Trellis Coaching - Trellis News Garden Design Newsletter & Attraction Marketing Coaching

Trellis News

Welcome to February's edition of Trellis News. For new subscribers, or if your spam filters have stopped recent editions arriving in your inboxes, you can now read all the back editions of Trellis News on Trellis Coaching's newly launched website, www.trelliscoaching.com. The site also has a range of other articles that you might like to browse, as well as full details of the services that Trellis Coaching offers.

The intention over the next few months is to increase the links page on the site, as increased links to other sites helps all the sites listed be found more easily by the spider bots that roam round the internet - this then gives you a higher ranking on the search engines, ie you appear higher up the page when somebody does a search using the keywords you have listed. So if you would like to have a mutual link from the Trellis Coaching site to yours, do please email me,

Letters Page -
Your opportunity to have your say, to ask questions, look for resources.

As promised, here's Adam Bailey's very detailed views on how to avoid communication problems with clients. He sent his letter in response to Jane Lambert's 'client from hell' request, and I'm sure it will be a valuable resource for many new designers, especially as it can be always easily accessed via the Trellis Coaching website, www.trelliscoaching.com:-
Starting out in this industry is always full of pitfalls - especially with difficult clients! They are rare, but some people are simply just awkward despite eveything you try to do.

There are some key points that any designer should always do to make sure they are on level terms with the client:

1) Always draw up a design brief before the start of the design work, stating all the clients wishes, together with a few ideas of your own (but not too many otherwise you can end up designing the garden for free!). Get the client to agree the design brief before taking any money or starting drawn-up design work. The design brief should also state who will carry out the construction work, timing of the project and, where possible, potential costs. At this stage the client can discuss the initial ideas without committing their wallet which gives them peace of mind that things are agreed from the start.

2) When completing the graphical plans, make sure you have at least the following:
a) The 2D plan, fully scaled and labelled.
b) Side elevations for relative heights, levels
c) Perspective view (many clients can't visualise a 2D plan and a 'view' of the garden helps them to imagine the garden after it is built.)
d) Written specification/schedule of works document (vital!). This document should list every critical aspect of the garden from material types, sizes, planting strategy, any constructional concerns and any other info that will inform the contractors exactly how the garden will be built/planted.
e) Planting plan with schedule.
Copies of all plans should be sent to the client for their approval prior to the start of works. If samples of paving/timber materials are required, these can be presented at the same time as the plans.

3) Before the contractors start work, get agreement from the client that they have understood the plans and are clear about what will happen. Do the same with the contractor! Even if you know the contractor very well, a brief talk with them will usually bring up any parts that they don't understand. If the client has an exact plan with full written specifications, there is very little to go wrong as there is hardly any room for error - short of the contractor not being able to read the plan/specs properly.

4) If the project is managed by the designer on a daily/twice weekly basis, even if things aren't understood, they can be sorted out during the construction stage, with the client.

In summary, it's all about communication, which is an old cliche, but very important. As long as you have told the contractors exactly what they are required to build and the client has understood the plans/written specifications and has agreed them, then the client will find it very difficult to claim ignorance when they've said they are clear about it! To paraphrase a topical quote: "Specification, specification, specification....!"

We all get troublesome clients, that's the joy (?!) of working with the public. Problems can be avoided however, by leaving no stone unturned in communicating your ideas to both the client and the contractor in as many ways as possible.

Thanks Adam - as he says, good communication is important, and it's important in every business. One point to remember is that the responsibility for the success of the communication always lies with the person who's communicating, 'the speaker', and that this can be ensured by:

1) using the appropriate language for the receiver to understand
2) the right delivery method for the receiver to receive the message satisfactorily
3) and for the speaker to have a means of checking whether their message has been received in full, and as they intended it.

If you've got any comments on this, or maybe on the 'business v hobby' article, or on any other topic of interest to you and your fellow designers, please send them by email to for publication in the next edition of Trellis News.

Article
Is Your Design Practice a Business or a Hobby?
by Annie Meachem

Practising as a garden designer is a wonderfully fulfilling career, and being self-employed means you can choose to work full or part-time. It also gives you the opportunity to work from home, and can be ideal if you have other commitments, such as children or elderly relatives.

One of the disadvantages of combining home and work responsibilities in this way is that it can become easy to treat your business as a hobby. Obviously, if your intention is to treat garden design as a paying hobby, all well and good, but if your intention is to run your practice as a business, it might be worth checking out the points below:-

What's the difference?
A definition of a hobby is an activity from which you derive joy and fulfilment, satisfaction and pleasure. So surely this is also in part the aim of being in business? And indeed it is, but with one powerful difference - to be in business, you must have a focus on profit. Hobbies cost money, they don't pay (you may make some money, often just enough to cover your expenses), whilst the success of a business is measured by its profits, its return on capital invested.

