Starting My Own Gardening Business – Improve Your Cash Flow Immediately

When you start a landscaping or garden makeover job, do you ask for a down-payment / deposit before you start? If so, How much deposit do you ask for?

I believe any contractor can make good money doing “Garden Makeovers”. I talk a lot about this in the “How To Build A Successful Lawn and Garden Business in 30 Days” REPORT.

In the context of winning some of these Garden Makeover jobs, you may be wondering how to make the cash flow quicker.

One way to really improve your cash flow is to be paid some or all of the quoted price before you get started.

Most customers will be happy to pay a down-payment or deposit if you have explained to the customer (in the initial quoting stage) that you expect a deposit payment before any work is started. If they are not happy to pay, then they most probably don’t want to do business anyway!

Jobs in excess of $1,000 or more, you may ask the customer for 25% of the total amount up front. This payment usually helps you cover different costs including tipping & rubbish removal (including rubbish skips or bin hire), labour (casual or permanent staff), plants, mulch, machinery hire and so on.

The figure of 25% is not mandatory. You may set this percentage at 30%, 40% or higher. You may even ask the customer what they think is fair! If you are starting out, you may want to set this at say 25%. However, I believe you should be able to ask for 30% to 40%. You will find what percentage will work for you!

I think what is important here is that you educate your prospects and customers that it is standard business practice to collect a deposit before work commences.

Coincidentally, collecting a deposit from customers before work commences is standard operating procedure for a lot of other contractors including builders, painters, handymen, pool builders etc.

So, it should be no different for us!

For more solid business building information and help, have a look at our Profit Making Reports:

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