Our Story

Meet Alfie 👋🏼

Alfie, is 18 and owns and does all of the day to day running of The Backyard Barber. He runs the business full time now after dropping out from studying for his A levels at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy.

Back in the first lockdown after having his GCSE exams cancelled, he was looking for something to do. Having spent some time 3D printing PPE for the NHS, he started the business by offering gardening services to local Neighbours using only his bike and his parents lawn mower.

This soon became a booming success and required him to take on more staff, having two staff by the end of the first season (Michael and Rowan).

In the first year we made the Swindon Advertiser and had an interview on BBC Wiltshire.

September 2020 came and the team had to go back to full time education, starting their first year of 6th form which fitted nicely with the end of the gardening season.

Meet the Backyard Barber growing his own gardening business at 17A YOUNG entrepreneur who set up his own gardening company with help from school friends impressed experts and won a £1,500 prize.

2021 Season -

Start of march Alfie was taking on a few more staff to deal with the rising demand while still dealing with his full-time education.

In June The van was bought Alfie passed his driving test, this allowed the growth of the company massively and enabled more staff to be taken on, summer 2021 has 7 part-time students working.

Come September the demand for our Services was still very high and Alfie was struggling to keep his focus on education and took the decision to take a break from his studies and took the leap out by himself to run the business full time.

This being the first winter the business had to adapt to keep things turning over so started to push out into small landscaping projects which quickly seemed to get bigger and more ambitious.

2022

At the start of the year, we took on two full-time Landscapers to increase our Services capabilities. And they are doing an amazing job!!

Alfie won the FSB young entrepreneur of the year award for what he achieved with the business.

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Young gardener who set up business at 16 scoops top honourA YOUNG gardener who set up his business at the age of 16 has won a regional award for his efforts.

As the year has gone on Alfie has managed to get 2 Gardening teams on the road full time and continue to grow the landscaping side of the business.

In the space of 3 months, Alfie moved his base out of his parent's garage to a storage container, quickly outgrew that and has now moved into a large unit which he can now grow into and thrive.

And the journey continues...