How To Start a Landscaping Business in 2025

If you enjoy working outdoors and building things, you may find a place for yourself in the landscaping industry, creating beautiful outdoor spaces for commercial and residential clients. The industry shows steady growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 6% between 2020 and 2025.

Here are some best practices for starting your own landscaping business, from writing your initial business plan to expanding your clientele with targeted marketing efforts.

What is a landscaping business?

A landscaping business helps design, install, and maintain outdoor spaces. You can work with residential clients on the yards, patios, and entranceways to their homes, as well as with commercial clients such as schools, office buildings, and retail stores.

Landscaping businesses can focus on a wide range of offerings, from lawn care services like mowing, mulching, and tree care to more complicated projects like soup-to-nuts landscape design, installing greenhouses, building walkways, and pool design and construction.

Here are the most common models:

Maintenance-focused businesses

This entails regular services like mowing, trimming, and seasonal clean-ups. This type of business offers predictable, recurring revenue and long-term customer relationships. It does, however, tend to be lower-margin work, and there is the constant challenge of managing scheduling and staffing.

Design, build, or installation-focused

These companies focus on one-time projects like new lawns, hardscape installs (concrete, stone work, and wood installations), or outdoor living spaces. These are typically more expensive jobs and offer the opportunity for creative work, but can be less predictable and have longer sales cycles.

Specialty verticals

Some businesses choose to focus on niches like irrigation systems, lighting, or tree work. These services can be very profitable but often require specific certifications and skilled labor.

Hybrid models

Many larger businesses combine services or even become full-service by bringing in specialists. You can expand your business by offering a wide range of services, but you’ll be managing operations and logistics on a larger scale.

How to start a landscaping business

1. Get on-the-job experience
2. Choose which landscaping services to offer
3. Write a landscaping business plan
4. Set up your business structure
5. Acquire permits, licenses, and insurance
6. Raise funds
7. Purchase landscaping equipment
8. Set your pricing
9. Create a business website
10. Develop local marketing efforts
11. Use tools to manage communications and scheduling
12. Expand your landscaping business

Whether you’re planning to offer maintenance-focused services like seasonal clean-ups or more specialized landscaping services, here are some of the key steps to launch a successful landscaping business:

1. Get on-the-job experience

If you want to launch your own landscaping business, you’ll first need hands-on experience practicing landscaping design, installation, and maintenance. Apply for entry-level work with local landscaping companies and search for landscaping gigs on freelancing platforms like Upwork, Thumbtack, and Lawn Love. You’ll likely need to start as a laborer performing the physical work of digging, mowing, trimming, and moving materials based on an experienced landscaper’s plans.

Network with general contractors in your area to learn more about which landscaping companies are hiring for landscaping or lawn care. Another way to improve your landscaping skills is by offering free landscaping services (like mowing and cleanup that don’t require permits) to friends and family. The more experience you gain, the more skills and better information you’ll have for your own business.

2. Choose which landscaping services to offer

Once you have experience in the landscaping industry, decide on the scope of your landscaping services. Make your decision based on your interests, skills, and the needs in your local market. Conduct market research on landscaping companies in your area and identify a niche market with less competition where you could offer unique value.

For example, you might realize through your research that your local area has no need for another lawn care business offering standard mowing and watering services but has a shortage of experienced landscapers who can install irrigation systems.

Here is a list of common landscaping services to consider:

• Landscape design

• Tree removal or planting

• Lawn mowing and aeration

• Pool installation or removal

• Garden design

• Seasonal cleanup

• Pathway design

• Irrigation

• Deck installation or removal

• Greenhouse construction

• Pest control

• Sod installation

• Mulching

3. Write a landscaping business plan

Create a comprehensive business plan that outlines your landscape company’s goals and how you plan to accomplish them in a set period of time. This can serve as a guiding document as you build your business, as well as a key asset should you decide to apply for external funding like a business loan. Build from a business plan template and include the following key sections:

• Executive summary. An executive summary typically appears at the beginning of a business plan, providing a one-page overview of your landscaping business and its overall objectives.

• Company overview. Describe your business history, your own background, and any other relevant information about your business—including how your landscaping company will stand apart from the competition.

• Services offered. Describe which landscaping services you plan to offer and how much you plan to charge for each service.

• Market analysis. Include information about the size of your local market as well as competitive analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of landscaping companies you’ll be competing against for market share.

• Marketing plan. Create a marketing plan that describes how you will reach new clients for your landscaping business.

• Logistics and operations plan. This section should include relevant information about how you plan to source the necessary equipment and transportation for your business, as well as plans for how you’ll manage client communications and scheduling.

• Financial plan. Finally, compile detailed information about your startup costs and financial projections, including potential revenue and expenses.

4. Set up your business structure

Choose which type of business structure best serves your goals and scope. The biggest choice is whether or not you want to incorporate. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships are unincorporated business types, which means, legally, that there’s no distinction between the owner and the business. Without this distinction, owner(s) are personally responsible for the business’s losses, debts, and liabilities.

Limited liability companies (LLCs) and corporations are incorporated business entities. An LLC is much simpler to set up than a corporation, and it enjoys pass-through taxation, while corporations are subject to two levels of taxation. You first pay corporate tax on profits, and shareholders must pay taxes on their dividends. A corporation allows you to sell shares to raise capital, which may be useful for larger businesses.

