How to Start a Garden Business

I love gardening. Unfortunately, my arthritis keeps me from doing it. Difficulty maintaining a home and garden was one of the reasons I sold my house and bought a condominium. I do container gardening a little in my condo. Remember last week’s post, Frangipani on a Summer Day? I cut a branch off my frangipani (plumeria) tree at the house to grow a tree here at the condo in a large container. If I were younger and didn’t have bad allergies to pollen, I’d love to garden full-time. I notice lots of ads in FaceBook Marketplace for local plants. I think I’d start with something similar. If you propagate plants, plant seeds, and watch your new plants grow, you can have a garden business. How big a business depends entirely on your goals.

Starting a garden business can bless you with monetary gains if you have an entrepreneurial & vocational mindset. Creating a successful garden company is not easy; it requires good planning and commitment. Today let’s think about what is required before you even start the business.

#1 Laying the Foundation

The distinct features of a gardening business make it different from other services. These impact your choice of services to provide, your preferred clients, and how much money you make. Gardening is labor intensive and involves bending, heavy lifting, digging, and carrying. Also gardening is a seasonal activity in most environments. Your customers expect you to know what plants grow best in which areas and how best to care for them. Community classes and workshops can help you in planning and running the business. In Florida, for example, classes are given in each county for study to become a Master Gardener.

Create a strong foundation for a successful garden business with good planning. Start by defining the mission and goal of your business: what are the major gardening services will you be offering? Gardening means different things to different people. Before you start your business, develop a precise list of services. These may include:

• Lawn care
• Landscaping
• Choosing new plants
• Digging, planting, and refining the look of the green space
• Maintaining gardens and lawns through mowing, pruning, leaf blowing, and similar cleaning
• Planting, maintaining, and harvesting food gardens (vegetables)

Based on the market you would like to dive into, you might want to focus on residential landscaping and maintenance, commercial garden maintenance, or organic vegetable gardens. 

Once you have identified your service, complete research to know your target audience: i.e., who will you be selling to? Who are your main competitors and what are the types of products they sell? How do they differentiate themselves?

#2 Budget Your Money

A gardening business ususally has modest start-up budget. Your expenses will fall into two categories, Start-up costs and Monthly expenses. Start- up may require equipment purchase, plant inventory, business registration fees, and more. Monthly expenses include supplies, vehicle insurance, fuel, equipment maintenance, marketing, labor, and more. Now list your costs and assets. You may have at home the equipment you need to get started. A couple of essentials are a vehicle and gardening equipment. You may also want to have basic carpentry tools on hand like a hammer and screw driver. Making things like seedboxes for vegetable gardens is cheaper than buying everything ready made.

You will also want to have basic office supplies. I’d use a simple software program to track the income and expenses. This could also be used to provide receipts to customers for payments.

#3 Service

Proving exceptional service is of the utmost importance when it comes to attracting loyal customers who in turn become magnetized sources for lead generation. Your gardening staff should be extremely knowledgeable in all things green-fingered, whether it be in the area of professional weed killer for lawns, landscaping, pesticides for plants, or just basic gardening. Regular training will teach them the right ways to act and allow the exchange of ideas for the latest gardening techniques as well as trends.

#4 Adapting and Growing

The world of gardening never stops changing. It’s essential to continuously adapt yourself and leave some SPACE:

Space for partnerships and services that are eco-restorative, Productive, and Economically viable 

Don’t forget to stay updated on the industry downtime to see what cool stuff other gardeners are coming up with! If you like the idea of providing garden consultancy online, take up that initiative as a one-stop-shop solution from consultation services: soil repairs, (or whatever), quality control market niche positions years of discounts.

In conclusion, building a successful garden company requires more than just the right planning — it requires exceptional service. Then delivering those high level services that generate customers’ referrals. A solid foundation can take you a long way in making your goals a reality.

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