"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
...
snip Which is best?

but its only cutting a bit of grass which would go on the compost heap
and a few twigs that would burn, not doing a big job.

kate
If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done then pay a
professional . Im sure u wouldnt object paying that amount for a
roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener is just as skilled and
has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just doddle
about but for the self employed who need to make a living out of it u
need to charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.


yes indeed I could fly up to Scotland every couple of weeks and do the job
myself.

kate
Why not it will keep u from keeping the minimum wage at an all time low

On 3/1/08 11:56, in article , "Kate
Morgan" wrote:

Ah yes, babies truly are complete tyrants! BTW, I'm sure your daughter
will
be sure to check the background of anyone who answers her ad! ;-)

--
Sacha

Babes are complete tyrants LOL of course you mean that Sacha :-) the house
is so quiet and empty now that Jamie Anne has gone back to Scotland :-( and
yes indeed all people would be checked out thoroughly

kate

I'm always secretly amazed and amused to see how thoroughly sensible adults
can turn into attention-seeking slaves when a baby is around - including
myself. We had 7 adults in the house on Christmas Day and one one-year old
and the rivalry for her smiles and attentions was very funny to watch!
Bouncing up and down on an adult's knees and trying to grab Granny's
earrings was welcomed as a sign of true genius unfurling. ;-))

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 3/1/08 11:59, in article , "Kate
Morgan" wrote:

snip Which is best?

but its only cutting a bit of grass which would go on the compost heap
and a few twigs that would burn, not doing a big job.

kate
If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done then pay a
professional . Im sure u wouldnt object paying that amount for a
roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener is just as skilled and
has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just doddle about
but for the self employed who need to make a living out of it u need to
charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.


yes indeed I could fly up to Scotland every couple of weeks and do the job
myself.

kate


The baby being no attraction at all, of course!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 3/1/08 14:15, in article , "pied
piper" wrote:


"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
...
snip Which is best?

but its only cutting a bit of grass which would go on the compost heap
and a few twigs that would burn, not doing a big job.

kate
If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done then pay a
professional . Im sure u wouldnt object paying that amount for a
roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener is just as skilled and
has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just doddle
about but for the self employed who need to make a living out of it u
need to charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.


yes indeed I could fly up to Scotland every couple of weeks and do the job
myself.

kate
Why not it will keep u from keeping the minimum wage at an all time low



Look, nobody is trying to gyp anyone else. What is being asked is what is a
fair and reasonable wage in a particular area. This varies enormously
throughout the entire country, as does the cost of rent, food, water etc.
If what *you* are being paid doesn't strike you as right or fair, then
perhaps you are in the wrong career. Or perhaps you should do as Rod did
and go into private service on an estate.
We don't know if the people charging the £25 per hour are qualified or
whether they are merely people offering to cut the grass and trim back the
trees but with no actual horticultural knowledge or training. I certainly
wouldn't employ a carpenter, plumber, roofer or brickie who had no skills in
those jobs and nor would I trust valued shrubs to someone who knew nothing
about pruning. But asking someone just to keep a garden tidy is not in the
same league and that seems to me to be what is being enquired about *in the
main* - not a ruthless land-owner trying to grind someone down to the lowest
living wage for highly skilled work on an arboretum filled with
horticultural rarities!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Which is best?

but its only cutting a bit of grass which would go on the compost heap
and a few twigs that would burn, not doing a big job.

kate
If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done then pay a
professional . Im sure u wouldnt object paying that amount for a
roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener is just as skilled and
has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just doddle
about but for the self employed who need to make a living out of it u
need to charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.


yes indeed I could fly up to Scotland every couple of weeks and do the
job myself.

kate
Why not it will keep u from keeping the minimum wage at an all time low


Oh for goodness sake, I wish I had never asked, you don't know me and I
don't know you apart from being on the n/g, I refuse to quarrel.

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from "pied piper" contains these
words:

If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done
then pay a professional. Im sure u wouldnt object paying that
amount for a roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener
is just as skilled and has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just
doddle about but for the self employed who need to make a living
out of it u need to charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.

There's no need to be nasty to Kate, she is quite right to
question the fact that someone is charging £25 an hour!

I own a roofing company, and I pay my roofers £15 an hour,
and I have no trouble whatsoever getting good workmen for
that rate!

