Hello everyone, I am a new member on this forum. I have been self employed as a gardener and landscape designer for about 14 months now and whilst originally I was based in North Wales, I have for family reasons relocated to south east England. I have been down here since July last year and it has been very difficult building up a new client base.
I have been advertising in the local press and also doing flyer drops around the local area.
The flyer drops have led to several enquiries and I have recently done site visits to two gardens for potential design and landscaping jobs with private householders. In both cases I have discussed the requirements of the potential clients and also given them a breakdown of my charges. I have notified these potential clients that I charge for design/costing time.
In both cases I have spent several hours working on a design and costing it up, and then providing the client with a quote for the work and a drawn up design of the proposed project.
For one of these jobs the client asked for the planting scheme to be redesigned and simplified as they didn't like the complexity of the woodland style planting scheme I had suggested and wanted more shrubs and fewer herbaceous perennials. In total I spent around 10 hours of my time costing/designing this job and then coming up with two planting schemes.
For some reason (still awaiting feedback) the client has decided not to go ahead with the job, yet I have spent ten hours working on a design for them and they have a copies of my design and the redesign. I have asked for feedback (via email) as to why they don't want to proceed, yet they have not offered to pay me for my design time?
This is the same for the other job I have quoted although I only spent three or so hours on this?
I cannot afford to work like this! I have limited work at the moment and any time I spend creating designs needs to be covered. I only charge £20 per hour for my design/costing work and I feel this is entirely reasonable.
Can any of you give me some advice? I am currently living with my girlfriend and her parents in her parent's house so our overheads are very low. However, I cannot continue like this forever! People seem to want something for nothing! I don't believe I am too expensive. My day rate is £150 for landscaping projects or £250 if there are two of us. As for general maintenance I only charge £15 per hour (here in the affluent south east). In North Wales I was charging £13 per hour and clients seemed happy to pay that?
Paul - Dragonfly Designs
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As you told them up front that there would be a cost for the design work send them an invoice, make sure you out line the time they have to pay, (14 days or what ever) also if they are not going ahead with the work ask for the designs back, if they pay you for design then they keep it if not they should return them to you. I found when first starting out people would get me to do all the design, costing work and then did the work themselves or pass it on to another company. just some feed back, your day rate is more then ours and maintenance rate we price on the size of garden not by the hour. to get more work in your new area see if there is a Best of networking group in the area, we belong to Best of Newport and Best of Torfaen, its up our order books no end. best of luck.
Your charges sound very reasonable and probably a lot less than professional designers in the area (be careful that clients don't take you seriously if you undercharge - just a thought). I agree with John - if your quote is crystal clear then you should be able to charge for each stage of the work, even if the client doesn't proceed to the next stage, for whatever reason. Also worth taking a deposit upfront - 10 or even 20% of the total design fees is perfectly reasonable and no serious client should object to paying this. Also get a signed copy of your quote back from them, so you effectively have a contract in place, before you start work.
Good luck!
www.chameleongardens.co.uk
Take a brief (only give tangential advice at this stage), go home, and think how long/how much you want to charge for a design. Write up the brief and send a quote for the design work, asking for a payment up front to commence the design (you can stage it half before, half after, or thirds, or whatever). Don't spend too much time on it til you get the money. Make sure they sign that they agree with the brief and the payment schedule. make sure you stick to the brief, so if they change their mind and you have to re-design, you are covered. You will have already made it clear that extra work is done at such and such a rate.
Only do planting design if they agree to buy the plants though you, and have you do the planting - you can mark up the plants to make your profit, and still they'll be cheaper than client going to garden centre.
Was this not covered in your training? Are you an SGD member - such advice available there.
Anyway, all the best for friendly assertiveness in client relations and no future resentment!
fiona
Hi Paul
Hi Paul
I run a pure landscape business in the south East, and i literally get 100 s of enquires every year from customers that are either not serious about having the work done at all and purely after free advice and how much it all will cost in £££ or will have the work done by others/themselves with your free knowledge.
In time you will be able to read the time wasters from the genuine ! I wont go into to much detail but customers that are not interested in what you have to say but more in what it costs ! and the ones that are not willing to pay any up front deposit ! I advice you as given above to ALWAYS take money up front before you put any serious work into it, NEVER give any more of your free advice/design work than you have to win the job before any commitment is made.
In short meet the client get a rough brief give them your terms/payments and rough guide costs for the design, judge there reaction ! And then decide if you have a genuine person interested in a bespoke design or wasting your time.
All the best
agree with teh above entirely. When i started i would do design sketches free and same thing would happen to me. Finally got fed up with that when someone got the garden i designed built by someone else. If they want a design now, they pay for it. If they want a sketch of the garden, then they get it once theyve paid the booking depsoit for the main job, and no one gets any work done with signed copies of the terms and conditions, no matter how small the job!
Hey thank you all for your helpful replies! I am really chuffed at the amount of replies I have received and there are some really good suggestions. Thank you so much! Paul
The key issue here is leaving the design with clients without payment. I noticed Gaynor and several others have raised this before and they seem to charge a fee for design and amendments then if you get the work offer a discount off going ahead with the work. (as an incentative).
Take the payment prior to leaving plans with the client, as you would not get a building designer leaving plans without payment.
Altho not a qualified designer, I have been 'sketching' basic layout plans for many years as part of the estimate. I would then sit down with the customer and talk it through. If I knew and trusted them, I would leave the the package with them, if not I would roll the sketch up and leave just the estimate.
I can fully understand the frustration you have, but I would suggest that you pay an initial visit to get a feel of the work, tell the customer there and then that a detailed design would be £xxx, but should you carry out the whole project, the design element is included.
From what you say above, maybe they didnt expect a charge?
By the way where are you situated?
Just to add to Torin's comment about time-wasters, on my website I have some clear info on consultation prices and and hourly rate for design and training, so people know what to expect. If they can't afford a consultation, they can't begin to afford a design.
I haven't SEO'd my website, as i don't want less good quality clients. The site is there for people to look at after I've met them socially/networking, or a friend/contact/other client refers them to me. I'm a sole trader and I don't have time for masses of clients, just good ones, ideally referred by word of mouth. This means they are already 50% (or more) sold on me and my work, and probably we're enough on each others' wavelength for it to be a productive and satisying outcome for all.
I've recently added a 'why employ a garden designer' page too, after a friend of a friend wanted me to come round for a 'spot of lunch' and a chat (free). She was affronted at the consultation fee, so this page hopefully explains the value of the unique combination of skills, expertise and experience a designer brings. Grateful for any feedback on making this more effective, http://vivekagardens.com/why-employ-a-garden-designer/
Actually, looking at it again, a few things I want to change...will spend 20 minutes on it now
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