Landscaping companies provide a vital service – they take care of people’s lawns and gardens. When making the decision to start one, you need to take several factors into account, including the selection of desired landscaping options and the optimal choice of office location. You also need to think about how you’ll market your business in order to bring in clients. Without them, you won’t be in business for long! Check out this blogpost to find out more about the things you need to consider before opening your landscaping firm.
What Makes Your Landscaping Business Unique?
The number one thing to consider when starting a landscaping company is the type of landscaping that you want to do. Some companies specialize in commercial landscaping, while others focus solely on residential services. What does commercial landscaping entail? Well, it could involve everything from trimming the small patches of grass on the tree lawns of gas stations, weeding and mulching flower beds, or dealing with large expanses of grass in front of corporate headquarters for example.
Residential landscaping seems to be the most obvious, although there are options there as well. You could end up handling the landscaping needs of a homeowner’s association and all of the houses in the development, or just taking on individual clients as needed. It all comes down to the services that you choose to offer. You could just do lawn maintenance, in which case you’ll be mowing, fertilizing, and weed treating lawns only.
There are also options for designing gardens, in which case you’ll be working with clients to decide what goes in their flowerbeds, and then planting those chosen shrubberies or plants. Or, you could just maintain the flower beds. Tasks here include pulling weeds, deadheading flowers, and pruning. Although it’s best if you choose a specialty, there are some landscaping companies that do everything. If you are confident in your ability to hire skilled employees who can handle all of these tasks, then go ahead and do it. The choice is up to you.
Choosing a Location and Other Details For Your Landscaping Company
After you’ve decided on your landscaping company’s services, the next step involves setting up shop. You’ll need two different types of spaces – an office and a shop area. The former is for your office employees who’ll handle things like billing, marketing, collections, and accounting. The other is for the landscapers who’ll be out there taking care of clients. They’ll need equipment in order to do this, and those mowers, edgers, and other things will need to be stored someplace. You’ll also have to have pickup trucks and trailers to haul those items around from house to house.
There are usually spaces in industrial parks and similar areas with buildings that fit these needs. This is why it’s so important to know what types of landscaping that you’re going to be doing – you’ll need different items for each task. For example, if your company is going to be taking care of lawns, then you won’t need many of the gardening tools. But if you’re going to be a landscaping and garden design company, then you might take on things like building and installing fences and trellises. You’ll need some construction tools in order to do that. With that said, this is all assuming that you’re starting out big.
If you want to begin your company with a small crew and a limited amount of services, then you might just work out of your home. Your home office can be your office space, and your garage can serve as the shop. This is a valid way to go about business until you gain more clients and grow your business.
Make Your Landscaping Business Stand Out With The Right Marketing
Finally, after going through all of the steps already described, it’s time to begin marketing your company. First, you’ll need a name. You can use your first or last name in the title of your business, or even create a play on words that uses the name of a prominent street in your area. You can also use any number of puns or terms based on landscaping itself. There are names based on lawns, flowers, trees, and so on. Anything in nature is an option. Just keep in mind that it must be catchy and fairly short. No one wants to repeat a mouthful of a name when someone asks them who their landscaper is. Mind Mapping has proven to be a great tool to see your ideas bundled at a glance! Here you and your partners or co-workers can brainstorm together what name best fits your landscaping firm!
Create a Catchy Logo For Your Landscaping Firm
Once you have the name, you’ll need to create a logo. Since you’re starting a landscaping company and not an accounting firm, you have the option of choosing either a fun or a serious font. You can have a little fun with it. Generally, landscaping company logos have the color green in them somewhere. They also contain images of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass. You do need to remember that your logo will be placed on multiple marketing materials such as business cards, your website, your vehicles, any advertising efforts, polo-style uniform shirts, and possibly even baseball caps. It needs to be designed so that it fits all of these purposes. Plus, the more things your logo is on, the more advertising you’ll have. The Logo Company has already assisted several landscaping firms in creating their logo, check out our portfolio for more inspiration!
Pick The Right Advertising Strategy To Promote Your Landscape Business
Advertising is important as it helps you gain more clients. You’ll need a website and some business cards. Next to that, you should start promoting your landscaping business on different social media channels. Make your choice consciously and don’t start posting randomly about your business without a social media marketing strategy. Another interesting marketing tactic to consider are Google Ads, which can help you to target specific audiences. But offline channels can also help you spread the message of your landscaping business.
Newspaper ads, local magazine ads, and also yard signs – you know, the kind that go in your client’s yards – will help with this as well. Make sure to make your brand visible during your activities. For instance, you could let your employees wear a uniform of a polo-style shirt with the logo, or a baseball cap for example. These will help spread the word about your business when other people see them wearing those items.
Wrapping up:
In order to run a successful landscaping company, there are several things that you need to consider. You need to have a plan in place, as well as an office and shop space and some recruiting the right employees. Also think carefully about whether and how you want to specialize your landscaping business. Be consistent in your marketing strategy and be aware that it might take some time until you can see results from your actions. However, be patient, just as plants need time to grow, so does a profitable business!