On this episode of the Trade Legends Podcast, we're joined by landscapers Nathan and Joe from Slade Landscapes, a Surrey-based duo who've turned a landscaping business into one of the most-watched trades accounts on social media. Nathan came into the trade the long way round, leaving school to train as a plumber before falling into landscaping and going out on his own at 24, while Joe nearly ended up behind a desk at the Home Office before deciding an office job wasn't for him. We take it right back to the start and unpack how two lads with no real plan built something that's now trebled in size, almost entirely off the back of the content they post.We dig into the business admin nobody teaches you when you start a trade, the VAT registration that catches people out, the self-assessment, the business rates and the quarterly tax that so many new trade businesses never see coming until it's too late. Nathan is honest about the mistake that's caused him the most stress in nine years of running the company, and it isn't the work; it's the schedule: booking too many jobs in, letting the diary run away from him, and pushing customers back until it starts costing him. We get into why he now tells clients they'll wait nine months or take their deposit back, and why making people wait is often the clearest sign your work is good enough.Nathan & Joe also break down the hidden costs of scaling a landscaping business: the labour, the overheads, and the numbers that have to come out of pure profit just to keep the wheels turning, and why staying small and in control has been a deliberate choice rather than a limitation. Nathan and Joe explain how they've kept the work coming through referrals and social media rather than pouring money into advertising, and why, even now, some of their biggest videos are the ones they nearly didn't bother posting.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related