So u pay them £15 an hour but what do u charge an hour including cost of
materials etc. Plus the overheads of running your business?
Plus gardening requires more skill and knowledge than roofing.

"VivienB" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Jan 2008 20:59:10 -0000, "Kate Morgan"
wrote:

I could do with some-one like that but
no one around here in Gloucestershire wants a little job. I have ride-on
mowers strimmers brush-cutters etc.etc so they would not even have to use
their own tools but we still cannot find anyone to help.

I don't know where in Gloucestershire you are Kate, so this may or may
not be useful.

I moved to look after my father, but let the house I have in
Nailsworth near Stroud. I put in gardeners in Spring and Autumn
regularly and also if the house is empty the garden needs keeping in
order. I have found Kingston's Garden Services very good - they are
two young chaps who have set up in business fairly recently. They are
based in Cambridge (Gloucestershire!) but do travel quite a bit to
jobs. I have found them reliable and conscientious, especially
important when I cannot be there myself to keep an eye on gardeners.
Last summer/autumn they were charging £12/man-hour. I do not know if
they have a minimum - I would, if I were in a similar line of
business!

Contact them at: kingstonlad@ (the same ISP as you)
or telephone 01453 890043

--
Regards, VivienB
---------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you very much Vivien, Cambridge is very very close to us, just down
the river, not far at all and that would be brilliant for us :-)
thanks again

kate near Chepstow

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...

I own a roofing company, and I pay my roofers £15 an hour,
and I have no trouble whatsoever getting good workmen for
that rate!


but how much do you charge your clients for labour, overheads and profit?

pk

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from "pied piper" contains these
words:


"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from "pied piper" contains these
words:

If its that simple do it yourself if u want a proper job done
then pay a professional. Im sure u wouldnt object paying that
amount for a roofer,brickie,chippie,plumber etc etc a gardener
is just as skilled and has the same overheads .
What would be left after tax ni transport fuel etc etc .
Its ok for the odd jobbers who top up their pensions and just
doddle about but for the self employed who need to make a living
out of it u need to charge the going rate.
I wouldnt take anything on that was less than 5k per year.
And I find people like u quite insulting to the trade.

There's no need to be nasty to Kate, she is quite right to
question the fact that someone is charging £25 an hour!

I own a roofing company, and I pay my roofers £15 an hour,
and I have no trouble whatsoever getting good workmen for
that rate!

So u pay them £15 an hour but what do u charge an hour including
cost of materials etc. Plus the overheads of running your business?
Plus gardening requires more skill and knowledge than roofing.

I don't charge by the hour, the charge is per metre...
"Keeping a garden tidy" most certainly does not require more skill
and knowledge! THAT was the question that Kate asked, was it not?

Her daughter wants the garden TIDIED, not LANDSCAPED!

AND the word is YOU, we don't use textspeak in here...

I can type and use what I like imagine if gardeners charged by the metre.
Yet another idiot who thinks gardening is not a skilled job why are U even
here?

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from "pied piper" contains these
words:
"Anne Jackson" wrote:
The message from "pied piper" contains these
words:

Plus gardening requires more skill and knowledge than roofing.

"Keeping a garden tidy" most certainly does not require more skill
and knowledge! THAT was the question that Kate asked, was it not?

Her daughter wants the garden TIDIED, not LANDSCAPED!

AND the word is YOU, we don't use textspeak in here...

I can type and use what I like imagine if gardeners charged by the metre.
Yet another idiot who thinks gardening is not a skilled job why are U
even
here?

What am *I* doing here? I might ask you the same question...

I was answering Kate's question, and it's not me that's disagreeing
with everyone!

--
AnneJ

U r a woman its ur job to disagree with everyone

In message , Kate Morgan
writes

The message from "Kate Morgan" contains
these words:

My daughter and son in law need a gardener just to keep their
garden tidy,
you know the sort of thing cutting the lawn and the odd bit of pruning,
nothing heavy. They have approached several people and the charges
are £25
per hour but the gardeners wont do less than 2 hours work. The
family are
in Edinburgh, any comments, surely that a bit expensive.

A small (father and son) gardening company in Perth charge £8 an hour
for general 'tidying' work, cutting grass, hoeing beds, light pruning,
etc. but that is on a regular maintenance agreement. They may have
charged more for the initial work undertaken, I wouldn't know.

I wouldn't be prepared to pay more than double that, even in Edinburgh...

