There are typically two types of business plans: traditional plans and lean startup plans. For the sake of creating a plan that includes the dreams you have for your business’s future, we’re going to take components from each of these types of plans. Dreaming about what your business could look like in the future will help you build your business faster and easier, so let’s get started!
Landscaping Business Plan Types
There are typically two types of business plans, traditional and lean startup. We’re going to take components from each of these plans. This plan will be more for your own personal use and include the dreams you would like to see happen for your business. Dreaming what your business could look like will help you build your business.
Step 1: What Is Your Dream for Your Business?
This step is something you don’t find as part of a traditional or lean startup landscaping business plan. Consider this the warm-up. This part is determining what your dream for your landscaping business is and starting the framework of how to get it there. You have probably already imagined many times where you want your landscaping business to go.
Let’s say you would like your business to be able to showcase many different industry awards. Start by researching those awards, what you must do to enter the contest and how much it will cost. Give yourself a timeline to achieve the greatness you imagine. Will you need additional staff or additional training to help you get there?
Maybe you dream of creating a business that’s self-sustaining without you needing to do the day-to-day landscaping work. What will it take to build a successful business and hire a great staff so you can sit back and collect a nice salary? Start researching what supplies you will need, get some ideas going on for how you would find new customers and how you will hire and train the best landscaping staff.
Step 2: Market Analysis
This is one of those steps that usually comes later in the traditional or lean startup landscaping business plans. The reason we’re putting this earlier is because you need to know who you are competing against, what they are offering and how your business is different. Understand the needs of new customers so that you can effectively meet those needs with your business model and sell new customers on your business.
Research your competitors. What do they offer that your business doesn’t? What are they charging? Do they have online customer testimonials? Online customer testimonials tell you a lot about your competitors and what makes them successful. Read reviews to find out their weaknesses so you know where you have extra opportunity to shine and stand out from the competition.
Look at the area your business will service. What type of homes are in that area? What is the average income? Are there a lot of families? Do people spend a lot of time at home? Each neighborhood has its own personality, and it often determines the type of landscaping services that are required.
Step 3: Company Description
Here’s where you really start the official writing of the landscaping business plan. This is the first section of the traditional business plan and provides an in-depth description of why your business exists. It is perfect for using as the “About Us” page on your website or within your business’s social media profiles. This is where you sell who your business is, what your business does, and why your landscaping business is better than any other landscaping business in the area.
Use this section to talk about where your landscaping business is currently and where you are planning to take it. This should lay out your landscaping business dream in a way that inspires anyone reading it, so that they want to hire your business, work for your business, or somehow support what your business does.
Step 4: Financial Projections
From the research you completed in step one, you should have a good idea of how much it will cost to achieve your dreams. You also know the size of the market you can reach from all the research you did in step two. This is where you start putting those numbers together to see how much you can charge for your services, and how profitable your dream landscaping business will be.
Start out small by looking at pricing and cost on a per-project basis. What will it cost your business to do the service, and if you price it lower than your competitors, will you still make money? Most experts will tell you to leave about a 20% profit margin, so you have money to reinvest in the business. Reminder, that profit margin is after you pay yourself.
Once you feel you have a handle on the per-project pricing and costs, then start moving into what you need coming in monthly, then every quarter, then every year. This is how you can create goals to move your business to where you dream it to be. It takes little snapshots to create the big picture.
Read: How to Price Your Services Effectively (4-minute read)
Step 5: Services Provided
You’ve looked at what your competition is doing and what your potential customers need in step two. Here is where you are going to write out the services that your business offers and what the pricing for the services is based on the number crunching you did in step four.
If there are services you would like to offer in the future, have a list of future services and potential pricing options. This way, if you do have a potential customer interested in those services, you can easily see what work those services will create and what price you could charge.
Step 6: Marketing Plan
A lot of new business owners cringe at the word marketing because they associate it with expensive advertising tactics, but another way you can look at a marketing plan would be to call it a communication plan. That’s essentially what this step is all about because this is where you plan out how you are going to get the word out about your business, how customers will find you (or vice versa), and what communication channels you are going to use.
Although you can use the traditional method of going door to door and advertising in the local paper, most people are searching for services just like yours online. An easy and affordable way to set up your landscaping business online is to create a Google Business Profile. This is absolutely free to you, and Google walks you through how to do it step by step.
A great way to show off the wonderful work your business does is through a website and social media channels. The most popular channels for landscaping are Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. People love watching short videos or looking at before and after pictures of landscaping projects before they decide to reach out for help. This is also a great platform for your customers to share the work your business did in their yard with family and friends who may also need your services.
Read: Your Guide to Generating Field Service Leads Online (8-minute read)
Step 7: Put the Plan into Action
You’ve put a lot of work and research into your plan, and now it’s time to put it into action. Put together a list of goals, milestones, and a timeline to help you stay on task to achieve your dream landscaping business.
- Goals are tasks that you would complete one at a time. A goal could be researching landscaping industry awards and finding three award contests you would like to enter your business in.
- Milestones represent the cumulation of multiple goals achieved. An example could be having your 100th customer sign up for landscaping services or expanding your business’s number of employees from one to three.
- Due dates are there to keep you focused on achieving goals and milestones in a specific amount of time. Although they are important to keep, extending the due date isn’t a bad thing if you are still focused on completing the goal/task.
Make sure to stop occasionally to see how far your business has come. Celebrate milestones when they are achieved. Step by step, you’ll achieve your dream landscaping business.
Revisit your landscaping business plan often, and when you achieve your dream landscaping business, it’s time to map out new dreams. You could expand services even more, or perhaps at that time, you’ll be looking at handing off your landscaping business to the next generation. No matter the size of the dream, use this plan outline to put into action the tasks it takes to get your business to the next level.
