Fuel prices

Hi all,

First Post so go easy on me!

I've been a gardener for my own business for a few years (limited company as opposed to self employed) and like everyone being hit hard by these fuel prices (for tools and the van).

Does anyone have any suggestions when it comes to running a gardening business of how to save a few quid here and there? I'm trying to hold off issuing a price increase as I know everyone is in the same boat, so looking for fresh (or old) ideas to make up the difference.

I charge an hourly rate, and charge waste if it is more than a standard small bag.

Might be a long shot, but sharing ideas may help a few of us in the same boat.

Thanks

Ian

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Ian. There are a few self employed gardeners on the forum who will share " best practises" with you I'm sure.
Difficult times ahead for us all,
Jenny namaste

 

Some good news on the horizon - the beeb reckon that fuel prices have peaked and will be coming down again.

Interesting factoid:

The UK is self-sufficient in petrol but imports much of its diesel. Two thirds of UK consumers use diesel.

 

I thought we imported crude and refined it here?

Anyway Boris is going to Saudi to plead for more output to bring the price down.
But as usual, we are now being told we should have nothing to do with them because they execute people.
You have to deal with these people, but you dont have to like them, its a business deal.

 

Thanks guys. Here's hoping we've reached the peak.

Yeah I fear you may be right when it comes to passing the increase on, just wanted to explore every avenue before having to go that route.

 

I do gardening mainly maintenance , if you could its possibly better for you not to charge hourly and charge a fix price instead particularly for grass cutting / hedge work .

They not much you can do about rising costs of petrol , but I've dipped my toes into a battery hedgetrimmer ( Husqvarna ) and to be honest its really good , I am so impressed with performance I'd like a telescopic long reach one, I still use petrol for rough jobs, I know electric bill are going up as well but to charge a battery is about 5p ( if I remember correctly ) quite a large saving compared to petrol its just the upfront cost of a battery that are off putting , might be worth considering if you need a new hedgetrimmer.

I am not much help with anything of business related myself. I am shocking bad at pricing jobs up and never putting them up for years and years.

 

Thanks Perki.

I've thought about battery tools but been put off by battery life and initial cost (as you say).

Do you mind me asking how much that hedge trimmer cost you, and what sort of battery life a full charge gives?

The price per job rather than hourly is something I tried to start, however a lot of customers couldn't get on board with it as they are accustomed to an hourly rate (and it left some grey areas and confusion over what was/wasn't included). Maybe I need to revisit this but try simplify it?

 

Hi Een , I've got a Husqvarna 520 iHD70 with a Bli200 battery , the RRP for just the unit is £500 they are sale at my dealer for £440 , the battery cost about £200 - 220 add a standard charger £40 so you'd be looking at close to £700.

I fortunately got mine off ebay brand new just the hedgetrimmer for £270 and I got the battery a week later off ebay new for £100 and a charger for £40 from the dealer so about £410 all in . You've just got to shop around I would of liked to buy all of it from my local dealer but not at the cost of nearly £300 extra . My old petrol hedge trimmer give up after 14 years of use it were bought 2nd hand as well .

The run time is 2hours non stop which I would assume is on eco mode , in the real world its more like 4 hours + of working continually . I can use it on and off ( I use other hedgetrimmers as well long reach mainly ) in a morning and it still may be reading full charge or used 1 bar out of 4 . If its your only hedgetrimmer you will need another battery but I take mine out for the day and it more than last me a day, you'll be surprised how long the battery last . Stihl do battery gear also the HSA86 is cheaper than the husky but more domestic but a lot of garden maintenance people on another forum do seem to use it.

Strimmers / blowers / mowers are a different kettle of fish, I don't think the run time on any of these is more than a hour the blowers being the worst battery sappers. I would be open to trying a strimmer though but I'd have to get more batteries.

I doubt you'll be able to move your current clients from hourly rate to fixed pricing, they'll be watching the clock seeing the difference in time and price . But any new clients I'd go with fixed pricing , sometimes you can shoot yourself in the foot though not charging enough like me

 

That's brilliant thanks Perki. Really appreciate the help and advice you've given there. The battery world has been a bit of a mystery to me until now in terms of run times especially.

I think I'll try start charging a set price for new smaller gardens and and hourly rate for the bigger ones where there is always work to be done.

One last question to all (that I think everyone has a different take on):
When it comes to rain days, do you guys try and make up these gardens you miss throughout the rest of the week, or do you simply skip that visit and go back on the next scheduled visit (ie so it could end up being 4/6 weeks between visits).

Something I've always struggled with when maintaining the diary.

Thanks
Ian

 

I try and do them the next available day, I'd be getting ear ache if I left someone lawn for 4-5 weeks . Say I normally do a fortnightly cut on a lawn on Wednesday and it rained Wednesday and Thursday I do the job Friday and reset for a two week cut from that Friday, I wouldn't be able to fit all the other jobs in between otherwise. . I do have enough grass jobs to last me two weeks hence why I can't turn up on on the original date of Wednesday . This is how I do it, I think I am in the minority doing it this way though. I think the ideal is 4 days of work per week doing grass etc with one free day for weather and odds jobs.

I live on the west side of the Pennines so its raining for to much sometimes I can have full week off with the weather. The clients understand the weather not been really suitable for grass cutting, they know I'll turn up as soon as I can.

I think majority of garden maintenance go out all types of weather mowing not my sort of thing to do. Quite a few clients have ask me to come back when its a bit drier on occasion, I do have pro machines that will pick up and cut wet grass but even I don't think you should be mowing domestic lawns in the wet unless absolutely necessary, I wouldn't mow my own lawn in the rain so I defiantly would do someone else's .

 

Thanks both, it's good to hear different perspectives and helped me consider things I had previously not been aware of.