Does anyone else have trouble finding a gardener?
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davemorton wrote: »I think that is utterly ridiculous. Even working 30 hours a week for only 9 months of the year, that puts them on just under £60k a year.
I don't know why people add up skilled self employed hourly rates like they're calculating an employee's salary. But if you're going to do it then be realistic.
I didn't say 50/hour. Lets paint a rosy picture of 50 per job with three or four jobs a day, five days a week for nine months a year. That's 39K right at the top end before any of the considerable costs have been taken out. I'd say those figures are very optimistic.
People really don't seem to value skilled labour.0 -
shortcrust wrote: »I don't know why people add up skilled self employed hourly rates like they're calculating an employee's salary. But if you're going to do it then be realistic.
I didn't say 50/hour. Lets paint a rosy picture of 50 per job with three or four jobs a day, five days a week for nine months a year. That's 39K right at the top end before any of the considerable costs have been taken out. I'd say those figures are very optimistic.
People really don't seem to value skilled labour.
I do these sorts of calculations whenever I think a tradesperson's quote is high. I usually pretty quickly come to the conclusion that it is not.(Nearly) dunroving0 -
Tips for finding a gardener you will keep.....
Don't expect a weekly visit, or even fortnightly unless you have a lot of work for them. Time is money, and travelling from job to job lowers potential earnings. Perhaps ask for a once a month visit and pay for 4 or 6 hours work, gardeners are much happier to take on larger lumps of work.
Expect to pay £20 per hour plus if you want someone you can trust to prune your shrubs, deal with weeds, know what to cut when and generally get on with it.
Waste costs vary around the country but expect to pay £5 to £10 for a metre cubed bag of waste, removal and disposal - commercial disposal rates plus time to and from disposal can add up and your gardener still has to earn a living.
Look after your gardener and he/ she will always come back.0 -
Discussions like these are valuable. Sadly there are still a lot of (generally older) people who think a gardener should be lucky to have the priveledge of working for them and £15/hr is a good rate!
Consider this... a gardener may cost £10/hr to run as a business. They are often onky able to work 9-10months a year, there is no holiday pay, no employers pension contributions or sick pay, and any professional running a business deserves to make £30k. Now start crunching numbers.
A gardener has to have PL insurance. They have to pay themselves for training courses for chainsaws, pesticides, machinery use, as well as spend a lot of time learning on the job.
Gardeners have to deal with some members of the public trying to cancel their visits at arrival when it rains. Dog poo in lawns which flies all over your face when strimming.
Expecting someone to drive to your house and do skilled work with (typically) £4000-worth of equipment for £20 is a joke. It's an archaic mindset that will hopefully die out with the dinosaurs eventually.
As a pr0fessional gardener in the trade 9 years so far, and one who still has a number of original clients, it definitely takes two to tango. If you struggle to keep a good quality gardener maybe you're giving off bad vibes!0 -
fishybusiness wrote: »Tips for finding a gardener you will keep.....
Don't expect a weekly visit, or even fortnightly unless you have a lot of work for them. Time is money, and travelling from job to job lowers potential earnings. Perhaps ask for a once a month visit and pay for 4 or 6 hours work, gardeners are much happier to take on larger lumps of work.
Expect to pay £20 per hour plus if you want someone you can trust to prune your shrubs, deal with weeds, know what to cut when and generally get on with it.
Waste costs vary around the country but expect to pay £5 to £10 for a metre cubed bag of waste, removal and disposal - commercial disposal rates plus time to and from disposal can add up and your gardener still has to earn a living.
Look after your gardener and he/ she will always come back.
I refuse to do monthly work! And i prefer to do short visits as I can utilise my experience and efficiency to make a better living that way.
I've not charged "per hour" since my first summer, and I've been fully booked March to December ever since.
This winter I was also fully booked right through.0 -
Each to their own I suppose, we dropped short visits long ago, just not enough money in it for us.
Perhaps depends on location, we have plenty of full day work in larger properties, less travel, less invoicing and we can still hold our rate.
So will juggle the half days, don't do less than that now.
The hourly rate I mentioned is a guide for someone looking for a gardener when working out what the work might cost - we are fixed rate for everything too.0 -
fishybusiness wrote: »Each to their own I suppose, we dropped short visits long ago, just not enough money in it for us.
Perhaps depends on location, we have plenty of full day work in larger properties, less travel, less invoicing and we can still hold our rate.
So will juggle the half days, don't do less than that now.
The hourly rate I mentioned is a guide for someone looking for a gardener when working out what the work might cost - we are fixed rate for everything too.
I can see that with a van with 2-3 in it. I dropped employing when my first born arrived and work on my own now hence I can get between jobs quickly and £/min rates work out much better when you're on a min job price doing 15 minute visits.0 -
I do a little gardening. I just charge a small fee, I try to keep it to people that I know.
I do any jobs that make me and the dog feel welcome. I don't think people know where to look for gardeners, its no longer the newspaper, but its now facebook and social media.0 -
If finding a gardener is anything like finding a cleaner, i feel your pain!0
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sevenhills wrote: »I do a little gardening. I just charge a small fee, I try to keep it to people that I know.
I do any jobs that make me and the dog feel welcome. I don't think people know where to look for gardeners, its no longer the newspaper, but its now facebook and social media.
Word of mouth and google/my website get most of my enquiries.0
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