Determine what landscaping services your business will offer. The first step in starting a landscaping business is to decide what types of landscaping services you are going to offer.
This step is very important because it also determines what types of equipment you are going to need in order to operate your landscaping business. Now we will go over some different landscaping services you can offer.
In-depth lawn bed maintenance refers to ground cover maintenance of a customer's land. This involves removing debris, trimming hedges or plants, weeding and pruning the ground cover, and eliminating weeds. This is a total care package that many customers opt for when looking for consistent landscaping services.
Spring or fall maintenance refers mostly to edging. This is a detailed cleaning service for the grounds of a client. It involves activities like grass dividing, perennial trimming, and mulch raking are a few of the edging services that are provided for spring or fall maintenance.
Pruning simply refers to the method of chopping off dead and decayed leaves from plants. Pruning or trimming is a very important service that must be done during the correct time of year, and this depends on the type of plants your customers have on their property.
Hedging is a service that involves trimming down a plant in a geometrical shape. This gives the plants a visually appealing look for clients. You need good organizational skills for hedging as a professional landscaper and an efficient set of tools to get the job done. Certain species of plants can not be hedged unless it is done by an experienced professional.
Lawn protection and feed is another service to offer. This refers to protective measures taken against different plant diseases, such as grubs, brown patches, and fungal growths. These services often take up a lot of time and have seven steps to completion. They also must be performed during optimal months of the year.
Start-up and shut-down irrigation systems are another vital landscaping service for certain clients. Proper irrigation is needed to keep lawns and gardens vibrant and healthy. These tasks also must be done during appropriate months to avoid irrigation channels freezing if your lawn care services are in a colder climate.
You can offer monthly or yearly irrigation services; just make sure your staff is well-versed in this area.
Seasonal display is a service that seeks to bring visual charm to landscaping by providing plants that flourish in certain seasons. This includes seasonal blooming flowers and even fall maintenance. Greenery and lighting come into play as well when providing this type of landscaping service.
Mulching is a service that makes an outdoor area look nicer and has some practical benefits like water retention and weed control. This service is typically required once or twice a year, depending on the type of plant.
Leaf removal services are exactly what they sound like. Some customers opt for these services once a year, but many go for even more leaf removal services per year, including four or more times. Cleaning and clearing leaf build-up is an important landscaping service that most businesses offer.
Lawn mowing services are what most people think of when landscaping comes to mind. In addition to cutting lawns, though, lawn mowing services usually include trimming, hedging, and blow-off for stubborn surfaces on a client's property.
Consider if you want to rent or buy equipment (costs included). This step directly relates to what landscaping services you are going to offer with your business.
Starting out you have the option to rent equipment or buy lower-grade landscaping gear. As your landscaping business grows, more equipment will be needed, meaning more costs will accrue.
Pro tip, buying high-grade equipment can cost just as much as buying cheaper lower-grade landscaping equipment. This is because cheaper, lower-grade landscaping equipment will need maintenance and repairs more often, so you'll likely wind up spending the same amount of money.
Most landscape business owners will need to spend five to ten hours a week maintaining their equipment at first by sharpening blades or changing oil, spark plugs, air filters, and fuel filters and addressing other mechanical issues.
There are a few standard tools you should consider purchasing, no matter the services you plan to provide with your landscaping business. These include wheelbarrows, different models of shovels, tillers, lawnmowers or rider mowers, chainsaws, and drills.
The cost of some of this equipment is minimal; however, some of it can be quite expensive. A good rider mower can cost you $12,000 or more when brand new.
A truck is also a necessity of a landscaping business, and while new models can go for $30,000 to even $70,000, a good used one can cost you as little as $10,000.
You are likely going to need a trailer as well, and trailers run around $5000 per unit.
To get a good idea of the costs of equipment involved, most landscape businesses bring around $40,000 to $50,000 worth of equipment to a client's property when performing landscape services, and sometimes more.
If you start out by renting your equipment, you likely spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $3000, but you should not plan on this forever; the only way to expand your business and services eventually is to actually purchase at least some of your own landscaping equipment.
Obtain the required business insurance, licenses, and EIN. This all depends on your local state laws where you are starting your landscaping business.
