https://tradeyoke.net/blog/tag/gardening Seasonal schedules, maintenance contracts and photos that sell the next visit. en-gb https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business https://tradeyoke.net/blog/website-for-a-window-cleaning-or-gardening-business Thu, 24 Sep 2026 02:33:16 GMT Most window cleaning and gardening businesses grow by word of mouth and a van sign — until the phone stops being the fastest way for a new customer to book. Here's when a website earns its keep, and what to put on it. Carl Randall Guides Window cleaning Gardening Product https://tradeyoke.net/blog/gardening-maintenance-contracts-that-stick https://tradeyoke.net/blog/gardening-maintenance-contracts-that-stick Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:15:11 GMT A fixed price against a written task list, month to month with 30 days' notice, and every extra quoted first. The contract structure that stops scope creep and keeps gardens on the books for years. ⚠️ Do the extras discipline every single time. The first free "while you're here" becomes the customer's expectation, and you cannot charge for it in June if you gave it away in May. ### Extras: quote first, always Extras are where a maintenance round makes or loses its margin. The rule is simple and it is the one that takes discipline: nothing outside the list is done until it is quoted and agreed. A quote can be a line on the phone in the app, sent by text, accepted with a tap. That takes a minute and turns "can you just" into paid work. It also makes the customer feel in control, which keeps them on the books. People do not resent paying for a hedge they asked for and agreed a price on. They resent a surprise on the invoice. The quotes board on the gardening trade page shows the extras waiting on a decision alongside the regular round, and an accepted extra becomes a job on the diary. ### 30 days' notice, and why it protects you Month to month with 30 days' notice either way sounds like it favours the customer, and it does, a little. But it also protects you. It means you can drop the garden that has become a problem, or raise the price with a month's warning, without breaking a fixed term. Long fixed terms sound secure and in practice lock you into under-priced work. Contracts agreed at the customer's home can carry cancellation rights under consumer law, so put the notice terms in writing and keep a copy on the customer record. The gov.uk guidance covers the basics; ask an adviser if your terms are unusual. [Online and distance selling for businesses](https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses): The rules for contracts agreed away from your premises, including customers' cancellation rights. ### Running it from the app Once the contract exists, the app runs it. The visit pattern becomes a recurring round with a record per visit. The task list is on the job. Extras are quoted, accepted and booked. The invoice is generated from the visit, emailed with the photos, and paid by link or Direct Debit. If a customer pays late, the reminders and the morning owed report deal with it; the tone is covered in chasing late payments the polite way. All of that is on the Essentials plan on the pricing page, with online payments on Premium. > The task list is the contract. Everything else is an extra, and every extra is quoted first. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Should I charge per visit or per month?** Per visit if your customers like to see the work on the invoice; per month if you want even cash flow through winter. If monthly, put the seasonal visit pattern in the contract so January is not a surprise. **What if the customer keeps asking for extras on the day?** Quote them on the spot from the phone and do them once accepted, or book them for the next visit. Never do them free. The habit is the whole margin. **Is a one-page contract legally enough?** For most domestic maintenance work a clear written agreement covering price, scope, extras and notice is what matters, and it is what stops disputes. If you take on commercial sites or unusual terms, get advice. **How do I handle winter when there is less to do?** Change the visit pattern with the season and say so in the contract. The detail is in fortnightly in summer, monthly in winter, and photos that prove the visit are in before-and-after photos that sell the next visit. ### Put the task list on every visit Fixed price, written list, extras quoted first, invoice from the visit. Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Gardening Pricing https://tradeyoke.net/blog/seasonal-garden-schedules https://tradeyoke.net/blog/seasonal-garden-schedules Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:15:11 GMT A garden does not grow at the same speed all year, so the visit pattern should not stay the same either. How to set a seasonal schedule per property and let the diary follow the seasons. 