Cost of a gardener

mysterymurdoch

I've been going 8 years now without any empty spaces. That's long term in my books, and I'm quite happy to accept I sound arrogant, but I have passed a lot of experience and help to other gardeners in my area.
I've taken out new businesses with me for a day to observe how I run and get some ideas, at no cost. I've passed huge amounts of work to other gardeners in my area and have taken a lot of time out to reply to people who have got in touch with me via trade forums for advice.

I pay tax, prefer not to accept cash, and will happily give my customers my home address if they want to look me up, pop by for a chat about their gardens or just want reassurance. And I stand by raising prices if there is a lot of demand for your work. Someone who charges £15/hr and has dozens of people leaving their details for potential work needs to try £18/hr for he next customer. Or someone at £18 needs to try £20 and so on. It's not infinite, but what you do is find out where the market lies and work to whichever section of it you want.

You do show a lack of knowledge of the trade if you think gardening is just "domestic gardening here, not Capability Brown landscaping". You could say an equivalent version of that about anything. What is your line of work?

There are people who are happy to accept working for buttons and making enough to get by. I have a level at which I won't get out of bed, and customers who appreciate me a huge amount. One email last week stated "Thanks for all your good work. I'm really happy with it all, and I'm glad I found you ". That's a 2hr fortnightly maintenance job at £80.

abudabi

springdreams wrote: »

As the supplier of the services you don't get to pick me

Anyone who wants to hide their hourly rates just rings alarm bells to me, especially since the business I'm in does charge for services by the hour, and the type of services you supply are frequently charged for by the hour.

Actually yes he can pick you if you agree to the price? He still hasn't GOT to do it no matter what, he is obliged to cancel as you are, I most certainly wouldn't do it for cheapskate rates I charge minimum £50 and hour and have a portfolio of satisfied customers

abudabi

mysterymurdoch wrote: »

I've been going 8 years now without any empty spaces. That's long term in my books, and I'm quite happy to accept I sound arrogant, but I have passed a lot of experience and help to other gardeners in my area.
I've taken out new businesses with me for a day to observe how I run and get some ideas, at no cost. I've passed huge amounts of work to other gardeners in my area and have taken a lot of time out to reply to people who have got in touch with me via trade forums for advice.

I pay tax, prefer not to accept cash, and will happily give my customers my home address if they want to look me up, pop by for a chat about their gardens or just want reassurance. And I stand by raising prices if there is a lot of demand for your work. Someone who charges £15/hr and has dozens of people leaving their details for potential work needs to try £18/hr for he next customer. Or someone at £18 needs to try £20 and so on. It's not infinite, but what you do is find out where the market lies and work to whichever section of it you want.

You do show a lack of knowledge of the trade if you think gardening is just "domestic gardening here, not Capability Brown landscaping". You could say an equivalent version of that about anything. What is your line of work?

There are people who are happy to accept working for buttons and making enough to get by. I have a level at which I won't get out of bed, and customers who appreciate me a huge amount. One email last week stated "Thanks for all your good work. I'm really happy with it all, and I'm glad I found you ". That's a 2hr fortnightly maintenance job at £80.

Mysterymurdoch ignore the replies they come across as the arrogant ones, they seem to want cheap labour like Mexicans in California ? Well this isn't a cheap country to live and most gardeners with any pride would want at least £20/40 an hour going by the gardeners guild,
I would never charge less than £40 ph and more at times , I run a successful business that employs 20 people I have completely satisfied customers who pay for quality as I imagine you have,

tori.k

There is a whole world of difference between a gardener and a lawn cutter.

OP Mature shrubs can worth a lot of money, you could find what your removing could well be sold for more than what you quote is to do your garden, a full grown specimen Camilla is worth around £200.

shortcrust

£12 an hour might be ok for a salary when you know you’ve got a guaranteed 40 hours work each week and no overheads, but for self employment when you have costs, travelling time and gaps it’s pathetic.

Dusty22

springdreams wrote: »

As the supplier of the services you don't get to pick me

Anyone who wants to hide their hourly rates just rings alarm bells to me, especially since the business I'm in does charge for services by the hour, and the type of services you supply are frequently charged for by the hour.

springdreams wrote: »

As the supplier of the services you don't get to pick me

Anyone who wants to hide their hourly rates just rings alarm bells to me, especially since the business I'm in does charge for services by the hour, and the type of services you supply are frequently charged for by the hour.

Er, yes they do actually, that's how this works. Do you think if you "pick" and call a company then they are immediately obliged to do the work for you?
Also, who said anything about "hiding" anything? Some jobs can be charged by the hour, for others it makes more sense for both parties for a per job price. For example how would you feel about paying someone by the hour for a big garden clearance project for which nobody has any idea how long it will take? Whereas a fixed price for the work means the customer knows what they will pay for the job to be done, and it's irrelevant how long it takes.

WHAT MAKES ME LAUGH is that some people (such as yourself) expect gardeners to have the qualifications, experience, knowledge along with expensive professional standard tools that allow them to do a quality job faster..........and then charge a set rate of £15 per hour anyway!!!
What possible incentive is there for someone to do that? They may as well just use a cheap flymo lawnmower and work as slow as they can.

I very rarely work by the hour anymore, only for a few elderly customers. Instead i quote a price for a task to be carried out. The customer can then decide if they feel that is a fair price. If I quote £100 for a hedge to be cut and it takes me longer than expected, say 5 hours, then I have made an estimating mistake as happens sometimes and only made 20 p/h. If it takes 2 hours, great I have made 50 p/h and the customer has a nice hedge. And no, in this case they have not been "ripped off" as they agreed a price for a job to be done, which is what happened.

Unless you are in an area like London, then charging by the job and not by the hour is the only way to make any respectable money as a skilled gardener, otherwise you are limiting yourself for no reason.

Dusty22

abudabi wrote: »

Mysterymurdoch ignore the replies they come across as the arrogant ones, they seem to want cheap labour like Mexicans in California ? Well this isn't a cheap country to live and most gardeners with any pride would want at least £20/40 an hour going by the gardeners guild,
I would never charge less than £40 ph and more at times , I run a successful business that employs 20 people I have completely satisfied customers who pay for quality as I imagine you have,

Thank god finally a bit of sense being shown in this thread. The arrogance that shows in some people when they believe trades people are at their solely at their service and should be grateful for the attention never ceases to amaze me.

Douglas1981

Do you still have your gardener? I am in Romford and desperately need a reasonably priced gardener. Thanks, Kelly