Hi, I am looking for diffirent ideas to start up my landscaping business.

1. how to get customer base fast without starving.
2. what types of jobs should I be doing besides mowing to bring in a
a respectable cash flow.
3. do I need any certifications or are any recomended.
4 how do I bid a job...(I know I sound pathetic over here)
5. what is a key target audience?...elderly?
6. do you have any tips on removal of leaves and shrubs...my friend
said it was a huge waist of time to haul leaves away to the dump..
7. anything else that you think is important to know...plz say it.

I have a silent partner that is going to fund me and I have six months to get this started...so the sooner you guys advise me, the better, Thanx a lot!!

I've worked for a landscaping comp. already but it was a very unorganized one at that. He dumped leaves and shrubs in local spots that no one knew about and when it came to landscaping, he would do anything he could to get his hand on a buck..but his work was not top notch, he would say yes to a job and then wing it. I basically want to erase what I learned from him and start over fresh.
As far as what my company will be doing will be based on what certifications I need and my partner is leary of doing anything that can bite us back besides mowing. He is afraid that with our lack of experience, in this line of work, that we can get sued or lose profits to a poorly done job....which is understandable. I do feel that we need something else though to bring in the money besides lawns. I just don't know what are standard jobs offered by landscapers or asked for by customers. If I knew in advance then I could incorporate it into my business plan and take the necessary classes to get the job done right...maybe even lower insurance costs?

Thanks for your replies and look forward to hearing from you and others soon

I don't really think anyone will go so far as to file lawsuit over a poor job of landscaping, unless you don't do something that you said you were going to do.

If you do major work on someone's lawn, beit a fountain, pond, plants, etc., make sure to get all the terms, drawings, etc. signed and notorized just in case.

My advice, if you're not sure what you're doing, watch shows on HGTV or DUI and take notes. If you like something you see, make sure you try and record every step of the process. Having a large archive of ideas to present to potential clients will be benefitial!

Good luck,

Jason-

If I were to hire a landscaper, I personally would want assurance that he knew what he was doing. If it were me, I'd concentrate on building up the lawn mowing side of the business, and have added services like clearing away old brush, weeding gardens, etc. Then, as you get more experience, learn to do the skilled landscaping. Perhaps there's a community college or extension course you can take.

I posted to a thread a few months ago about a landscaping business. The original poster was asking how to market it, and I had just seen a post on another board and shared it here. If I recall the details correctly, the lawn mowing person printed up flyers offering to cut the homeowner's lawn for free. If the homeowner wanted to take him up on the offer, he just had to write "yes" in big letters on the back of the flyer and tape it to his front door. Then the lawn guy came back the next day and mowed his lawn. When he was finished, he invited the homeowner to inspect the job and made a sales pitch about doing it regularly for $X. The lawn guy targeted only affluent neighborhoods. All this costs you is your time, effort, some photocopying costs and a little bit of fuel for your lawnmower. Apparently the guy who did this generated so much business he was making big bucks a few years later.

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Logic says that if you want to be a 'landscaper', then you should get some experience first by either taking a course if one is available in your area, or by going to work for a reputable landscaping firm for at least a year. If your goal is garden maintenance, which is not even remotely connected to landscaping, then some of the suggestions you have received are worth considering. But, please, don't confuse garden maintenance with landscaping. They are two different industries.

Hi M&R

Firstly i beleive this is the thread that Eileen is talking about http://www.small-business-forum.com/...ead.php?t=2076 .

Also if you are looking for some other services rather in the Garden Maintainence then the Landscape side here are a few you could consider.

1 - Weeding
2 - Spraying the lawn for Bindi or Weeds, usually once or twice a year people may want this.
3 - cutting dead branches from trees (just keep it to small trees and bushesbecause you will need quite a bit more insurance i would imagine if you are working on large trees.
4 - Clearing Garden scrub, many people will have a corner of their yard which has piles of grass clippings, and branches and bushes that have been cut down, in most cases people never get round to do it and some may like it taken away for them. One thing to consider in this would be that some local authorities will charge you to take this type of stuff to the refuse station(dump) so you will need to factor this into the cost, unless your local authority offers tickets to the residents and then you may be able to ask them if you can use that to keep their cost down.

I hope these ideas help you out, and good luck with your business.

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Those are all good ideas...thanks.
I think I will try and write down all the possible jobs in both the gardening and landscaping fields and write out the step by steps for each one. Once I get an outline that I can follow, I will probally feel more comfortable with performing the tasks and I can also figure in costs.
As far as experience goes, I have very little but I was considering taking a landscaping course which is ten months long and then going for my CLT shortly after
just to back up the company's reputation. Anyways, thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it!

Let me ask you a question. Why do you have a partner? Do you not have a lawn mower edger and weed eater of your own? Is he buying you this stuff and in turn he gets to be your partner becasue of that. You may want to also think about having the ability to buy him out if he isn't doing any work and just helping you get started.

I once need 15k extra for a business. I had tons of people who wanted a % of the business for the loan. I stuck it and found someone who just wanted to give me a straight loan. Now 2 years later if I had given out that small % it would have cost me 50k and counting instead of 20k to pay back the loan with intrest.

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Shaun

http://www.businessfaqs.net

I posted something simular on another site. We had an old fella around here which would give you a free cut then offer you a contract.

As for disposal of the clippings why not take them to your place and start a compost pile.

good luck
Richard

Start small and work your way up. Do what you can now - even if it's only a quality mowing and edge job - and then start to throw are services in.

You cannot go wrong by starting small and then growing and developing the business and your skills from there. Your not going to upset customers by only being able to provide a quality mowing/edge job - you will upset customers when all you can do is mow and edge a lawn and you have posted you can provide other quality services when in reality you cannot!

Just start small, take care of your customers - keep them coming back - and when you and your business have developed to incorporate the other services your talking about - then do so.

Good luck.

Sam Burnette