Most teenagers have spent a sweaty summer pushing a lawnmower for a few bucks. It’s kind of the American way. Perhaps you’ve been daydreaming about how you can turn that part-time job from your youth into a full-time business now. If you have dreams of starting your own landscaping business you can be assured about two things: People always need their landscaping done and it’s totally possible to start your own business! Here’s what you need to do in order to get your dream off the ground.
What Type of Business Do You Want?
If you’re going to start up your own landscaping business, then you need to first decide what type of business you want to have. There are a few basic types of landscaping and lawn businesses out there, you should pick one:
- Lawn mowing/maintenance
- Landscape care/maintenance
- Landscape design
- Pest control
- Sod installation
- Landscape architecture
Once you’ve chosen the type of business you want, then you can determine who you’re going to be offering these services to.
Who Are Your Customers?
Without question, the primary demographic driving this industry is aging baby boomers. There are 77 million of them in the United States, after all – and they love a well-kept lawn and beautifully landscaped yard! The problem is that they don’t have time to do what they want, which is where you and your business come in.
But baby boomers aren’t the only people looking for lawn and landscaping services. Other prospective customers include:
- Homeowners who don’t have a landscaping vision or skill to do it themselves
- New homeowners who want to start from scratch
- Homeowners planning to put their home up for sale
- Commercial and residential builders
- Homeowners that frequently travel
- Snowbirds with winter homes
- Golf course managers
- Rental property managers
- Facility managers for municipalities, historic properties, or other public places
Hours of Operation
If you live in the part of the country that experiences winter months, you likely won’t drum up much business during that season. That’s why you have to have a plan for what you will do during the winter and a plan for how you’ll aggressively advertise your services once the landscaping and lawn care season does begin.
Landscaping and lawn care season is typically between the months of April and October. In the spring, you’ll need a plan to market your services and drum up business to carry you through until the fall. Once fall arrives and business slows down, you can market your services to rake leaves and winterize lawns. And if you really want to keep things going through the snowy season, you can offer snow plowing services too.
During the summer, you should plan to service between 20 and 30 clients a week.
How Much Should You Charge?
The price of your services may be one of the hardest things to do when starting your own company. You must have a price that serves as your baseline so you can then give customers an estimate. An hourly rate the baseline many companies use – but you don’t share that rate with customers. Instead, you have it in your mind when you assess how long it will take to go the job and then use it to calculate the rate for your customer.
Contact other landscaping and lawn care companies in your area to figure out what a competitive rate for your services may be. You can enlist the help of family and friends in the area to assist you with this – and yes, that’s fair! You have to know what other companies are charging in order to give yourself a fair shot at drumming up business!
Of course, there’s more to starting a lawn care company than these steps, but this is a good way to get started and figure out if your dream has the potential to become a reality for you. Remember, Lawn Love was started with a vision to bring quality lawn care to people everywhere. We’re a great example of the fact that all you have to do is have a little faith in yourself and be willing to work hard and you can make your landscaping dreams a reality!
