Although with a garden service business, you won't be physically working from home, it is still considered a home-based business. You would still be your own boss, you would set your own schedule, and work as many hours a week as you want to.
What Kind of Services Could You Offer?
This depends on your skill levels and the type of work you are willing to take on. You could provide basic garden services like lawn mowing, grass cutting, weeding, or cleaning up leaves and branches. With just these services, you can become busy enough with work all year round.You can earn more if you could offer more skilled work. Services could include fencing, landscaping and making garden design. If you have creative skills, you can also consider offering holiday outdoor decoration during Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or 4th of July.
Of course, you don’t have to do everything on your own. It may be a good idea to partner up with someone or use subcontractors that already have the right skill-set.
How Do I Get Started?
You may or may not need to buy your own equipment right away. At first, you may just find clients that have their own garden tools and equipment in their home.
But if you want to buy the tools you need so you can have more clients, consider the basic items for starters. For example, you need garden gloves, a bow rake, Grampa's weeder, and a manual lawnmower. This article explains why it's better to get a manual lawnmower instead of an electric one.
Gardening Glove with tape Wrist Closure
American Lawn Mower Company 1304-14 14-Inch 5-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower, Red
Once you have the equipment needed, the best way to start is to offer to do jobs for friends, family, and neighbors. Tell them you are new to this business and are happy to offer good rates as you’re trying to build your reputation.
Amateur gardeners could charge $10 - $25 per hour. Professional gardeners charge between $25 - $60 an hour. For the cost of other garden services that require more skills, you can look it up here.
Be sure to give outstanding value and complete the work to the best standard, and eventually word of mouth will start to spread, leading to more work and inquiries.
You can also purchase pre-qualified leads from websites like Home Advisor. These sites serve as aggregates for people who need work completing. There are many targeted prospects here that need the services you offer, allowing you to contact them directly. Although this is not the best long-term strategy to secure clients, it will help you, in the beginning, to get work straight away.
Another form of advertising that might work for you is search engine marketing or PPC. You will need at least a basic website for this, detailing your service and contact information.
PPC marketing will place your ad at the very top of the search engine results of the search phrase you choose (and bid on). Google is the best place to start because it is the number one search engine that most people use. You can usually obtain a $75 voucher to use on a new account, so it might not cost you a penny to start getting work.
With PPC, you target the relevant keywords that people will be searching for, and bid on a price to pay per click for your ads to be placed right at the top, or next to the search results. Local keyword search phrases will be best at first. For example “grass cutting Oswego," or “landscaping in Ayers Village.”
People who are searching for the services you offer will, nine times out of 10 click on the top search result – this is why Google AdWords is so powerful.
Depending on your budget, your ad can be left on display in Google all the time if you needed to, just set a budget that you don't want to exceed like $10 a day for example.
By leaflet drops, PPC marketing, and word-of-mouth, your garden service business will likely stay busy from regular work.
Advertising Your Service and Bringing in More Work
Garden services will always be in demand, so a door to door flyer drop around your local area can bring in some work instantly. Effective flyer design templates for garden service businesses are easy to find online.You can also purchase pre-qualified leads from websites like Home Advisor. These sites serve as aggregates for people who need work completing. There are many targeted prospects here that need the services you offer, allowing you to contact them directly. Although this is not the best long-term strategy to secure clients, it will help you, in the beginning, to get work straight away.
Another form of advertising that might work for you is search engine marketing or PPC. You will need at least a basic website for this, detailing your service and contact information.
PPC marketing will place your ad at the very top of the search engine results of the search phrase you choose (and bid on). Google is the best place to start because it is the number one search engine that most people use. You can usually obtain a $75 voucher to use on a new account, so it might not cost you a penny to start getting work.
With PPC, you target the relevant keywords that people will be searching for, and bid on a price to pay per click for your ads to be placed right at the top, or next to the search results. Local keyword search phrases will be best at first. For example “grass cutting Oswego," or “landscaping in Ayers Village.”
People who are searching for the services you offer will, nine times out of 10 click on the top search result – this is why Google AdWords is so powerful.
Depending on your budget, your ad can be left on display in Google all the time if you needed to, just set a budget that you don't want to exceed like $10 a day for example.
By leaflet drops, PPC marketing, and word-of-mouth, your garden service business will likely stay busy from regular work.
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