💡 When you put a garden on a seasonal pattern, write the pattern on the quote and the contract in one line: "Fortnightly April to October, monthly November to March, 18 visits a year." The number of visits is what the customer remembers. ### Changing gear at the change of season The awkward fortnight is the switch: the week in March when half the round goes fortnightly and the week in October when it goes back. Do it garden by garden as you visit, not all on one day. Each visit in March is a chance to look at the growth and decide whether this one goes to fortnightly now or next time, and the record per visit means the next due date moves from the day you decide. The diary shows the round by day, week and month, colour-coded, so you can see the coming weeks fill up as gardens switch and even out the load by nudging a few. The plan for each day is then ordered nearest-first from the properties actually due, which matters more in summer when the days are long and full. Weather is on the same screen; a wet week in April shifts the whole round in the same way as a window cleaner's, which is covered in how a round survives a wet week. [Image: The diary by week: gardens on fortnightly and monthly patterns sitting alongside each other, colour-coded by trade.] ### Winter is where the round is kept A monthly winter visit is not a formality. It is the visit that keeps the customer's garden looking cared for when the neighbours' are not, which is when the next customer on the street notices. Leaf clearing, winter pruning, gutters, a tidy of the beds and a check of the fences and the shed. Photograph it and send the photos with the invoice, because in January the customer has not looked out of the window; that habit is the subject of before-and-after photos that sell the next visit. Winter is also when you quote the spring extras: the hedge reduction, the new border, the turf. Those go on the quotes board and become jobs in March, when the diary has room for them before the fortnightly pattern fills it. If you also do landscaping, fencing or a second trade, the same customer list and diary carry it; see running two trades on one account and the platform overview. > Follow the growth, not the calendar. Set the pattern per garden and let the diary change gear for you. — TradeYoke ### Questions people ask **Should every garden go fortnightly in summer?** No. Small, low-maintenance gardens can stay monthly all year and some fast lawns need weekly in May and June. Set the pattern per property and adjust it as you see the growth. **How do I bill a seasonal pattern monthly?** Count the visits in a year, multiply by the visit price, divide by twelve, and put the visit pattern in the contract. The customer pays the same each month and knows what to expect in January. **What happens if I miss a fortnightly visit because of weather?** Carry it over rather than skip it. The visit record moves to the new date and the next visit stays on the original cycle, so the garden gets its visits and the round does not drift. **Do I have to re-book every visit when the season changes?** No. Change the property's pattern once and every future visit for that garden moves. The rest of the round is untouched. ### Let the diary follow the seasons Set each garden's pattern once and the round changes gear on its own. Thirty days of Essentials free, no card. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Gardening https://tradeyoke.net/blog/before-and-after-photos-that-sell-the-next-visit https://tradeyoke.net/blog/before-and-after-photos-that-sell-the-next-visit Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:15:11 GMT Two photos taken on the visit do more for a garden maintenance business than any leaflet. Here is how to take them, file them and send them so the next visit sells itself. The customer never saw the lawn. Show them the lawn. — TradeYoke ### Take them on the visit, not at the end of the week The photo you take on the drive home is a photo of the wrong garden. Take the before shot as you unload, before the mower is even off the van. Take the after shot as the last thing before you pull away, from the same spot, facing the same way. Same spot matters more than a good camera. Stand by the gate post, the back door, the corner of the patio. A matching pair from one position reads as a transformation; two shots from different angles read as two gardens. #### The two shots that matter The wide one. The whole lawn or the whole border from the same standing point, before and after. This is the one the customer forwards to their partner. The detail. The edge you cut, the bed you cleared, the hedge line. This is the one that justifies the invoice line. Anything beyond those two is optional. A dozen photos per visit becomes a chore by Thursday, and a chore stops happening. > 💡 Take the after shot before you sweep up the van. Once the tools are packed, the temptation is to leave. The photo takes eight seconds; the rebooking it earns takes none. ### Attach them to the job, not your camera roll A photo on your phone is lost by the following Tuesday. A photo attached to the visit is there when the customer queries the bill in