[Alberto]

I work in a landscape design/build firm that is part of a retail garden center/nursery in a mid-size city in the middle of the USA. I am one of the landscape designers here, altho there are a lot of overlaps in job descriptions. I have been here a long time and came up thru the ranks.

Basically, I take calls from clients, set appointments, measure properties, draw plans, compile bids, and present and hopefully sell the job. We typically don't do cold calling for work. Altho we usually have one or more other landscape designers on staff, I almost always do the big projects and most local commercial and government jobs. I also do take offs and compile and present bids from landscape plans drawn by outside firms for commercial and government projects. I also take care of insurance and submittal filing for projects that we win.

Since we are a garden center, we have a lot of walk-in customers. I'm the person at the nursery with the overall pesticide license, and I also have a pesticide license that allows me to recommend pesticides to customers. I am usually called on to identify an insect or disease problem for walk-in customers and recommend a solution. also work the cash register on occasion, as well as wait on customers who might walk in and want to landscape their home using a photograph.

I have also been interviewed on local television several times regarding various landscape questions or issues. One was a 30 minute program and I had to answer question for 22 minutes.

I have also been the featured speaker, such as it was, for a local garden club meeting.

There's more, but here's my question:
What should my job be worth?

[Green4Me]

here are a couple of things that may help you. It is an often asked question, and one that drives a person to be self employed.




Only you can provide the answer, but it goes along the lines that life gives what you ask of it and are willing to work for. Sometimes that work takes the form of getting up enough courage to ask for a raise.

good Luck





My Wages
I bargained with life for a penny
And life would pay no more.
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty score;
For life is a just employer
He gives you what you ask.
But once you have set the wages
why you must bear the task
I worked for a menial hire,
Only to learn dismayed
That any wage I asked of Life
Life would have paid

Jessie B. Henhouser



What the market will bear, tempered by the value of current services. Future performance should be compensated when achieved.

[agla]

What something or someone is worth is only equal to how much someone will pay for it. Part of that equation is that no one wants to pay more than they have to. Another part is that they need to pay as much as they have to up to the point where they value what they are getting.

So, in your case, the first question is how much do they value what you do whether it is done by you or someone else. The second is how much do YOU add to that value over the next guy. That defines the extent of how much your employer can pay.

Then you have to remember that no one wants to pay more than they have to. Part of that is determined by what other options you have or that they perceive that you have. If they are the only place that you can do this type of work, there is less reason to pay you more than if three other companies wanted you to work for them.

Self employment is an option, but you have to understand that the nursery has a huge amount of traffic, a long standing reputation, plants, installation, and maintenance. A lot of your success is built into your job from what that nursery has as a full package. If you were to go on your own, what will attract customers to you? Will they know where to look? Or, will they do what many do - go to the nursery and start from there?

My guess is that your employer does not think about paying you more because he probably never had to pay a lot for someone in this position and nothing has made him think he needs to start now. Perhaps you need to drop a few hints that you heard that in other parts of the state you might be able to provide better for your family or something that will make him stop and think about how much he values you.

[Alberto]

Thanks for the replies and readings.

I guess my job is probably a bit unique in my city. Most other landscape designers here, even those whose business is part of a garden center situation, work out of a different location than their garden center, so they don't have to deal with walk-in people, people with plant problems, phone calls from people with plant problems in which the plants came from Wal-Mart, etc. Those guys also don't have to have a pesticide license to make pesticide recommendations. It's a much better system IMO. It frees them up to do what they want to do, and what makes money, selling landscape designs.

I know a job is worth what you can get and no employer will pay more than he has to, etc., etc., etc., But I'm still curious. I'm wondering what my boss would have to pay someone new to do what I do........What's the going rate in your area?

What's a good designer/salesman worth?

[Terre]

Alberto, there are several websites that show comparative salaries in various parts of the country. Do a google and you will find them.

If you are going to try for a raise, I would suggest something I have used in a former life in a different career field. Sit down as you did here, and list all the different components of your job. Then research what the average pay is for each.

It sounds as if your employer is using you as a "jack of all trades" to fill in, why in the world are you running the cash register? And it sound very unproductive to me to pull you off working on a commercial design to identify a bug just so the store can sell a $15 bottle of bug spray.

If you want a serious raise, you need to show your boss how it will benefit him. Work out the figures to show him the profitability of having you do the design work as opposed to helping customers in the store. Possibly you can discuss with him a commission on jobs you design and sell?

If he needs you for the pesticide/diagnostic end, then suggest that he set aside maybe Saturday mornings as "clinic" time. Advertise that the expert will be available at that time for free consultations.

Any employer should use his people to their greatest profit potential. Create a plan to show him how he can make more money by better use of his assets, namely you.

[FungusMudGrub]

Two other things to consider:

What does your boss make? Presumably you cannot expect to make more than him/her.

What is the gross value of all the projects you design in a year? Your salary should be some repectable percentage of that number, since you are the point man on them.