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You are going to be very busy! If your job is 9-5 mon - fri you are going to have to garden weekends and evenings. You will also have to use your holidays. Maybe you can go part time or if on flexi time you may be able to work long hours and get extra days off.
As far as getting customers is concerned - ask friends and family, cards in shop windows, advertise in local news booklets etc.
It can be done with a lot of hard work. The best of luck to you
cards or flyers?
mike grimshaw said:
Hi Mike,
Ive been part time for two years and im leaving the RAF next month and will go full time then - what i would advise is to firstly decide your customer market base and the services you are going to deliver, such as maintenance, hard landscaping, tree work etc. From this you can advertise properly (ive just ordered 10,000 leaflets from print24.com, which came as a recommendation from this site (under £80.00)
What i have done whilst part time is use all gardening money to purchase and upgrade equipment - ive got a couple of stihl chainsaws, a HS81T hedgetrimmer, a BG86 blower and so on.
It is hard work gardening for a few hours after the day job (i once did a fence job in near dark with a head torch!) but it quickly convinced me that this is what i wanted to do when i left the forces - if you make a mistake while working with a day job as i did early on, quoting too little for a task etc, you may be in a better position to take the 'hit' than if you were already full time.
Ive found great assistance in all areas with this site and you will find many friendly people who give their advice and support at will. One of the best things i did last year was work with Paul @ PPCH who is on this site and he helped with regard to equipment, servicing and how to be efficient to maximise a business.
Echoing Stu's comments, it can be done with hard work. I have been planning for ages so if you can, take as long as possible in your preparation before launching full time. All the best. Andy
Firstly good luck with your venture.
I also started part time. My advice would be to put as much money aside as you can to act as a cushion whilst you are building up your business. It was tough but in the last year that I was employed I tried to put away a third of what I earned - it helped - especially in 2010 when we had some serious unexpected expenditure issues.
The other thing I would suggest is that you need to get to know the competition in your area. Do you see lots of gardeners advertising in local shops, magazines or shoving flyers through your door - all that happens by us because our area is flooded and over the latter half of this year we have had to try and stand out from the crowd to get any work!
Not saying don't start if there is lots of competition but better try and find out what you are dealing with from the start.
As jenny said above, make sure you can stand out, as at the moment in many areas the market is very crowded and you may need to really underline the quality of service you give to get going, Once your going though, refferals should keep you growing nicely, subject to doing a good job.
If you do maintenance then there is always a market due to the necessecity of it. Grass growth doesn't slow down as the economy slows, but people will delay the garden makeover or new terracing if they are skint.
Leaflets in letter boxes work, as does a smart website, word of mouth and active marketing. I find adverts in local directories or village store windows only brings in low end work that does not interest me. £10 grass cuts 6 times a year, you know the type.
Make sure you always do what you say you will, turn up on time, get the full job done, pay attention to the detail. If your machines work fine then stick with it, consider investing in something that lets you cut grass in the rain so you don't let clients down.
Good luck.
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