The next step is to get federal and state tax IDs. Your employer identification number (EIN) is critical to starting and growing your business. It helps with matters like opening a business bank account and paying taxes. Essentially it is like a social security number but for your business. In certain states, you may also have to get a tax ID as well.
You now should apply for the proper licenses and permits for your landscaping business. This guarantees that the business stays legally compliant. The licenses and permits you may need for your business varies, depending on what industry your business is in, what state, the specific location of your business, and other factors as well.
You also want to get all the proper insurance to operate your landscaping business. A landscaping business means you need a variety of insurances, like commercial auto insurance, for example.
Additionally, if you're looking to add pesticides as part of your services, most states have a pesticide charter that needs to be acquired. This is actually quite an arduous process, and it is not recommended that you attempt this until your business is firmly established.
Business insurance is necessary to protect your LLC from liabilities and other possible claims. It is highly recommended that you seek the counsel of an experienced insurance agent to determine all the necessary insurance policies you should get for your landscaping business.
Another form of insurance you need to start a landscaping business is employment law liability insurance. This covers your business in the event you make mistakes involving overtime for your employees and other wage and hour violations.
Develop a marketing plan and decide on prices. Utilize the internet to market your landscaping business and do some local market research to decide on the prices of your services.
Social media is an important marketing tool. You should create social media accounts for your landscaping business and try to gain friends and followers. You can post about your services and other helpful information.
Similarly, you should also develop a website for your landscaping business. This is relatively inexpensive, and if you have some extra cash, you can hire a professional to do a stellar website for your business.
Your website should include your pricing and contact information, as well as things like customer testimonies about your services. Make sure your social media business accounts link to your website and vice versa.
One of the best forms of marketing for a landscaping business is word-of-mouth marketing. With his strategy, you don't actually have to do much of the marketing at all; just simply provide very good landscaping services to your customers and ask your clients to recommend you to other possible clients and customers.
You can also incentivize your clients to make recommendations by offering them perks, like one free pressure washing service for a referral that results in regular clients.
Depending on your state, you might also have to meet specific environmental requirements to legally operate your landscaping businesses. Call your local city hall to find out about any environmental regulations that may apply to your business and also for any insurance policies you must obtain to operate legally.
Conduct market research on landscaping businesses in your local area. It is critical to do a lot of research on your landscaping and lawn care market; this means finding out the consumer base in your area, as well as any competing businesses. This will be of great value later when you plan your business and help you to decide on marketing strategies.
It's best to do this research before you start to do anything else in preparation for your landscaping business. You might also find that this makes you pivot from your initial business idea if there are already a lot of competitors in the niche of the landscaping market you intend to occupy.
When looking at other local landscaping businesses, try to get a sense of the clients they service. Do they specialize in certain lawn care or garden care services, or are their services broader? What services do they offer in addition to lawn mowing?
Take note of the pricing of all of their services. If they don't list approximate prices on their website, a call to them for a price quote is a good idea.
If possible, you want to try to fill a void in the landscaping market of your local community. Some niche of the industry that is untouched or barely offered in your area.
Providing more services will take more startup capital, but it's a great strategy to bring attention to your landscaping business and help it stand apart from your competitors.
Another great way to learn about competitors is to talk with their customers. Here you can get information on what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong, and at the same time, you'll be doing customer research.
Get your landscaping business finances in order. This means mapping out your business plan and accounting for the costs it will take to start your business, as well as setting methods in place to keep track of your business finances once your landscaping service has started.
Your business plan should cover customer research, competitors, a startup budget, and financial projections for your landscaping business.
Other things you should add include the problems you will be solving for clients and customers, what sets your business apart from the competition, the resources your business will depend upon, and your business's mission statement and vision for the future of the company.
Your business plan is a critical document for yourself, especially if you are looking to get a small business loan or investors in your company. Just be sure to think about all of these important issues when starting to develop your business plan.
At this stage, you should also choose a name for your business. Pick something catchy, memorable, and car-related, if possible.
Once your business is up and running, you need to employ methods to keep track of its financing, such as ones involving bookkeeping and accounting. Fortunately, there are many business apps that you can download to help your landscape business to run optimally.
There are apps and computer software that can assist you in inventory management, payroll, and other critical business functions. Streamlining all of these processes keeps your business organized and ensures that your employees will stay on task and not worry about things like their paychecks or clocking in and out of work.
