Gardening Work
Getting Extra Income
Have van, have lawn mower will travel !
When I first downshifted this was my first main souce of income. The main thing about this is 'How far do you want to go with it ? Do you want to have it as a full time 'profession' or have it as just 'another source of
income' ?
You don't have to have a degree or know your tulips
from your creeping buttercup to cut grass and rake
up a load of general garden mess.. That's the joy
of it, many people don't want a knowledgable gardener, they just need someone to clear and tidy things up once in a while.
The jobs which come about doing this are usually the one / two / three hour jobs which full time professional gardeners don't want to do. They're more interested in the contract work which gives them a better and simpler income.
The other reason they don't want to do it is that some time is spent travelling between jobs (you may have 4 lawns to cut in a day) and all the time you're travelling, you're not earning money - so your fees and charges should reflect this.
This kind of 'do jobs others don't want to do' is quite niche and there is absolutely loads of work out there from pensioners, professional people with no time on their hands and don't mind spending £20 a month on someone coming in to do something.
Also, it will very often lead you into situations where they will ask you if can paint, then you get a few winsows or a bedroom to paint as well.
Slowly it adds up to a nice little job with plenty of clientelle. You can advertise cheaply in shop windows, but invariably the work comes from heresay. Just have a business card with your name and phone number and you're away.
In GBP it's hard to put a starting figure of investment on it because you may already havbe some decent gardening equipment and for the van, you may have traded your unwanted second car for a van. For most jobs a petrol rotary mower (21") is the most versatile and will cut most size lawns. A self-propelled mower is by far the easiest to manouver. Don't buy the cheapest, unless it's on offer that is, go for a reputable brand name with quarantee and service back up, your mower is going to have heavy mileage.
You'll need all the mainline garden tools, but a petrol hedge trimmer, some good loppers, shears and lawn edger are very useful. If you're cutting the grass, offer to do the hedge as well.
On pricing your services it's difficult, you can come unstuck by walking round a garden and thing it's going to take you 4 hours, so I'll charge £40 or whatever. You then find it's a problem and you're there for 7 hours.
By heresay and approach you'll find that an hourly rate is usually best. The customer will soon know if you're not being totally honest about yourself.
Give good service and you'll get good reward.
The only negatives are of course the weather and the seasons. These can make work hard to come by which is why I teneded not to rely 100% on this as a source of income.
But as I say, you may get the 'I don't suppose you know someone who could paint my sitting room for me do you'. There's your gateway.
Put as many things as you can in your basket !
People prefer you to spend 6 hours doing a job correctly than a 'go in, take the money quick' approach.
Get to know your Customers and be one thought ahead of them.
Word gets round very quickly in Gardening Work and you could end up with a very happy situation!
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