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  Greenlawns December 9, 2010 at 7:07pm

  Yes Justin , Paul is right, a bit optimistic, even with heavy advertising, I dont beleive you will have a full diary,
  sorry to be brutal but i specialise in maintenance and you will be lucky to have it full in one season, theirs just too many people out of work trying to make a living, new gardeners cropping up everywhere, most of them disappear come the first winter though.
  Might be better if you do a bit of landscaping if your capable, while you build it up, thats what i did.
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  Greenlawns December 9, 2010 at 7:28pm

  Yes Dan, made me laugh when i read it back, but I did say, ''if your capable,'' which I was more than capable of. so maybe he is too, suppose depends on what background he has.
  Turfing ,flagging , fencing, ponds, water features, etc.
  
  Dan @ ad landscapes said:

  lol a bit of landscaping to fill in the time, i might try a bit of plumbing, sorry that did make me smile.
  
  
  
  Greenlawns said:

  Yes Justin , Paul is right, a bit optimistic, even with heavy advertising, I dont beleive you will have a full diary,
  sorry to be brutal but i specialise in maintenance and you will be lucky to have it full in one season, theirs just too many people out of work trying to make a living, new gardeners cropping up everywhere, most of them disappear come the first winter though.
  Might be better if you do a bit of landscaping if your capable, while you build it up, thats what i did.
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  Greenlawns December 9, 2010 at 7:32pm

  Justin , What is your background.
  
  Greenlawns said:

  Yes Dan, made me laugh when i read it back, but I did say, ''if your capable,'' which I was more than capable of. so maybe he is too, suppose depends on what background he has.
  Turfing ,flagging , fencing, ponds, water features, etc.
  
  Dan @ ad landscapes said:

  lol a bit of landscaping to fill in the time, i might try a bit of plumbing, sorry that did make me smile.
  
  
  
  Greenlawns said:

  Yes Justin , Paul is right, a bit optimistic, even with heavy advertising, I dont beleive you will have a full diary,
  sorry to be brutal but i specialise in maintenance and you will be lucky to have it full in one season, theirs just too many people out of work trying to make a living, new gardeners cropping up everywhere, most of them disappear come the first winter though.
  Might be better if you do a bit of landscaping if your capable, while you build it up, thats what i did.
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  Lawncare-4u.co.uk December 9, 2010 at 8:02pm

  june for 35hrs + , and ive been at it for 8 yrs. 6yrs in one market town ,with broad scope of work and contacts up to 20miles away (and london)........
  
  if your lucky and will do ANYTHING ..... MAYBE U WILL GET the same
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  Justin Hemming December 9, 2010 at 8:11pm

  Hi
  
  My background is as a tree surgeon, 5yrs. I have a NC in horticulture so understand horticulture principles, just lacking wide plant knowledge. To deal with this I'm studying an RHS level 2 certificate in garden planning establishment and maintenance and am reading lots of books!
  
  cheers
  
  Justin
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  Greenlawns December 9, 2010 at 8:21pm

  Yes, Justin I too wish you all the best in your new venture,
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  Matt Brown December 9, 2010 at 9:41pm

  i must have been quite lucky as within 6 months i was doing between 8 and 10 hour days 6 days a week. it does seem to be more competitive at the moment, a relative of a friend of mine lost his office job and decided he would become a gardener, he had a mower and thought thats all he needed. he had no experience whatsoever. when he comes across something he doesnt know he phones his wife to ask her. he charges something like £20 an hour or £30 to cut a postage stamp sized lawn and he gets tips!
  
  it seems thats what we are up against.
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  Fenlandphil December 10, 2010 at 12:09am

  If you are doing a leaflet drop why not add an offer on the leaflet this may encourage people to retain your leaflet to use when the season starts.

  You could consider talking to a local garden centre to offer a free plant voucher for use at their garden centre, the garden centre may give you a discount off the face value of the voucher.

  So you could pitch an offer something on the lines of, "Free £5 voucher for Blogs garden centre when you use our services for the first time (minimum spend of £25 required)."

  Most importantly the very best of luck.
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  Andy Lawrence December 10, 2010 at 11:35pm

  Hi Justin,

   

  I wish you well. Sounds like you are v keen and genuine.

   

  However, I have to say your figures sound a little optomistic. Certainly for where I am in Glasgow we had deep frost until middle of March this year. V little could be done in Feb for the same reason and only really a week and a half in March was workable due to weather.

   

  Personally I started my business part time and if I'm honest I would have gone bust if I had gone full time straight away. Don't want to put a downer on your plans but I don't want to give you unrealistic expectations either.

   

  All the best

  Andy

   

   

   

   
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  Matthew Amos December 11, 2010 at 1:02am

  Good luck Justin. The gardening busness is tougher than ever with the recession with everone getting made redundant taking up gardening. Im quite lucky being in the game for many years i seem to sail through the winter. This is only because off my planning in advance, earning the money in the spring and summer. All the companys i cut lawns for pay for there work over 12 months on strict contracts and direct debt payments, so the work i do over 8 months of the grass cutting season gets spread over 12. With a bit of searching on the net get contracts set up to spread your costs to bring an income in over the dormant months.