How to start a landscape business

Starting your own landscaping business is a great if you’re a recently qualified landscaper, or want to work for yourself. In this post, we show you how to start a landscape business with practical tips and steps to follow.

As a landscaper, you're no stranger to putting in the hard graft. However, knowing how to start a landscape business by yourself requires another set of skills entirely.

Being employed by someone else offers a safety net, whereas starting your own landscaping business let’s you benefit from your own hard work.

As you know, the work of a landscape gardener (or landscaper) is varied. It can include:

• Groundwork

• Garden design

• Building decking

• Garden rooms

• Pruning and reshaping hedges

• Installing water features

• Rockeries

• Paving or pergolas

• Planting trees

Plus a whole host of other skills and services too.

If you're keen to explore more about setting up a landscaping business of your own, read on. We’ll show you how to start a landscape company, with the practical steps you need to take to get up and running**.**

Creating a business plan for your landscaping business

Before starting out in any new business, it is a good idea to have a business plan in place.

A landscaping business plan will:

• Outline your goals

• Set out how you plan to achieve them

• Provide targets and deadlines

• Scope out your finances

Your plan should include detailed financial information. For example, how do you plan to cover your start-up costs? You may want to consider a business loan, and a detailed business plan can help with that application.

Not sure where to start? We have a fantastic guide for how to write a business plan. And a free business plan template for you to use. Simply add your email below.

Do you need qualifications to start a landscape business?

You don't need any formal qualifications to become a landscaper. But no doubt you've built up considerable experience working alongside your boss.

However, if you're thinking of starting your own landscaping business, you can choose to bolster your skills with formal qualifications.

This has the added benefit of increasing your credibility with new customers.

There are a variety of college courses you can undertake as a landscaper including:

• Level 1 Diploma in Skills for Working in Horticulture Industries

• Level 2 Certificate in Practical Horticulture

• Level 3 Certificate or Diploma in Horticulture

• T Level in Agriculture, Land Management, and Production

You may also wish to enhance your horticultural knowledge through a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) course.

Other useful skills and attributes

You may have excellent knowledge in your field of work, but running a successful business requires different skills.

To excel at both your job and running a business, you’ll need a variety of attributes including:

• Horticultural and landscaping knowledge

• Attention to detail and highly organised

• Interpersonal skills and great customer service

• The ability to have conviction in your decisions

• The ability to lead and manage a team

• Patience, fairness, integrity, and self-awareness

• Enthusiasm, endurance, creativity, and the ability to find innovative solutions

If you don't feel like you currently have the necessary business management skills, there are also a range of training courses to help you out.

How to start your landscape business step-by-step

Getting a business up and running requires a great deal of thought and organisation.

These are just some of the steps you can take to ensure you've ticked all the necessary boxes:

Register your business

To help define your business and stand out from the crowd, decide on a name for your new business.

That may seem an odd place to begin when you start a landscape design business, but you'll need to get registered.

You'll also need to decide on a company structure.

• Sole trader

• Partnership

• Limited company

Next, you’ll need to register your business with HMRC and ensure you understand your tax liabilities and national insurance contributions.

Settle on an arrangement that suits you by weighing up the different regulations and taxes that apply to each.

What business taxes do I have to pay as a tradesperson?

Business taxes definition When you are running your own trade business, you'll want to know: "How much does a small business have to make before paying taxes?". After that, you'll need to ask yourself: "What small business taxes do I have to pay?'. Knowing the business taxes definition helps you

Continue reading

Get business insurance

Insurance for your landscaping business is important. As the owner of a landscaping firm, even if you're a sole trader, you want to make sure you have cover in place for the unlikely event that something goes wrong.

Different forms of cover getting for your new landscape business include:

• Public liability insurance (PLI) for liabilities toward your customers, members of the public, and third-party property

• Professional indemnity insurance in case a customer brings a claim against you for alleged negligence

• Employers' liability insurance is a legal obligation if your business employs someone else, even on a temporary or casual basis

• Tools insurance is there to help with the cost of replacing your key work equipment due to theft or damage

All Checkatrade members are required to have PLI in place to become a member.

As a result, our members can save 20% off public liability insurance, thanks to insurance experts Superscript.

How to pick the right tradesperson insurance

It’s worth making sure you’ve got the cover you need, as having the right tradesperson insurance will be an essential lifeline for your business if things go wrong. So, keep reading to learn everything you need to know about finding the right insurance for your trade business. What to look for in

Continue reading

Consider your finances

When setting up, you'll also need to know how much money you need to start a landscape business.

Some people have put estimates on that figure, but realistically, the amount you choose to invest will vary based on a number of factors.

