Business is blooming for garden specialists
garden and enjoying the fruits of my labour.
I get to do that on a grand scale now and love the clients’ faces when they see their garden after its makeover.
A garden can be paramount to family life. It’s a great space to relax in and enjoy after a long, hard day at work and a social space to enjoy with family and friends.
We love when we can create and maintain this.
Our business is a family one and we all come together to create its success and that is what makes it enjoyable.
What are your ambitions for the future? We have seen incredible growth since the commercial landscaping side of our business has expanded over the last few years, and we would like to increase the residential gardening side of it.
Like every business, we have competition.
There has been an increase in selfemployment in the gardening sector and seasonal workers in the area coming in in the spring and summer months.
However, being a local business with an excellent portfolio and reputation for reliability helps in securing new contracts, and this is what we actively promote.
We are also proactively putting our dedicated staff through various training programmes.
We want a highly-skilled tree surgery and hard landscaping team.
How has the business changed over the years? We recently moved in to new offices and premises because the business has grown.
This gives us more space as our fleets expand and our employment levels grow to accommodate new contracts.
Working as subcontractors for the construction industry has taken the business in a whole new direction the last few years, but we still cut wee Sadie from Foxbar’s Grass every two weeks.
What are your top three priorities? To grow the garden maintenance contracts in the Renfrewshire area.
To expand our commercial contract portfolio and to expand our teams in both sectors.
Can you offer three tips to new-start businesses? It can be difficult as a new-start to grow your business when you are so actively working in it, but set time aside to do this, or it will stagnate.
Treat your staff as you yourself would expect to be treated – if the staff are happy, your clients will be too.
No business caters to all markets. Find your target market and know how to get them to find you.
Why is Renfrewshire a great place to run a business? Renfrewshire is packed full of communities with great community spirit - if you do good work believe me everyone will know about it!
We like to keep it local and we all support one another.
Has anything weird or wonderful happened in your working life? Every day in gardening and landscaping you are almost guaranteed something weird and wonderful, from digging ground and unearthing all manner of strange items to dangling from a 20ft tree and being attacked by a bird.
What is the main thing you have learned since being involved in the business? I have learned that to sustain and maintain a good and viable business you must work exceptionally hard.
I also know that every day you must set goals and strive to achieve them. Without this you lose direction.
We all work as a team at Eden Groundcare – and that is important.