If you, or anyone you know, have a solid background in the landscaping industry, preferably with a CCDL, then please send your CV to sophia@arbworx.com along with a covering letter telling us why you want to work for Arbworx.
We’re looking for talented and enthusiastic people, with a can-do attitude, who share our passion for perfection. You’ll need to be responsible, motivated and enjoy hard work.
Our people are our biggest assets and that’s why it’s important for us to recruit talented individuals to drive business success.
In return for your high level of commitment we will provide a fun and challenging work environment, and will positively encourage you to develop in the areas you are most interested in.
As you’ll know from having looked through our website at www.arbworx.com we have incredibly high standards so only serious applicants need apply.
Arbworx Ltd is an equal opportunities employer. A copy of our equality policy is available on request.
Comments
kev
Hi Kev.
We found the secret to getting more leads came from a professional rebrand. I was very reluctant to change from our old branding but was convinced when the calibre of client virtually changed overnight. No more small low margin jobs that forever run over and have to be chased for payment.
Business to business and business to local authority works have really raised our profit margin and continue to do so. The trick with these clients is not to get greedy and maintain a fair pricing policy. Just because they have a large budget to spend do not try to raise your margin to soak it up. This way you reap the benefits for years rather than months and generate a loyal customer base that return year on year.
On the marketing front think about the places that you are advertising. For example if you place adverts in the Friday Ad for instance the readers are looking for good value deals and are not going to be wowed by high end works or superior quality, so a workable profit margin will be harder to achieve. A good website however, that actually works on all pages, and is easy to navigate, will demonstrate a lot more about the type of business that you are and so justify the higher pricing and superior quality of your work. (get a website done professionally. We are landscapers, not web developers!!)
With regards to staff, make sure that you have the right team. Employing friends, cheap labourers and not having a recruiting policy all lead to an unprofessional image at the sharp end... on site. Your staff reflect your business and as such are advocates for you when you are not there. If they are out of uniform, smoking and drinking endless amounts of tea then do not expect to be winning repeat business from family homes where their attitude and actions are not what the clients want their kids to see.
One of the best things I did was to put all staff in uniform and have a companywide no smoking policy. They are now all an advert for Arbworx and as such when they are at work they carry themselves in a more professional manner. Just from a uniform!
If you are not particularly busy on site get busy on the internet looking for work that may be out there but you do not know about it. There are sites set up by Councils and the public sector that advertise tenders that are available. Doing research in this way can get you that one contract that could turn business around forever.
Arbworx started off as a tree surgery company but when a mowing contract came along I jumped at it and have not looked back since. We then looked for fencing contracts and built up our knowledge in the decking sector. This saw us through the decking 'craze ' a few years ago and revenue soon raised.
I firmly believe in moving with the times and am always looking for a new member of staff with a particular skill or a method of working that can generate leads, jobs ....and profit!
Jon
I've contacted Jon and we'll find a place to link to it if Jon agrees.
jon thanks for the advice it seems that I may hve adertised in the worng places, so I am checking the internet and my local council, if it works for you then it must work for others thanks oncemore for the advices
Kev
Hi Kev.
I am not sure where you are in terms of your business but I wish I had someone to offer little pearls about 11 years ago when i was starting out. I always believed that doing all the different elements of our business would save me money as I was keeping the costs down. In actual fact all I was doing was having to learn yet another skill that I should have outsourced and got on with doing the thing I do best which at the time was arboriculture. Yes it was good to diversify but if I had got a good website up with good SEO, advertised in the right places, and not been paranoid about getting a business loan and doing the business set up right in terms of equipment and marketing I would have probably been one of the largest tree companies around by now. So often as a sole trader with a couple of staff you feel that in these difficult trading conditions that a loan is the last thing you want round you neck, a (well thought out and spent wisely) loan can be the platform that changes your business model for the better.
I (stupidly) thought that I couldn’t justify the cost of a 6" chipper and spent 4 years cutting up in the back of the truck. The amount of time (and effort) I wasted could have bought one 5 times over and not got carpal tunnel syndrome in the process! (I won’t make that mistake twice). The crazy thing is that the sound of a chipper running always gets the curtains twitching of the neighbours and I bet you that at least 3 additional jobs (£500) a week come from them asking for a quick price to do their trees as well. Things like that can make all the difference to a business.
One other thing that I do now is to get good quality flyers made up and whenever we attend a job the first thing that we do is flyer the street, then put up a sign outside the property that we are working at. This lets everyone in the street know who the landscapers at No25 are and then they get to watch how we operate whist not having to actually engage us. People are naturally shy about wanting to ask for things so this approach is often far more reliable and the kicker is that if they are interested in getting a price for some works you are in the immediate area working anyway, you can show them the work you are doing for their neighbour (with client permission) and it adds so much to their confidence that they came to you rather than 'door knocking' or having to pick someone for the reams of adverts in whatever publications they use. (Be aware of the comments in my earlier post regarding the right staff and their attitude on site). I on average get 6 additional jobs a month from this method and it cost of this form of advertising is about 5 man hours of time and £150 for 10,000 flyers!
That makes the ROI well worth it!
Jon
Hi Jon
well thank you for all this help ,I will be running my business a differant way now, by following your advice that was very usfull and thanks for taking the time to help me at this time when my work has slowed down a lot in the last three months.
thank again
Kev