels and had them supplied directly to site, she then paid us individually.

BigAunty

Sell it via an ebook or CD rom?

Find out how to Franchise your system?

Take on a trainee or apprentice, then expand the areas you offer your service to? Just grow your own business the natural way, by increasing your market share and thus resources to fulfill customer demand? This way, you get to increase your revenue by a large percentage and not just a modest training fee.