Someone cuts the grass for us, trims hedges occasionally, uses his own
machinery, tidies up after himself etc. and charges £15 per hour. The £25
might be for two people, perhaps?


-- Sacha

Not sure Sacha, I think it was only one person but what is annoying is
the fact that they want to do 2 hours work, I still think that £50 to
get ones grass cut and a bit of gentle sorting out is excessive.

surely that is just their way of putting people off who only want
smaller jobs?

If they can get enough business with that sort of arrangement, not
suprising they don't want to bother with the faff or more but smaller
jobs
--
Chris French

Kate Morgan wrote:

My daughter and son in law need a gardener just to keep their garden tidy,
you know the sort of thing cutting the lawn and the odd bit of pruning,
nothing heavy. They have approached several people and the charges are £25
per hour but the gardeners wont do less than 2 hours work. The family are
in Edinburgh, any comments, surely that a bit expensive.

I dont think it is expensive.
I started out self employed in June, mainly gardening, also home
maintenance, but I had planned to do mostly gardening work.

After 3 months, it was clear that charging £15/hour would not earn me a
living, so I have given up on the gardening side, and now do mostly
property maintenance.

To show how it wouldnt pay, consider a busy day - out at 8 am, first job
at 8:30. 2 hours there, £30., second job booked at 11am. 2 hours,
another £30. 3rd job at 1:30, another £30. £90 per day.
It'll be 4pm by the time you get to another place, so pretty difficult
to get any more done.

BUT - getting 3, or even 4, 2 hour jobs in a day is hard to do, you will
likely have 20 minutes of grass cutting, then 2 hours of weeding, then a
small grass cutting etc, but not 3 2 hours jobs to keep you going all
day.

And to top this, I started at £10/hr, so many days I was earning £50 or
less.
Add up the costs - new mower/strimmer/hedge cutter every 2 years -
£500+/yr, van - easily £1000/yr. Then you have the waste disposal. If
you can get the homeowner to get rid of the waste, then it is great, but
many have no facilities to keep the waste, so you need a waste carriers
licence - £50/yr. Then pay to dump the waste - £60/tonne, so I reckon £5
a day when working to tip waste.
Add on fuel costs, and the many other consumables needed, to stay in
business, I would have to charge £20/hr minimum, and do at least 30
hours a week actually working for a customer, and many more hours
disposing of waste, ringing up people, cleaning equipment etc.
Even then, when overheads/costs are taken off, I would just about be on
minimum wage.(as an aside to this, I have kept putting off doing my
accounts, as it'll be too depressing to see how little I have earnt in
the last 6 months)
Then you will have the 1 in 20 ish days where it is too wet to do
anything. then the 6 or 7 bank holidays when you are not earning.

£25 / hr sounds a lot, but it isnt when all factors are taken into
consideration.

If however someone was claiming benefits, running round in his car, and
fly-tipping his waste, then they probably could charge a lot less.

Legitimate, decent traders could not afford to do it much cheaper.

Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

"A.Lee" wrote in message
...
Kate Morgan wrote:

My daughter and son in law need a gardener just to keep their garden
tidy,
you know the sort of thing cutting the lawn and the odd bit of pruning,
nothing heavy. They have approached several people and the charges are
£25
per hour but the gardeners wont do less than 2 hours work. The family
are
in Edinburgh, any comments, surely that a bit expensive.

I dont think it is expensive.
I started out self employed in June, mainly gardening, also home
maintenance, but I had planned to do mostly gardening work.

After 3 months, it was clear that charging £15/hour would not earn me a
living, so I have given up on the gardening side, and now do mostly
property maintenance.

To show how it wouldnt pay, consider a busy day - out at 8 am, first job
at 8:30. 2 hours there, £30., second job booked at 11am. 2 hours,
another £30. 3rd job at 1:30, another £30. £90 per day.
It'll be 4pm by the time you get to another place, so pretty difficult
to get any more done.

BUT - getting 3, or even 4, 2 hour jobs in a day is hard to do, you will
likely have 20 minutes of grass cutting, then 2 hours of weeding, then a
small grass cutting etc, but not 3 2 hours jobs to keep you going all
day.

