A day in the life of a Gardener - INCLUDING EARNINGS!
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- Опубликовано: 21 янв 2023
- How to be a self employed gardener. Join me as I take you through my day as a self employed gardener running a gardening business.
How do you quote for garden maintenance jobs? Well, I also give you my prices for the jobs I've done. Hope you enjoy.
Mower I'm using - Cobra M46SPB
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ASPEN 5L 2 Stroke Mix - amzn.to/3splRF1
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HLA 56 Hedge Trimmer - amzn.to/3CWr1LZ
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JBL PRO EARPHONES - amzn.to/377ENRl
Stihl Leaf Blower - amzn.to/3EV2cAQ
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Mini Mattock/Pick - amzn.to/3vPiR7g
Platform/Step Up - amzn.to/38VTMy9
A Day in the Life 1
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Van Set Up
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• Starting a Gardening B...
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• Top 5 Beginner tips fo...
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I am a self employed gardener and run my own gardening business. I offer gardening maintenance packages, hedge cutting, grass/lawn cuts, driveway cleans and much more. This video will explain how I set up on my own and how you can start your own business, so don't hang around!
The main goal of my RUclips channel is to help like minded people on their way to running their own gardening business and help them in terms of pricing jobs, equipment, real life stories and general hints and tips along the way.
So, if that sounds like its for you, hit subscribe and welcome to my channel :) 
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Always good to watch your clips, I'm going into my 2nd full season , I can certainly relate to what your saying , keep up the good work ..
Thanks mate, all the best for this year 🙂
Another great video mate. Great seeing your progression.
Thanks mate
Great video Adam
I’ve got a few smaller jobs aswell and when things aren’t too bad or haven’t grown I sometimes do them ones alittle cheaper to keep them happy aswell especially if they are get in get out and won’t take long
Your a top lad and very fair best way to be mate
Have a good week let’s hope it’s not as frosty this week 🙌🏼
Thanks mate. That's why I love it though, you're in charge of everything. Sometimes it's all about experimenting isn't it, especially in the early days
Thank you the video mate 👍
Jesus 5k subs already!! Been subbed since around 200. Well done mate
Cheers Carl, good man. It's been a hard slog at times but it's getting there 😵💫 haha
I think your getting better at the videos and becoming more knowledgeable. Certainly ahead of me . Not surprised your getting a lot of subscribers . Very good
Cheers that's nice of you to say. I feel like I've improved a lot since the start but im so critical of myself still 😆
@@TheGreyGardener1990 that’s a good way to be.
Thanks for this, appreciate the effort put into these videos. As someone looking at starting up solo hopefully spring 2024 the advice and tips in your videos are a big help
Glad you're finding the channel useful. All the best for 2024! 🙂
I just wanted to quickly jump in and say do it you won’t regret starting up it’s the best thing you can possibly do I’ve been going 6 years on my own now and would never go back to being employed I’m sure Adam will echo that
Good luck Luna
@@THETATTOOGARDENER83 definitely yes. It's not easy at times but being in charge of your own destiny gives you an enormous sense of satisfaction.
@@TheGreyGardener1990 where abouts are you based Adam
@@THETATTOOGARDENER83 Durham
How about you?
"None of me jobs are time sensitive" I noticed that kinda throw away remark but it's very important infact, I like it, that is what I strive for, jobs whereby you're not timed, you can go fast because you have the expertise, good stuff marra!!
They're the dream mate 👌
You remind me of a young lad who joined our crew many years ago. Hard working and enthusiastic, he now works on Windsor Great Park! Good for him, our boss was an absolute dick! That's why I went self employed!
Great video mate, some of those prices I definitely would have agreed with when I started out but as you know, the longer you've been in the business the more to rethink your prices... I try and gain full maintenance customers now so there's still work to be done even when the grass stops growing, that way my schedule stays the same regardless of the weather
Yeah thats a good idea re the schedule. You'll get more winter work do you?
@@TheGreyGardener1990 it's more for the drought seasons so I can still do border work when the grass isn't growing, I have a few winter maintenance jobs (hedges etc) but I focus more on one-off jobs (cleanups/fencing) over the winter period
@@Jordan.E right yeah I get you.Makes sense
Thank you for letting us know your prices. im now going to put my prices up as im not making ends meet at the moment with buying all STIHL stuff. once again BIG Thank you.
No problem Garry. Do what you thinks right for you mate. I'm still getting to grips with pricing, changing and adapting as I go.
Hi Garry Not sure what you charge but you’ll know your worth
Depending on where you are I’d say £22.50/£25 an hour atleast especially in this climate with the cost of living going up
Remember you’ve got your running costs aswell as house hold bills etc
All the best Garry do what’s best for your business mate
Hi there I find some leg/boot gaiters are great when strimming in shorts, stops all green debris working it’s way into your boots
I love mowing days
How come a Durham lad is a Forest fan 🤣. Haha good vid though mate, really enjoy these kind of videos.
Haha just a family thing. We are all from Durham but my grandad started to follow them back in the day!
