Matt Adams founded The Relentless Gardener in May 2021 when he realised there was a gap in the market for lawn feed and grass seed that was sold to match the exact metre-squared, rather than the kilo.
Since establishing the specialist ecommerce platform in Manchester, the company has grown significantly with its organic product range.
Here, Adams shares a recent week in his life…
Monday
A typical Monday will always begin with a 6.30am start in my work shelter, boxing up all the small orders that we received over the weekend. I have two twin boys, so once I’ve done the boxing of the small orders, every morning, I will always sit down with them on my knee and work for 30 minutes on my laptop whilst they watch Paw Patrol.
Any queries we’ve had over the weekend are then resolved over lunch. To do this, I use my pre-written responses in Freshdesk – as the queries tend to be the same with the majority of customers. Then I’ll update all website codes and plugins to ensure maximum security on the website.
As the day goes on, I will continue boxing up the larger orders and take them to the DHL depot. Then it’s usually time to cycle down with a trailer, and pick the kids up from nursery. Once we’re all home, I will do a couple more hours of work in the evening, usually between 6pm and 8pm.
Tuesday
The majority of my day on Tuesday is focusing on orders and playing ‘catch up’ from Monday.
I will also use my time on Tuesdays to improve the database that I built, that automates calculations, shipping labels, and product label printing. The system also differentiates between under 2kg orders and ones with Express shipping, which helps me to save me hours everyday.
In addition to this, I spend time working on my blog, and usually try to write between 200 to 500 words. I’m currently aiming for 2,500 per month. After this, Tuesday afternoons are spent working on and reviewing the marketing strategy, looking at Google Ads, SEO, content and social.
Before heading to the depot, I make sure the business bin is full and ready for collection on Wednesday. Then it’s nursery pick up again, before jumping back into work between 6pm and 8pm.
Wednesday
On Wednesdays, as well as the orders, I also like to focus on content and marketing. Once I’ve spent time with the kids working on my laptop, I’ll go through my orders and begin to package everything up. Any recent queries will also be managed and I also use this day to place new stock orders to suppliers.
As well as writing some content for my blog, I also work on the social content for the week. I use a combination of ChatGPT and Social Champ and create seven social posts for the upcoming week. Once the social posts are complete, I then spend time updating the website with the latest Trust pilot reviews and spend some time researching how new tools, such as ChatGPT and AI, can help with the efficiency of the business.
Once this is done, I pick the twins up from nursery and then catch up with any other work in the evening.
Thursday
Orders tend to slow down towards the end of the week, so it gives me more time to work on the business. Once I’ve printed off and packaged the orders for the day, I spend time outreaching to other blog owners to try and get backlinks to The Relentless Gardener’s blog. I work with Full Volume PR, who manage our PR strategy, so sometimes will have a call with them on a Thursday too.
At around 3pm I’ll go to the depot, and then come back to update weekly reports on sales, ad spend, traffic and estimated gross profit (after ad spend). Depending on ad spend in the week and which products are converting best, I’ll then spend some time tweaking the Google Ads. I also use Thursday’s to update any key financial reports, such as cash flow and stock figures for the previous month and then send them to my dad who creates a P&L and balance sheet for that month.
I am currently trying to aim for around five to ten images per month to add to my blog, so once I’ve completed my main jobs, I will spend some time in the garden taking pictures. I also use the time to try and get my video editing/ Youtube career off the ground. While I have bags of content, everything is still in raw footage on a memory card – might need to hire someone instead!
Friday
Friday mornings are very much the same as the other weekdays. Once I’ve finished working on my laptop, I’ll download the labels, print them off and package all the orders.
I like to keep up to date with SEO trends so I will use Friday mornings to watch search video recaps on seroundtable.com. I will also spend time strategizing around new product development and operational improvements. I’m currently working on building a big business hub in the back/side garden – which is really exciting!
Finally, I’ll head over to the depot for my final drop off for the week at 3pm before spending time with the family and friends in the evening and finishing the day watching Gardeners World with a red wine!
