Set Boundaries With Clients To Avoid Burnout

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One big stressor landscape professionals say leads to burnout is how clients sometimes devalue the landscape services they provide

“My biggest burnout sometimes comes from clients underappreciating what we charge and what we offer,” explains Dean Higbee, owner, South Branch Nursery, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. “Clients will say our price is outrageous, but they don’t realize the amount of work we do and the cost involved.”

Higbee’s biggest complaint is that as new landscape companies emerge they drive prices down because they don’t understand their costs and this makes it difficult to fairly compete against them. This also confuses clients when it comes to truly understanding how much time and effort is involved in landscape services and what that ultimately costs.

“As a result, it’s hard to make money nowadays,” says Brett Seltz, owner, Seltz Design, Franklin, Tennessee. As a landscape designer, Seltz becomes frustrated when other landscape professionals give their design skills away versus charging for that effort, skill and experience.

Most landscapers say constant client education is what helps combat this stress.

“We compete with people who don’t have licensed commercial drivers and don’t pay their guys overtime,” Higbee says. “The competition isn’t playing by the rules, and clients need to know their prices reflect that.”