Starting a landscaping business is no easy feat. From figuring out how to acquire your equipment to effectively marketing your services, there are plenty of things you need to oversee in order to guarantee your business’ success. If you’re interested in setting up a landscaping business of your own, this guide will give you a good place to start.
Identifying Your Focus
Honing in on a particular aspect of landscaping will help you identify your business’ focus and scope. You don’t want to stretch yourself too thin, so you’ll have to concentrate on what you can do best. Below are some potential paths to consider when narrowing down your focus:
General Landscaping
General landscaping involves basic lawn care such as maintaining trees, flowers, grass, and plants. Some extra services that are usually offered by these kinds of businesses may include vinyl fencing installation, terrain grading, and sprinkler installation.
Interior Landscaping
Interior landscaping businesses offer advice and general maintenance services for shopping malls, private businesses, and public areas. These businesses are responsible for selecting plants that are appropriate for these locations, as well as taking care of these plants.
Gardening
Gardening businesses maintain the plants and greenery found in either residential or commercial spaces. Unlike general and interior landscaping, the focus is more on maintaining the health of plants rather than design work. Gardening services include composting, applying pesticides, and installing irrigation systems.
Landscape Architecture
Landscape architecture businesses prioritize the aesthetics of green spaces. These businesses cater to the greenery found in public areas like parks, golf courses, and school campuses, among other locations. Site preservation and restoration is also a service provided by this kind of business.
Determining Your Target Market
As with all businesses, you need to the market that you’re entering. This means that you have to conduct market research to understand who your direct competitors are, what they’re offering, and how you can set yourself apart from them. Learning more about your competitors’ services helps you recognize what the market is lacking so that you can meet these needs.
Once you’ve been able to narrow down how your business will serve the local market, the next thing to do is to determine who your target customer is. This information will allow you to further narrow down your focus and help you figure out how to effectively market your services.
Hiring Your Staff
There are several kinds of employees you need for your business to operate effectively. The following are just a few that you should have on board:
- Gardeners
- Landscape workers
- Estimators
- Administrative staff
- Chemical applicators
- Landscape designers
Acquiring Your Equipment
Unless you already have the capital needed to acquire your own equipment, you’ll most likely have to rent them out until you can afford to buy them yourself. This is recommended for small start-up businesses since it’s also quite costly to maintain and operate equipment. You can also look into purchasing items secondhand if necessary. Just be sure to do your due diligence before spending money on used machinery.
If you’ve got a passion for flowers, plants, and greenery, then starting a landscape business is the right career path for you. These are the basics to help you get started.
