Hi there
Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge. I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc and worst of all new work!As under the hourly rate, I could only fit in 4 jobs per day at two hours,but with priced work you can improve on that by at least three jobs,hence your profit margin goes up.
Bear in mind I had charged £15.00 per hour,with 20 years experience,people soon forget about overheads etc,and quickly put the phone down when I mentioned my hourly rate,hence lost a potential customer!
When your self employed,you cannot work for nothing,if people cannot afford your prices and if your good at your job,then you would'nt have trouble getting other work.
Price work makes good financial sense!

"dave" wrote in message
Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge.
I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have
charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc and worst of all new
work!As under the hourly rate, I could only fit in 4 jobs per day at
two hours,but with priced work you can improve on that by at least
three jobs,hence your profit margin goes up.
Bear in mind I had charged £15.00 per hour,with 20 years
experience,people soon forget about overheads etc,and quickly put the
phone down when I mentioned my hourly rate,hence lost a potential
customer!
When your self employed,you cannot work for nothing,if people cannot
afford your prices and if your good at your job,then you would'nt have
trouble getting other work.
Price work makes good financial sense!
--

What the guy that works for a number of my neighbours does is charge a
minimum fee of 4 hours, that way he gets two jobs a day, in your case £120,
with not too much time wasted in travelling. Mind you he does all sorts of
odd jobs too, like a bit of painting, pressure washing paths, etc. Odd job
man really.
--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars
359 data units completed.

"dave" wrote in message
s.com...
Hi there
Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge.
I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have
charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc and worst of all new
work!As under the hourly rate, I could only fit in 4 jobs per day at
two hours,but with priced work you can improve on that by at least
three jobs,hence your profit margin goes up.
Bear in mind I had charged £15.00 per hour,with 20 years
experience,people soon forget about overheads etc,and quickly put the
phone down when I mentioned my hourly rate,hence lost a potential
customer!
When your self employed,you cannot work for nothing,if people cannot
afford your prices and if your good at your job,then you would'nt have
trouble getting other work.
Price work makes good financial sense!
--
dave
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk

For maintenance I have to charge by the half-day as my clients are spread
out. This works well for them and me.
Neil

For maintenance I have to charge by the half-day as my clients are spread
out. This works well for them and me.
Neil


Can you throw a little more light on the hours in half a day, the rate
either per hour of per half day and do you regard travelling in your own
time or your customers?

A very near close neighbour is trying to 'get out of the factory and get
back to gardening' (He was working with his father in the gardening
business, but moved and had to get a quick job to keep the wolf from the
door) and any advice on the 'self employed' rate to charge would be
appreciated.
I was lucky in what I did as a self employed person, (not garden related)
because my only competition was a state monopoly with a very high charge
rate (British Telecom and their charge for putting in extra Telephone
Sockets) and I could and did make a killing on charging less than half their
rate, but garden maintenance is a bit different.

Mike

"Mike" wrote in message

For maintenance I have to charge by the half-day as my clients are
spread
out. This works well for them and me.
Neil


Can you throw a little more light on the hours in half a day, the rate
either per hour of per half day and do you regard travelling in your own
time or your customers?


As I said earlier the local"man" to here (just S. of Staines) charges a min
of 4 hours and the last I heard it was £14 per hour but he isn't a trained
gardener, just an odd job man, grass cutter and cleaner up. From what I've
seen he is also very busy.
--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars
364 data units completed.

"Mike" wrote in message
...

[snip]

A very near close neighbour is trying to 'get out of the factory and get
back to gardening' (He was working with his father in the gardening
business, but moved and had to get a quick job to keep the wolf from the
door) and any advice on the 'self employed' rate to charge would be
appreciated.

Running a cartel? {:-))

[snip]

Franz

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"Mike" wrote in message

For maintenance I have to charge by the half-day as my clients are
spread
out. This works well for them and me.
Neil


Can you throw a little more light on the hours in half a day, the rate
either per hour of per half day and do you regard travelling in your own
time or your customers?


As I said earlier the local"man" to here (just S. of Staines) charges a
min
of 4 hours and the last I heard it was £14 per hour but he isn't a trained
gardener, just an odd job man, grass cutter and cleaner up. From what I've
seen he is also very busy.
--
Regards
Bob

Thanks Bob, I will pass that information on to Steve. That seems both a good
rate and fair for the sort of work he would want to do I believe. As I said
he is a trained gardener, but has to start somewhere, and I know for a fact
that people do ask if that workman can do other things. A lady asked me to
change a tap washer because the bathroom tap was dripping. Looooonnnnnng
story but from that, I touch nothing I do not have any idea about :-(((

Mike

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 20:28:15 GMT, dave
wrote:

Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge.
I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have
charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc

You might sit down and write up your costs and the prices you charge,
both so you can make a good estimate and also show prospective clients
that the work *isn't* priced on the same basis as a 40-hr job in a
shop. And don't think charging for the job instead of an hourly rate
is fool-proof. In that case, you must be *very* careful about
estimates and get everything in writing. You could estimate 2hrs
(actual) work for a task, base your charge on that, and find that the
client wanted to follow you around and chat, or you had to spend 30
minutes finding someone to take charge of a dog. *Every* job has
overhead. :-)

"Mike" wrote in message
...


