Starting a new business is always a thrilling adventure. Especially if yours is a lawn care company, you are in for an incredible ride. Honestly, landscaping is more than just providing service to your customers. It is a great mix of creativity and business skills. The satisfaction to see the lush, green front yard surrounded by those pretty plants is truly priceless. It is nothing short of getting a five-star rating.
From a business perspective, however, this is not going to serve you enough, for you need to earn some profit at the end of the day. So, besides working hard on the job, you need to devise some strategies to grow your landscape maintenance business as well. But how? This remains the burning question.
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At some point, you might arrive at a crossroads feeling like your landscaping business is stuck
And not going anywhere. You are not happy with just what you have and have this constant pang of seeing your business taking steps further. And if you feel this way, you must be thinking to yourself, “what am I doing wrong?”
Well, you are not doing anything wrong. It is just you are not doing enough. True, starting a landscaping business is no easy job. But growing the business takes some more effort. If you really want to grow, increase your revenue, and expand your customer base, you would need to do more than just provide quality service. You must strive to bring in more business, focus on closing more landscaping job leads, optimize your resources, increase your profit margins, and so much more.
Sounds overwhelming? Don’t worry. We have got you covered.
In this post, we’re going to lay out five easy steps to grow your landscaping business. Let’s take a look.
1. Up Your Digital Marketing Game
Gone are the days when you can just put up hoardings, distribute fliers, and pass around your landscaping business cards hoping to spread the word. The world is moving forward and so should you. The actual game has moved to the digital space. Research shows that over 86% of people now turn to the internet first to look for a product or service. Understandably. Relying on word-of-mouth marketing is not going to suffice. If you want to grow your landscaping business, you need to build a strong online presence.
To this end, you need to hone your digital marketing skills. Or you can simply hire a professional to do this on your behalf. Whatever route you choose, there are a few things that you must do to keep up with the competition.
- Start with developing your own website.
- Claim your Google My Business Page to drive more traffic to your website
- Use blogs, videos, infographics, and other valuable resources on your website
- Create accounts or pages on social media.
- Frequently post on social networking sites to build a positive brand awareness
Besides these basic things, there are plenty of other tools available to increase organic traffic and generate leads. You can come up with video advertisements, invest in search engine optimization (SEO), and so on. The purpose of this whole ordeal is to reach more potential customers and create positive brand awareness– so that when they require landscaping services, they think of you first.
In short, digital marketing helps you to get the word out, only on a much larger scale.
2. Focus on Customer Retention
While scoring new customers is an evident way to expand your business, you must not forget that your main source of revenue comes from your existing customers. In fact, research says that 80% of your total revenue comes from just 20% of your loyal customers or repeated customers. In the business books, this is known as the Pareto Principle, which asserts that having a loyal customer base guarantees a steady revenue stream than acquiring new clientele.
Therefore, it is vital to maintain a good relationship with clients. As much as you strive to take your landscaping business to new customers, don’t forget to keep in touch with your existing customers. Maintain contact, ask questions, request feedback, and don’t forget to remind them about the special deals, new services, seasonal discounts, and anything else that might grab their attention. The more you succeed to create a lasting impression on your customers, the more likely you will be able to retain customers The result? More loyal customers, more repeated orders, more business, and therefore, more revenue!
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3. Diversify Your Clientele
A great way to expand your business is to expand your customer base. But here is something more that you can do to increase your revenue. Instead of just increasing the number, you can diversify your customer base. That is, you can take a leap and approach a different kind of customer base than you usually work with. For example, if you have been working in residential neighborhoods, you can consider opening up your business for commercial clients. Reach out to the office buildings, local parks and rec centers, art galleries, or any business establishment that might require landscaping services. Even schools and hospitals hire landscapers.
This transition, however, is likely to be daunting. You’ll need to have contracts made, increase the insurance coverage, possibly upgrade your equipment, add more employees, and make a few upgrades to meet the heightened challenges. But no matter how overwhelming it seems, it is completely worth it if you think about the revenue and brand value it is going to bring to your business.
4. Expand Your Service
Another great way to reach more customers is to expand your service area. It’s just common sense. The more geographical area you cover, the more potential customers you have to approach. So, if it’s commercially viable, consider covering more ground and expanding your services to the surrounding areas. This will open up new business opportunities for you. Furthermore, you can also consider expanding your service offerings.
The smartest move in this regard would be developing off-season services. During the winter months, clients don’t really have regular landscaping needs. However, you must come up with a business model that continues to generate revenue all year round. Therefore, you might come up with some unorthodox off-season services to make up for the lost revenue. You can introduce various seasonal services, such as snow removal, outdoor holiday decoration, event decoration, etc. You can also start selling simple gardening tools, indoor plants, or house decor items as a side hustle. Don’t forget to do it both online and offline.
5. Automate Your Business
In this age of digital transformation, the most effective way to grow your business is by switching to automation. Digital tools and technology now play a pivotal role in business growth. The more your business expands, the more work you have to do. The more customers you acquire, the more jobs you have to attend. In short, when scaling up your business, you automatically add more tasks to the process. The more tasks you have, the more time you will need to fulfill them.
Now, if you decide to keep doing things using the same-old pen, paper, and excel sheets, you are leaving room open for manual errors. This could be fatal for your business. Besides, you need to free up time to do the actual job, rather than spending it all to figure out the administrative operations. The solution is simple– automate your business. Get the best field service management software to do the job for you.
Automation saves you time and money. Besides, it standardizes and streamlines business processes, leaving no room for errors or mismanagement. But that’s not all. Field service solutions come with endless benefits. From automatically scheduling appointments to generating invoices on-site, it can do wonders for your landscaping business. As such, it helps you provide an exceptional customer experience, which will, in turn, win you more clients; and retain the old ones.
Final Words
Running a landscaping business is no walk in the park. The success of your landscaping business relies heavily on asserting what you do and how you do it. To be a good landscaper, you need to have a creative eye, think methodically and be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get stuck. As a business owner, your practical knowledge and eye for detail will only get you so far. And in today’s time, knowing how to leverage advanced technology will do the trick for you.
Ask yourself this question– how much do landscapers make? You probably know the answer. But you will be surprised to learn the difference in revenue when compared to those who have adopted automation for their business processes. So, why should you miss out? Hop on the wagon and be a part of the changing trend. Choose a paperless business solution that suits your business perfectly, and see the difference in no time.
Now, if you are thinking about which software solution is best for your landscaping business, the answer is simple. Choose Field Promax. We have designed the perfect digital solution keeping landscapers in mind. Our advanced technology can take care of all your business needs and could be customized as per your requirements. As such, it is specifically made for you.