48% reported landscape and mowing maintenance as their most profitable landscape
The most expensive part of landscaping projects is often the integration of hardscaping features, such as patios and walkways made from natural stone or permeable paving. Due to their complexity and material costs, these non-living elements can add thousands of dollars to your landscaping budget.
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.
As a result, commercial and residential property owners regularly utilize landscaping services, facilitating a healthy industry projection in the future. A Landscaping business is profitable, and business owners can achieve a salary as high as $180,000. However, most owners earn a salary between $54,000 and $115,000.
Limited Liability Company or LLC
It protects your personal finances and assets and is a great way to start your landscaping business.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Contact HOA management companies and introduce yourself. Ask if there is any HOA that might be interested in getting a proposal from your company. If they say no, ask when they believe a HOA will be accepting proposals again and get their email address. Always call back and follow up.
Landscaping industry employment
The US landscaping industry employs almost 1.3m people, while the average landscaping business in the US has 2 employees. And the latest industry statistics predict that the overall employment of landscaping and grounds-keeping workers will grow 10% from 2019 to 2029.
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.
Whilst the answer will depend to a degree on the specific project, for most outdoor jobs, a rotary laser level, combined with a laser detector, is the best tool to choose. Most of the outdoor jobs that require a laser level involve landscaping, surveying, preparing foundations, or levelling ground for construction.
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.
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.
Leading landscaping companies by revenue in North America 2023. In 2023, the landscaping services company that reported the highest revenue in North America was BrightView. The Pennsylvania-based company generated approximately 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in that year.
Oversaturated industry – There are likely more than 90,000 landscaping service companies in the U.S. Only 25% or so have more than four employees.