An attitude of mind
You can run a very successful part time business from home, or you can sit in an expensive office and still be running the practice like a hobby. The difference is in your attitude and how that translates into your actions - do you see yourself as a business owner? If someone at a party asks what you do, can you confidently say I'm a garden designer? Do you take the job of running the business seriously or do you just want the opportunity to do some garden designing?

Different aims
The aim of a business is to develop and grow, the aim of a hobby is purely to enjoy the process, growth is not a priority. A business has a plan, a hobby just evolves. Having a business plan is the best way of helping the business develop and grow as you want it to. It clarifies what your goals are, and focuses your mind on designing your strategy to achieve them.

Different expectation levels
Clients tend to have high expectations of a business, and lower expectations of the hobbyist. However difficulties can arise when the client is not clear about which you are. Integrity and authenticity are important factors here, so that the client knows whether their expectations are realistic.

Different focal points
The business owner knows that a successful business depends on him providing what his clients are looking for, rather than what he wants to sell them. Businesses focus outwards on their client's needs, whilst the hobbyist often focuses inwards, on his own enjoyment.

Attitudes to Marketing
If your focus is on profit, finding a constant stream of ideal clients, or better still, being so 'attractive' that they find you, involves an initial investment of time and effort to develop a coherent marketing plan. It then needs regular attention to monitor what's working, to adjust your actions accordingly, and to alter the plan to tie in with the ongoing development of the business. If it's your hobby, you'd prefer to skip this part. The business owner keeps marketing at the forefront of his mind, the hobbyist looks for a client when he's short of work.

Setting boundaries
A business owner maintains very clear boundaries between her home life & her business, even if the business is run from home, whilst the person with the hobbyist mindset doesn't. If you were working in an office, you wouldn't spend time putting on the laundry or watching daytime TV. If you had to take time off because the kids were sick, you'd expect to have to make that time up at some point - people running a business keep track of their hours worked and know that, although it's great having the flexibility of working when you choose, to be successful involves commitment and dedication.

Financial planning
Planning your finances is essential for the business owner. This means keeping proper accounts, claiming for all legitimate expenses, preparing a cashflow forecast - again, the focus is on profit, on the 'bottom line'. It also means keeping a careful eye on expenditure, only spending what's necessary, whilst ensuring that you're investing in the best tools of your profession. The hobbyist tends not to want to spend this amount of effort on figures and paperwork.

Systems planning
The profitable business aims to run smoothly and achieves this by investing time and thought in designing and implementing the systems that allow it to purr along. The tendency for the hobbyist is to cope with events as they arise. This could well be enough to get by on, but it could also then deteriorate into crisis management, which nullifies the aim of 'enjoying the process'.

Summary: It's all in the mindset
The designer who has a business focus allocates time to work both on and in their practice, to plan for all aspects of its development, whilst the hobbyist sets out principally to enjoy himself.

Which are you?

Coaching Exercise:

If you have realised that you want to be running a business but are approaching it with the hobbyist mindset, the following questions might help:

1. Where are the gaps for you between where you want your business to be and where you are now?

2. What is it costing you to run your business as a hobby (financially & emotionally)?

3. What opportunities are you missing out on by running your business as a hobby?

4. What are you willing to do differently to close the gaps?

5. What will your first step towards this be?

End Piece
I'm really delighted with how the year is shaping up for me so far, with lots of exciting opportunities turning up for Trellis Coaching. My one wish is that the weather would warm up, my fingers are creaking as I'm typing here in the cold, or alternatively that I could be in Portugal - I'm being loaned an excellent book for my next trip out there which will enable me to identify at least some of the myriad wild flowers that grow in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

If you're interested in learning how to attract clients, the new website, www.trelliscoaching.com, offers a range of options, starting with a fre> (can't type the proper word, or this email will be blocked by spam filters) 10 part eprogramme - do visit the website to read more about this.

Until next month,

Best Wishes

Annie Meachem, ACC

Trellis Coaching
0845 456 9382
+44 (0) 1243 545010 (from outside UK)
email

"I help designers and entrepreneurs grow their success - who do you know who's serious about being effortlessly successful, and is willing to invest in themselves to achieve their dreams?"

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Copyright © Annie Meachem 2003/4. Copyright in this document is owned by Annie Meachem. All rights are reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed without the prior written consent of the Copyright owner.