When it comes to pricing when they want an hrly rate i tell them i have a min charge of £30
Then offer a bronze , silver and gold package .
Eg bronze hoe , mow, blow
Silver as above but with pruning hand weeding etc
Gold includes full lawn care including weed feed moss kill scarification shrubs and hedges to 6ft etc
Larger shrubs ,hedges and tress i price indervidually
I also include a garden schedule so they can quantify the work to the price and keep an eye on what work has been done in their garden . I hope this helps . Keep up the good work love the videos
Really interesting comment, thanks for sharing. Whixh option would you say people want the most of?
@@TheGreyGardener1990 where i am most people just want tidy so the silver package i offer is the most popular . I dont want to sound pretentious but the majority of people are not proper gardeners and if they are theybdo a lot themselves , so most clients want the work doing they dontbwant to or have not got the time or tools for e.g digging boarder lawns cut keeping shrubs neat . They just want to get home from work look out at a tidy garden and if the weather is good have a bbq . Your pricing is very fair for the service you provide mate be confident in your ability .
Exactly look after your customers then your customers look after you especially in the winter mine do
It's your business you do what makes you happy. Amazing how quick it can grow ... I've actually paid for some local advertising this year targeting my postcode area its going out to 14,000 homes so it will be interesting to see the response. .all the best for 2023 🤞👍👍👍👍
Ah great I'd be interested to know how you get on.
I've started doing leafleting. How was the response?
Hi Adam do you hold a pa1 and pa6 pesticide license, may be a good idea to get one if you don't as it is illegal even to apply domestic herbicide as well as professional ones.
I don't mate, i have to tell customers if they want it down, theyll have to apply it themselves. Most customers are happy enough with that. Its something i definitely want to get in the next 2-3 years as it will open up more jobs, but its just the cost and time at the moment. I have my waste carrier licence
Been following a while, great video again mate. This year I’ve decided to fully go for it and start up. Just in the process of buying all my equipment and setting up social media to advertise.
If you don’t mind me asking what would you recommend is the best form of advertisement? Also when you start a job, do you charge more for the first cut then drop the price if they have you as a regular? (Every 2/3 weeks).
Again thanks for your efforts in showing us, appreciated.
Hi Kyle, glad you like the channel. I set up a Facebook page and I'm on the next door neighbour app which was great. I did buy leaflets and business cards and hand them out where applicable. Get everyone to share your page but make sure its not empty. Get some before and after photos. If that means doing yours or a friend's garden for free or whatever its worth it.
I tend to charge more for a first cut so I can establish a nice crisp edge etc. Chances are its longer as well. I'd try for fortnightly, not 3 weeks as it messes the diary up and an additional weeks growth in the summer will mean it takes longer. Hope that helps. Best of luck 👍
@@TheGreyGardener1990 great advice, appreciate that. Just going through more of your videos now to get more information. My hardest task will be pricing in all honesty, don’t want to under or over value a property and scare customers off, especially starting out.
@@kylecook5892 honestly that's the hardest bit. I still make mistakes now. I've got some pricing videos on here with real examples so that might give you a ball park. Of course, im told I'm too cheap, spot on and too expensive but that's youtube 😆 don't undervalue yourself but you'll get more confident as you go. Mistakes are learning curves mate and you'll be in a completely different space and mindset in a year or twos time honestly.
Biggest advice would be to charge per job rather than by the hour though. That way once your job is finished that's it, youre off to the next one. Nowt worse than having to stretch a job out plus I find it's very limiting money wise.
@@TheGreyGardener1990 if you get the chance buddy & think it’s a good idea, for me personally it’d be a MASSIVE help if you created a one off video where it was just images or very small clips of the jobs you do appearing on the screen with you speaking over the images or clips saying how much you charge for each one.
It’d be an awful lot of visual pricing information in a very short amount of time if that makes sense?
Sort of like a slow moving photo reel of your lawns with the pricing info attached to each one all in one video.
Either way, I really appreciate your content & keep up the good work 👍
@@theconsistentnoddy9851 Hi mate, totally get what you're saying, but from a youtube point of view, those could all be individual videos and it wouldn't make sense to do it that way from my point of view. Not sure if you're new to my channel or not but I have a fair few pricing videos alongside these "day in the life" videos so feel free to have a look.
Appreciate you taking time to comment though and I love to hear what people would like me to do next, just in this case however, it wouldn't quite work with how I run my channel. All the best mate 👍
Hi mate, love your videos, I have the same cobra mower, most of my customers like a short lawn so I set it pretty low, I’ve got a really huge huge lawn job starting off next week in a really beautiful home with stunning landscaped garden, do you know what height each setting out of the ten actually is? I’m pretty sure the customer will want it around 50-70mm. Can’t find any info.
It ranges from 25mm to 75mm it says in the manual and has 10 settings. Doesn't quite work out in my mind if they go up in 10s but that should give you an idea. For me I cut most of mine on level 4 or 5. One customer demands it really short, more than I'd like to go and i use level 3.
