Full-Time Career as a Garden Coach? Fugeddaboutit!

I've encouraged people to take up garden coaching and - yay! - they've responded.  My Worldwide Directory of Gardening Coaches now lists 23 coaches.  But before you quit the day job, here's a reality check.

It's hard enough for anyone to make a living in the gardening field generally but at least landscape architects and really successful designers get hired for BIG jobs, usually for a cut of the whole project. (And someone correct me if they're paid a flat fee.)  But coaches are hired on an hourly basis - and for very few hours, at that - so it's not like a lifetime of Freudian analysis.  Most of my clients need one or two hours and I never hear from them again.  If I reminded them of my gardening brilliance regularly, as my friends suggest, it might result in more call-backs but really, most of them are on their way and don't need regular visits.

So even at my recently increased fee of $75 an hour, how much money can there possibly be in it? Remember that the appointments have to be when the client is home on the weekends, and naturally during the gardening season.  And the kiss of death to career aspirations?  While the universe of people who need it is HUGE, the people who know such a service exists, seek it out and make it happen is tiny, tiny, tiny, even with all the recent publicity.

Despite the pitiful financial returns, here's why it's still a good idea for some people:

• The need is there and it's really fun to help people in this way.   Plus, the folks who hire garden coaches are a damn nice bunch. 
• Gardenwriters can use coaching to learn a lot and beef up their resumes, while earning some extra cash. 
• Landscape architects and designers can add coaching as one of the services they offer.
• Retirees and Master Gardeners?  Go for it!

But if you were thinking that coaching would ever pay your mortgage, sorry about bursting that bubble.

IS IT TOO LATE TO COACH SOMETHING ELSE?
Just the other day a DVD arrived from CBS of the personal coaching segment on "Sunday Morning" and I was surprised to see that the wardrobe or "image" consultant featured in the segment is someone I actually know - cool! Then I listened and heard Rita Braver say that this other kind of coach charges $250 an hour.  Crikey!  Where does she find clients who can pay that kind of money?  I'm afraid the answer is that she's rich and probably knows most of the rich people in D.C. (Her brother is Dan Glickman and their family seems to have made a fortune in scrap metal.)  So that $250 fee is another case of the rich getting richer, I'm afraid.

Comments

[Kathy, Washington Gardener]

Do you list other (perhaps competing) Garden Coaches in the DC area? If so, I'll send a few potential listees your way.

I agree that image consultant fee seems out of whack - but I suppose if I ever get so bedraggled that I'd need to hire one - they'd deserve that price to whip me back into fashionable shape.
I thik wedding consultants/planners (aka coaches) also deserve any big bucks they make - just spending time with any bride for 1 day is enough to convince anyway of that.

[Heather]

If you're willing to drop $5,000 or more on clothes, are you going to sweat the $250 hourly fee on top of that? Probably not. I will say that the image consultant is probably not rich herself (or she wouldn't be working in the "service industry"), but instead has access to those with great wealth. It's a frustrating world to move along side -- can you tell I've been a EA to a CEO? Writing checks from his personal bank account in amounts greater than my yearly salary on a regular basis was a humbling experience.

[Cris]

You can make a fairly decent living if you're able to make it through the lean years of establishment. I am both a landscape designer and a Garden Consultant/Garden Coach. I charge a flat fee for my designs and then charge hourly for the oversight of installation and for any consulting needed for upkeep. Luckily, my husband was in the military when I started up my business and if I didn't make any money, it was fine because we barely had any real bills because we lived in military housing. When he got out, I was fairly established and forged my reputation. It's not an easy business to keep going because burnout (especially this time of year) and seasonal work. But if you're driven and have a good work ethic, it can be done.

[Susan Harris]

Interesting comments. To Kathy, I list all coaches in the world on my directory - except others in the DC area. Damn, if I had to share the few clients with other coaches there'd be no point in it.
And Heather, I know the image consultant in this case and she was BORN rich.