When is "Enough, Enough..

It's been quite a while since my last item in this regular Newsletter, and this one is a bit of a Rant, so apologies for this..

To start with, i've been very unwell this past 3 weeks or so with Pneumonia, which has now turned into Asthma "Oh Poo!

But, this downtime, even though I have'nt worked and have No Money and now No More Customers, has made me focus more on where I definitely want to go next.

So, now that All my general garden maintenance customers has been well n truly gone, I am more in tune and more Hungry for Woodland/Orchard Management, Copse/Coppice and Woodland Garden Maintenance clients.

I have done a few courses and have many more to go, have got the ball rolling in getting SGA Commercial Ltd ( The business i'm using for Woodland Management etc) ISO9001:2015, ISO4501 and ISO14001 certificated as well as SMAS Worksafe and PQS Bronze.

I have also upgraded my Arb Association Membership from Associate to Technician and will soon be upgrading again to Professional grade and will be starting down the route into PME Membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, so i'm very well keen in leaving the way oversubscribed and extremely fickle garden maintenance industry.

And this is the point of the title of this edition, When is Enough, Enough, as I have been doing general garden maintenance now for the best part of 25 years and have Never seen this industry in such a Bitchy and Backstabbing state, well thats the scenario in Telford and surrounding areas.

Amongst the absolute explosion of practically everyone and anyone doing garden maintenance in some capacity or another, I have had some right horrible comments on Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram from these so called "gardeners, whom are Price Fixing the hourly/daily rates at such a Low Ebb, that it just isn't viable for me to make a Living let alone a Profit.

These new crop of gardeners have been having a right dig at me, at my expense, saying things like " Great, now Paul has been having a Rough time, theres more for us to pick up, and maybe we can poach his customers. And this is just the Polite digs, believe me, there has been some very nasty comments, hence the reason for me leaving this industry and certain social media platforms.

The response i've had from LinkedIn and the support groups and the Forestry/Woodland Management folks, has been absolute golden, so, i'm definitely hear to stay on LinkedIn and such.

Apologies for anyone reading this that are still active in the Garden/Grounds Maintenance Industry, you are all not like this, just some people in Telford/Shropshire..

Hopefully the next article will be more Note/Newsworthy and less "Ranty..

Yours

Paul. L