Pricing a Gardening Job using a Real Example | How to Quote Garden Maintenance | Grass & Hedges | UK
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- Опубліковано 15 сер 2021
- An open and honest discussion on what I charged for this job and how I came to that decision.
Everyone is different and there are lots of factors that go into deciding a price for gardening jobs so let me know in the comments what you guys would have charged and where in the country you are.
I'm in North East England.
Mower I'm using - Cobra M46SPB
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Just came across your video and it’s helped me out in a big way of pricing jobs , I live in South Wales and on the verge of starting my own business this has helped a great deal ,,,, thanks !!
I have quite a few more pricing videos so feel free to have a watch. I'm wrong some of the time too so don't them too literally! They're only a starting point. Best of luck mate
Love the videos mate young garder er trying to go from a 9-5 to mowers and sunshine keep them coming 👍🏻💯
Thanks. It's a tough old trade but many positives and I must say I do enjoy it on the whole
Great video, top advice
Added to unending joy playlist.
You make some great content mate hope your channel grows quickly 👍
Ah cheers mate, it seems a slow and steady process. I'm a bit impatient at times!
@@TheGreyGardener1990 slow and steady wins the race mate you'll get there I watch lots of horticulture channels / gardening ect and your doing great for a fairly new Chanel , just a case of sticking with it I think mate , here's to your first 1000 subs soon 👍
Thanks mate appreciate that. I'm getting there!
Nice to see a honest, upfront video. I would be charging, as a one off job, £100. As a regular, about £75. That's in Wirral, North West. As you say, it's up to the gardener on what his overheads are. I always overcharge by £10 or £20 just incase it overruns. I can then offer a discount and look like a good guy. Your work speaks for itself, good quality and clean. Its the hardest thing to do at the start, pricing jobs, but even 30yrs down the line that 3hr job may take 5hr.
Thanks for taking time to comment. That's interesting re the discount - good way of building up a solid reputation. But yeah, pricing definately the hard part when starting out!
Great video
Thanks mate
thank you
I'm quite new to the "professional" gardening market, pricing is the hardest thing, especially when you estimate a job to take 2 hours but it ends up taking over 3 hours but you still have to work to the initial quote. It's all a learning curve but I like this content as it's made me rethink now to take into account all my other expenses.
Glad it's of use mate. I'm learning as I go basically and still make mistakes. I think that's the nature of the work in some respects though, it can always take that bit longer. I guess we will get better at working out times as we go 🤞🤞
Covered everything pretty well on here I dont/wont do hourly rate I do it priced on the job my favourite quote is weather I'm here an hour or a day the price is the price
This is the exact reason why I do not charge based on how long it takes me. I simply charge for the job itself and nothing else.
Being in the south east I charge 20 quid more(Everything is more expensive here). 100 regular, 120 one off. Don't be a cheapscate, you have a business to run! I keep telling myself. Great video, honest on costs, charging.
Hi there, yeah I would definitely be pricing higher now for sure. As you say, all the costs plus the wear and tear on your body! Not an easy job 😆
£150 all day long.
If all your gear is Stihl and professional equipment then it's not cheap.
Anyone with a crappy set of equipment could do that job. But it's about reputation and looking professional.
If I had lots on and wasn't too fussed if I got the job or not I'd probably put £180 on it, then finish the day with a little £50 job.
£230 day.
-£30 for running cost and insurance
£200 profit is a nice day
Steady day
Nice video mate keep it up
Thanks for commenting mate. My gear is stihl now, back then I had some 2nd hand stuff, some new as I was still building. Into my 2nd year now so I'm more confident on pricing, plus I've spent a lot on my van/gear so as you say, you need to make the money back! 😆
To me that would be £200 (southwest).
I used to do dozens of these as landlord tidy ups prior to new tenants. Asuming long grass flail mow, cut hedges flail mow in cuttings to mutch, blow any minimal debris under hedge as multch.
Spray weeds on paved areas etc in preference to scrapping off. I would usually tidy up any shrubs as a freebie, roses etc and strip off any ivy from walls, no waste removed all mulched. Predominantly battery kit so main fuel would be traveling time, walkbehind diesel goldni twist two wheel tractor with berta flail.
Think about what the job is worth to the customer, for a landlord most take between a month and two months rent as a deposit from tenants and withhold this proportionally depending on the state the tenants leave the property.
A landlord will budget either part of the deposit or a proportion of the new tenants rent for tenancy change over, photos of before and after always taken and emailed to landlord.
If you insist on removing waste eg a very tidy garden then lay two 8x4 ply boards down, pile waste on top and run the flail mower over it reduces the bulk greatly allowing it to be loaded onto the trailer or into bulk bags and combined together with multiple jobs. I would charge each client who wanted waste removed the greenwaste tip fee at cost for trailer (£45) then store this at my barn waiting till I had three or four jobs worth and then effectively get paid again to tip the waste.
