MANY people hate their jobs, but few are lucky enough to take the initiative and follow their dreams – Paul Richards is one.
After moving from Shropshire to Liverpool for university he worked in health promotion in Wigan.
He hated it, but it involved an element of training which made it bearable, so he left his job and set up his own management training consultancy offering assertiveness training and team building.
After eight years he hated that, too, so took the decision to follow a two-year full time college course in garden design.
Mr Richards, 45, said: “Garden design was my hobby and my interest and I wanted to make it my livelihood.”
After starting his course he visited Southport Flower Show which runs a design competition for students.
“I realised it made business sense for me to win that competition the following year. The prize was the budget to build the show garden. I knew no-one was going to give me the money to build something that was a shop window for me.”
So, in 2007 he entered his design and duly won, as he also did in 2008, just for good measure.
He said he didn’t feel any pressure, until he was told he had won and was given £5,000 to build his show garden.
His “cool, calm and contemporary” design won a gold medal and provided the launch pad for his business.
Having established his Halsall-based Paul Richards Garden Design Mr Richards entered the Southport show again last year and struck gold yet again, collecting a clutch of awards including best large garden, best outside garden, and the Brockhouse Trophy for best exhibit in the whole show.
He now boasts a broad range of clients “from a small back yard in Aigburth to the grounds of a huge country house near Kirkby Lonsdale”.
His design budget can vary from £3,000 to £200,000, depending on a client’s needs.
Mr Richards said: “There’s a misconception about garden designers. People think we try to get clients to spend as much as they can, but I work with them in their interests.
“I help guide clients through their budget, starting from how much they want to spend.
“I show people what their money can buy them. I am there to deliver the garden they want, for what they want to pay for it.
“My job is managing peoples’ expectations and helping them achieve what they want.”
Mr Richards designs, but does not build gardens, although he will manage the project up to handing clients a glass of champagne as they step into the finished garden.
Some of his more unusual designs include an outdoor kitchen as part of a patio sunk 2.5 metres below ground, and a wood-fired pizza oven.
He said the downturn has led to a shift in some peoples’ budgets: “There are a few clients where money is no object. There will always be people who can afford to have what they want and will pay it regardless, but at the lower end there has been a change over the past couple of years. People have smaller budgets and are maybe not doing as adventurous gardens as they were a few years ago.”
However, Mr Richards reports that turnover has risen every year and last year was almost double the previous year’s level.
He is now planning further expansion and will employ someone next year to manage building operations.
He is also expanding the business footprint with a move back to his native Shropshire as part of a two-centre strategy: “I have just done a garden in Reading and worked in Gloucestershire, so I will go anywhere.”
And, after becoming a registered member of the Society of Garden Designers in 2010, one of less than 200 worldwide, his credentials are even more impeccable.
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