Am I being retarded or is this a good idea, thinking of giving up my comfy city job and starting this.
My idea is to buy a van, get some company decals put on it, get some company uniforms made up so I look professional then market myself through Gumtree, Facebook, putting leaflets through doors and advertising in my local paper.
I'd charge £12-15 for a basic lawn cut and would estimate prices for larger jobs (hedge trimming ect).
What do you think Veeky Forums?
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Do you think it's viable ? Factor in costs you'll have to pay such as Petrol for van, cost of uniforms etc
Also, what part of the UK are you in? If you're in London don't think it'll be that great of an idea unless you go to rich places that actually care about their lawns
I don't know anything about UK, but in US about half of what you make will go to taxes and insurance.
so the prices you're proposing wouldn't even be minimum wage here. Landscapers here charge something like ten times that much per hour.
Lawns cut is something that everyone needs so it's viable.
Over here in Oz there's about 10 lawn cutting businesses every square km so competition may be tough in your part of the world.
You have to be ridiculously active on social media. You need to be on every single buy/sell group and every "what's on" group. You need to provide quotes on the spot, none of this "go to my page and contact for a quote" nonsense.
It is a good idea. Lots of work out there throughout the year. And as you grow you can learn how to do other jobs like tree work or hard landscaping. I also wouldn't charge so little for a lawn cut either.
I'd start off small. No need to get a uniform or company logo, do that once you've been in the business for a while and already have a good client base. You can use that other money for tools, training and certification.
There's a website in the UK where you pay £100 a year membership and you can find work that clients have posted. You essentially bid your job price against other businesses.
I'll look for the name of the website for you, it's what my boss uses to find jobs.
Sounds like a shit job desu.
My thinking is it will only take me 30 minutes to cut one lawn at the most. So once I factor in travelling costs and say I cut one lawn an hour £15 isn't a bad hourly rate. Probably £9-10 once petrol for the van and mower is taken into account.
I'm in Scotland but they just built 60 houses near where I live that are all in the 350-500k bracket. Plus I'm near some relatively well off areas.
Do window cleaning instead. People need them cleaned all year, whereas they don't really give a fuck about their lawns in the winter and you can easily get 20+ an hour at the minimum doing it
Don't try and steal customers from others though. It's still an industry where people send others round to break your legs for doing that. Buy an established round and leaflet houses that don't have cleaners.
My brother makes a fortune doing this. He also rents rounds out to people who are too stupid to just buy it outright. People do the work and give him a percentage of it every month
I'm honestly surprised it's still a white, British industry, because the slav gangs could destroy it easily if they wanted by charging retarded amounts.
Slav gangs don't necessarily have good experience and quality work. They don't exactly go to college to study horticulture.
It's running t-bars and blades over windows so they no longer have shit all over them. Maybe you'll run a damp cloth over the PVC frames too for a little extra money.
You don't need good experience and "quality work".
How much does he charge per house?
>hi guys sooo... it didn't quite work out, sorry.. this one's free hehehe
>runs away
>trips
Do it for a bit and have an idea how long stuff takes/get experience. The ideal is to go for contracts cutting lawns and cleaning cutters or whatever with places like schools, old peoples homes, managed houses etc. The window cleaning idea works well too with probably less starup costs.
get STIHL equipment and ask your dealer for landscaper pricing. If you show up with equipment you bought for $100 from home depot id know you were a fucking cheapskate hack who doesnt know wtf he's doing.
source: one of my businesses is a stihl dealer
I don't live in the uk but in the us it's easier to network and just find old people. If you befriend them they will overlook the fact you have no insurance and will allow you to work on their property to save a few bucks. Once you can get jobs without paying the insurance jew you can undercut just about any other major player in town.
Go to places full of old people, unable to care for their gardens.
>UK
>weather is wet as shit all year
>no business will let you in the door without a degree in horticulture and 50 years experience
>doing any work near land boundaries throws up a legal mine field
Dress smart and try get into a retirement community without anyone asking for qualifications
No one else will give you the time of day.
Dont do what these other clueless anons suggest like cutting trees, you will likely get arrested/sued should anyone report you to the council/police.
>£12
Factor in your expenses, and you might just as well work at MacD
Don't quit your job until you establish a certain amount of clientele, unless you have some serious savings
You'll just come off as some chancey gypsy if you're not on checkatrade or something.
>scotland
>well off areas
dude shut up. I ran a garden maintenance company in a major city while having none of that shit for like 2 years. no one gives a shit its all cash in hand.
this is bullshit
Charge like 20 quid for an average lawn. 25 if it's really overgrown.
most of the cost for hedge cutting is getting rid of the waste. if it's loads you will have to bag it up and take it away, if there's only a bit you can blow it under the hedge with ya leafblower
First, I hope you plan on making enough during the summer to see you through the winter.
Second, people who are able-bodied can easily do this themselves, so you will be making your money from those who can't. Are you okay with your future children looking up at a man who makes his money fleecing old people?
Third, cutting grass at £15 a pop, how long is it going to take you to recoup your investment in your van and tools. You will need at least £3,000 for a van that doesn't look like complete shit (and I assume you will want this because avoiding the cowboy tradesman image in this industry is imperative). I don't know how much you plan to spend on tools to start with but they're not cheap. Let's say to get this off the ground you spend £4,000. You will only need to mow 267 lawns to make a profit! In reality it will be more than this if you factor in the maintenance of your van and tools.
Finally, people already do this, and the people who want this kind of service already have someone to do it for them. In the UK, probably an immigrant. Are you able to undercut your competitors? If not what is your USP?
I could go on and on, and before you say anything, I worked in this industry for years as a landscaper. It is shit work and even if you are very skilled and knowledgeable it is still very difficult to make a decent wage.
Having said that, I say go for it.
I'm going to concentrate on hedge cutting.
got about 5000 durable A6 cards printed up. it's going to be in cheltenham so it's a nice area.
gonna get a long reach hedge trimmer stihl about 150 qud, I already have a nice van, and a leafblower, and some bags and a rake and stuff.
i'm going to be wearing a 3m full face plate powered respirator for the dust and whitespot from the hedge so i will look like terminator.
going to charge about £40 for a hedge. more if i need a ladder, and a lot more if its kind of a lot of waste. got a place I can take garden waste really cheap, it's a farm outside thornbury.
(not OP)
I was just planning on dumping garden waste out in the country somewhere
go for it. if you can get away with it, but you'd be suprised what a vanload of leaves and branches looks like when it's fucked on to the side of the layby.
I'll pay the £20 just for avoiding the butthole constricting fear of getting caught.
the farm where i'll take my waste is one that does wood recycling, they supply firewood, and have a massive area where loads of gardening companies dump their waste. look for a similar place near you.
the best thing is to phone up some other gardeners and ask them where they take their shit. i did that when i was planning on moving my biz to london, they were actually quite helpful, i never went through with it and did something else, but thats another story.
you have to know the rules of the dance.
On Gumtree London, there's many companies offering a similar service.
You'd be better off trying to get a job working for one or more of them.
You can still do your own thing at the same time but don't expect to make much.