However, what is useful to know is how to sort your business finances right from the outset. Managing your cash flow, understanding your tax liabilities, and keeping your books in good order is crucial for success.

If you're a skilled landscape gardener, but the thought of managing finances fills you with dread, why not get someone to help?

• Accountant vs financial advisor: which do I need?

• How to find a great accountant for your trade business

• What’s the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?

If you're thinking of setting up a landscape company, chances are it is because you want to make some money from your skills.

Sorting your finances from your start, or getting someone with financial skills to help you, will make sure you can make a good profit and earn a good wage from your landscaping business.

Tools and equipment

You'll know from experience that the right tools, of the best quality you can afford, will make your job easier.

Here's an outline of some of the tools you'll need:

• Gardening tools including secateurs, a shovel, a garden fork, trowels, pruning shears, and a rake

• Landscaping tools including a lawn edger, strimmer, lawn mower, chainsaw, hedge trimmer, and leaf blower

• Basic equipment such as protective safety gear, a wheelbarrow, ladders, and buckets

• A selection of power tools

As a Checkatrade member, you can make great savings on your landscaping tools, as well as winning more work.

Not sure which tools to get your new business started? Why not read our article for some inspiration.

Landscape tools to benefit your gardening or landscaping business

As a professional gardener or landscaping specialist, you know better than anyone which landscape tools work better for certain tasks. With such a varied and diverse array of jobs, it pays to have a wide selection of tools at your disposal. Different tasks require different equipment, so this

Continue reading

Start to generate landscaping work

Once you've registered your business, got all of your tools, insurance and finances in place, you'll need to start working.

Getting a steady flow of jobs coming your way will take time. You might want to consider taking on work as a subcontractor until you've built up a customer base of your own.

However, you'll want to start promoting your new landscape business too. That's where your marketing comes into play.

• Online (website, social, email)

• Offline (leaflets, signs, branding)

• Other (sponsorship, networking, referrals)

However you start off with your advertising strategy, the end goal is always the same. You want to win more landscaping leads.

How to get landscaping leads

Why you need leads for landscaping When it comes to growing your business, it goes without saying that gaining new leads is important. This is especially true for landscapers. After all, you might find repeat business only comes around once or twice a year. You could be starting a new landscaping

Continue reading

How can Checkatrade help your new landscaping business?

Did you know? In 2024 alone, there wereover 475,000 job searches with Checkatrade for landscaping jobs.* That’s a good level of consumer interest to get stuck into!

Signing up to become a Checkatrade member will give you access to a share of those searches.

With an optimised business profile, you can show up for potential customers in your area. Our fixed membership option lets you build the plan that’s perfect for you and your business needs.

Not sure if membership is for you? Think about some of our other benefits for your new landscape business:

• Use of branded marketing materials and the Checkatrade logo

• Access to the dedicated Checkatrade trades app (for job management, quoting/invoicing and more)

• Fantastic offers and discounts (on business essentials like tools and insurance)

• Guarantee for jobs books through us (T&Cs apply)

Fixed membership from Checkatrade means you can expect a certain number of leads throughout the year.

Is a Checkatrade membership worth it?

One way to figure out whether the cost of something is worth it is to look at ROI (Return on Investment). In its most basic sense, this is how much something costs compared with the income it generates. Working out the ROI of a Checkatrade membership is definitely a must-do for any trade business

Continue reading

FAQs

How much does it cost to start a landscaping business in the UK?

Want to know how to start a landscape business with no money? If you've never set out in business by yourself before, you'll need funds for basics like tools, workwear, vehicles, marketing and materials. If you don't have savings to cover this, you could consider a business loan, although you should be aware of the cost of repayment.

What is the average net profit margin for a landscaping business?

Profit margins will vary due to a number of factors, such as location, size of job and difficulty. Make sure to factor in all of this when you're pricing up landscaping work. You can always consider using a pricing template to help you factor in profit margin with every job.

How do I create a landscaping business plan?

Knowing how to start a landscape business can often begin with creating a plan. For your goals, ideas, services, finances and more. If you're not sure where to start, why not download our free business plan template today?

What is a good mission statement for a landscaping business?

If you've trained as a landscape gardener, it is more than likely that you care about the outdoors and creating beautiful spaces. Why not reflect that passion in the mission statement or branding of your new company?

What licenses are needed to start a landscaping business?

In order to carry out work on private property, beyond your training, it is not mandatory to have a specific landscaping licence. However, the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) manages the LISS/CSCS SmartCard scheme which enables you to work on commercial landscaping and construction projects in the UK.

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