Are you still using the same ancient techniques from decades ago to run and manage your landscaping business today? I hope not.
Nowadays, customer demands are changing rapidly and businesses are facing tougher competition by the day. You need to remain updated with current business trends tools and models if you want to remain active, especially in the landscaping design field.
Before, clients would just tell you what they want and you’d have to woo them by physically drawing designs on paper and hoping your imagination is on the same level. Thankfully, the world has gone digital and you can leverage the capabilities of landscape management software to get the job done.
The use of technology in our daily business service offerings has also helped improve client-business relations by enhancing communication, design sharing, and work management.
Read on to learn the current techniques you should use to modernize your landscape design business and stay ahead of your competitors in 2023.
What Steps Must I Take To Keep My Business Current?
There are many things you can do to make sure that you are providing the best service with modern offerings for your client. But these should get you going:
Make Client Retention a Priority: Growing your business becomes impossible when you are unable to keep your customers satisfied. Ensure to keep your current customers and retain them every time. You need client retention to build a solid customer directory and ensure that your business scales as it ages.
It costs more money to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing client. Therefore it’s important to reduce your churn rate by all means. You should include win-back campaigns to resuscitate cold leads or potentially lost customers.
Leverage the capabilities of a powerful CRM to manage your client database and find disengaged accounts. This allows you to launch reactivation campaigns by engaging hundreds of customers with bulk actions.
Always Offer Services Of The Highest Quality: Expanding your business will always be easier if you provide exceptional services of the highest quality. As a landscaper, providing quality services goes beyond leaving the property looking neat to ensuring that you deliver exactly what the customer wants and at the same time ensuring that you keep their environment updated with modern trends.
Once you start delivering exceptional landscaping services, your customers will have no problem telling their world about you once they are satisfied. The same goes if they are unhappy with your service. Therefore, always provide quality services.
Exceptional service delivery is crucial for landscaping business growth. You can also make your existing customers sources for leads by creating a referral program that you can attach to bills, invoices, and emails.
You can ask your clientele to share your social profiles or posts in their groups to give you more visibility. Many people are active on social media and they get to read business reviews online before picking a service provider. Having great reviews from your clients will help you attract more customers.
Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy: Today, digital marketing is not an option, it’s a must.
Many consumers will look up your brand online before they can engage you to make a purchase. Having an online presence is affordable and a reliable lead source.
You should ensure that your business has:
- Active social media pages
- An organized website
- Email marketing services
- Referral management
You should avoid waiting for passive leads. Instead, try focusing on word-of-mouth marketing with the help of your clients, and include online engagement to cultivate organic relationships with your target clientele.
Print Material Marketing Is Not Dead: Active lead generation strategies allow you to get customers in your active markets. You should also invest in some printouts to build brand awareness.
Try making:
- Landscaping brochures showcasing your business services.
- Printed business cards
- Include some coupons with doorhangs
- Calendars
You should ensure consistent engagement with the communities you want to work with. Doing this can help you book multiple clients from the same area. This helps you optimize transportation costs.
Your first years of operation can have your business experiencing rapid growth and you can quickly expand your market share. However, expanding beyond a certain point may feel insurmountable. You should implement a cost-effective marketing solution and use friendly landscape applications.
Your main goal should be to:
Streamline your business activities using an end-to-end platform
Remove all redundancies and errors created by using multiple platforms or software applications for your siloed operations. This will also allow you to generate comprehensive reports and structure informed growth strategies.
Diversify Your Clientele: Many business owners like to launch and maintain their business in an exclusive community or residential area. This is good for establishment, but you must be willing to expand once you reach market saturation.
You should focus on adding new homeowners and commercial clients to build your revenue streams and opportunities. This is much easier when you’re using a robust landscaping client management application. Choose an application that allows you to easily filter and sort your work.
You should eliminate all possible confusion and business redundancies by using landscaping software that supports intuitive CRM capabilities.
Grow Your Service Area: You will never go wrong by expanding your service area. Your long-term business strategy should include operating in new areas or opening new branches across your city or country. You must conduct market research to explore areas of expansion and pick which clients need better engagement tactics.
Build a Proactive Marketing Structure: leverage the power of your social media platforms to engage your clients and discover areas where you can get fertile leads.
You can also add customer surveys and build a referral program using email marketing campaigns. Include some QR codes on your invoices to facilitate awareness and expansion.
You should also ensure that your team has all the necessary equipment for the jobs you take up. This includes:
- Lawnmowers, blowers, and edgers
- Fertilizer
- Maintenance equipment and other supplies
- Business management software to help you keep track of clients and your inventory of supplies
Don’t forget to encourage your existing clients to return and bring a friend. Referrals are good for any business. Just keep your customers happy and you’ll have nothing to worry about. Especially when you want to expand your services.
Don’t ignore your best customers. This will help you stack leads and make your retention rate impeccable. Focus on the ones who pay on time, are perfect communicators, and need high-profit services.
Develop Services for Every Season: The ongoing demand for your services will differ with seasons. For instance, landscaping demand may reduce during the winter. This means less business for lawn care business services during that season. You need to find and provide a service that flourishes when others slow down.
Regardless of your location, there are on and off-season services you can use to drive your revenue generation throughout the year. This helps you eliminate the drag on your business momentum.
Consider your location and expand your services into:
- Snow and Ice removal
- Decor installation
- Lawn aeration and mulching
- Fall clean-up and other outdoor maintenance activities
- Tree trimming and shrub placement
You should incorporate scheduling features to help you manage clients and know which ones to pause and which services are required during each season.
This also allows you to reschedule during stormy days and your clients can schedule days on your integrated calendar.
How Can I Make My Landscaping Business More Profitable?
You can operate your landscaping business with extra profits depending on your growth stage. This also depends on how you set up your business for growth, including marketing, your operational tools, and working equipment.
You can use landscaping application software to push you through periods of intense growth. It helps you:
- Increase daily operational efficiency
- Streamlining workflows
- Improves your customer experience for better retention
- Schedule and service bookings
Be competitive with your pricing.
You can position yourself as a commander in the market by offering competitive prices for your services. See what your competition is offering for their services and think of ways to do better.
You can increase your marketing budget to increase the quality of your reach. You can hire more workers if the job requires more hands. This will also help you deal with multiple clients. You can also buy more equipment to improve efficiency.
After your growth reaches the maximum and starts to slow down, then you can increase your pricing to generate more revenue and retain a positive profit margin.
How Can I Make Money With My Landscaping Business?
You do not need heavy equipment to start a landscaping business that makes you good money. Many people start with a single lawn mower and a truck. Some may even use bikes at first. Showing up and getting the job done with high-quality service is the main ingredient to building a profitable business. You can hit $100k in your first year. And then profits begin to fluctuate depending on your performance and reinvestments to bolster growth.
If you are running a green business, you can make money by adding services such as:
- Hardscape construction, lawn care, landscaping, off-season maintenance, etc.
- Incorporating growth-driving marketing initiatives
- Offering enhancements
- Using landscaping business management software to track your operations and profit margins
Basically, the landscaping industry is growing rapidly and remains very accessible to new entrepreneurs. Once you get your service offerings right and you set up a profitable business, the limits of your expansion remain infinite.
Low-profit service may limit your revenue potential. You can ensure good profits by providing bundled services. This includes tree installation, curb installation, or mulching. Bundled services help you drive new streams of revenue from every client.
Landscaping management software applications help you automate some processes so that you can focus on doing your job effectively. You can streamline operations without challenges.
