Whether you have been working as a professional landscape gardener for many years or have only recently branched out (some tree-related humor there) into the industry, it is absolutely essential to know and understand how the profession changes and adapts as time goes on.
With the turmoil of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and its effects on a myriad of different businesses, both small and large, companies have had to adapt how they conduct their business as well as make changes to their fundamental business models.
With that being said, read on to learn some key mistakes to avoid as a professional gardener.
Table of Contents
Omitting Convenience from Your Garden Design
Obviously, as someone who has dedicated their professional working life to making privately and publicly owned outdoor spaces as aesthetically delightful as possible, one of the key mistakes landscape gardeners make is to accidentally forget convenience in their planning.
Always check with the client where the sun shines for the majority of the day, ensure there is a nearby water source, especially when designing a garden that features a number of tropical or flower-producing plants, and always, without question, does a full soil test before even thinking about starting work.
Taking on More Work Than You Can Handle
Source: salisburygreenhouse.com
The natural instinct to say ‘yes’ is a modern curse certainly not confined to professional landscape gardeners. Still, it is true to say that this compulsion to ensure you have as much work booked in as possible can sometimes be detrimental to the quality of the jobs you carry out.
Ensure that you have properly structured your timetable so as to allow enough time for the completion of the job to the highest possible standard, and if you are intent on gaining repeat custom, as well as new clients from positive word-of-mouth referrals, arrange a re-visit to larger projects to check on the progress.
Keeping Tools & Equipment Past Their Best
Any gardener can tell you that it’s eminently possible to get overly attached to and sentimental about one’s tools.
Not only should you regularly clean and maintain each and every piece of gardening equipment you own, but you must also ensure you replace any that are no longer functioning correctly, especially when it comes to more precise tools such as grouting equipment and other precision items.
Focus on Accurately Determining Your Target Market
In an ideal world, your professional landscape gardening business would be steadily growing in both profitability and productivity. The only way to even come close to this ideal is to focus on accurately ascertaining exactly who your target market is.
While working out any common denominators from one client to the next, it is also incredibly prudent to note that the term ‘landscape gardener’ means different things and has different connotations depending on what kind of client you are targeting your business towards.
Consider if you want your company to focus your gardening and landscaping business on specific towns or even specific local areas within those towns, or else are you looking to have a substantially wider geographic target market.
Are you more geared towards working with singular, private property owners on residential estates, or else want to target your business to commercial clients who need help and naturally require larger tools and more complex equipment to maintain their outdoor spaces?
Finally, it is also important to decide on a wholly professional level whether you are interested in the all-important yet decidedly standard gardening and landscape services or who instead like to make a move towards more luxury and tailor-made projects.
Getting Carried Away with the Design
Source: thegardeningdad.com
As well as ensuring you design a garden with convenience in mind for the client, it is also vital that you resist giving in to temptation and designing a Pinterest-worthy blueprint sketch that is simply not viable to create and maintain in real life.
Marry your design vision for the space with the client’s lists of needs and desires, and then add in elements from inspirational photos or plans you have seen. Remember, you will soon be moving on to the next garden and job, whereas the client has to live with your creations and designs for substantially longer.
Top Ways to Grow Your Gardening Business
If, quite understandably and more than necessary given the current economic climate, you will undoubtedly be always looking for ways to grow and expand your company and subsequently increase your cash flow, techniques of which include the following.
- Always try to work to strict and unwavering deadlines to guarantee the completion of a particular target or task.
- Physically write down exactly what you hope to achieve from the expansion and growth of your company.
- Dedicate time and money to effective utilization of digital marketing.
- Increase your brand awareness and presence both online and in real life in your local area.
