Dear all,
As I am planning to move abroad in September, I m looking for the right
person / team to take over some of my existing gardening jobs. Customers are
very nice. (except for a few cowboy customers, but you needn't take them.)

Someone passed the first customer on to me many years ago and now I need to
do the same

1) Academic horticultural qualifications are not compulsory, but an ability
to convey considerable knowledge and skill will be.

2) You will need your own engine driven machines, tools. i.e. lawnmower,
blower shredder, rotovator (rear tine) scarifer and so on. (& I'm not
selling mine) (But I might consider an offer on my old van :-), though that
has no barring on who takes over.
3) The jobs are in North London (mostly N6 to N2), occasionally out of
London. And you will need to be insured
4) Current rate £18 per hour when work needs to be done i.e. no work = no
pay (that means no pay; hols, illness, for sitting in a van in the rain when
there's nowt to do, or wandering around with a blower/broom in pretence of
work.

5) You will need to provide itemised invoices for work done, indicating time
and detailing any materials used.

6) Payment is monthly in most cases always by cheque.

7) With one management group, they will depend on your knowledge (&
transport) to acquire materials, but you will need to surrender any receipts
for whatever you get for them. This is to allay any fears the owners might
have off collusion between their staff and outside contractors. (7a) But it
also means that the amount you will be reimbursed by will be the amount due
on the receipt. Therefore they get the benefits of any discount you may be
entitled to.
There is a security issue. Which is why I will be very careful. So,
8) Reference will be checked and will need to be easily verifiable, because
I'm
not getting paid to do this! 8a) I will want to meet your existing
customers!
9) Work involves communications with several bi-linguals who have English as
a second language. Therefore in order of usefulness, if you have:
Portuguese, French, Greek, good. A Germanic language may be a very slight
advantage. I get by with a little Spanish.

10) Ideally, the person taking over will be enthusiastic, rather than merely
tolerant about dealing with people of different background, culture,
language, colour, gender and even diametrically opposing political status
(e.g. Israelis and Palestinians, Greeks and Turks etc.) This is not exactly
an opportunity for a member of the BNP.

11) You do not need to be V.A.T. registered, but you do need to be able to
prove you are legit!

12) Enquires to me-------- in English only, (Maar ik ben geleerdheid
Nederlands).

Do please remember that I am only doing this out of loyalty to several
customers, I am not getting paid to do so and so I will be ruthless in
weeding out anyone who wastes my time by not matching all the above points,
with the exception of your rates.

By ruthless, I mean I will not even reply.

13) Do not send e-mail attachments. Matters of references etc will be dealt
with later.

14) Any e-mail that does not measure up will be treated as malicious Spam
and that means going straight on to my block-sender list and thereby
automatically deleted (unread, in the case of attachment senders) And I am
only your first hurdle.



Patrick