Why charging by the hour is bad! How to Quote for Garden Maintenance Jobs | UK
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2021
- Pricing garden maintenance can be a tricky business. But make sure you're doing it the correct way and you could be earning a lot more money!
You can either quote for gardening jobs by the hour or on a job per job basis. They are extremely different and in this video I discuss why.
Running your own gardening business or grass cutting round is extremely rewarding and being your own boss gives you the right to make your own decisions.
In this video I discuss how a subtle tweak in pricing jobs can instantly increase your income as a self employed gardener.
Below are some videos relating to pricing gardening maintenance/grass cutting.
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It's a reputational thing which gardeners need to get out of their heads and start charging proper rates. If a plumber came to your house and fixed somerthing in 20 mins would you expect to pay him 20-30 quid? Not a chance - you'd be lucky if the charge was less than 100. Most ppl will happily pay plumbers 100+ for simple jobs under an hour but want to bung gardeners a tenner for doing three times as much work using more expensive equiment.
so well said
You can never win do price work then you get , “oh that was quick , “ if you do hourly they all think you drag it out best advice stop caring you’ll still get work of you do a good job
I price by the job. No need to be pretending do be doing something when I can be done and on to the next job or home.
I do a combination of per hour and price. £20 per hour for a days work if it is a days work, £60 minimum visit! You are right, everyone can do gardening, but is it to the standard you can do it too? 🤔 In my experience, no! That's why they employ you! You're as good at your job as a plumber is at his? Probably better in some cases.
Yes, hourly rates are tricky..I find it hard to give fixed prices for weeding etc though, sometimes you just don't know how long it'll take. If you're going to do it, the thing to avoid is setting an hourly rate too low when you start out..got to remember that as you invest in machinery that helps you work more quickly (a long reach hedgecutter for example), the customer will benefit from a low hourly rate, and you'll be kicking yourself.. Very difficult to increase an hourly rate with regular customers too.
You have to charge £30 plus an hr . When your running petrol machines and possibly ( strimmer cable ) and travelling there and back its got be plenty .
If anyone is ever in a struggle with a client who wants an hourly rate put it like this to them.. I charge for the outcome, so if you want your lawn mowed, hedge cut and boarders sharpened up its £X, if I have a magic wand in my van that means it takes 45 seconds then the price is the same. Price per outcome, not per hour
I will weed & cut a lawn better than an untrained person, I know the difference between a young plant & a young weed, I know what height to cut to & when etc etc, so whilst anyone is doing these jobs some of us are better at it. I had a garden clearance job, the customer asked how much to clear everything but 4 plants, I said I just wanted to be paid for the work I do, so hourly, & thank goodness because I couldn't see what the job entailed at the start & I would of under quoted by many miles on a fixed price.
I don't understand why people would be happy to pay someone lazy more money to do the same job. That's how I phrase it when customers ask me for an hourly rate
Another great video. I charge my helper out at £25-30 an hour (internally), a lot more for myself.
Good video mate. My line is fencing and I charge by the job based on day rates mainly. One thing I think you are missing if you are trying to build a business is GROSS profit. I know gardeners mostly charge by the hour / job but you need to factor in GROSS profit to every job. In other words you need to factor in gross profit over and above what you are charging per hour / day or job, otherwise you are just working for a wage. For instance if you are doing a job that you think will take 2 hours, you will charge £60.00 going by what you have said, BUT you should be adding gross profit to that total. The percentage of profit is up to you but a lot of businesses will typically add 30-50% gross profit to their actual cost. GROSS profit is key to building a business. Pay yourself a wage and reinvest the gross profits in tools, equipment etc.
Great video, thanks for sharing and sparking these conversations. I am in Inverness, Scotland and aim to be coming away with 40 ish per hour and always charge by the job not per hour. I'm only in my second season but it's hard work and needs to be compensated accordingly.. For anyone upset about losing on travel time, simply factor it in to a quote by google mapping all new locations ahead of quoting that way there is never a bitter feeling. As gardeners/lawn care people we have to value our worth and our selves. Based on societal beliefs it's too easy to undercharge and undervalue what we are worth. Yet, most people don't bat an eyelid when you go in higher, they know themselves that they would not want to do it for less. The ones who don't like it will stop calling or cease a regular agreement and that is fine, let them go there are those who will pay what if fair to stay financially alive. Many people really put a proper value on garden work(and rightly so) and it's those we want to work for. Thanks again for making this channel to share thoughts and create these comment feed discussions.
There's pro's & con's for both. If you charge by the hour there's a good chance you'll provide a higher standard to the client. If you quote for a job and get it wrong, it will impact on all your other profits. You need a lot of experience to quote accurately.
This exactly how I price jobs, I keep an hourly rate in my head but never disclose that to the customer... My main rule is that on won't get the mower out the van for less than £20 even if it's only a 20min job... You always have to factor in runtime for servicing and maintenance which a lot of gardeners forget about
That's such a good point never tell the victim, sorry customer, how long your going to be. Otherwise you end up doing more to fill in the time if you're under the said time. Let's not get into "you've copied my video" . I'm sure somewhere on TH-cam there's a video saying "don't charge by the HR, charge per job". Anyway another great informative video. Thanks.
Great video and very helpful. Just started out and making all the rookie mistakes when it comes to pricing for jobs. Pricing jobs by the hour and thinking how long it will take. 👍💪
You’re right on pricing. I had an irrigation & landscape company in Florida. I always used to give the customer a price for the job, including labour & materials etc. I would also price in a bit of extra time, for the unknowns. I would almost always get finished ahead of schedule, which then put extra pure profit in the pocket. I’ve just started watching your videos & gave you a sub. Now that I’ve moved back home, I’m going to start a gardening business, & see if I can offer basic irrigation for plant pots & hanging baskets. I’m guessing not too many people offer irrigation, so it will be difficult for anybody to compare prices.
Definitely food for thought on the pricing strategy! Most of my customers are regulars and have huge gardens so they are ongoing projects. I'd say though that the more knowledge you have about plants particularly how to care for them doctor them when they're diseased or affected by pests and how and when to prune them correctly can pay dividends and customers are willing to pay for knowledge. 👍
I charge £22.50 ph but i think I will start to do priced jobs in some instances now, good video.👍🤠