And to top this, I started at £10/hr, so many days I was earning £50 or
less.
Add up the costs - new mower/strimmer/hedge cutter every 2 years -
£500+/yr, van - easily £1000/yr. Then you have the waste disposal. If
you can get the homeowner to get rid of the waste, then it is great, but
many have no facilities to keep the waste, so you need a waste carriers
licence - £50/yr. Then pay to dump the waste - £60/tonne, so I reckon £5
a day when working to tip waste.
Add on fuel costs, and the many other consumables needed, to stay in
business, I would have to charge £20/hr minimum, and do at least 30
hours a week actually working for a customer, and many more hours
disposing of waste, ringing up people, cleaning equipment etc.
Even then, when overheads/costs are taken off, I would just about be on
minimum wage.(as an aside to this, I have kept putting off doing my
accounts, as it'll be too depressing to see how little I have earnt in
the last 6 months)
Then you will have the 1 in 20 ish days where it is too wet to do
anything. then the 6 or 7 bank holidays when you are not earning.

£25 / hr sounds a lot, but it isnt when all factors are taken into
consideration.

If however someone was claiming benefits, running round in his car, and
fly-tipping his waste, then they probably could charge a lot less.

Legitimate, decent traders could not afford to do it much cheaper.

Alan.
--
People just don't realise how much it costs to run a business. My
professional organisation recommends charging 2.5 to 3 times base salary to
pay for overheads, provision for holidays, retirement and a host of
insurances. Therefore, for a salary of, say, 20k/annum, that means having
to earn ~50k. So, allowing for weekends, public holidays, annual holidays
(say 15 days) and sick days, that leaves 230 potential working days which,
in this case, don't take the weather into account. That translates into
217/day or 27/hour for an 8 hour day (and how many work 8 hours these
days?). It also assumes that the order-book is full!
My lawn man clears snow in the winter (I live in Canada) and charged me 15
quid to clear the snow off my driveway. It seemed a lot but when I worked
it out, he's having to really scrab for a decent living.
I am self-employed and have been sick with a rotten cold for the last 2 days
and can't do much meaningful work. That put's a lot of pressure on me
because I will have to make up for that working weekends and evenings when I
get over it.
In the OP's case, demanding a minimum of 2 hours work is also reasonable.
Someone has to pay for the travel time between jobs and 8x1hour jobs would
probably result in a 12 hour day.

On Jan 3, 9:31*pm, chris French
wrote:
In message , Kate Morgan
writes







The message from "Kate Morgan" contains
these words:

My daughter and son in law need a gardener just to keep their
garden *tidy,
you know the sort of thing cutting the lawn and the odd bit of pruning,
nothing heavy. They have approached several people and the charges
are *£25
per hour but the gardeners *wont do less than 2 hours work. The
family *are
in Edinburgh, any comments, surely that a bit expensive.

A small (father and son) gardening company in Perth charge £8 an hour
for general 'tidying' work, cutting grass, hoeing beds, light pruning,
etc. but that is on a regular maintenance agreement. *They may have
charged more for the initial work undertaken, I wouldn't know.

I wouldn't be prepared to pay more than double that, even in Edinburgh....

Someone cuts the grass for us, trims hedges occasionally, uses his own
machinery, tidies up after himself etc. and charges £15 per hour. *The £25
might be for two people, perhaps?

-- *Sacha

Not sure Sacha, I think it was only one person but *what is annoying is
the fact that they want to do 2 hours work, I still think that £50 to
get ones grass cut and a bit of gentle sorting out is excessive.

surely that is just their way of putting people off who only want
smaller jobs?

If they can get enough business with that sort of arrangement, not
suprising they don't want to bother with the faff or more but smaller
jobs
--
Chris French- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi Chris, long time no hear, how are Helen and the children? Which
hospital is she at now?

"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
...
The message from (A.Lee) contains these words:

Legitimate, decent traders could not afford to do it much cheaper.

The gardeners I know, who charge £8 per man-hour, arrange their
work (obviously more efficiently than _you_ do!) so that they
are working in the same area one day, then another area the next...

That way they are only minutes away from the next job.

They are good, clean and tidy workers, and I have recommended
them to many of my friends. They will do a one-hour job, no problem!

In the summer, they start at 7 or 7:30am, and finish around 8pm.
Wintertime hours are fewer, of course.

All well and good if u can live on £200 per week get real £8 an hour was
what was being charged ten years ago
like the previous post said overheads running a business etc its alright for
the benefit cheats and oaps earning their beer money U need a reality check
join the real world moron.