Do you dream of starting a successful landscape business? I am obsessed with learning what makes people succeed. I have interviewed over 150 entrepreneurs, and I have owned multiple successful businesses, and I can tell you this: Success is no accident.

Starting a landscape business is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you can have, but you must understand that you have to change your mindset to succeed. There are many different aspects to starting your own landscape company, such as planning, funding, buying equipment, and getting new customers.

We’ve compiled essential tips to help you start a successful landscape business:

 

Don’t be afraid to start a landscape business

There is nothing scarier than the unknown. If you want to succeed, you must embrace the unknown. When you start a landscape business everything you do will be new to you. Replace your fear of the unknown with curiosity to help you succeed in a landscape business.

Welcome the unknown. Expect to see the unknown.

The unknown is what will take your business to new highs.

Luck and starting a landscape business

Luck is junk food for the soul.

You will never succeed because you get lucky.

When you work hard and take action, you will find yourself lucky.

How much does it cost to start a landscape business?

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to start a landscape business, but some costs are involved. Some of the biggest expenses are the cost of your equipment, registering your business, hiring your employees, and advertising your business.

What are the specific costs associated with starting a landscape business?

Essential costs

  • Vehicle
  • Landscaping equipment, including lawnmowers, edging tools, aerators
  • Registering your landscape business and forming your business entity
  • Various insurances such as workers’ compensation, property insurance and general liability
  • Advertising and marketing materials and ads
  • Phone and internet
  • Utilities

Optional costs

  • Hiring a business consultant to guide you through the process of starting a business
  • Leasing office space
  • Buying new office furniture

To start a profitable landscape business, you need to calculate all your startup costs. Be sure to include equipment, materials, labor, fuel and marketing expenses. Once you have the costs tallied, ensure that you have the funds to pay for all required expenses.

Keep in mind that you need to offer premium prices that reflect your quality of work to attract the right customers. In addition, to keep your landscape business going, you need to make a profit. So don’t try to be the cheapest landscape service business in your area.

Many customers are reluctant to hire the cheapest landscaper because they worry that the landscaping service will be executed poorly. However, setting the right prices can attract the right customers for your landscape company.

Give up your need to solve easy problems

When you start a landscape business think about solving difficult problems. Most people want to tackle easy problems. As a result, they end up in a lot of competition. When you set out to solve a big problem, you will have less competition.

Avoid spending time with negative people

There is nothing to be gained from interacting with negative people. Be around people you can learn from. Be inspired by your friends.

Give up your need for instant gratification

You must have the patience to succeed. If you study successful entrepreneurs, you will learn that everything takes longer than expected.

Prepare yourself mentally that to succeed will take time. Feel confident that as long as you make the right decisions and work hard, you will succeed. It might take longer than you hope, but you will get there.

Give up your desire to compare yourself to others

It is easy to hear news about another landscaping business and get frustrated. Startup X received $4 million venture investment. So, what? Why should you care? You shouldn’t. It doesn’t affect your landscape business.

Ignore the noise. Most of what you hear isn’t true. Even if it is true, it doesn’t affect you. Stay focused on building your own successful landscape business. Forget about the noise.

Give up bad habits

We all have them. Successful people know how to get rid of bad habits. Create small deterrents to remove bad habits from your life. Introduce a small fine you have to pay to break bad habits. Beware of bad habits and eliminate them when you catch yourself.

Give up your need to make everyone happy

Trying to make everyone happy is a sign of weakness. You could have the best product in the world, and some customers will still be upset. You could have the greatest customer service, and some clients will be unhappy still. And, that’s OK.

Give up your desire for huge changes

Small incremental changes are more likely to help you succeed.

Give up your fear of faking it

Yes, there I’ve said it. There are times when you will need to fake it to make it. I don’t mean that you should build your landscape business on lies, but there are times when you will need to fake it.
You might not have an office, but you could pay for an executive office to get an impressive address.

You might not have ten full-time employees, but you could have a team of 10 contractors.

