Pondering How a Permaculture Designer could make a living as a Consultant using Z-NET method.
Fact: Most Permaculture designs, for other people, are not implemented.
I'm just learning about Permaculture. I used to be a business man before I woke up to it. Still am, but on a very subsistence level now.
I don't want to be a consultant but with my businessman's hat I imagine this might be a common consultants conversation with a potential client:
Client- "How much would it cost for a Permaculture design of my garden?"
Consultant - "It will take me at least 32 hours over 6-12 months at £18 an hour."
From a business perspective this is a recipe for little work, because its going to cost the client at least £575 just to get an idea of what it might look like, after a year! With nothing done on the ground.
I wonder if another approach based on Z-NET design would work?
Alternative approach:
Client- "How much would it cost for a Permaculture design for my garden?"
Consultant- "What do you need designed?"
Client- "I want to grow veg".
Consultant- "Instead of doing a full design I could help you Tweak the current garden design to make a big difference. Normally this takes 4 hours. I visit the house, hand draw a basic plan for an hour (Zone map), find out what you really need (Need) and what might already be there to meet those needs (Evaluate). Then I spend a few hours designing a few Tweaks that normally only take an afternoon to implement. Most of my initial tweaks are the rearrangement of some of the things in the garden to improve the benefit you get from it. This 'mini-design' would cost £72. A typical 3 hour implementation would be £54 + any materials.
This way the client gets something implemented. If it works well for them, they come back for the next 'tweak'. During this process you get to observe the garden over a year or two and your suggestions will be well informed by observation and feedback.
I wonder if you could have an ongoing annual relationship with clients where you suggest small solutions that are implemented on a yearly basis over a decade?
I'm just learning about Permaculture. I used to be a business man before I woke up to it. Still am, but on a very subsistence level now.
I don't want to be a consultant but with my businessman's hat I imagine this might be a common consultants conversation with a potential client:
Client- "How much would it cost for a Permaculture design of my garden?"
Consultant - "It will take me at least 32 hours over 6-12 months at £18 an hour."
From a business perspective this is a recipe for little work, because its going to cost the client at least £575 just to get an idea of what it might look like, after a year! With nothing done on the ground.
I wonder if another approach based on Z-NET design would work?
Alternative approach:
Client- "How much would it cost for a Permaculture design for my garden?"
Consultant- "What do you need designed?"
Client- "I want to grow veg".
Consultant- "Instead of doing a full design I could help you Tweak the current garden design to make a big difference. Normally this takes 4 hours. I visit the house, hand draw a basic plan for an hour (Zone map), find out what you really need (Need) and what might already be there to meet those needs (Evaluate). Then I spend a few hours designing a few Tweaks that normally only take an afternoon to implement. Most of my initial tweaks are the rearrangement of some of the things in the garden to improve the benefit you get from it. This 'mini-design' would cost £72. A typical 3 hour implementation would be £54 + any materials.
This way the client gets something implemented. If it works well for them, they come back for the next 'tweak'. During this process you get to observe the garden over a year or two and your suggestions will be well informed by observation and feedback.
I wonder if you could have an ongoing annual relationship with clients where you suggest small solutions that are implemented on a yearly basis over a decade?
