A landscaping business is a great and popular home based business that many have made reasonable income off of. Though, it’s not all sun and fun. There are some things to consider in order to ensure a successful business.
1. Investment. Long gone are the days where you could just show up, as a boy, with your father’s lawn mower and start making money. Lawns are bigger, more intricate and require different types of maintenance techniques and supplies. The last thing you want to do is show up to your client’s home unprepared to do the job. The initial investment of a simple landscaping business can be around $1,000 or more.
2. Competition. Competition can really make or break a service business like landscaping. When my husband decided to start getting advice about starting a landscaping business, he found that many large communities and developments had one main company for the whole housing community. That meant that thousands of homes could be services by one company, eliminating the chances of him every being able to do business with any of them. If you live in a big city, this can be a big issue if most of the home owners are not responsible for their own lawns.
3. Transportation costs. A big issue among service businesses, landscaping businesses in particular is the cost of driving around all day. If you have ten homes that you service a day, homes that are all in different areas, you can really lose a lot of profit by spending money on traveling costs.
4. Business vs. residential. This, often is a major problem most landscapers face. Some companies see it as such a big problem that they choose not to provide services for one or the other. Landscaping for a business can be very rewarding. You can get steady work and it’s very profitable. However, you may have more trouble getting paid and you can easily be dropped without a moment’s notice. Landscaping for a home can be good because you are dealing directly with the customer and you can tailor your services to their needs making it more valuable for them. However, a home owner may not continually need your services, deciding one day to do it himself and personal issues can always arise when dealing with an individual.
5. Contracts. You may think more about this after you have developed a client base, but it’s important to consider it as soon as you start and even before. Most landscapers complain that one day a client wants them, then the next day they don’t or that a client will suddenly refuse to pay for services. These issues can easily arrive when there is no tangible product they are receiving. This is why contracts or agreements are usually made. It safeguards the landscaper from many of those issues. You will need to find out if it’s worth it for your business and how you and your customers can come up with agreements that work for you both.
