What garden maintenance do you use?

[nhg]

Hi,

Over the past month I've been finding the limitations of what services I can offer clients. So I'm doing a bit of market research to see what areas I can expand into.

The next area I want to grow is garden care.

Jim Mowing does the following:
-Garden spraying, weed spraying and pest control, landscaping,
-Irrigation system installation and repairs,
-Drought tolerant gardens,
-Trimming and hedging,
-Mulching,
-Lawn restoration and repair, and
-General garden clean up


1. Do you guys use this, and how often?
2. What services do you require, just a guy with a lawnmower or something more substantial such as tree removal etc.
3. What are you willing to pay for these services.
4. What experience can I provide that other businesses don't that would make you want to use it again.
5. What negative or positive experiences have you had that would be good lessons for me to take on board.

Hope you can help out.

Regards

Navid

 

[ok180]

I thought you were a builder? Why do you want to mow lawns?

 

[D.T.]

I thought you were a builder? Why do you want to mow lawns?

Refer to his signature

 

[ok180]

Refer to his signature

Yeah I have seen it. People make a good living out of one of those things let alone 10 of them lol.

 

[pinkboy]

Yeah I have seen it. People make a good living out of one of those things let alone 10 of them lol.

And that raises a very good point.

nhg, perhaps you might consider establishing yourself with a few core undertakings, then try to do a little bit of everything.

I know in my business, when I started branching out into heaps of different types of projects and different jobs; The productivity dropped off, the skills of the blokes was not up to the standard of the sole operators of that type of job, the quoting was more time intensive and often off the mark.

I have since gone back to my core trades, and make much better margin, less stress, and higher quality.

Do you need to incorporate lawn and garden maintenance? Looks like a pretty cut throat industry as its very simple for a sole operator to get into with very little start up capital.

What will be your point of difference?


pinkboy

 

[nhg]

Legitimate points.

I'm moving away from doing the work myself and managing people who run specific 'core' businesses as such. So my 'core' business I suppose is now marketing. Though I like to keep commercial maintenance jobs for myself, they are very lucrative.

I realised a lot of the best people for the job were great at what they did but terrible at advertising and sourcing clients. So instead of competing with them, why not facilitate connecting the best tradies with clients who want affordable-quality work. Win-Win.

Eg. I don't personally do conveyancing, or trusts but work closely with well known and respected people in these fields.

Also I had painters and labourers working for me directly, then after consulting with an owner of Rain-and-Horne I worked out a lot of my risks could be mitigated by subcontracting. I now have my staff give me a price to complete the work, and I supply the tools. This has improved quality, reduced my costs and the amount of fluffing about on site. Empowering them to be their own bosses. Though I am responsible to ensure they keep their integrity to the client.

This frees me up to do things like chase up other trades and helping people who want to establish their own businesses. A long standing tenant has been looking at working as a gardener and am doing some market research for him, if it works out, I'll have him try out using hired tools, if he does a consistent quality job, I'll look at purchasing ride on mowers and other tools and will source work for him while he sources some for himself. This way I own a percentage of each business, providing marketing, insurances, tools, whilst having a 'core' person managing each business.

I'm still fleshing out a few of the nitty gritty details as you can imagine. I have a business partner and a couple of core guys who manages the trades whilst I focus on the business itself.

Sound too ambitious?

 

[ok180]

Sound too ambitious?

Not really, sounds good provided you know enough about each area you advertising it.

Only thing I would mention is do you pay the trades or do they pay you a commission? You have to watch out for that from a Tax perspective. They could be deemed employee's if it is a regular gig in which case you could be up for things like workers comp, payroll tax etc, also who takes the fall for public liability?

 

[chrispy]

My gardener also cleans the gutters on my rentals every 3 months.

He also cleans all the paths and trims back the trees.

I also have someone who cleans windows, mainly for when the properties are empty and I am about to re-let or sell.

I have an electrician and a plumber in my team as well. I can ring either and the problem is fixed within hours.

I do have a Property Manager but the trades they use always charge me a fortune and I have to wait. So I now just use my own team

Chris

 

[nhg]

What will be your point of difference?

That has been the question I ask each step of the way.

So far it is communication. Making sure everyone, including the client knows what is going on even if nothing is going on. I am working on speed as well, talking with some plumbers and electricians to work 24/7 for emergency works.

I have lapsed on occasion, so am finding solutions for each problem as it comes.

 

[nhg]

I do have a Property Manager but the trades they use always charge me a fortune and I have to wait. So I now just use my own team

Thanks Chrispy, I really appreciate the response. As above, property managers can be really slow. And for a competitive market, quite expensive.

That will be my next project when I have time.

 

[nhg]

Not really, sounds good provided you know enough about each area you advertising it.

Only thing I would mention is do you pay the trades or do they pay you a commission? You have to watch out for that from a Tax perspective. They could be deemed employee's if it is a regular gig in which case you could be up for things like workers comp, payroll tax etc, also who takes the fall for public liability?

Depends on each business and person. Some I pay, others pay me commission. Either way it I try and provide a very competitive price and quality.

