gardeners finders fees for tree work

[Starscream]

And 20%? What if it's a £1000 quote? You're gonna hand over £200? Sod that!!!

 

And if you add more to the quote to cover the finders fee, you may end up pricing yourself out of the market.

[ShorterTrees]

Trouble is they probably have mates that they use anyway. People they trust in their clients gardens.

Most tree companies have business relationships with garden maintenance/ landscapers but these have started and been built organically rather than as a cold hard business deal.

A "drink" will usually suffice.

 

 

Exactly that? Or like us we do groundwork/landscaping as well so never loose business

[Ty Korrigan]

Thinking of going round the local gardeners and offering them a finders fee for any tree work they throw my way. A lot of them probably have someone they pass the work onto but thought it was worth a go, was thinking 20% what do you reckon?

 

My advertising budget is less than 5% of turnover, 2014 figure was 3.75%.

Would you REALLY hand over all that just for a positive refferal?

Think again...

Ty

[Mick Dempsey]

Exactly that? Or like us we do groundwork/landscaping as well so never loose business

 

Maybees, but I only like takedowns.

I stay out of the mud.

[MattyF]

Vespasian I have never taken or demanded a fee , if they are good horticulturalist know there job or a good hard landscaper I recommend them , I gave away enough work to probably keep three guys on full time and found the doors open both ways , if people are good they are always busy. If I see you in the pub I would buy you a drink and so would they ... I would rather be an expert in a Feild i know than a jack of all master of none.maybe I'm a fool for not giving it a try but I would rather pride myself in doing what I know well and keeping the customer happy by sharing the services of others that do too.

[John Shutler]

Vespasian I have never taken or demanded a fee , if they are good horticulturalist know there job or a good hard landscaper I recommend them , I gave away enough work to probably keep three guys on full time and found the doors open both ways , if people are good they are always busy. If I see you in the pub I would buy you a drink and so would they ... I would rather be an expert in a Feild i know than a jack of all master of none.maybe I'm a fool for not giving it a try but I would rather pride myself in doing what I know well and keeping the customer happy by sharing the services of others that do too.

 

 

 

My sentiments exactly matty

[Stephen Blair]

10% was always the number I went with

[rustcutter]

I spent a couple of spring/early summers when I had seasonal work lined up for later in the year, basically I was just pretty much full time pulling garden trees stumps by whatever means was possible, chopping and topping a few connies walls/fences and major garden relandscaping; all just one off work. Nearly all of this was by word of mouth from one job to the next. I only wanted one off jobs as I wasn't going to be about later in the year so any customers becoming regular would be let down. Anyway a lot of the customers wanted me to do regular trimming/gardening basically because I turned up reliably. There didn't seem to be any thought that a gardener would be putting work my way but the opposite. It seemed to me that the one off jobs was the precursor to regular work so the tip off issue would be the other way round, if you know what I mean or at least mutual benefit so not to worry about reward.

[Marc Lewis]

Just in case there was any confusion, "A Drink" is an unspecified amount of money, usually (but not exclusively) £20 or a £50.

 

Yeah this was always my thought. Had it backfire once or twice when i have done a small job for someone i know and said 'get us a drink mate'. Finished job and they produce a four pack of Carlsberg.....ahhhh

[flatyre]

I think i'd be suspicious if a stranger asked me for work on the promise of them throwing some my way at a later date. I see what some of you guys are saying about sticking to tree work and not expanding into other areas, I don't want to be a jack of all trades, but when your just starting out on your own and not bringing in enough tree work to keep going then you need to supplement it something in a related field. That's why I also do landscaping and a bit of gardening, hopefully as the tree work builds up i'll be able to shut down the other sides of the business or trade them off to other landscapers and gardeners in return for tree work. Also if a gardener gave me a £1000 job i'd be happy to give them £200, better 80% of a grand than 100% of nowt?

Edited March 13, 2016 by flatyre