How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Landscaping, Nursery, or Lawn Service Business: With Companion CD-ROM
If you enjoy working outdoors and want to incorporate your creativity into your work, operating a small nursery, landscaping, or lawn service may be the perfect business for you. In fact, many operators combine all three of these elements to make an ideal year-round business. This is an ideal home-based business and can be started with just a few thousand dollars.\ This guide provides readers with an understanding of the basic concepts of starting their own service business. This new book is...
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If you enjoy working outdoors and want to incorporate your creativity into your work, operating a small nursery, landscaping, or lawn service may be the perfect business for you. In fact, many operators combine all three of these elements to make an ideal year-round business. This is an ideal home-based business and can be started with just a few thousand dollars.This guide provides readers with an understanding of the basic concepts of starting their own service business. This new book is a comprehensive and detailed study of the business side of the nursery and landscape business. You will learn everything from the initial startup decisions to working with clients. If you are investigating opportunities in this type of business, you should begin by reading this book.If you enjoy working with people and working outdoors, this may be the perfect business for you. Keep in mind that this business looks easy but, as with any business, looks can be deceiving. This complete manual will arm you with everything you need, including sample business forms; contracts; worksheets and checklists for planning, opening, and running day-to-day operations; setting up your office; plans and layouts; and dozens of other valuable, timesaving tools of the trade that no business should be without.While providing detailed instruction and examples, the author leads you through every detail that will bring success. You will learn how to draw up a winning business plan (the companion CD-ROM has the actual business plan you can use in Microsoft Word™) and about choosing a name, equipment, equipment maintenance, selling your other services to your present customers, how to attract and bid on residential and commercial accounts, contracts and billing procedures, advertising, insurance, legal matters, basic cost control systems, market research, getting new clients, tax laws, pricing, leads, sales and marketing techniques, and pricing formulas.You will learn how to set up computer systems to save time and money, how to hire and keep a qualified professional staff, how to meet IRS requirements, how to manage and train employees, how to generate high profile public relations and publicity, and how to implement low cost internal marketing ideas. You will learn how to build your business by using low and no cost ways to satisfy customers, as well as ways to increase sales and have customers refer others to you.You will learn about basic accounting and bookkeeping procedures, auditing, successful budgeting, and profit planning development, as well as thousands of great tips and useful guidelines. This manual delivers innovative ways to streamline your business. Learn new ways to make your operation run smoother and increase performance. Successful entrepreneurs will appreciate this valuable resource and reference it in their daily activities as a source of ready-to-use forms, Web sites, operating and cost cutting ideas, and mathematical formulas that can easily be applied to their operations. The companion CD-ROM contains all the forms found in the book, as well as a sample business plan you can adapt for your own use.
Introduction 9Section 1 Choosing The Outdoor Business That Is Right For You 15Chapter 1 Characteristics of a Successful Business 17Chapter 2 Know Yourself Before You Start a Business 23Franchise or From the Ground Up? 25Starting from scratch 30Section 2 Outdoor Opportunities 37Chapter 3 The Nitty Gritty Work of Landscaping 39Doing a Good Job Is Not Enough 42Outdoor Maintenance 43Chapter 4 The Nursery Business 47Green is "In" 47How to Make "Beautiful Work" Profitable 52Section 3 Business Operations 57Chapter 5 Planning for Success 59Getting Started 59Business Planning 60Becoming a Small Business 65Parts of Your Business Plan 69Insurance 79Chapter 6 Branding Your Business 89Creating an Effective Brand 92Chapter 7 Funding Your Business 99Financing Options 100Professional Advisors 103Money Management 105Controlling Costs 107Chapter 8 Estimates, Bids, and Contracts 129Contracts with Vendors 129Contracts for Customers 131Planning for Profitability 135Bidding for Commercial Jobs 137Negotiating Prices 140Billing and Collection 142Secrets of Job Estimating 144Section 4 Bn The Office 161Chapter 9 Locating Your Office 163Home or Facility, Pros and Cons 163Chapter 10 Buying Office Equipment and Supplies 187Setting Up Your Office 167Computers and Software 174Hiring Office Help 187Section 5 In The Field 193Chapter 11 Buying Professional Equipment and Supplies 195Outdoor Equipment 195What Does All of This Cost? 204Essential Maintenance 205Outdoor Supplies 207Chapter 12 Hiring Outdoor Workers 219Interviews 222New Employee Paperwork 227ImmigrationConcerns 227Drug Testing 230Training 230Payroll and Benefits 234Subcontracting and Partnering/Referral 235Additional Schooling 242Section 6 Your Customers 245Chapter 13 Finding Customers- or Helping Them Find You 247Inexpensive Marketing Methods 247Conducting Appointments 260Cross-selling Your Services 262Chapter 14 To Focus or Expand 271Appendix Bibliography and Additional Resources 277Immigration and Job Form Information 278Bonding 280Business community resources 280Drug Testing 280Gardening 280Government sites and forms 281Landscaping 281Marketing 281Pest control 282Small business help 282Software 282Supplies 283Web site Design 283Index 285
