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What are the most profitable jobs a landscaper can get?

Would you rather mow or do leaf pickup?


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Hello all pros of landscaping! I have been doing mowing with my brother since 2015 as a business.

Our jobs consisted of: (standard stuff)
Mowing
Blowing
Edging
Weed whipping

We are looking to move on from just lawn mowing to lawn care and landscaping. Just wondering what the most profitable jobs are.

Pruning, tree planting, pulling trees out of the ground, aeration, laying sod, mulching flower beds, etc.

I know if we get into any of this stuff, it wont be just one thing we do specifically.(We would never get any business that way.)

But just asking what everyone thinks on this to give us an idea were to focus for buying our next pieces of equipment.

Thanks!
Michael-SBLC
 

Definitive Dave

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Every job you do should be your most profitable.
What I mean by this is to set your pricing to assure the profit margin you want.
In landscaping all you sell is time.
Everybody can buy a 1" maple for the same price, it should take everybody roughly the same time to plant it and the same job materials (mulch, fertilizer, staking supplies).
In landscaping you need to do all you can to be organized enough that the stupid little stuff doesn't mess up your profit margin.
Things like paying a delivery fee to the mulch manufacturer and nursery seem like they are taking money out of your pocket, but if your employees are onsite digging holes and doing bed prep so the site is ready for the materials when they arrive, you are that much ahead (only so much time in the season around here at least). On the other hand if your crew is in the cab of the dump truck for 20 minutes each way and at the mulch yard for 10 minutes getting loaded, you just paid almost three manhours for your guys to not do work.
Make sure you charge enough for chemical work, many times it is best to subcontract this work unless y9ou have enough for a crew full time all season.
Let your existing customers know that you can provide all of their outdoor needs with the same care an attention you give their mowing now.
Aeration is hard on equipment and sprinkler systems.
Always charge customers in a manner that takes into account what you spend on equipment and upkeep.
Know all your real costs.
It is easy to not make money at landscaping, check out all the backpack blowers, string trimmers and hedge shears at the pawn shops right now.
Those are the guys who didn't have a plan and just decided to do as much work as possible for any price they could get.
If you are planning to get more business by being less expensive than your competition, get somebody to punch you in the nuts really fast.
Both are bad ideas that hurt you, but one is faster and hopefully you can move on to a better idea :)
 
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Well definite Dave, I appreciate your response! I have one more question though.

What learning source did you use for learning all the different landscaping Jobs? (A ridiculous amount of YouTube videos, two years of botany in college, talking to other experts, etc)

Thanks!
 

Definitive Dave

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I spent about a year working for a mid-sized landscape company (30-40 employees) as a grunt and figured out I liked the irrigation stuff and got my custom applicators license. Spent a year as a service tech at the biggest irrigation company in my area. During that time I was doing chemical work for the earlier company on and off. Went to work for a year for a small landscape company with lots of clients and equipment but no employees, they needed a chem guy but did everything wrong.
Started my own sprinkler company, operated for 15 years.
Sold out to the biggest company in the state and spent three years there learning alot about the right way to do budgets, planning and produce consistent work. Huge learning experience.
Parted ways with them as they decided to stop doing all commercial work. I still did a little design and consulting work for them and they sent a fair bit of business my way. Started my own company.
Six years later I subcontract everything to guys I know and trust.
I deal with clients and billing and logistics (making sure dump truck loads of mulch show up to the right properties at the right time, etc.
It was humbling to realize work got done better and faster without me there looking over shoulders.

Your local supply house for chemicals and landscape supplies will be a great resource for info and a good place to stick up flyers to find a foreman who already knows what quality work looks like and how to get it done.

If you are good at the mowing side and enjoy that part (my brother loves to cut grass), dont mess up that line of business by doing too much yourself.

I'm sure you know who your good customers are, the ones who always pay on time and are good at telling you what they want and what they don't like when there is a problem.
Talk to a few of them about using you for all of their outdoor needs, they are predisposed to like you and will probably cut you a little slack on anything that isn't 100% that first season.

Drive through the nice part of town and when you see a building that looks great, stop and look.
Crisp bed edges make even a dormant landscape look manicured.

If you do use subs try to make sure you can pay them on time or early every time.
They will remember that when you are in a jam and need something last minute.

If a customer asks for something you aren't comfortable with, feed them with the long spoon, try to find a local expert to help you out before you quote a price or turn the work down.

Your local large university might have a co-operative extension service who can help with a lot of technical stuff.

The head grower and buyer at the Nursery will steer you right on all the plant related questions, they want you to succeed and buy more the next year :)

Also you may have a group such as SCORE (service core of retired engineers), who are retired businessmen looking to help out small businesses. It can be hit or miss, as to who they pair you with, but you can usually find guys who know alot about stuff that is a mystery to you.
 

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Funny you mention SCORE. Tried to hook up with them several times and they did not respond. Got an email eight months later so I called. Was feed a tall stack from some guy who new nothing of forestry or silvaculture. Twice they dropped the ball but still send emails every few months about meetings.
 

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Yeah the first time I got an accountant type guy, when i was looking for help in generating sales leads, later a retired union electrician, both of them taught me stuff i never knew I needed to know :)
They probably have just a giant list of guys looking for a reason to go talk to people and send whoever is available.
 

Lightning Performance

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Bored retired guys with connections and experience would have been great. Someone local is always best if they know their stuff and stuff.
 

jake wells

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i would rather mow i just went a bid a HOA and got ten more yards added to my already busy summer schedule.
its just mowing 70$ per yard only reason i got it,,, i was licensed and insured...
 

jake wells

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im good for something here is my work
20160405_120419.jpg
 

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HOAs are a whole monster unto themselves :)
Normally good money since less well off neighborhoods don't have an home owners association with requirements for how the properties have to be maintained but.... you sometimes get Mrs Persniwhipple in 1411 who insists that she is on the board and you have to cut here grass the same direction every week (ridges in the turf) with only a 36" mower and hand pulling of weeds inside the fenced in area next to the back door where her dog *s-words three times a day.
I hope you never meet Mrs. Persniwhipple she can ruin a good thing, and if you don't treat her like a golden princess she poisons the board against you for the next season :)
 

Fish

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What about landscapers that gaurantee that the plants will live a year? Do they still do that sort of thing?
 

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Around here the commercial nurseries offer no warranty.
If you buy wholesale you better know what you are doing.
Standard warranty on an install is one year replacement.
We leave a gator bag with every tree planted and it is the homeowners responsibility to water.
If they dont have sprinklers we do the install in the fall when the plants are dormant and less susceptible to injury.
Plus they spring rains help.
 
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