How to Start a Landscaping Business?

Thinking about opening an evergreen business? I mean, a business that’s always in demand? If yes, consider opening a landscaping business. It’s something that’s in demand almost all year round among both households and businesses.

The reasons for the high demand for the landscaping business are simple. Most people want a beautiful garden but don’t have the time and knowledge to create one. Others wish to leave it to professionals to create an amazing garden and are willing to pay the expenses.

Therefore, if you wish to open a landscaping business, follow these simple steps.

how to start your own landscaping business?

Actually, it’s very easy to open a landscaping business. It doesn’t need any university degrees. However, if you have enough experience in landscaping, gardening and related stuff, go ahead and open a landscaping business. Here are the steps I suggest.

1. Study Your Market

Studying the market is very important since it enables you to know how much income is possible every month. Also, you’ll learn about the landscaping services that would be in demand in your area.

Furthermore, you get to know pricing, the cost of materials, labour and other essentials for the business. This task of studying the market is a bit difficult. However, these efforts could help you to succeed in your business over a period of time.

2. Make a Business Plan

Once you have enough details about the market, make a business plan. This business plan should contain details such as landscaping services you will offer and their pricing, outsourcing workers and estimated payroll costs, expected profits, expenses on materials and equipment and profits that you’re likely to make.

Also, include ways on how you will advertise the landscaping business in the area and the budget that you will allocate for that. A good business plan could help you succeed.

Also Read: How to Advertise Your Business with a Low Budget?

3. Create Own Brand

The next step on your way to opening a landscaping business is to give it a distinct brand. Think of creative names for your business. Such names should be catchy so that people can remember them easily.

A good brand identity can also help the business to succeed. Remember, people will know your business by the brand name. Hence, it takes some extra effort to find a good brand name.

4. Make a Rate Card

A rate card is the one that lists the prices of your services.  A landscaping company provides at least 20 different services. You could offer all these or select some that you can manage easily. These services include:

• Landscape design: Planning and designing outdoor living spaces 
• Irrigation: Installing irrigation systems to save time, water, and money 
• Landscape architecture: Maintaining lawns, including mowing, trimming, and weed-whacking 
• Mulching: Retaining water among plants and controlling weeds 
• Hardscaping: Building maintenance-free outdoor spaces using natural stone and mineral 
• Pruning: Maintaining shape or size, removing spent blooms, and removing dead or diseased limbs
• Hedging: Shaping plants into geometric forms 
• Lawn aeration: Aerating lawns, controlling weeds, fertilizing, and treating grubs 

Other landscaping services include: 

• Lawn bed maintenance
• Spring maintenance
• Dethatching
• Yard cleanup
• Lawn protection services
• Irrigation startup or shutdown services

Here, it’s worth remembering that you can select the services when starting the landscaping business and add more services as you progress. Having more services when you start a landscaping business is good enough, but that means you would have to buy more equipment and materials, too.

5. Advertise Your Landscaping Business

Advertising any business can be very expensive. However, thanks to the Internet, it’s possible to do online advertising for free or with a small budget. You can launch a Facebook and Instagram page for your landscaping services brand and upload interesting posts.

At the same time, advertise your business in the services section of Facebook Marketplace. The next step is also to advertise your business through a blog. Open a gardening blog and write content from your knowledge about landscaping. That could help you get a lot of leads for the landscaping business.

6. Make Presentations

Where possible, present your business. This can be done at community events and sometimes, your own garden too. Such presentations allow you to show your own skills to a wide audience. This helps you get enough word-of-mouth publicity.

Maybe you’re unaware, but word-of-mouth publicity is more powerful than ads and any other means of popularizing your business. In fact, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, lays a great emphasis on word-of-mouth publicity for his business despite the company being the undefeated world leader in online retail.

7. Buy Landscaping Materials

Now comes the toughest part of opening a landscaping business. That’s because buying landscaping material can prove expensive. However, visit some of the nearest hardware stores, such as Home Depot or ACE Hardware. They offer good discounts.

You could also inform the store that you’ll be opening a landscaping business; hence, any additional discounts would be welcome. Generally, most sellers will help you by cutting a few dollars off your bill. To buy such equipment, ask someone who’s already in the field or use your own experience in landscaping.

8. Get Necessary Licenses and Permits

Yes, getting licenses and permits is extremely important for your landscaping business or in fact, every business. Registering your brand and getting these licenses gives your landscaping business a legal standing. That way, you can buy insurance and open bank accounts in the name of your business.

Hiring also becomes easier when you have a registered and licensed business. It’s a known fact that customers prefer legit businesses since they’re trustworthy. Registration and getting permits shouldn’t cost more than $500 for your landscaping business.

Wrap Up

If you do all these steps carefully, there’s a wonderful chance of your landscaping business succeeding within a few weeks. The greater your efforts, the faster your business will succeed.

Plan the opening in such a manner when there’s a huge demand for landscaping services. That way, you’re sure to go the extra mile for publicity for your landscaping business.