How to Start a Landscaping Business: The Easy Way to Manage Clients

Starting your own landscaping business is a dream for many.

Fresh air, flexible working hours, and the satisfaction of turning an overgrown garden into a perfect outdoor space sounds like a keen gardener's idea of an ideal day out.

But while the idea might sound straightforward, the reality is that launching and growing a successful landscaping firm is a lot like running any other small business: it takes planning, smart management, and a steady flow of potential clients.

If you want to start a landscaping business that lasts, you need more than just a mower and a can-do attitude. You'll need to think about business structure, health and safety regulations, business insurance, marketing, and client management.

In this complete guide, we'll walk you through business plans, legal obligations and marketing strategies to help you understand what it takes to thrive in the landscaping services industry.

Gloves on? Let's dig in.

Understanding the Landscaping Services Industry

Before you start a landscaping business, it's worth taking time to understand the landscaping industry in your area. This will help you identify if you've got a decent target market to work with, alongside helping you understand how to price your services correctly and avoid the common pitfalls that catch new business owners off guard.

The landscaping services industry is broad. It includes:

• Basic lawn care: mowing, edging, weeding
• Lawn maintenance: seasonal treatments, aeration, reseeding
• Planting flowers and shrubs
• Installing structural features like decking, fencing, ponds, and patios
• Full landscape design business services, from concept to completion
• Garden waste clearance and recycling

Some landscapers focus on residential gardens, while others build a reputation working with commercial clients like property management companies, office parks, or schools. The services you choose will directly influence your start-up costs, business plan, and marketing approach.

How to Start a Landscaping Business: 6 Steps

If you feel ready to swap the desk for the outdoors, a landscaping business could be the perfect next step for you. Take a look at these six practical steps to help you set up your business properly, tick all the boxes and hit the ground running.

1. Create a Solid Landscaping Business Plan

Every successful business starts with a plan, and it's about a lot more than simply deciding you want to do something and then doing it. Here, we'll go over some of the main facets of your business that you should be clear on.

Business Structure

You must decide whether you're going to operate as a sole trader or a limited company.

As a sole trader, it's quick and easy to register your company, with fewer admin requirements, but you're personally liable for debts. You'll also be responsible for national insurance contributions.

As a limited company, there's generally more admin involved and added costs, but it offers better financial separation and credibility.

Services Offered

Be clear about the landscaping services you'll provide. This could range from basic lawn care to high-end landscape design. If you know the kind of services you want to specialise in, you'll understand how to tweak your marketing efforts and plan your budget for equipment more easily.

Target Market

Define whether you'll focus on homeowners, commercial clients, or a mix. Understanding your potential customers will make it easier to focus your marketing and pricing.

Pricing Strategy

Will you charge per hour, per job, or offer monthly maintenance contracts? Consider your costs, including fuel, gardening tools, and business insurance, when deciding how you want your money to flow in.

Start-up Costs

Starting a business costs a pretty penny. Be sure to factor in good-quality power tools, PPE, a reliable vehicle, website building, marketing, and business essentials.

Marketing Strategy

You need to have an idea of how you're going to get more clients. Your strategy could involve social media platforms, local newspapers, a Google Business Profile, and partnerships with other businesses.

Growth Plan

Think about how you want to grow. Will you hire employees, expand your services, or target more customers in new locations? Maybe you'll do it all.

2. Meet Your Legal Obligations

Running a landscaping business means ticking off a few important legal requirements, such as:

Insurance

Any tradesperson's job can bring some tricky surprises, so having the right business insurance is non-negotiable. Whilst some insurances are obligatory (like employers' liability), we'd recommend at least all of these:

• Public liability insurance: Covers injury or damage claims from clients or the public.
• Employers' liability insurance: A legal obligation if you hire employees.
• General liability insurance: Broader protection for your landscaping firm.

Rates vary, and you won't know which provider is perfect for you unless you do your homework. Shop around with more than one insurance provider to get the best coverage for your needs.

Registration and Taxes

There is some non-negotiable admin to do when you're starting a landscaping business, too. As a business owner, you must:

• Register with HMRC as a sole trader or limited company.
• Pay national insurance or national insurance contributions.
• Keep accurate records of your business finances.

Safety Regulations

The safety of staff, customers and others needs to be considered for landscaping work. Make sure that you follow regulations specific to your business by:

• Complying with health and safety regulations relevant to the landscaping services industry.
• Staying informed on plant health agency requirements.
• Guaranteeing the safe operation of power tools and gardening tools.
• Following waste disposal rules for garden waste: check with your local council for requirements.

3. Invest in Business Essentials

In the early stages of business, you don't want anything to slow you down. Having the right equipment from day one makes your work easier and keeps your business growing. These are must-haves for most landscaping businesses:

• Good-quality tools: shovels, rakes, pruners
• Power tools: mowers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws (with training courses for safe use)
• Gardening tools: spades, hoes, trowels
• A reliable vehicle: van or pickup for transporting tools and materials
• PPE: gloves, boots, safety goggles, ear protection

Remember, while it's tempting to save money at the start, investing in good quality tools pays off in durability and better results for your potential customers. You're doing future you a favour by buying high-quality gear.

4. Build a Marketing Strategy That Helps You Grow

Whose garden are you going to sort if no one knows you? Even the best landscape gardener needs a steady stream of new customers to keep the business afloat. A smart marketing strategy will help you reach more clients without parting with too much cash.

Online Marketing

Everything is online these days, and although you've got an in-person job, you've got to keep up with the times. You can do this by spending a bit of time on:

• A Google Business Profile: Appear in local search results with reviews, photos, and your contact details.
• A Business website: A simple site with services, testimonials, and a gallery of your work builds credibility.
• Social media platforms: Utilise social media pages like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to share before-and-after shots and seasonal offers.

Offline Marketing

Offline marketing can be especially useful if you're trying to grow your business in a specific area and cut down on your commuting times. Some examples of offline marketing that work for landscapers are:

• Local newspapers: Pay to advertise in community papers to reach older audiences.
• Flyers: Distribute in target neighbourhoods, or even specific houses that you think could use a helping hand.
• Partnerships with other businesses: Build referral networks with builders, decorators, and estate agents. People often want multiple jobs done at similar times around the home to get it all out of the way.

5. Find a Software That Manages All of Your Operations

Many new landscapers underestimate the amount of admin that comes with the job. Managing quotes, contact details, invoices, and follow-ups for potential customers can quickly eat into the hours you expected to be out in the sunshine. With software like Intrflex, you can:

• Store every client's contact details in one place.
• Send branded quotes in minutes.
• Convert approved quotes into jobs instantly.
• Automate payment reminders
• Keep your business finances organised.

Sounds like something you could use? Book a demo today to see how easy job management can be.

6. Grow Your Landscape Gardening Business

Once your new business feels stable, with work flowing in and smiles on faces, you can focus on scaling:

• Hire employees to take on more work
• Offer niche services like landscape design or structural features
• Target property management companies for long-term contracts
• Invest in training courses to expand your skillset

Before you know it, with the proper planning, careful marketing and software that keeps everything organised, your landscape business will be thriving.

Hit The Ground Running With The Right Software

In this guide, we've covered the key areas you need to explore when planning your landscaping business, staying in line with the law and spreading the word of your services.

The right tools make it much easier to put those ideas into action, and it's important to choose the best hardware and software possible when you're trying to grow. 

With Intrflex, you can manage every job, invoice, and client detail in one place, so you spend your working days in the sun and your days off with your feet up. 

Book a demo today and see how simple it can be to stay organised as your business grows.