4 Tips For Growing Your Landscaping Business

Landscapers often rely on word-of-mouth referrals to grow their business, but there are many ways that a savvy business owner can grow his or her business beyond just word-of-mouth referrals. To successfully grow your landscaping business, there needs to be a combination of a high level of customer service and a savvy mind for marketing the business and developing a buzz around the business. The successful landscaper, then, will understand these key concepts and apply them to his or her business.

Find ways to increase sales to current customers

Quite simply, it's cheaper to keep your current customers and to increase how much revenue they bring, than it is to find new customers. There are many ways you can increase sales to existing customers.

Offer pro-rated discounts for additional work from existing customers. Identify those customers that have an extra yard, or another property that you don't currently work on, then offer a discounted rate for the extra work. While you might ultimately make less than you would by performing the services at full price, you can save travel time by staying in the same place and increase the revenue you get from one customer, ultimately increasing your bottom line.

You should also consider offering new services. Start by surveying your existing customers to see if there is a service that many of them could use, and begin to offer that. Your business does not have to be a one-trick pony; you can offer many services that are relevant to what you do but will increase sales to those current or existing customers.

Engage in joint ventures

An underutilized landscaping business marketing technique it the joint venture. This can provide lucrative and similar to word-of-mouth referral income, but with a bit less effort. A good joint venture candidate might be a fencing contractor, who might be in a position to call you when he needs trees or bushes cleared in order to install or repair a fence. You in turn could call him when you discover damaged fences on client properties. This joint venture benefits both you and the other business and can greatly increase the bottom line of your landscaping business without a great deal of effort on your part. The only effort you ultimately make is to establish a friendly business relationship with other, complimentary, businesses.

Work to keep your earnings steady year-round

Most landscaping businesses are directly tied to the seasons and many landscapers find themselves experiencing slow periods during the winter season. If you can figure out a savvy way to increase your earnings during the slow periods, this is an excellent way to grow your business and make your landscaping business a successful year-round venture. One of the ways you might do this is to offer snow shoveling services in the winter or other services that take advantage of the season.

Hire people

Most landscaping businesses are small, and the owners often do most or all of the work themselves. It's always handy to have someone in the office who can handle the administration side of things, but it's also important to consider hiring other landscapers to help you with the work. If you are able to increase your customer base, you will likely need these workers to maintain a high level of customer service.

While proprietors are often reluctant to hire workers for fear of not being able to cover the costs, many landscapers report their bottom line actually increases when they are willing to increase their workforce, as they are able to service more clients. The average hourly pay for landscaping workers, according to Entrepreneur magazine, is just $10 an hour. You can hire college students or others who are willing to work part time and bring them in when the workload demands it. By focusing on savvy business practices and being willing to work outside a comfort zone, there are many ways to successfully grow a landscaping business.

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