The desire of residents of large cities to move closer to fresh air leads to the fact that an increasing number of people either buy rural houses or relax in a country cottage. At the same time, not everyone has the desire to work on garden beds from morning to evening instead of a comfortable and relaxing holiday. Many people want beauty to surround them in the country, so the demand for landscape design services is growing every year.
Starting your own business based on landscape design is a promising and quite feasible business idea with low initial costs.
Of course, in order to succeed in this line of business, you need to have certain knowledge and good taste. Landscape design services, as a rule, include not only planting plants and arranging lawns and flower beds, but also laying paths, designing, lighting, creating artificial reservoirs, playgrounds, various decorative modules such as alpine slides or gazebos. All these works are impossible without preliminary landscape design and land management.
To start your own business in landscape design, you must first prepare, create a portfolio of work performed. To do this, you can take your own summer cottage, or the site of one of the relatives, design from scratch, trying to bring your ideas to life.
Another option is to work first with a landscape design firm. To search for customers and conclude contracts, it is mandatory to show samples of your own landscape design work, for which a portfolio is formed. It is desirable that the proposed album contains sketches of work at the design stage and photographs of the finished design, made according to the projects. To prepare a portfolio, you also need to study the building materials market well and prepare a small catalog for the customer to select materials.
A business based on landscape design is ideal for small businesses, as it does not require large investments of its own funds, but it involves painstaking work with the customer to agree on all the details of the project.
As a rule, large firms are not able and do not want to deal with the development of trifles and long-term coordination of projects. They offer ready-made landscape design options, rarely agree to make drastic changes to the project. Therefore, it is often easier for small firms and private entrepreneurs to receive orders for the design and production of works.
For the successful implementation and completion of projects in this type of business, it is extremely important to legally formalize the relationship with the customer.
As you know, many people themselves often do not know how exactly their dream looks like in the final form. Therefore, the risks of a landscape designer are that the customer may not like the implementation of the project, and he will require changes. At the same time, the introduction of changes can last indefinitely, and the payment of money for the work performed will be constantly postponed for an indefinite period.
To avoid such situations, it is necessary to provide for the stages of work in the contract, as well as payment for additional changes that go beyond the agreed design project. The entrepreneur must scrupulously coordinate each stage of work, demanding payment upon its completion.
The initial outlay in a landscaping business is usually not too high. If the company provides the whole range of works, from planning to the production of all turnkey works, then either the formation of its own team of specialists or the involvement of third-party specialists or subcontractors will be required. In the case of forming your own team, it is necessary to buy the appropriate tools, while the purchase of materials by the manufacturer is at the expense of the customer. To receive large orders, it is also desirable to open your own office, where you can place samples of materials used for work, as well as layouts of examples of site design to attract customers.
Thus, the amount of initial costs will depend on the cost of repair and decoration of the premises, as well as the cost of the necessary tools for the company’s employees. In principle, starting a landscape design business can cost as little as a few thousand dollars.
The ongoing costs can be quite significant. Firstly, it will require remuneration for the work of its own and attracted specialists, and expenses for advertising, transport, and communications will also be required. If subcontractors are involved, then certain funds will also be required to pay an advance and close the stages of work performed.
Nevertheless, the profitability of the landscape design business reaches 15-20%, and allows you to quickly recoup the initial costs. The basis for the successful development of a landscape design business is careful planning of all stages of work.
On our website you can order a high-quality business plan, as well as the calculations that will be required to successfully bring the company to profitability.
