If you are really bent on starting the business of Landscaping, it is suggested that you must know the works of a gardener and interiorscaper as these two works are allies and can go hand in hand as a landscaper to broaden your service areas. In this type of venture your must have a lawn mower, rake, broom and other small hand tools like watering cans, grass cutters or trimming scissors and others. If your budget would permit, a truck or trailer would be the best asset to facilitate your mobility but of course these could be either rented or buy secondhand items only but be extra careful on what you are buying.
If your contract is for maintenance work only, there are instances that you can use their equipments and would not require you to haul their debris but you will be expected to work within their budgets at less expense. Consider also that if you work both as gardener and landscaper, there were other sources of income like clean-ups. These are simple onetime job of cleaning up neglected overgrown landscape to bring back its luster and these are not simple easy jobs as they require hard work but these are profitable.
In every business undertaking, you have to follow government regulations and you need to conduct some investigations before venturing into the business without government permit. In some States, you would be required to apply for a contractor's license as a certified landscaper before allowed to do business. You might in some cases have to secure a pest control license if your business requires you to use pesticides and it's better to check out first for your own good. Be sure to secure an insurance cover for your business to cover some risks involved in the future, as a lawsuit arising from your landscaping business later on would spell your failure to operate effectively and would ruin all the hard work you have put in.
Once you have met all government regulations and you feel you are now ready, start advertising your services and where and how to advertise depends largely on your budget. It is suggested that you concentrate first on residential works and add commercial works later. In order to bag residential works there are various ways to advertise which are discussed below according to cost and effectiveness valuation;
1. Friends and acquaintances' referrals. This the cheapest and the best and using this approach it is presumed that you have already started and accomplished previous works along your line of business either as gardener, interiorscaper or landscaper.
2. Door-to-door campaign. This is cheap, but is less effective and time consuming but an alternative approach instead of doing nothing. Concentrate on new homes or new area and upper income families.
3. Use Flyers- This is more costly than door-to-door strategy but less effective.
4. Use the classified ads of newspapers. This is very effective though the cost is also high but you can direct your advertising to the specific area based on the newspaper coverage.
5. Yellow Pages advertising. This is very expensive but if you are for the long haul this would give you premium advertisement in the coming years of your business, although most of your jobs would come from word-of-mouth referrals or promotions.
After analyzing which of the above advertising strategy you will take depending on your budget, don't hesitate to implement it so you can get started on your first work as a duly licensed landscaper.
