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When you think about the good old days, the teenage life you might quite remember, most of us would spend time trolling behind a lawn mower in an effort to make an honest buck to buy some item we only wished for. When this task was finalized, one would sit back proud of the task done and wait for the owner to fork out the agreed amount while waiting for a compliment of the job well done. This aspect has been carried forward to develop a full-fledged landscaping business operation where the business operator works hard to deliver an exceptional landscaping job in a formal and business manner. This article will deliver a guideline researched by Idea-To-Plan Business Plans on how to articulate a well-furnished business plan for starting a landscaping business.
Landscaping business model requirements
A business model for a landscaping business is intended to communicate landscaping expertise and the skill of manicuring and installing landscaping professionally. Starting a Landscaping Business is driven by the quality of the end product and since it does not require extensive capital in terms of buildings, inventory and operational capital, only basic business managerial skills are required. The crucial aspect is the understanding of the landscaping process. With this understanding, your business model should be in a position to clearly display that you know about landscaping (lawn manicuring, trimming, cleaning, irrigation, watering and lawn consistency).
If you are seeking to venture into this business, there are various aspect that you should consider to ensure you walk down the right path of success and productivity. The outline described below combined with other factors will be a determinant of how well prepared you are to run a successful landscaping business.
The facts about landscaping as a business
Back in the days, one would walk right up your neighbor’s house, get a landscaping gig, troll behind a lawn mower for a few hours and get a buck out of it. This process is the same for Starting a Landscaping Business, however, for a business you have to be more professional and conversant with mowing, trimming, pruning, cleaning, hedging, and some great landscaping ideas than an average person. Remember, the main idea is to deliver a very professional/quality/appealing end product that you will be proud of when asking to get paid. With this realization, you have to get yourself some formal skills/learning basic and some advanced gardening and landscaping education to put you on top of your game.
The other thing that slips unnoticed by many people venturing into this business is the fact that the task is cumbersome rigorous and thus it requires a physically fit individual. Being a business, it means that you or the person employed to do so will be handling heavy and bulky often dangerous equipment for prolonged hours of operation. Thus, the ability to handle the stress and risk is of great importance when joining this industry.
Last but not least like any other business, management sets the pace to success, growth and productivity. As an individual joining this industry, its best if you attain yourself some basic business management skills. These skills will give you the expertise to administer cash flows, balance sheets, profit and loss analysis, structure marketing plans and development of an operational strategy for sustainability.
Location preference
In the recent years, the number of operators in the landscaping industry has increased at a very high rate. According to various sources, the number has increased from 5,000 to over 10,000 operators within three years. This makes competition for space, market and customers very high. To overcome this challenge, it is essential to know who buys and drives the landscaping service industry. The high number of millennials and aging baby boomers have recently become home owner’s due to increasing employment rate and an increase in disposable cash income. They do recognize the value and need to have a well-kept, maintained and manicured, hedge, lawn and yard. However, due to over-occupation, they lack the time to do it themselves and thus they contribute to over 70% of the industry’s target market. With this in mind you need to select a location with more upcoming aging baby boomers and the entrant millennials to achieve successful target customers to support Starting a Landscaping Business.
Diversity of services
When you think of it lightly, landscaping business sounds like just mowing a lawn and manicuring a hedge, however, to run and operate a successful landscaping business it is equally important to know and understand various landscaping practices that go hand in hand so that they can be implemented by the business model. For instance, a landscaping business should have the capacity to:
- Perform hydro-seeding tasks
- Offer Weeding and pruning
- Offer Pest control and fertilizer application
- Perform irrigate and watering task
- Landscape care, design and maintenance
- Lawn mowing, care and maintenance
Business model security
As you might guess and already know, landscaping is a seasonal business. The business is usually at peak during the summer periods and at a downtime during winter seasons. To operate seasonally means that the business should have an implementation of a survival plan that will keep the business running during the downtime seasons while expecting the peak season. This can be implemented by advocating for more than average savings to take you through the lean periods.
Initial operation
Before diving into the business, it is always advisable to determine the basics of business start-up and for this case a lawn care business. You might consider researching the types of equipment being used, prices and their effectiveness while under performance. You should also familiarize yourself with basic equipment maintenance and repair operations to ensure you and other workers are in a position to maintain and repair basic tool and equipment with ease. You should also take into consideration estimation capacity. Many landscaping tasks are charged with estimation. Review your estimations beforehand to ensure you do not undercharge or overcharge your client.
Another aspect to watch out during and before start-up is the handling capacity of you and your workforce. Landscaping business fail because many operators take on jobs they cannot handle. It’s necessary to know the number of clients you can serve per week to ensure that you do not over schedule clients who will later not get guaranteed results or any results at all. A business operating with two operators can sufficiently service 20 to 30 clients per week with this judgment in mind you can schedule a full week’s job with confidence that all jobs will be completed professionally and on time.
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