Below I am going to give you 2 examples in which to grow your gardening business. Whether you are providing garden maintenance or hard landscaping, both will apply to you. These 2 options are great in their own way, depending on whether you are looking to expand your gardening business a hole, or are just looking to keep busy through the winter months. I hope give you the information that you’ve been looking for!
Firstly, let’s talk about gardening being seasonal. From April to October I am super busy. I find myself quickly working 12 hours in the long summer days and end up turning away lots of work. For me, I enjoy being a gardener so much that I’ll happily work 12 hour days which also allows me to budget for the Winter as my gardening jobs typically halve.
But what if you could offer work, or set up a second business that was seasonal through the Winter months? This way it wouldn’t affect your gardening business and you’d be super busy all year round. My Father, also a gardener, works only 8 hour days in the Summer, but has quite a unique second business allowing him to be even more busy in the Winter Months. This is chimney sweeping!
I will be doing a separate post in the near future focused fully on Chimney sweeping, how ever, if you are already a gardener then the chances are you are already pretty hands on. The best way to start anything new would be to gain experience by working with someone who is already fully qualified so working alongside a chimney sweeper in the winter months would definitely be worth doing.
With short courses available in the UK starting from as little as 1 day, you could be a qualified Chimney sweeper in a matter of hours! Being confident, this is the way that my Father gained his qualification. Membership of the National Association of Chimney Sweeps (NACS), the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps or the Association of Professional and Independent Chimney Sweeps (APICS) will show customers that you are competent to complete the necessary work.
With a typical chimney sweep taking around 45 minutes with an average price tag of £50 – £80, with enough business this could work perfectly along side your gardening business. Some tools needed include:
- Chimney sweep broom
- Drain rod set to extend your broom/brush
- Fireplace cover
- Sheeting to cover flooring (dust sheets etc)
- Tape
- Mirror
- Metal bucket
- Shovel and broom
- Industrial vacuum cleaner
- Torch
- PPE (Goggles, mask etc..)
What else could I offer as part of my already existing gardening business?
During the winter months as I was first starting my gardening business, I actually worked for a communal development company offering property maintenance services across London. Here I would offer garden maintenance as well as window cleaning, hoovering, mopping and polishing inside blocks of flats as well as painting and decorating. This got me thinking! Offering garden maintenance is just one part of what a property maintenance company does, and anyone running a gardening business could quickly and easily expand their gardening business in this way with little or no additional tools.
As well as our gardening equipment such as a hedge cutter, lawn mower and strimmer, we literally had polish, a hoover, window cleaning equipment and a step ladder. This is very few tools for such a wide variety of job offerings.
A friend of mine who I met whilst working for this communal development company many years ago, actually left to start his own property maintenance company but aimed his business more towards individuals in their homes as opposed to blocks of flats, communal gardens etc.. Not wanting to give away the name of his business, let’s say that he called his business ‘XYZC Property Maintenance’. He then created individual listings with different websites but under different names. For example:
- XYZC Garden Services
- XYZC Painting & Decorating
- XYZC Window Cleaning
- XYZC Cleaning Services
- XYZC Handyman Services
Let’s just say that he now has a good sized company, with an office, warehouse to store the tools and equipment along with 7 vans.
Why have you given me 2 different options to grow my garden business?
There are many more way to grow your gardening business, how ever I have been fortunatel enough to know 2 people personally that have grown their garden maintenance business in these ways.
More importantly, there are many types of gardeners/people. Some who want to grow their business as a hole, offering as many services as possible (better suited for property maintenance) or some who are just looking to keep busy in the Winter (better suited to Chimney sweeping).
I personally offer only garden maintenance and hard landscaping services. I work long hours in the Summer and budget for the winter as I see my hours halved. This suits me perfectly as I get to be out in the long summer days and don’t have to be out in the cold winter months quite so much!
As always, if you have any questions that I may be able to help with then please do comment below! I will always to to answer within 24 hours!