Start A Landscaping Business - Business Ideas

Pat Walls

•

Updated: September 15th, 2022

Start A Landscaping Business

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

A landscaping business is engaged in maintaining lawns and gardens, trimming trees and shrubs, and providing landscape maintenance and beautification services. Landscaping costs vary depending on the size and location.

For small jobs such as taking care of the lawn and trees, the cost can vary from $50 to $100 per hour. The average wage of a landscape designer is $70,000 to $90,000, and a landscape architect makes around $50,000 to $100,000 per year. For basic maintenance and mowing services, a single person who runs a landscaping business can get started with as little as $5,000 or less. However, a proper landscaping business will require a large investment. The average start-up cost is between $15,000 to $20,000.

Once the type of service is decided, the list of tools and equipment can be purchased. The best way to succeed in a landscaping business is to provide quality service. This will not only retain existing clients but also promote and attract new customers.

Starting a landscaping business requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell landscaping services, or selling landscaping services online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Key Stats

market size

$9.97B

starting costs

$18K

gross margin

90%

time to build

270 days

growth

SEO

business model

Brick & Mortar

time investment

Full time

Startup Costs

	Min Startup Costs	Max Startup Costs
Employee & Freelancer Expenses	$151	$252
Website Costs	$223	$7,015
Business Formation Fees	$600	$4,700
Vehicle Expenses	$0	$10,000
Retail Business Expenses	$1,250	$6,650
Advertising & Marketing Costs	$75	$3,986
Software Expenses	$162	$2,720
Office Space Expenses	$0	$100
Specific Industry Expenses	$0	$500
Total Startup Costs	$2,461	$35,923

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Case Studies

Uber For Lawn Care: How I Built A $30M Software

I'm Bryan Clayton CEO of GreenPal which is best described as Uber for La...

• $375K/mo

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Successful Businesses

Business	URL	Rank
Yardbook	yardbook.com	65,114
Service Autopilot	serviceautopilot.com	151,879
Landscape Management Software	golmn.com	193,519
Include Software \| Landscaping Business Software	include.com	196,858
GreenPal	yourgreenpal.com	201,673
The Grounds Guys	franchise.groundsguys.com	261,182
Landscape Leadership \| Marketing & Sales for Lawn & Landscaping Companies	landscapeleadership.com	597,914
Augusta lawn care services	augustalawncareservices.com	601,393
Landscape Management	landscapemanagement.net	682,690
Chalet Nursery	chaletnursery.com	916,530
Pacific Outdoor Living	pacificoutdoorliving.com	1,272,488

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Pros & Cons

Pros	Description
Little startup costs required	The cost to start a landscaping business costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,923.
Rewarding work	Starting a landscaping business can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.
High customer retention rates	Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.
Pick & choose the clients you work with	Landscaping Businesses have the ability to choose the clients they work with. You have the freedom to work with only a few loyal clients or with hundreds of clients!
Control of workload	With starting a landscaping business, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.
Gain exposure and experience	This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

See all pros ➜

Cons	Description
Motivation of employees	If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.
Longer Sales Process	A landscaping business can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.
Work can be inconsistent	As a landscaping business, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.
Lack of benefits	With a landscaping business, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming.
Taxes	As a landscaping business, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.
No safety net	Typically, as a landscaping business, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.

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Marketing Ideas

1

Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.

Learn more about affiliate program ➜
2

Direct Sales

Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.
For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.

Learn more about direct sales ➜
3

Word of mouth

Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

Learn more about word of mouth ➜

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Key Stats

Startup Costs

Case Studies

Successful Businesses

65,114

151,879

193,519

196,858

201,673

261,182

597,914

601,393

682,690

916,530

1,272,488

Pros & Cons

Marketing Ideas

Affiliate Program

Direct Sales

Word of mouth