How Much Does it Cost to Get Started in Landscaping?

One of the frustrations landscape start-ups have is that they start out by spending more money than they earn. Fresh landscape professionals complain they need to buy something new to accomplish new projects. But this may just be your inner excuse maker preventing you from taking the next step in your business.

If you don’t want to encounter such frustrations, take the time to truly explore both the necessity and cost of what you intend on buying. Read this article to learn more about things to consider and how much it may really cost you to get started in landscaping.

Since Landscaping tools vary in price from a few dollars at the pawnshop to large pieces of equipment that can cost tens of thousands, it's good to know what you’ll need to spend in order to progress your business to the next level and continue a natural growth built on available profits. 

While this article is by no means meant to be a complete guide to starting a landscaping business, or will it cover every type of expense you could incur, hopefully it will give you some idea of the types of costs associated with getting started and allow you to put some ballpark numbers together on a Google Sheet or input into some other accounting program.

Landscaping Business Entity Setup Costs

Costs associated with establishing your legal business entity are the first thing you need to consider. This includes legal fees, accounting fees, and registration to your respective local government. 

Outlining your future expenses through a detailed business plan may fall into this category, too. This is especially true if you plan to pursue funding of some type in the form of a business loan or investment capital. Growth projection costs will depend on your business structure and include variables like equipment needed, staffing considerations, and more. 

Costs that can add up to your setup expenses are registration fees such as those associated with incorporating an LLC in most states. These costs can vary widely and If you have investors who own a financial interest in the company, you’ll want to ensure that during the initial phases of the relationship you draft an agreement that covers the proper distribution of income and loss. Of course, there are always additional things you can spend money on like professionally written contract language, but anything of this nature will surely add to your legal fees.

Landscaping Business Licensing and Insurance Costs

Related to legal expenses, but in a slightly different category are licensing and insurance expenses. Are there landscapers that have started and grown successful businesses without considering these costs initially? Almost certainly those stories are out there. The thing is that these costs really serve one main purpose - limiting your risk.

General liability and other related business insurances aim to protect you in the event that someone makes a legal or financial claim against your business. This could be a customer who wants to sue you because you accidentally dug up a water main and flooded their property, or if you crashed through the glass window of a storefront while backing up your trailer. If these situations we’ve described strike fear into you, just imagine trying to figure out how to fix them on your own.

Insurance provides additional funds to help solve problems like these in the event you have to face them unexpectedly. They can help you cover legal fees if you have to go through litigation or serve as a payment if you are found at fault for something. While the price for this type of basic coverage usually costs landscapers between $400-$800/year ($33-$66/month) with 68% of landscape pros paying in this range, there are many factors including the size of your company that will be evaluated when calculating a quote for your policy.

Professional Landscaper Licensing Costs

These expenses are entirely dependent on where you live and where your company performs landscaping work. The requirements for licensing vary widely depending on the state you live in, so you will have to take the extra steps to figure out these laws and associated costs for operating a landscaping business in your locality.

Some states do not require any licensing for landscaping professionals. While others have stricter mandates that can even require prerequisites that you may not yet have in place such as experience or certifiable education. Other states do not require landscapers to be licensed while performing “ordinary” maintenance like grass mowing but do require a license if the business entity will be applying pesticides.

So your costs for these types of things can range from literally zero, all the way up to a significant number depending on your state and your unique business and personal situation. You can use an online landscaping licensure guide to get an idea of what to expect, but it is your responsibility to be sure you are doing whatever is required by law for the area in which you will be operating.

Most newly crowned landscaping professionals will start out with some type of free equipment that they already own, was handed down from someone they know, or obtained 2nd hand relatively cheaply from sources like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or even a local pawn shop in their area. This is especially true with hand tools like rakes, shovels, and saws. Truth be told - these old-fashioned but reliable tools are all that you truly “need” to start.

Talking realistically through, most homeowners would be surprised if you showed up at their property to cut their grass using a hand-push manual mower. So for the sake of being helpful for a modern-day landscaping company, let’s mostly talk about some of the basic pieces of power equipment you’ll want to own, maintain, and eventually consider upgrading or investing in as you build momentum in your business.

Below are some of the pieces of equipment you’ll want to have in order to run an effective landscaping maintenance business along with the approximate price ranges you may be able to purchase them for:

• Gas Powered Push mower: $50 - $500
• Manual Gardening tools (trowels, shovels. shears, rakes, etc.): $50 - $200
• Backpack or Handheld Gas Leaf Blower: $700 - $700
• Manual or Motorized Sprayer ( for pesticides, fertilizers, etc.): $20 - $2000
• Plate Compactor: $300 - $2500
• Trimmer: $40 - $500
• Edger: $80 - $500

You will also need a mode of transportation, typically a truck with a trailer, to carry all of your equipment. If you don’t own a vehicle like this yet a trailer can cost anywhere between $1,500 to $5,000. And a reliable full-sized pick-up truck will usually run you anywhere between $5,000 to $50,000.

If this is the first time you have looked at these types of numbers on paper, It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the mounting costs when starting your landscaping business.

This is the reason so many rookies opt to get started by purchasing equipment like a trimmer, leaf blower, and lawnmower to perform basic services for their first handful of clients - then continue to buy the rest as they grow and develop consistent cash flow. You'll most likely need to reinvest your earnings in the first year of your business so you can have the cash to buy new equipment, so mentally preparing yourself (and your budget) for this can help keep your expectations realistic about how much you can afford to pay yourself.