Give up on huge goals

Nothing will frustrate you more than failing to accomplish a huge goal. Don’t get me wrong. It is great to have a dream. Big dreams will not help you succeed. Small goals will.

The world is full of dreamers who never succeed.

If you start a landscape business, try to get your first customer. Don’t fool yourself by setting a goal of getting a million customers because you will fail. When you start a business focus on your first customer, then your next ten customers, then the next 50, and so on.

Huge goals sound great, but they are success killers.

Give up your fear of seeking out help

You can’t succeed alone. If you want to succeed, you must ask for help. Let me be clear, asking for help doesn’t mean asking others to do your push-ups for you.

Be confident about your need for asking for help.

Reach out to entrepreneurs, practitioners, and people with the skills you need to succeed.

Ask for help without being needy. Don’t nag people.

Give up being flawless

If you want to succeed, you cannot be driven by perfection.

The desire for perfection kills success.

Your actions should be about completion instead of perfection.

Take action. Do your best.

Move onto the next task. You are now one step closer to success.

Give up your desire to separate business from your personal life

As an entrepreneur, there is no separation between business and personal. Everything is personal. When you are working on your landscape business, you think about how it affects your personal life. When you are working on your business, it will have an impact on your personal life.

Trying to completely separate your personal and business life will be a futile exercise.

Give up distractions

Entrepreneurs get excited about new ideas for business. They love chasing the next big idea. The problem is that distractions result in failure.

If you are going to succeed in a landscape business, you must minimize distractions.

New ideas are exciting. But they are poison. They are obstacles that get in the way of taking necessary action.

100 great ideas without action will result in nothing, but one good idea with excellent execution will help you succeed.

Give up waiting for a big breakthrough

Success is achieved by small incremental achievements.

You don’t get to a 1000 customers in one huge stroke of luck.

If you expect the one big sale that solves all your problems, you will be disappointed. Seek out small incremental improvements in your landscape business.

Give up your vulnerabilities

We are all vulnerable. Even if you deny it, you are vulnerable. The difference between someone who succeeds and someone who fails is the way they handle their vulnerabilities.

Give up your hopes for the future

It is fine to look ahead, but you must focus on the now. Your future depends on your actions today.

Hoping for something to happen sometime in the future will not get you there. What you do today will. Dreaming is like sugar. It will give you a quick boost of energy, but you will soon crash. If you keep dreaming, you will never succeed.

Hope must be replaced with action.

Give up on getting approval for your actions

No one can tell you what to do. Ultimately, you must make the decision. Entrepreneurs are often criticized for their actions. You must trust your own decisions without seeking the approval of other people.

Your job is to make your decisions on available data. Once you have made your decision, it is time to take action. Take action, even if others disagree with your decision.

Give up your fear of rejection

Even the greatest ideas are rejected some of the time. You can’t succeed without positively dealing with rejection.

Don’t take rejection as a personal flaw.

You are not a loser because someone said “no” to you. No might mean, “not now,” “perhaps later,” or “not in this format.”

Think of rejection as necessary feedback to get the “yes.”

Give up your desire to be perfect

If you are human, you have weaknesses. The sooner you realize that you are not perfect the sooner will you stop trying to be perfect.

Don’t try to fix your weaknesses. Get help for weak areas and focus on your strengths.

Don’t overanalyze starting your landscape business

You can always do more research. You can always read more about a topic. You can always learn more about an idea.

Will it help you succeed?

Only action will help you succeed. You have to trust your instincts. Once you have done your homework, you must feel confident about making a decision.

Give up your desire to live in the past

Does something from your past haunt you? Drop it. We all make mistakes. The faster you get over it, the more likely will you succeed.

The past is an opportunity to learn. Nothing more. Don’t let your past define your future. Move on. Take action. Succeed.

Give up the need to hold a grudge

It makes you bitter. Accept people the way they are. Did someone double cross you? Move on with your life. Forget about it.

To hold a grudge is a waste of time and it will not help you succeed.

Give up complaining

Nobody cares anyway 🙂