Boring work but profitable if your efficient.
This was one of my early jobs, I'd be looking at probably £150 now in my area plus waste.
I used to work in lettings, managing 150 landlord properties from the office. Absolute nightmare of a job. But taught me a hell of a lot. Bit different to gardening!
I’d charge £130 down on the south coast. I usually do these sort of jobs as an extra on a Saturday morning, nice simple job 3/3.5hour job then start the weekend.
Cheers Jack 👍
I'm in North West England gardener for 30yrs+ Good price that. Try getting some commercial work as well.
Thanks Chris. I've just recently got the gardens for some air B&Bs which is also winter work as well so that's pretty useful
I would have been at £120 and reckon it would have taken me 2.5 hours. Another good video 👍
Cheers Carl, similar ballpark 👍
@@TheGreyGardener1990 ive started sending my quotations over on a template, with the company logo on, i have already saved on the laptop. Comes across as more professional and gives me the confidence to put a higher price in. Worth doing imo 👍
@@carl8035 yeah thats good. I might experiment with a few like that this year. Got my van last week and getting it sign written soon, so that will give me the confidence to charge a bit more too
@@TheGreyGardener1990 good stuff! all about looking the part and professionalism in general. So important. That is half the job
@@carl8035 definitely mate
To be honest I would of sorted that for £75. Defintely need to up my prices after looking at the comments. Liverpool, NW
Yeah its interesting reading everyone's thoughts
Thankyou for sharing your knowledge and experience! I am thinking of taking early retirement and doing garden maintenance, including Deck repairs - and basic gardening, Im not so good at the plant recognition so might have to ask customer what they want to prune. Not sure how much I would pay per builder bag of waste I will check with our local recycle centre, Do you supply stuff like compost/lawn or vegetable feed etc?
Hi Rob. Plant recognition is something I need to do better with as well. Surprising what you pick up though. Compost yes, feeds no. All the best mate
@@TheGreyGardener1990 I might do a horticulture course, but my wife is great in the garden and has offered to help me and maybe together we can become a good team. I admire her knowledge, and she my hard work in our gardens and we also help at her mums, I made a raise deck which was quoted at £6700 - I did it in a week and it cost me £2500 so its a possibility I might do some of these when it suits me (not too complex)
Nice video ! Out of interest what make of hedge cutter did you use for the hedges ?
Cheers. Its the Stihl HLA 56. I've done a review of it here
ua-cam.com/video/0uuEAQNqI8w/v-deo.html
Your right you gota sus the person early onn and know if there gona be a nightmare and nothing is good enough or right lol or even try and con you as it rearly does happen a women nearly did me the other week but I pulled out last minute
Cart beat the older generation who are garden proud and willing to spend the required money and also generally much nicer people that you can trust inn
Hi really appreciate your content keep up the good work. looking at that job I would have probably thought half a day so yes about 100 for a one off and about 75 for a regular customer. Waste charges would be on top of that and I now charge 35/m3 for green waste removal (equivalent to about 4 wheely bins stuffed full) this covers tip charges and time taking stuff to tip. I am based central Scotland. Just put my charges up this year. 25 first hour 20 proceeding hours, min charge 12.50. Previously I was 15 an hour (120/day) which would be OK if you could consistently fit 40hrs chargeable hours into a week. I could only do this by doing long days and long weeks. I am aiming for about 30hrs chargeable per week now. Still happy to do long days but it hopefully now counts as extra income. For info I recon my expenses are going to about 600 a month this year so I look at it like this wages are not getting earned till after first tea break (tea breaks 🤣 those were the days) and if I want to make profit I better be doing overtime. 🙂.
Hi Mike, thanks for commenting mate. I try to stay away from hourly rates personally. I find I can make a lot more pricing per job and you don't get the stupid customers wanting you to do the "full hour" haha
Oh yes, love a good old tea break!
Cheers for reply, yes need to look to set price for jobs for any new gardens I start. Main prob is I mostly do whole garden work and borders can eat up time easy, also customers all know my rates so difficult to change now. Keep up the good work cheers for now.
Mike I'm in the same situation as you. My customers are hourly but this year I'm hoping to get away from that and charge per job. Its all a learning curve. I'm hoping to build new per job customers then I'm going to try and change my existing customers from per hour to per job. If they don't want to then as hard as it'll be, I'll need to let them go and get new per job customers.
