ROBSON GARDEN MAINTENANCE
Payments
How do we work out rates?
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We have a duty to provide the best service we can for a reasonable price.
We need to charge rates that allow us to pay our staff a living wage, ensure we have good tools in working order. We also need to ensure that we have a good profit margin so we can reinvest in our company to improve our services. We also need to allocate money towards insurance, software, training etc.
We essentially need to charge a reasonable price to make sure our customers receive a reliable, high quality service.
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On an initial visit one of our team will let you know the hourly rate for your garden and this will be followed by a welcome email detailing specific costs and details about our services.
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The pie chart below shows how the rates we charge gets divided up.
Why are other companies cheaper?
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Having spoken to new customers who have had cheaper gardeners these are some of the reason for this,
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They pay staff badly
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They don't pay staff holiday pay
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They don't pay income tax or avoid vat registration
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They don't pay for insurance
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They don't pay for software to manage jobs or invoice accurately
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They don't provide appropriate PPE and uniform
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They simply charge too little meaning they take on too much work and can't fulfil their obligations
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They hide charges in materials or overcharge for time
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They don't train their staff
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They fly tip
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They avoid paying staff pensions
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They sack staff at the end of a season to save money over the winter period. This means they have high turnover of staff so no consistency
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What do you charge?
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Every 6 months we calculate how much it costs us to deliver 1 man hour of work. We use a profit and loss statement generated from our accounting software for accuracy.
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In order to make a reasonable profit our rates start from £35 + vat per man hour for larger gardens with reduced daily travel times.
We charge £40 + vat per man hour for small gardens with a visit time of 30 minutes with 2 men.
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For waste disposal we charge £15 + vat per bulk bag of green waste and £4 + vat per small bulk bag/ black bag.
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For smaller amounts of materials we charge a 20% mark-up. For example weedkiller, fertiliser and compost etc.
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For large materials orders we encourage our customers to purchase directly from suppliers.
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How do you keep track of billable hours?
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Every member of our team fills in a timesheet app that is linked to our accounting system. For each visit they log what they did in the garden, start and finish time, materials used and any waste removed.
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Is there a minimum charge per visit?
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Yes, the minimum charge is one man hour.
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How can I pay?
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We ask that invoices are paid within 2 days. We find that 99% of customers pay by direct bank transfer, a few pay by direct debit and the others pay by cheque or cash.
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How often do you send out invoices?
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We send out invoices by email after each visit.
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What happens if I think my invoice is incorrect?
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We are not perfect and small mistakes do happen very occasionally. We itemise the invoices so that if a mistake happens we can pick this up quickly and sort it out.
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