For maintenance I have to charge by the half-day as my clients are
spread
out. This works well for them and me.
Neil


Can you throw a little more light on the hours in half a day, the rate
either per hour of per half day and do you regard travelling in your own
time or your customers?

A very near close neighbour is trying to 'get out of the factory and get
back to gardening' (He was working with his father in the gardening
business, but moved and had to get a quick job to keep the wolf from the
door) and any advice on the 'self employed' rate to charge would be
appreciated.
I was lucky in what I did as a self employed person, (not garden related)
because my only competition was a state monopoly with a very high charge
rate (British Telecom and their charge for putting in extra Telephone
Sockets) and I could and did make a killing on charging less than half
their
rate, but garden maintenance is a bit different.

Mike


Validity of charges depends largely on the area, the work to be done and the
neck of the gardener! My charges will not apply to your area and visa-versa
(unless you are in East Herts!). You can get a better reputation quicker of
you are good value for money and don't take matters into your own hands.
Despite being an experienced designer also, I always check the householder's
opinion on any changes or work to be done.
Neil

Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge.
I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have
charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc

You might sit down and write up your costs and the prices you charge,
both so you can make a good estimate and also show prospective clients
that the work *isn't* priced on the same basis as a 40-hr job in a
shop. And don't think charging for the job instead of an hourly rate
is fool-proof. In that case, you must be *very* careful about
estimates and get everything in writing. You could estimate 2hrs
(actual) work for a task, base your charge on that, and find that the
client wanted to follow you around and chat, or you had to spend 30
minutes finding someone to take charge of a dog. *Every* job has
overhead. :-)

You have to be very careful if charging by the job. Put your estimate
in writing and make sure you specify clearly what is included. My
experience is that I often get asked "while you are here can you just
do this extra bit of pruning/ weeding etc? " Before you realise it you
are doing a lot more than initially agreed. Unless I can clearly
define exactly what is to be done I always try to charge by the hour.

The rate you can charge depends also on the competition. In my area
there used to be some recently retired people around who did some
gardening to supplement their pensions. Their rates were cheap because
they paid no tax or insurance. To make matters worse most were also
competent gardeners, some had worked in the local Parks Dept when they
employed skilled staff.

David

.. Unless I can clearly
define exactly what is to be done I always try to charge by the hour.


'define exactly what is to be done' :-((

When I was working for myself, a prospective customer asked me to call and
give a quote (here is another point, beware a 'quote' and an 'estimate'). I
called, they told me what was wanted, I explained how it would be done, sent
them a quote outlining what I had said on the visit, followed it up later to
be told "Oh your details were so good we did it ourselves thank you"

Mike

Hi David Yes youre right about retired people doing a very good job at gardening,if the customer prefers this option then fair enough.
I know from my short experience,that you have to find out what the competition is charging,first of all,then work out an average,without cutting yourself short.
Most of my customers are very happy with priced work,so they know what to pay each month,naturally I am flexible when it comes to my retired customers,but at the same time have enough income to run my business.
Last year I was very busy but most of the time rushing about trying to cover all my jobs,missing out of new work,due to the hourly rate set up!
I have taken my accountants advice and worked out a new price structure and I am in the process of finding the average rate to charge.

Thanks for highlighting the Garden Banter site!


dave wrote in message
s.com...
Hi there
Having read some of the comments about gardeners and what they charge.
I myself since 2000, been self-employed as a gardener, and have
charged by the hour.
But have been losing out on travel time,etc etc and worst of all new
work!As under the hourly rate, I could only fit in 4 jobs per day at
two hours,but with priced work you can improve on that by at least
three jobs,hence your profit margin goes up.
Bear in mind I had charged £15.00 per hour,with 20 years
experience,people soon forget about overheads etc,and quickly put the
phone down when I mentioned my hourly rate,hence lost a potential
customer!
When your self employed,you cannot work for nothing,if people cannot
afford your prices and if your good at your job,then you would'nt have
trouble getting other work.
Price work makes good financial sense!
--
dave
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk






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