A builders bag full of brash,let's say two makes one, so u can lift it £30 £40 a full bag £35 to £45 per hr Labour. East Midlands semi suburban rate.this job definitely £180 -£200
Cheers mate. It wasn't a big garden hence my price, but there's a few who have gone quite a lot higher so maybe I undercharged. Having said that, I feel like for the time I was there, £100 was OK as customer dealt with waste if I remember rightly (memories going!)
love your videos mate, with hedge strimming, do you check for nesting birds, and if so are they easy to spot?
Can't remember the dates off the top of my head but you aren't allowed to do reductions within a certain period. Light trimming and maintenance is OK but yeah I'd check for birds. Generally easy enough to spot yeah
@@TheGreyGardener1990 thanks for responding so quickly, I am a mature university student, so I have set up a bit of a gardening business for the summer, and you videos have been really helpful. Had a couple of enquiries for hedges, but someone told me i cannot do them as birds are nesting, but I agree as you say light trimming and maintenance should be okay, and obviously if i spot any nesting birds, will have to say to the client that its not doable. Many thanks again
@@terriererer exactly yeah. You would never see a neat and tidy hedge over the summer if you wernt allowed to trim them! 😆 Best of luck with it 👍
Hello ever one I am in Devon bean going for too months now I was charging £15 per hour and then £2 litre of fuel but now gone all in at 20 per hour I compast all my waste and bag it up ad sell it back to them if thay need I'd it love video's 🚜
these videos are so helpful, beginning to think ive screwed myself charging £15 per hour in my second season, so this job wouldve been £45 max which is just not worth it in the end 🤣 thanks everyone in the comment section
Yeah thats the trouble mate. With new customers try changing how you charge maybe. Plus as well that £15 will have deductions too
@@TheGreyGardener1990 appreciate the reply mate, at least now I can trial charging by the job before ive completely booked myself up
So true buddy. I could sell my smelly socks for that kind of money
Based near Heathrow West London and would probably charge around £150 for this if it was within say 5 miles. If a job like that came up in Central London then be more like £250 as ulez and congestion zone charges come in to play
Cheers, thanks for commenting. Yeah big difference in and around London!
Same in North Cambridgeshire between 150-180 depending if they wanted the waste taking away because that adds 1 hour extra onto the job.
i would say 30 each the mowing and strimming back and front and 15 for the hedges and i take the clippings and grass 75 im a noivice and open to learn north manny
I'd charge more if I was doing this job now. So you should try to increase your prices a bit mate, it's all a learning curve though and I still mess up
Definitely up those hedge cutting costs. It's harder work on the body and youl only generally be doing it for that garden 2-4 times per year. Think about a certain price per meter square of hedge then just roughly measure the target area to come out with a price.
There’s a shift of work there with a high volume of waste (Trailer load). The Council will be into you for £40 to dump that and other expenses would require a £200 fee for that job. NE
Agreed. I'd be a lot more if I was to charge now, probably around your price mate. You live and learn when first starting out
Crazy how many prices differ between person to person. I suppose people know what they are worth in the end. I think as a one off at today's money I'd be around 175.
Cheers Mike. Yeah one of my earlier jobs this where I was still getting to grips with pricing. I'd definitely go higher now. So many variables too, people's standard of living, do you have staff, where in UK you are etc
Stick yer prices up lad, I've got over 80 cuts a fortnight and in my head I'm at 30 ph
Cheers David 👍
One off waste away 200 no waste 170. and I let them know going forward if I was maintaining there garden it would be much cheaper, just to trim the bushes twice a year would be around the 100 mark. North manchester.. btw I only get 50% of my quotes because I quote high and I quote alot off pictures just because I'm busy really.
Once iv walked the garden and agreed the price I text them what I will be doing and cost,so we both have the information in writing.
This was an early one of mine and I'd definitely go higher now. In the area that was in I feel like I could have got 150/160 max but probably no more.
Yeah thats it, I'm absolutely chocka now so my prices are on the increase 🙂
180 to 220 north east
I live in Yorkshire and I would have changed 160 labour and waste. Probably 3, 1 ton sized bags of waste. 3 - 3.5 hours labour. When you got a small van and don't have any space available in the van at the end of the job you've got to take it back home before you start the next job. More extra time and money 💰
Thanks Dave. This was an early job if mine and would definitely charge more now
@@TheGreyGardener1990 out of interest mate what would you charge now mate?
@@theconsistentnoddy9851 it wasn't huge so maybe around the £130/140 without waste
It's a strange thing this pricing, most vid's I watch are from the north, I'm south east and could never get that sort of money here.
Ah really. I think it's assumed (probably wrongly) when you're down south everything costs more. What do you think you could have got for this kind of job?
