The typical net profit margin in lawn care and landscaping ranges from 5% to 20% per job. The more expenses you have, the less profit you come back with in the end. So it's essential to know your costs, how much they are per job, and what's factoring into your bottom net profit line.
The average profit margin for a landscape business ranges from 5% to 20% per job. Your profit margins depend on the amount of work involved, the equipment needed, and the size of your team. For example, a simple lawn mowing job may cost you $50 in labor and $25 in supplies and generate $100 in revenue.
State-by-state average Landscaper salaries
To illustrate, landscapers working in California earn $38,638 on average, whereas landscapers earn $35,132 in New Jersey and $30,461 in Florida.
Landscapers charge $50 to $100 per hour for a 2-person crew, or $25 to $50 per person. Landscaping costs $4 to $12 per square foot for basic services. Small landscaping projects cost $300 to $800 while large jobs cost $2,000 to $4,000 on average.
Cutting grass can be quite profitable, with solo operators earning between $30,000 and $50,000 per year, and small businesses earning $50,000 to $100,000 or more.
48% reported landscape and mowing maintenance as their most profitable landscape service. 32% of surveyed landscape businesses reported landscape maintenance as their fastest-growing service offering.
Landscaper Earnings Per Hour
If you're a mid-level landscaper with a few years of experience, your hourly income will vary from $16.66 to $23.46 an hour. If you're an experienced landscaper with unique, specialized skills, you can earn about $23.59 to 37.92 per hour.
While there's no legal stipulation saying you must have an LLC for a lawn care business, there are several benefits of an LLC that shouldn't be ignored.
There are basic levels of gross profit margin which are considered low, average, or good. Generally, a gross profit margin of between 50–70% is good and anything above that is very good.
Experts say a landscape salesperson should be paid about 8% of what they sell. So, if their goal were $700,000 in sales, they would make $56,000 – assuming they met the target. If you went with the salary/commission approach, you would create a base salary and commission that combined to equal 8 percent of the goal.
New and early-stage landscaping businesses see an average profit margin of around 15%, while growing landscaping services average around 45%. Fifteen to 20% is ideal for a residentially focused business, while 10% to 15% is realistic for a commercial property vendor.
Landscapers earn an average hourly wage of $28.55. Salaries typically start from $17.80 per hour and go up to $43.81 per hour.
The typical net profit margin in lawn care and landscaping ranges from 5% to 20% per job. The more expenses you have, the less profit you come back with in the end. So it's essential to know your costs, how much they are per job, and what's factoring into your bottom net profit line.
Myth: You can't earn a good income as a landscape professional. False! Landscape professionals are well compensated for the expertise they bring and the skills they offer. Managers, executives, sales professionals and others often earn well in excess of $100,000 each year.
As a rule of thumb, an experienced solo operator can mow 5-8 lawns per day, while a 2-3-person crew could handle 10-15 average-sized properties. This is just an estimate to help you get started, so be sure to look at your own local area, equipment, and types of lawns you have when making your calculation.
Well, the answer is it depends on a few factors. But the reality is, the sky's the limit. Some solo lawn care companies make only $10k a year, while others make millions. In fact, there are many lawn care vendors who make $200k through mowing lawns on GreenPal alone.
Determine the hourly rate for your employees or subcontractors. Multiply that rate by the estimated time for each task to arrive at a labor cost estimate. Find out the cost of materials needed for each task. Add those costs to the labor cost estimate to arrive at a total cost estimate for the job.
Is Tipping a Landscaper Mandatory? Again, tipping your local landscaper is not mandatory—and it's uncommon after one-time jobs or routine lawn services. Most landscapers don't expect tips at all, but the standard tip is an annual or seasonal bonus. At the end of the day, there's no hard and fast rule.
Bottom range. The bottom range I see in man-hour pricing for landscape businesses that do design/build, installation, and recurring maintenance is in the $60-70 per man-hour range.