Looking at going self emplyed

[AJH]

Hello all, I am new here and looking for some advice.

 

Myself and my brother are looking at starting our own garden and property maintenance company and are looking for some advice.

 

Myself, I have a BSc (Hons) in Landscape Management and 7 years experience working at a large private organic estate doing all types of land and garden maintenance, and occasionally some minor maintenance of the property. My brother has 1 years experience at the same estate.

 

Was after some advice on all aspect of starting up a company, i.e what should we charge? What initial start up cost will we incur, etc.

 

We are thinking of getting word out about what we will offer to see how much interest we get first to 'test the water'.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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[flatyre]

Lots of variables to be considered. Prices vary greatly around the country, where are you? Also whats your target market? you can drum up plenty of business in a short period of time cutting small gardens at a fiver a pop, but you'll need to cut a lot of grass to make a decent wage and those type of customers are always looking for the cheapest gardener, as soon as someone appears on the scene offering to do cuts for £4.99 that's you blown out. Then there are the big money customers with much bigger gardens, more like miniature estates, that require a lot of time and many skills, grass cutting, hedge trimming, tree work, planting in spring and leaf blowing in autumn. There is good money here if you build up a number of these customers, draw up a contract to give them a day a week for a set yearly fee of £7000 ( just an example). Its harder and takes longer to get set up at this end of the property maintenance scale but worth it in the long run. You could always do both and drop the budget customers as the better work builds up.