An attorney and a tax professional help you decide on the right entity for your business. Once you’ve established your business structure, apply for an employer identification number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which you’ll use for filing business taxes, opening a business bank account, and more.

5. Acquire permits, licenses, and insurance

Landscaping businesses are required to have contractor licensing to provide landscaping services that involve structures, paving, and other construction work, although the local regulations vary. Employees typically don’t need a contractor license themselves, but make sure your team is trained, safe, and properly insured. Purchase general liability insurance to protect your business against the risk of accidental property damage or medical expenses from injuries, and commercial auto insurance to protect the vehicle you’re using to transport landscaping equipment.

Research what type of business license you’ll need to operate your landscaping business. Requirements vary depending on where you’re operating, so check with your city, county, and state to make sure you’re getting the correct licenses.

For example, you don’t need a state license to operate a landscaping business in Montana, but you will need to apply for a pesticide license if you plan to offer pest control. California, on the other hand, requires a C-27 Landscaping Contractors License, which involves submitting an application, passing an exam, and providing proof of four years of experience in the landscaping field. If you plan to provide more specialized services, you may need to acquire other licenses.

6. Raise funds

If you plan to provide simple lawn care services with equipment and transportation you already own, you can get your landscaping business off the ground without a lot of initial investment. However, if you need to purchase specialty equipment or transportation, your startup costs can go up significantly. Use the financial projections from your business plan to determine what funds you’ll need to raise to get started.

Weigh your options for different ways to raise capital. Consider applying for a small business loan from a bank, credit union, or the Small Business Administration (SBA). Another option is to crowdfund your startup costs from your network of friends, family, colleagues, and the local community. Choose a bank where you can set up a business bank account to manage your money and monitor all of your expenses.

7. Purchase landscaping equipment

Once you’ve raised your startup funds, break down your equipment needs based on which services you plan to offer. Avoid overspending on equipment before you build your client base; instead, purchase only the necessary equipment you need to handle your initial clients.

You can compare equipment prices from hardware stores and online marketplaces. You may find better deals on used equipment, but make sure you understand any equipment maintenance needs. Here are some of the common tools you’ll likely need for your landscaping business:

• Lawn mower

• Leaf blower

• Line trimmer

• Shrub shears

• Shovels

• Rakes

• Wheelbarrow

• Buckets

• Gloves and safety glasses

• Lawn aerator

• Truck

• Trailer (for hauling large equipment like riding lawn mowers)

• Axe and chainsaw (if you plan to offer tree removal services)

• Excavator (if you plan to offer pool installation)

8. Set your pricing

There are a variety of pricing strategies you can use to set your prices. Full-cost pricing incorporates all associated costs of a product or service, including equipment, transportation, insurance, permits, taxes, and labor. Tiered pricing is a common model for service businesses. Set your prices high enough for positive profit margins, but low enough to keep your pricing competitive, using your competitor research to guide you.

9. Create a business website

With your services and pricing set, it’s time to create a business website for your landscaping company to tell prospective customers what you have to offer. Include a bio about yourself and your experience, a comprehensive list of your services, what areas you service, contact information, and—if you have their permission—positive customer testimonials.

You might also demonstrate your expertise by publishing blog articles about landscaping, including tutorials, educational content, and industry news. By building this content around highly searched keywords, you can also help your website rank on search engine results pages (SERPs)—driving organic traffic to your website and helping prospective customers discover your business.

10. Develop local marketing efforts

Focus your marketing efforts on the local area where you plan to operate. Avoid getting spread too thin and risking losing money and time on transportation. Create printed materials like flyers, door hangers, and pamphlets, and place them in locations with high foot traffic like community centers, shopping malls, and coffee shops.

Focus your online marketing efforts toward local search engine optimization (SEO), which can improve your rankings on results for localized search queries made on search engines like Google and Bing. When potential customers search for landscaping services in your area, you want your business to rank near the top of those SERPs. Claim your Google Business Profile and fill out your profile by listing your services and using any high-quality photographs of your landscaping work.

List your business on Yelp and encourage customers to post positive reviews by sending them review request emails after providing services and offering incentives to customers who post reviews (like free services or loyalty points for future services). Create a Nextdoor account and a Facebook page where you can interact with local Facebook Groups. You can also list your services on freelancing platforms like Thumbtack and Upwork.

11. Use tools to manage communications and scheduling

Consistently sticking to appointments helps support your brand reputation online (through reviews) and in the community (through word of mouth). Landscaping business software can help you organize client leads, facilitate communication, and manage landscaping bookings and appointments.

Use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that lets you centralize client communications on one easy dashboard. By launching a website for your business on a reliable platform like Shopify, you can easily integrate with appointment booking apps to let clients request landscaping appointment times directly from your website.

12. Expand your landscaping business

If you’re running a landscaping business solo, you’ll ultimately face limitations with how many clients you can take on and how much revenue you can earn. If you have good profit margins and want to expand your company’s market reach, consider hiring employees to help you increase your capacity for more clients. Purchase workers’ compensation insurance in case of employee injury on the job, and develop a training program to onboard new team members.