When it comes to starting and maintaining your own profitable landscaping business, the grass can always be greener! This is because the landscaping industry is one of the most innovative and accessible for entrepreneurs to break into—especially if they are willing to do some of the labor themselves. Starting a landscaping business can genuinely help one build sweat equity. This all may sound great, but what landscaping business should a newbie pick when starting out?
There are a variety of attractive and profitable businesses related to landscaping. The standard lawn mowing and turf maintenance crew require as few as a couple of laborers. More intensive specialties include resodding, hardscaping, pond work, and weed and pest control services. Some of the most profitable landscaping businesses will often offer their own designer abilities.
Of course, when it comes to starting a landscaping business, there is much more to consider than just the above. Be sure to read on as we highlight other vital considerations such as startup costs, local conditions, and choosing the right clients.
Plan for startup costs
When it comes to starting a landscaping business, it can be challenging to get a handle on how much it will cost to get things running. However, it will be relatively easy to discern prices for some items, such as equipment. A landscaping business should only have to invest in quality gear, such as a hedge trimmer, once. Regular maintenance will further reduce costs in the long run. So, even if the initial outlay for equipment like mowers may be expensive, it is much easier to plan for than other business expenses.
What about other costs such as business insurance? After all, it can be hard to discern how much you need to spend if you’ve never operated a gardening business before. Will your business need a worker’s compensation plan? What other regulations may your state require your business to comply with? It can be hard to know what you don’t know.
Luckily, this is where partnering with the right professionals can make all the difference. Some white-collar workers will charge for their services, such as lawyers and accountants. Others, such as insurance agents, generally work on commission and strive to provide you with services that will satisfy any landscaping business’s needs. There is also a lot of good information online to help entrepreneurs start their own companies—and much of it is free.
Study Local Conditions
One of the most important aspects of any good business plan will be to study local conditions via market research. This step can include important work such as detailing potential rivals and identifying what services they offer. With this information, a new landscaping business can discover underserved niches that the current marketplace may be overlooking.
This won’t require a fancy outside consulting firm. Common sense can be used when studying your local market. Suppose you’re based in Boulder, Colorado, where winter can stretch from October to April. In that case, it might not make sense to start a pond-focused landscaping business since the natural demand in cooler months will likely be relatively low.
Likewise, suppose your area seems saturated with lawn care companies, yet no one seems to be serving customers looking for design help or a simple resodding. In that case, the latter two areas may be fruitful areas on which to focus a new business. Knowing how to stick out can be just as useful for new businesses as any other aspect.
Ditch Unprofitable Clients
One of the hardest things for a new business to figure out is how to reliably turn a profit. This is especially true in a highly seasonal and ever-changing industry such as landscaping. And many landscapers will rush towards the most prominent clients—with the biggest budgets—often assuming this is the quickest route to huge profits. Consider this example: A landscaper gives a quote for mowing and maintenance for a large country estate. The job seems reasonable, and the landscaper has offered a longer-term contract in hopes of securing the project. As a result, the client agrees to a year-long contract with monthly payments and biweekly service.
A few months into the project, the landscaper discovers that the job is much larger than anticipated and will require more labor and specialized equipment. This will add to the cost of the job while the landscaper is unable to recoup this expense as the terms of the service are still locked in.
At this point, many landscaping companies will do the wrong thing, keep the client. This is a mistake for a few reasons. First, an unprofitable client will likely never switch over to becoming profitable. This is because a lack of profit is likely due to a mismatch of services desired with what your outfit is able to provide. Two, as a seasonal business, time that is invested in clients that don’t offer an adequate return is even more damaging. Instead of wasting time trying to turn an unprofitable client profitable, that time is better spent finding a client whose needs better match your landscaping business’s abilities.
Remember: You Can’t Control the Weather, Only Your Effort!
Finally, the last piece of advice for anyone getting into the landscaping business is to remember what you can control and what is out of your hands. A landscaper can spend all summer executing a perfectly prepared plan for a project. Still, intense storms can flood plantings, wind can uproot trees, and none of these things can easily be fixed by a landscaper. For this reason, it pays to work to control what you can with your landscaping business and learn to let go of the things you can’t.