AIBU to charge £16ph...

[flowercover]

Hello everyone,

I am currently unemployed and to help myself out of this I've decided to try starting up my own gardening service in and around Norwich, and just wanted some feed back from both customers and other gardeners.

I have written a business plan and am trying to calculate what I need to charge in order to make a livable income. Would £16 p/h be too much? Would you rather employ somebody hourly or half day/full day? I can charge less for half/full as my costs would be reduced

Also, if you employ a gardener where did you find their services advertised, and what kind of service were you looking for? I am RHS trained with 5 years experience in a walked kitchen garden and a specialist nursery. Therefore I can offer from simple mowing/pruning/clearing to full garden redesign.

Anything that could help welcomed.

I'm female and 38.

Thanks so much!

[helpfulperson]

I pay £15 ph for a basic gardener ie mows the lawn, weeds, prunes etc but no qualifications so £16 sounds fine.

[LittleMissNaice]

I think for such a range of services, you’d be better with a range of prices rather than a flat fee.

[PancakeInMaBelly]

That sounds on the cheap side. I pay my window cleaner £20 for about 40 mins (he does most the road so no call out/mileage included in that)

[Hoppinggreen]

I pay £15 per hour in Yorkshire
He comes each month and tidies up but if I want him to do more hours and anything specific he is happy to and then lets me know what I owe him

[Veronicat]

£15 per hour in sunny Scotland for a gardener. No hard digging, just weeding and now.

[DustOffYourHighestHopes]

£20 ph in london

[WellTidy]

With your experience, that is cheap. I pay £18/hour for a female gardener, your age, with no qualifcations and a couple of years experience of working in suburban gardens. I'm outside London but within the m25. She brings her own tools but doesn't taie garden waste. I pay by the hour and she does 3 hours a week. There is a Gardening board on MN where people may be more knowledgeable.

[WellTidy]

She came to me recommended, and she plants, prunes, mows lawn, weeds, clears overgrown stuff.

[Sparklesocks]

Sounds reasonable - maybe say something like 2 hours minimum (or whatever you choose) so someone doesn’t drag you halfway across the city for £16.

[DianaPrincessOfThemyscira]

No idea about the gardening - but pancake £20 for window cleaning?! O. M. G. I pay mine £7.50 and that’s £2.50 above what he wanted - I told him not to sell himself short!

[Ginkypig]

Iv just had the garden done and they quoted 20p/h but that was a flare rate not per person sometimes there was 1 other times there were 2 people on one afternoon 3. they also gave a quote before the work started with how many hours the job would take and said that if they exceeded that I would still only pay the quoted hours if they were faster I'd pay less.

So they basically didn't do day rates per sa but they made sure I knew in advance what The maximum i would be paying for labour up front which made me feel much safer about hiring them.
I also payed for the materials to the companies, he calculated how much was needed like stones for example then he put in the order, he gave me the information I then called up and paid it which meant I knew he was charging loads on top!

If your work is good then your worth the money! It not just take home pay you have insurance, pension and loads on top.

[restofthetimes]

I wish you were here! We pay £25ph for basic gardening, e.g. mowing and leaves etc. He can prune. But the designing bit would be ace.
We got him recommended through a friend.
We're in the home counties.
You could advertise that fact that you are female, or have a pink van or something. A lady does that around here and she does very well.
I saw a van on the M25 the other day 'The Lady Gardener' - don't recommend that one!

[FingersCrossedHard]

I've never paid a gardener per hour tbh...always per job. Per hour seems odd to me for s?one reason!

[restofthetimes]

Fuck, my window cleaner is £60!

[PancakeInMaBelly]

Fuck, my window cleaner is £60!

Mine does most my street on the same day so can charge less. If you "share" them they can write off more of their travel expenses

[OutyMcOutface]

I think that it depends on what you/whether you provide your own tools/materials. I think that if you did greenhouse/vegetable patch work you could charge more, same goes for specialist ornamental gardeneork like roses, topiaries and, exotic flowers in greenhouses. I think that you really need to think about what kind of client you want to service-the average person with a simpldback garden and a few lavender bushes or someone wanting specialist horticultural services for large gardens, food gardens, heritage gardens etc. Also consider the full range of skills you can offer-can you work with water plants? Could you instal custom design compositing systems? What about living walls-these arebecoking increasing popular? Instant gardens for clients who have recently moved-this is achievable with specialist products like wildflower turfs and mature trees. In you position I would have a good look at the market and look for a gap that you can fill.

[Bratsandtwats]

Fuck, my window cleaner is £60!

How Big is your house?!?!?!

[MacaroniPenguin]

Sounds fine. You could consider structuring your fees differently for your designing services.

[Fruitbat1980]

😵 my Gardner was £10 an hour. He was cheap (I miss him- he got a full time gig) I need another one. I’d pay 15.

[Skittlesss]

£60 to clean your windows? Where do you live? BUCKINGHAM PALACE?

[endehors]

That sounds reasonable to me!

[shetookshelter]

restofthetimes owns one of those big glass skyscrapers I guess.

[restofthetimes]

Ooh, yes - mine takes away the gubbins at the end, so its worth it that we don't have to be left with piles of prunings etc.
Another chap we had used to fill up the green bin then stop working so he didn't create any more arisings.

...trying to count the windows on the house.... it has three stories, but I don't think he ever goes to the top

[UpSideDownBrain]

We pay £15 ph in the North.

[CurcubitaPepo]

I’m doing an rhs course with a view to doing similar to you. I’ve also done a garden business course and we reckoned about £18 per hour, possibly more if you’re in the south east. I’m in the north west.

I was chatting to another woman on my course who already works as a gardener and she finds she got a lot of custom from putting a card in the post office.

Best of luck!!!!