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Hi Richard
A professional gardener should be charging a minimum of £15.00ph.
I remember my accountant telling me many years ago, if you raise your prices by 20%, 90% of your customers will agree to the raise and the remaining 10% you can afford to lose.
I am aware of the economic climate at the moment and trading is not easy so every business must set it's own charges according to their circumstances.
But, a rule of thumb is: if you work on the basis of there being 2000 chargeable hours in a trading year (i.e. 50 weeks x 40 hrs - assuming a two week holiday) and you want to make a minimum of £20,000 salary (not unreasonable) this equates to £10.00 ph.
Add tax of circa 25% which equates to £2.50 ph, vehicles costs and sundry costs we can easily eat up £15.00ph.
I would like to see a basic wage for a self employed gardener.
For existing customers, hourly rate went up in 2 increments - £12.50 then to £15 another 3 months later. For new customers it is a straight £15 unless it's a particularly massive amount of regular straightforward work, whereby I can take along the 2 boys, and I'll give a small discount. I shouldn't really give a discount but it does secure worthwhile work.
For grass cutting work I give price for job but base on same hourly rate. If it's a job out on a limb somewhere I'll maybe just round figures up to cover travel.
All of my work is through making a thorough, honest job and word being passed on. A dribble came from yellow pages/yell.com
Hope you all enjoying this fine weather!
I charge £15/hour and 30p/mile for travel. I started out at about £12.50/hour and put my prices up last year. I only work in domestic gardens and no longer consider smaller gardens - I had a few bad payers last year so rebranded my yell.com advertising to aim for a higher end client. I don't get as many enquiries but have had no bad payers this year.
Most of my client base is return work each Spring after the Winter break and I now have a core of 4 regulars who get a full day each week. Having the capacity to give an extra day when it's needed has actually worked quite well for me.
It will certainly benefit anyone who is not VAT registered and does a lot of planting.
why is it that gardeners don't seem to charge as much as other business a friend of mine in a chippie and he charges between £30 and £40 an hour another dose flooring and he charges the same and people pay these prices and don't batter an eye lid,the same as people will moan about what a builder,electrician,a plumber or even a mechanic yet they still seem have to pay but when it comes to some ones garden were people do like to entertain and want there gardens to look nice people seem to think they are getting ripped off from what i read what do you think
my two mates earn £40.000 a year have holidays a nice car and homes.how much do you charge