This discussion might be better suited for a blog entry, i've been meaning to write one about starting a business. Very different to working for others.

 

[ok180]

Depends on each business and person. Some I pay, others pay me commission. Either way it I try and provide a very competitive price and quality.

Yeah, this is something I would be investigating very seriously.

Best way is likely to get them to pay you a commission. That way you are doing it now your opening yourself up to a minefield of lawsuits potentially.

By you billing customers you are essentially taking on the risk of doing the job. Any public liability issues will become yours. All those things you are advertising as doing you have to be covered for. Same with workers comp, I'm assuming you have a policy? If they investigate you and find you are doing for example 2 million dollars of work a year and have no employee's - it's a problem. Same with the taxation.

 

[nhg]

Yeah, this is something I would be investigating very seriously.

Best way is likely to get them to pay you a commission. That way you are doing it now your opening yourself up to a minefield of lawsuits potentially.

By you billing customers you are essentially taking on the risk of doing the job. Any public liability issues will become yours. All those things you are advertising as doing you have to be covered for. Same with workers comp, I'm assuming you have a policy? If they investigate you and find you are doing for example 2 million dollars of work a year and have no employee's - it's a problem. Same with the taxation.

I have public liability insurance, damages and all workers comp etc. Interesting, I will consult a relevant solicitor.

 

[devank]

for example 2 million dollars of work a year and have no employee's - it's a problem. Same with the taxation.

Really? What is wrong with sub-contracting all your jobs?
May be.. is it an issue for the sub- contractor if they get income ONLY from you. I remember seeing something like 'you can't have your income more than 70% from same source' or something.

nhg - As a landlord, I think you can add good value. At the end of tenancy, I would rather take you and tell you the list of things to be done. Otherwise, I need to deal with multiple trades. Very often, they blame each other if anything goes wrong.

 

[ok180]

Really? What is wrong with sub-contracting all your jobs?
May be.. is it an issue for the sub- contractor if they get income ONLY from you. I remember seeing something like 'you can't have your income more than 70% from same source' or something.

You can subcontract everything but who you are subcontracting to needs to have their own workers comp insurance etc. Also yes as you say (I think it is 80%) can't be just all going to the same person.

The biggie for me from what is described is the public liability. When/If something happens the person claiming will go through everyone and if you are not insured for it watch out. They wont just go after the subbie they will come after the person who contracted the work out too.

I struggle to see how someone can have a policy that covers everything from setting up Trusts to cleaning gutters (that doesn't cost a fortune) but I'm here to be educated.

 

[pinkboy]

Really? What is wrong with sub-contracting all your jobs?
May be.. is it an issue for the sub- contractor if they get income ONLY from you. I remember seeing something like 'you can't have your income more than 70% from same source' or something.

nhg - As a landlord, I think you can add good value. At the end of tenancy, I would rather take you and tell you the list of things to be done. Otherwise, I need to deal with multiple trades. Very often, they blame each other if anything goes wrong.

Personal Services Income.

nhg - be good for you to read up on this as an employer as well as you are teetering on the edge with your explained setup.

pinkboy

 

[Dazz]

I like to keep commercial maintenance jobs for myself, they are very lucrative.

....excellent, that's your company struck off the potential contractors list immediately.

 

[D.T.]

....excellent, that's your company struck off the potential contractors list immediately.

What makes ya say that?

 

[Ed Barton]

Jim Mowing does the following:

My gardener is certainly no 'Jim's mowing'.

1. Do you guys use this, and how often?

As often as necessary. Plants and lawns don't grow in a linear fashion. Between once a week and once every several weeks, depending on the weather and season.

I first engaged him on a 'two weekly' standard cycle of mowing and hedging and he would call when he saw something else that needed doing (either by driving by and seeing the garden had grown with the season or some pest had destroyed the lawn). After a while I said just do the job, maintain the garden and stop calling me so often. He's told me this is the arrangement he has with most of his clients.

2. What services do you require, just a guy with a lawnmower or something more substantial such as tree removal etc.

Total garden maintenance, because I'm crap at it. Any tree removal or hard landscaping I'd expect to get someone else in.


3. What are you willing to pay for these services.

I pay $60 an hour, plus tipping fees (if loads of rubbish) and fertilisers etc.

My gardener is a qualified horticulturist, the lawn looks like St Andrews and the hedge like it's plastic.

If it was an IP I wouldn't want to pay as much, but would accept I'd get a mowing and blowing service.

5. What negative or positive experiences have you had that would be good lessons for me to take on board.

Communication! "We haven't done our regular mow as it's rained six days solid. We've managed to trim you somersoftus Australis however. Once it stops raining and we won't mangle your lawn we'll pop over and cut it"

 

[nhg]

....excellent, that's your company struck off the potential contractors list immediately.

Well we are the cheapest, and provide fast and efficient service. We are slowly winning over a few businesses in a row on Pitt St.

When I say lucrative I don't mean we gauge them, just the job is done quickly, it is simple and we are paid quickly. (so far).

As a CIP owner, what service/qualities do you look for?
What sort of approach works for you?