How to grow a paving business

Before you press ahead with action to grow your paving business, you need to understand what actual “growth” you want to achieve. And how you plan to realise your goals.

Building a bigger customer base and racking up more paving jobs will take a bit of time and effort. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

You could also consider Checkatrade to enable that growth. Did you know? There were over 529,000 job searches via Checkatrade relating to driveways, patios and paths in 2024.* Want to join us and share in the interest?

Here are our top tips for growing a paving business:

Growing your paving team

Although it might seem daunting at first, building a bigger team can be one of the greatest steps for growing your paving business.

Here’s what to focus on when recruiting new team members for your paving business:

• Hire good people by carrying out thorough interviews
• Trialling potential candidates to see their skills in action
• Consider subcontractors if you don’t think you’re ready for full-time employees
• Look into hiring an apprentice you can train up

Knowing when and how to grow your team is one of the main areas of business growth. It stands to reason, if you have more work coming through, you’ll need more hands to do it.

Focussing on certain types of paving work

The benefit of specialising in specific types of paving jobs is that you can become the local go-to paving business for those services.

As a paving company, you’ll likely be working alongside landscapers or gardeners. But by upskilling and increasing your services, you could take on more (or different) jobs. These could include:

• Laying patios and decking
• Maintenance for existing paving or driveways
• Repair work for older paving
• Pressure washing services
• Building related exterior structures such as sheds and trellises
• Maintenance and repair work

However, as with all businesses, a great way to success is to provide services where there is demand.

Not sure where to start? Here are some ways you can tap into the specific needs of paving work in your area:

• Identify potential areas and carrying out targeted marketing
• Invest in specialist equipment so you have the right tools
• Learn new specialist paving skills via training courses
• Build a local network with people who might need your chosen type of paving work

By having a business that focusses on paving, or associated work like driveways and paths, you have a the ability to reach a niche market. People want those services, so it is a case of finding those potential customers.

Covering a larger service area

When considering how to grow your paving business, you need to ask whether you’re able to reach a wider radius or different locations.

One of the simplest ways to grow and reach a wider audience is to cover a larger area:

• Decide the area you want to cover and identify specific places to expand into
• Let your customers know you’re expanding so they know the area you now cover
• Update your online profiles to show your whole service area
• Always consider the time of travelling further (plus the cost)

Knowing what you need to get in place before you start to grow means that it will seem like a much easier process. Identifying a larger region or nearby towns is a very simple way to find additional customers.

However, being able to reach further afield might mean that you have to amend your pricing. For example, by including travel costs as a way of ensuring profitability.

Increasing the number of jobs you win

One of the best ways to win more work is to develop a strong reputation for the business in your local area. Your marketing will only do so much. Being known for the quality of your work will likely impact the number of potential jobs you then win.

If you’re happy with the services you offer and the area you cover, you might want to look at how you generate leads or how you can turn more leads into jobs.

Here are a few guides you might find useful for your paving business:

• Tips for lead generation
• Increase your close rate
• Winning new business

If you do paving work as part of larger projects, or as a side business to landscaping, there are lead generation strategies to try. With existing customer interest, Checkatrade could be a part of finding those leads for you.

Want to learn more?

How to market your paving business

There’s no doubt that marketing is going to play a key part in finding customers for your paving company and turning leads into real jobs.

Here are some of our top marketing tips for growing a paving company.

Create an online presence for your paving business

Signing up to Checkatrade is also one of the easiest ways to get your paving business discovered by people online looking for local tradespeople. It’s also the ideal place to showcase your work, business credentials, and customer testimonials.

Having a Checkatrade profile can really boost your reputation as a local business.

Keeping your website updated

Your company website is your online business card.

It can often be the first impression that most potential new customers will have of your paving company. So, make sure you check that:

• All information on your website is accurate and up-to-date
• All buttons and links work
• Your website looks good on a phone screen (as well as an on a computer screen)
• Everything is easy to understand with correct spelling and grammar

When looking for a paving company, people who want work done will be doing their home work. If you have a website that can be easily found, with the right information, it can help build trust with any potential customers.

Get active on social media

You can also generate more paving leads by regularly using social media. Posting the right type of content, and using the advertising platforms mean customers will be able to see the type of paving services you offer.

• Post before and after photos of your paving work
• Feature posts showing you (and your team) working
• Upload positive client reviews talking about the quality of your work
• Share the latest industry news that might be interesting to your customers
• Target adverts (such as through Facebook) to people of certain demographics

Not sure where to begin? There are often agencies and specialist marketing firms who may be able to do the work for you.

Asking for customer reviews

Positive customer reviews and testimonials are a brilliant way to show new potential clients that your paving business is one that they can rely on.

Don’t be shy to ask your existing customers to leave you reviews on Checkatrade, Google and other third-party review sites.

Other forms of local advertising

There are a number of ways you can use advertising of many different types to drum up more paving work.

Here are some of the best places to advertise a paving business:

1. Pay per click (PPC) advertising – Use PPC ads to generate quality paving leads
2. Register on Google My Business – Be found in local online search results
3. Print marketing – Traditional print marketing can still be effective

When you’re looking for ways of getting more customers to know about your business, there are many tried and tested methods.

If you need help with your lead generation, you can always look to get featured where people are already looking. Joining Checkatrade could help you tap into that existing customer interest.

Finding more potential customers with Checkatrade

As a Checkatrade member, you can display customer reviews, testimonials, and examples of your work on your profile page. It’s a natural way to win more work and grow your paving firm.

Your burgeoning business can also benefit from features such as:

• Display customer reviews, testimonials, and examples of your work on your profile page
• Control your flow of leads by marking your availability in the Checkatrade app
• Guarantee for work booked through us (T&Cs apply)
• Money off helpful software such as Quickbooks
• Great savings on the cost of public liability insurance
• Manage customer enquiries on-the-go with free quoting/invoicing tool for our members

With the Checkatrade tick by your name, it makes growing your paving business just that little bit easier.

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 between 1st January and 31st January 2024