@@TheGreyGardener1990 thanks mate, lost my manual. I usually cut on 4-5 too, good to know. Thanks again. Keep the videos coming 👍
@@markatkinson6983 no bother. Cheers mate
Hi, I’d be really interested to know if there are any qualifications that you need to do garden maintenance or if there are any courses that you recommend taking
There are courses out there but you don't have to do them. But then it depends on your existing knowledge I suppose
Pricing in my area is quite frustrating. Everyone seems stuck in the hourly rate mindset. I do tend to do general work at £25 an hour, but I'll try to bump it up a bit where possible and I'll always say I don't work off a set hourly rate. I found people were less fussy about the price when I started in May than right now
People will get used to your way of doing things mate. First thing I tell people is a price on a job by job basis. If I get asked why I generally use the analogy of an hours hard digging will cost a lot more than an hours gentle pruning or deadheading. They get the idea
@@TheGreyGardener1990 that’s a good thing to say and it should make it obvious to them
Cheers for that. Ill give that a go!
I'm looking to get more smaller jobs this year as I'm currently doing less jobs, but they are longer, which I don't enjoy as much.
My favourites are the in and out grass cuts, £25-40 a go. I'm wanting to get more of them this year
@@TheGreyGardener1990 I'm the same. Issue for me is, I live rurally, so most of my customers have large gardens. So it's more travel to get to busier areas and there is much more competition
Hey man!
Just wondering where you’re based and how much you charge hourly?
Hi there...North East, England. Very rarely charge an hourly rate, I find it too restrictive. I charge job by job basis and personally find I can earn a lot more that way.
Hi mate, hope your well, only me again. I'm on to bend your ear about. Quotes and schedules and work. It there a specific way to do this as I'm getting people from all over , sometimes same places where I do gardening. The issue is you say your in their area on say a Monday and they say we'll I'll not be in, and trying to reiterate that I work different areas on different days doesn't seem to comprehend with them.
Did you have this issue at the start and have you figured a way to do quotes and keep to your schedules
Cheers mate. Keep up the amazing work 😎
My first year I was all over the place. Kind of accepted I'd have more travel time. Then my 2nd and 3rd year i grouped them better as I got busier. Don't get me wrong, my area isn't huge. How far apart are your areas mate?
You just need to be firm with them but it really depends how out your way you'd be travelling.
@The Grey Gardener cheers for the quick reply mate, yeah I have a work area of about a 5 mile radius in each direction from home, may not seem a lot. I have 3 jobs on which are all day shots as well as trying to squeeze regulars and one off garden work in before rain etc, I try to prioritise the ones who came 1st (living in Central Scotland mate , I think a constant rain cloud is only there when I'm busy 🤣
@@jamesflannigan1039 so a 5 mile radius is probably similar to me. If you have to do jobs/quotes outside your designated area, so be it. Obviously try for the same day but if people can't do it, don't worry. Your drive time doesn't seem a lot. Maybe 10 mins max from one side to the other roughly?
The only thing I will say is I like people to be there on the quote but I always tell people I don't need them to be there when I do the job. I'll come and go, may have to tweak the days due to weather as you say. Far far easier when you aren't tied. If they insist they want to be in, you'll just have to weigh it up whether or not you're happy with that setup
Sorry 5 miles either direction from your house. Probably a bit bigger area than me. So yeah, the busier you get the more you can arrange it better but you might have to take it on the chin initially when you're building up your round
@The Grey Gardener really hubled by your answer and advice mate. Yup looks like a "take it on the chin" number as you say. Thanks again mate. Looking forward to more vids
All the best cheers 😎
Tidy work. As you say, that last one was priced a bit low. £50 to 65 as a one off. Also consider the time you took to initially quote it.
I under priced a lot in the beginning. It's worth remembering you're not their friends. I'm always friendly, but I'm in business to make money for my family!
Definitely. Even in a short space of time, when you haven't been going long, I learn a lot. Yeah, that last one was way underpriced but as I say in the video, I had my reasons. Even so, I could have chucked an extra £20 on top
@@TheGreyGardener1990 you live and you learn!
@@josephmccole4132 it's all part of the fun 🤣
have you ever done interviews with any customers ?
How do you mean? Them interviewing me for the job?
How is the van going what is the mileage
Spot on. Its just under 80k I think
Dying to know if you got her as a customer? 😂💪
You'll have to jog my memory mate as I filmed this months ago 😵💫
What courses do we need to do gardener business please
I didn't do any courses but there are horticultural courses available if you Google them
I'm doing a RHS practical horticulture and plan to start doing small gardens this year.
You can do RHS courses which give you a recognised qualification, such as level 2 courses including Garden Design, Planning, & Maintenance. Loads of stuff to learn though about flowers, trees etc.
I have RHS level 2, pa1/pa6 spraying and a chainsaw certificate. I worked for 10 years for garden maintenance companies before starting my own business.
In my opinion the work experience in the industry is way more important than qualifications.
For someone who works in gardens all day, you do a lot of moaning!
No he doesn’t? He’s gone through a day in the life, some good some bad.
He picked up dog poo up, I’ve seen gardeners on RUclips make a right song and dance about that and refuse to do it: