How to grow your gardening business

When you’ve set out, found work, and are properly up and running, next you’ll want to consider how to grow your gardening business.

Finding new customers is very important to keep your work diary full, so you want to expand in the right ways.

However, you also want to be sure that you don’t do this too quickly. They say that slow and steady wins the race, so grow at a pace that fits, otherwise, your business might get overwhelmed.

So, to make sure you grow your gardening business successfully, keep reading for our tips on scaling and marketing below:

Scaling your gardening business

To begin with, if you want to grow your business properly, then you need to consider scalability.

This means that your business needs to be able to scale in size to meet new work without issue. That could potentially be a tricky process.

So, to make it easier, here are four areas to think about when looking to scale your business:

• Streamlining – All areas of your business need to work smoothly with each other, so make sure that there are no bottlenecks in your business’s functionality before trying to grow
• Financing – Growth is impossible without a solid financial base, making it important to put money aside to cover any expenses as you widen your customer base
• Work quality – New businesses can often focus on quantity over quality, rather than maintaining a good standard of work as well as volume
• Additional services – Offering a broader range of services such as lawn care can increase your potential audience and customer base
• Team growth – You may need to find more hands for your business as you win more jobs, in order to meet the expectations of your customers

Knowing how to grow your plants means changing processes as necessary. The same applies for growing a trade business.

Once you’ve decided how you want to grow, you can adapt and plan accordingly.

Digitally marketing your gardening business

A cornerstone of any successful business, taking advantage of digital marketing is essential for growth.

So, when thinking about advertising online, make sure you set aside marketing budget for a good variety of activity.

For example:

• Company website – Your website is the face of your business online, so it is important when designing a small business website to include all relevant information
• Social media profiles – Gardening work is often highly visual in its impact, so it is good to benefit from marketing your business through social media
• PPC – Pay-per-click (PPC) is a way to pay for adverts online, but as it can often be tricky, you should consider consulting with a PPC professional (or agency)
• Joining an online directory – Many customers use directories online to find reputable tradespeople, a process of searching that often includes Checkatrade

Knowing how to put some more growth into your gardening business means reaching potential customers where they are.

With over 869,000 job searches for gardeners on Checkatrade in 2024*, there is already a huge amount of interest for services like yours. Fixed membership from Checkatrade means you can expect a certain number of leads throughout the year.

Advertising your gardening business

While perhaps not as prominent as it once was, traditional methods of advertising are still incredibly useful.

We definitely recommend looking into all the following areas if you’re considering using traditional forms of marketing:

• Print marketing – With a variety of options, why not read our article on print marketing to see how to make the most of it in our digital age?
• Company branding – Branding, such as colours and logos, can help get your name out in the local area (a work van and uniform can act as mobile advertising)
• Sponsorship – Sponsoring local events is a good way to show your commitment to the local area and get your name out to new customers both near and far

As a tradesperson that works with growing living things, it is worth applying the same logic to building your gardening business. Gentle nurturing, on top of the right conditions and resources, can really help lead to success.

Setting aside a budget for reaching new audiences is crucial to enable growth of any level. Nailing your marketing is the next logical step to follow.

Other marketing ideas

Finally, if you’re interested in some other gardener marketing ideas, we have a few suggestions below that you could also consider:

• Customer reviews – You can use your existing reviews in your marketing to help reach other customers – this is part of your social proofing
• Networking – Spending time with other tradespeople, such as landscapers and builders, can often lead to referrals and additional work such as subcontracting
• GMB listings – Getting a Google My Business (GMB) listing helps you with a map listing, and can increase your chances of being found online

As you can probably see, there’s plenty to think about when marketing.

So if you need a helping hand, why not download our free planning guide to get your marketing together?

How to get more gardening work

After looking into carrying out all the steps we’ve discussed above, you can find even more work than you already have.

Naturally, you want to be sure your business can expand to cover the following points, but they’re worth considering nevertheless:

• Other qualifications – The more qualifications you have, the more gardening knowledge you can bring to the table, which lets you do more advanced work for your customers
• Specialisation – Specialising in unique areas of gardening can let you corner certain niche markets in the gardening industry or find an edge over competitors
• Repeat business – It goes without saying that doing a good job will lead to previous customers calling you back for more work

There are many ways to find work and help ensure the success of your business.

A proven way towards growth is to increase the number of jobs coming your way. Getting your marketing sorted and potentially bringing on more people will help you expand at a sustainable pace.

Save money and time marketing your business

Knowing how to grow a gardening business is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to success. Using tried and tested methods such as a Checkatrade membership can only help further when it comes to reaching your goals.

You’ll get access to more marketing tips and a business profile on the UK’s largest online directory. This means more customers will be able to find you and you can display testimonials of your great work.

On top of that, with a Checkatrade membership, your gardening business can also:

• Benefit from more work coming your way
• Manage your jobs and profile through our dedicated trades app
• Save admin time with our custom quoting and invoicing tool
• Get your work guaranteed when booked through us (T&Cs apply)
• Enjoy exclusive offers and discounts
• Save on the cost of your public liability insurance

Sign up today to learn more about our checking and vetting process for tradespeople. Our fixed membership option lets you build the plan that’s perfect for you and your business needs.

* Internal search data from users of the Checkatrade.com website in 2024