Earn more money by bringing garden design in house

Posted October 5, 2020

In our experience, a landscaping business can be more profitable and earn more money by bringing garden design in house. Here’s how

Great landscaping starts with great garden design. However, finding a garden designer who is compatible with the client AND has availability can be a challenge. So why not bring garden design in-house and include it in your range of landscaping services? In this article, we’re looking at ways to earn more money by bringing garden design in house.

2D garden design for driveway

Professional looking garden designs are time-consuming to produce but are the only reliable way to manage customer expectations and run an efficient landscaping site.

No two ways about it – garden design plays a crucial part in landscaping

Running a profitable landscaping business is all about juggling a range of skill sets. One of which is garden design. Most landscaping projects involve a degree of garden design. It could be something as simple as drawing a layout plan to scale. At the other end of the scale, it could be a full on design with material specifications and construction drawings.

Sometimes the client has consulted a garden designer before asking you to quote for the landscaping. Other clients are under the impression that landscapers are mind readers and can create their dream garden with no guidance whatsoever

When there is no design in place, you have 4 main options

Refer your client to a professional garden designer who works completely independently of your business
Design the garden yourself using design software
Employ a garden designer within your business
Outsource garden design as and when you need it

Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, but when we’re talking about YOUR profit for YOUR business, I would suggest that only the last three options have any traction.

Becoming a garden designer

As a landscaper, you probably have a natural flair for design. You will at least know what’s buildable, which materials are available in your area for a reasonable price and what plants thrive in the soil type. However, when you sit down at your PC (or with pen and paper) and start designing, you realise how time-consuming garden design can be. Not only that – it’s mentally exhausting.

Do you really want to spend a whole day on the tools and then come home to hours-worth of designing on top of your “normal” admin tasks? When you add up the time you spend finding your way around the software, then swapping features around to make sure you’ve included EVERYTHING your client demanded, you actually rack up a lot of hours.

Until you are experienced at designing, it’s hard to know in advance how long each design will take to create. If you can’t estimate time accurately, how do you know where to pitch your design price? Will you actually make money on the design or are you being a busy fool?

Employing a garden designer

new garden design business

Every member of your staff needs to earn their keep. It costs an absolute fortune to pay salaries, NI contributions, and pension provisions. And yes, in this industry we know there will be days when the rain stops play or when the orders are slow coming in. Landscape operatives are very good at filling in their time when they’re not on site. There’s always some machinery maintenance to do or planning for the next job. And yes, some days you may lose money on employing staff. My question is…..Is your landscaping business large enough to keep a garden designer busy? If you have several teams of landscapers then yes, it might be worth contemplating adding a designer to the team. For an average-sized landscaping business, it probably won’t be profitable.

Outsourcing garden design

Outsourcing the service, does, in theory, give you an opportunity to earn more money by bringing garden design in-house. You do need to keep an eye on costs – but isn’t that true for any part of any profitable business?

Know your costs before you quote the customer
Know the retail value of garden design – make sure you can quote competitively
Get organised so that the time you spend interacting with the client really is time well spent
Have all the design tools you need at your fingertips
Gather as many details as possible to reduce the need to make design changes later on
Strike while the iron is hot! Be able to show your customer their design in as little time as possible – this will give you a competitive edge

The My Garden Design online design platform ticks all of the above boxes – let me talk you through it.

Quick quote facility

There are 2 very speedy steps to getting a garden design quote from My Garden Design.

Log into your account
Enter the length and width of the garden to be designed

Straight away you’ll see two figures. First is what MGD will charge you for a design, the second is the RRP. In other words, a competitive price that takes into account the amount of time you will probably spend selling the idea and gathering information.

Of course, the RRP is a nominal figure – it’s up to you what, if, how, and when you profit from garden design. You might want to include the design in the overall price for the garden makeover (a bit like the kitchen design service from a big DIY store)

The joy of outsourcing garden design is that YOU make all of the business choices. You know your customers best and you know how you want to present your Company. At My Garden Design, we just work with the facts you have described to us.

Structure your customer meetings

Let’s face it, one of the biggest challenges in landscaping is managing customers. The most profitable jobs are inevitably the ones where you develop a strong relationship with the clients and you can communicate well with them. Having said that, time is money.

Your first site visit should ideally involve gathering as much information as you can. OK, it might not be practical to do a full site survey – after all, you want to be sure you’ll be awarded the contract before investing too much time. But, there’s no excuse for not showing an interest in the clients and spending time to make sure you truly understand what they want to achieve with their budget.

Why not use this opportunity to start building the client brief?

The My Garden Design website has a rather clever design tool for landscapers needing to create a client brief. It’s as simple as can be to use and it will prompt you to ask all the right questions and then store the information for you.

It takes moments to create a project on the website. It costs nothing and you won’t be hassled to buy the design if you don’t need/want to.

Once you’ve added the site name and address, you can upload “before” pictures of the site (if you want to) and you can create a client brief.

The client brief questionnaire leads the discussion for the information gathering process and makes sure you don’t forget to ask anything important. It even talks about things like wheelie bins and washing lines. If your client is undecided about any details, it gives them food for thought.

You could complete the client brief online (it’s smartphone friendly) or you could print it off and leave it with your client so that they can think about what they really want. It all depends on what stage of the decision-making process they’re at.

Don’t take too long to get the design to your client

At the time of writing, there are some long waiting times for “normal” garden design services. Landscapers and designers are at capacity with orders and some have order lead times of as much as 12 weeks. I don’t know about you, but I’d be reluctant to wait that long. Yes, if I were to buy a car or a new kitchen, I might have to wait for the finished article to arrive, but I’d want to know what to expect much sooner than that – especially if I’m paying up-front!

At My Garden Design, we know from experience how frustrating it is to have prospective clients constantly phoning to chase designs or quotes. Which is why we’ve created a slick system that will get your design to you within 3 weeks of receiving payment. That means that your client is reassured that they’re not being neglected AND you can get on with quoting for the work. Making your business more efficient and hopefully more profitable too.

Would you like to earn more money by bringing garden design in house?

Register as a trade user on the My Garden Design website and you’ll have a wealth of tools at your fingertips to help you earn money by outsourcing garden design.

This video explains what we do, but if you’d rather speak to someone who can answer all of your questions, please drop us an email and request a call-back. We’re landscapers too so I’m sure you’ll understand that we can’t always chat while we’re working on-site, but rest assured we’ll call back as soon as possible.