I would have charged £100 including taking waste away and I’m in Peterborough Cambridgeshire
Good to know, thanks for taking time to comment mate 👍
I would charge 130 for that in South Wales
Good to know mate. Thanks for taking the time to comment 👍
For a similar job I would be lucky to get £50 in my area for 3.5 hours work. I think I might move to the North!
Just seen this! Do you charge by the hour or per job though? Ive found it makes a massive difference and you can definately price higher if doing it on a job per job basis.
@@TheGreyGardener1990 I've only been going a month, I price by the hour as I do handyman stuff too. I want to get more grass cuts but it's difficult. People think it's easy with no outlay for us! My next door neighbour has a front garden around 30x40 meters with a very steep slop. The previous guy used to charge £20 but ruined his mower on it and just started strimming. She wondered why it cost so much as it only took him half hour. I told her I could do for the same, but she found someone to do for £10 before hand. I don't stand a chance. Either the south isn't as expensive as people think, or the folk up north aren't as thrifty as we are led to believe! LOL.
@@nickhumphrey1313 😆 some stereotypes being broken here! I'm going to do a video soon about charging by the job or by the hour. I'm speaking about gardening here as I dont know if it relates to all trades but my income would be slashed in half if I charged by the hour. People have a preconceived idea of what they should be paying someone for an hours work. £15/hour is reasonable if you were employed say, but a full garden maintenance job for me takes an hour roughly - so grass, strimming, making everything tidy, weeding etc. I charge £30 on average for a full maintenance package. I never tell them how long it will take. But they would definately begrudge a gardener saying they charge £30 an hour! So maybe play around when you quote your next gardening jobs. My min for a grass cut is £20 so someone doing a big lawn for a tenner is either stupid, not paying tax or just wants a bit of a side income haha
That's crazy , I'd let them do their own work for those prices , it's 2021
@@MICHAEL-wg2lh Like I say, it's a bit strange with pricing down south. I do a gardening and handyman service here so charge £15 an hour. Next door has just had hers done, and to be fair its not a bad job, but he doesn't strim or leaf blow. £10 an hour, but very hard work with the slope. Fair play to the guy. I took a bit of advice from our man here, did a similar size but level. Took an hour with a petrol strim, a leaf blow, a cut, a fine strim with a light battery strimmer, and another blow to finish. £20 and my lady was happy. Had I done an hourly would have £15, so Happy days, and hopefully can turn into a regular!
£250 - £300 East Anglia
Cheers 👍
When doing taller hedges like these, did you just use the angle adjustment on your strimmer? Or did you use a ladder? Never done taller hedger, so just wondering!
Both. Easier with ladders if the hedge is quite deep
@@TheGreyGardener1990 thanks 👍
Quote done and job secured! It is in an area I really want to get a good amount of work in and is fairly rough and ready work, so I priced keenly. £65 for roughly 3.5 hours. Could probably have asked for more, but they said they'd want Winter work too, so wanted to secure it
@@ipodgooroo happy days mate, its a nice feeling isn't it. Winter work is always a plus 👏
@@TheGreyGardener1990 yeah! Good to have another on the regular list. Fairly simple work, so I'm happy enough with the price for now. All progress!
£300 with waste away. Minimum charge is £250 for one-off work we take on for 2 hours max and waste away
Thanks Lewis. All the best mate 👍
Obstacles - adult junk, kids toys, dog and cat poo. They'll let you clean and tidy up. They'll still criticise you and find ways to not pay.
Charge for tidying up their crap. Charge for using your bags.
The lower you charge the more you'll loose.
Cheapo gets the door mat treatment.
After costs you need 20 per hour so you need to charge about 60.
£150 South East 🤘🏼
Cheers Georgia 👍
160 im in Northants
Cheers Greg 👍
Id of charged a 2er
im 18 and about to start my own business doing this and the pricing the job is one if the most scary things about this whole thing
It's trial and error in all honesty mate
@@TheGreyGardener1990 I sort of figured that mate just thinking ab it too much. I’m guess it’s one of them things you’ve just got to play around with till you get it
@@lukestevenson8306 that's what I did. I watched UA-cam like you but not many people were actually telling you what they charged. I've got a fair few pricing videos on here so have a look mate and you might start to get a feel of what is roughly the best thing for you.
But for me, I learnt the most when I'd messed up. So next time you don't make the same mistake and you hope you only mess up on the one offs. The regular fortnightly visits you're kind of stuck with. That's how I saw it, then the following year I'd readjust
@@TheGreyGardener1990 yea okay mate! you’ve got great advice.
I would have charged a lot more than mate .. 150£
I would in hindsight mate. 130/140 for me given the area. This was one of my early jobs. Think I'll do a video revisiting some of my early jobs and see if I'd price differently. Probably would on most of them to be honest