October, when you quote the same garden next spring, and when a new team member needs to see what "tidy the front" means at that address. In TradeYoke the phone app captures photos and video straight onto the job from the visit itself. They file into the document library against the job and the customer at the same time, so opening the customer record shows every visit's photos in order. Nothing is re-uploaded and nothing sits in a group chat. [Image: A gardening round on the schedule. Each visit has its own record, and photos attach to the visit rather than to the whole series.] ### Send them with the invoice The invoice email is the one message a customer always opens. Put the after photo in it. A bill that arrives with a picture of a clean, striped lawn is a bill that gets paid, and a bill with a pay link in it gets paid the same day. How UK tradespeople get paid the same day covers the pay-link side. For contract customers who pay monthly, the photos can go on the "we're done" text instead. TradeYoke's message wizard sends email or SMS from the customer's record, and any reply lands back in the same thread, so "could you do the side passage next time" is captured where the next visit will see it. ### Photos are the evidence for extras Extras are where garden businesses lose money. The customer mentions the overgrown corner, you do it, and the invoice becomes an argument. A photo of the corner before you touched it, sent with a one-line quote before you start, is the discipline that stops the argument happening. The rule from the contracts guide applies here too: extras are quoted separately and first. A photo attached to that quote means the customer says yes to something they can see. If you are already running seasonal schedules per property, the autumn clear-up is the extra most worth photographing. ### The customer's permission and the neighbour's hedge You are photographing someone's home. Most customers are delighted, but ask once, note it on the record, and keep the camera inside the boundary. A photo that includes the neighbour's windows, their car, or a child in the next garden should not be taken, let alone sent. Photos of a customer's property are personal data under UK GDPR when they identify a person or an address. Keep them on the job, do not post them publicly without asking, and delete them if a customer asks you to. The Information Commissioner's Office has plain guidance for small businesses. [UK GDPR guidance and resources](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/): The Information Commissioner's Office guidance for organisations, including small businesses handling customer data. [Lawn care business guides](https://gettinylawn.com/): Practical material on maintenance contracts, per-visit pricing and quoting extras separately, referenced in our editorial research. ### The photo routine that sticks - ✓ Before shot as you unload — Same spot every visit. Gate post, back door or patio corner. - ✓ After shot before you pack up — Same spot, same direction, last thing before you leave. - ✓ Attach to the visit — Capture from the job in the app so it files against the job and the customer. - ✓ Extras: photo first, quote second — Send the photo with the price before you start. - ✓ Send the after shot with the invoice — Or with the done text for monthly contract customers. - ✓ Stay inside the boundary — No neighbours, no cars, no people. ### Questions people ask **Do customers actually look at the photos?** The ones who are out at work do, because it is the only view of the garden they get. Send the after shot with the invoice or the done text and you will see the difference in how quickly it is paid and how rarely it is queried. **How many photos should I take per visit?** Two: a wide shot of the whole area and a detail of the work that justifies the price. Take the same two from the same position every time. More than that becomes a chore and stops happening. **Where should the photos be stored?** Against the visit, not on your phone. TradeYoke captures photos from the job on the phone app and files them into the document library against the job and the customer, so the whole history sits on the customer's record. **Can I use the photos on my website or social media?** Ask the customer first and note their answer on their record. Photos of a home can be personal data, so keep them inside the boundary and remove anything a customer asks you to take down. The ICO publishes small-business guidance on this. Gardening is live in TradeYoke today. See what the gardening module includes, or compare plans on the pricing page. Photos and the document library come with every plan; emailing and texting customers from the message wizard start on Essentials. See also: whether your round needs a website ### Photos on the visit, filed where you'll find them Start a 30-day free trial with your real round and take the first before-and-after pair tomorrow morning. [Start your free trial](https://app.tradeyoke.net/signup) ]]> TradeYoke team Gardening Documents