It’s critically important to remember that each landscaper will have different services they specialize in. Also, each regional location will have different climates, native plants, soil types, and more to consider. Therefore, each landscaping professional will have unique needs and require slightly different tools/equipment than others.

Make sure you are buying the specific tools you need, and not what someone else has told you they use. While there will certainly be similarities, the tool requirements from one landscaper to another (even in the same region) may not be exactly the same. Identifying the perfect tool combination can take time, so be prepared to adjust as you learn.

Professional Landscaping Advertising Costs

You will not have any success in your landscaping business if you don't have any customers. If you are starting from zero and don’t have the stomach to knock on doors or hand out business cards, you may want to consider an upfront investment in advertising your landscaping services. 

Even if you are planning on using Google PPC to generate landscaping leads, you must know your advertising targets (keywords + locations) you plan to do business with otherwise you can quickly blow your ads budget without generating many paying jobs to show in return. 

Once you use a tool like SEMRush or a proven research method like an SEO audit from a qualified agency like VRDigs to help identify your target keywords - it will boil down to using creative marketing strategies and effective copywriting to attract visitors and convert them into paying customers.

While there are endless advertising platforms that you can spend money on and we won’t cover them all here; If you have a clean background with no criminal record, and have a least 1 positive Google Review for your business, you may qualify to use Google Local Service Ads for Landscaping. This powerful new option is really unmatched in terms of its effectiveness, but it does entail a multi-step Google verification process to begin. Contact VRDigs if you feel like this might be a useful path for you to take, but need guidance or more information in order to get started.

Smaller, one-off type advertising options like a space in your local print publication may also be something to consider if you can afford it. The key to advertising, especially when you can’t accurately measure your ROI, is to not try to gamble your ad spend thinking you will just make it back by winning jobs. Be tactful with your ad budget and try to earn new work organically through referrals as much as possible in the beginning.

Landscaping Website Costs

You can spend a lot of money on a landscaping website, but you may not need to - especially in the beginning. Check out our recent article exploring Landscaping website costs to learn about the wide range of options you have available depending on your budget. If you’re going to be doing any PPC advertising, or digital marketing of any kind you really need to have at least a simple 1-page landscaping website at the bare minimum. This is so that 1) you have a link to send search traffic to, and 2) You have a way to convert visitors using a form or at least have your contact information clearly visible.

VRDigs also offers a totally cost-free option to help solve this problem as well. By signing up to create a free profile page on our landscaping business directory, you will have access to a dedicated page for your landscaping business. Of course, you can build a Facebook page for your business (which we highly recommend regardless), but having a dedicated URL will allow you to run ad campaigns on pay-tp-play platforms like Google Search PPC.

Financial Tips for Starting Your Landscaping Business

To help you jump-start your landscaping business financially, below are a few more things to consider.

Alternative Funding Source

You have a few options available if you don’t have the money to buy the necessary equipment or implement an advertising campaign. You could take out a loan from financial institutions, get funding from outside investors, or bring in a partner. 

Finding enough funds to cover regular operating expenses is essential in starting your landscaping business on the right foot. So, analyze your current financial situation before you kick things off and embark on your professional landscaping journey.

Look For a Specific Location

It should be pretty obvious. But ensure that you choose the perfect location for your landscaping business. This may be your local vicinity close to where you live, or it may be a few towns over where you will find the type of clients you are looking to serve. Certainly do some research on your own about this and give it some thought but generally speaking, an obvious thing to consider would be somewhere where there are a high number of houses with gardens or lawns. A downtown metro area will have work too, but suburbs will generally be more accessible, less competitive, and present more landscaping options than a concrete jungle.

Also, keep in mind the financial status of the residences in your chosen location. It can be hard to make a profit in areas of low-income earners. But, if you find a highbrow place with plenty of retirees as an example, you just might get lucky and could get back what you have invested in no time. 

Know Your Labor Rates and Charge What You Are Worth

This is one of the most common mistakes newcomers to the landscaping industry make. DO NOT make the mistake of undervaluing yourself or your business, even if you have never been a professional landscaper in the past. 

As we have outlined above, there are fixed costs associated with owning and operating a landscaping business. You must account for these costs and your living expenses if you are going to be depending on this business to survive and maintain your sanity.

Knowing what to charge your clients can be a tricky subject and there are a lot of great resources out there to help you figure out what to charge for the type of service you are providing. In a nutshell, what you charge should not be what you want to make. But the cost to cover the materials, tools, and manpower - plus a portion to grow your business.

So every time you start a project, figure out what it will cost first before you charge your client and stick to your guns. Don’t let the fear of failure or pushy clients devalue your work. Let those customers walk and you won’t be stuck in a landscaping labor wheel of misery. Instead, you will be on the path to achieving your landscaping business dreams, all in due time.

Conclusion

As you’ve read, initial expenses for the landscaping business will vary. You could start with $5000 or less if you are a one-man operation. Based on our industry knowledge and experience dealing with all types of landscaping companies and hearing their origin stories - most landscaping companies will need a good chunk of investment to start and avoid commonly experienced start-up pains, with average landscaping start-up costing between $15,000 to $20,000. 

It’s not easy to start a new business, especially if you are new to the profession. So if you know anyone who is considering a landscaping business and has no idea about the costs involved, share this article to help as a starting point.

References:

https://www.insureon.com/landscaping-business-insurance/cost

https://www.nextinsurance.com/blog/landscaper-licensing-requirements/