A professional landscape designer includes a variety of career pathways. Your landscape design career can begin with something as simple as a lawnmowing and weed pulling after or it can even be a moonlighting side-hustle for your regular job. But your investment in your business should certainly not stop with a good lawn mower and a set of yard and garden hand tools. If you want to move beyond the “mow lawn and pull weeds” basic yard work, then you will need education in both business and in plant and tree care. This can be formal education classes, online instruction, or on-the-job training with an established landscaping company.
Surveying Professional Landscape Designer Businesses
One of the first places to begin any business is to look around and see what others are doing. You might find that people advertising as “landscape designers” range from side hustles that focus on helping customers lay out flower beds and walking paths to certified experts who are licensed to handle elaborate home improvement plans, as well as being licensed to handle rare or endangered plant species, including mature trees. He or she might be well-versed in plans that range from planning greenspaces for industrial or housing greenspaces to tiny backyard comfort zones. Some professional landscapers might specialize in organic eco-spaces or focus on the restoration of historical vistas. They might have a variety of clients, ranging from corporate customers to busy families of all ages who just need that “mow lawn and pull weeds guy.”
Professional landscape designers create and possibly maintain pleasing landscape arrangements tailored to client preferences. They might be sole proprietors, partners, small corporations, or employees of a large, established landscaping company. Duties can range from molding a raw construction sight into a beautiful place down to mowing lawns, edging sidewalks, and (yes indeed) pulling weeds.
Getting Started as a Landscape Designer
While you could start as a person who sits at a computer and puts together fantasy landscapes, it is never a bad idea to get your hands dirty with the real work of moving the arth, creating beds, and planting real plants. Depending on your age, getting some real hands-on experience with plants, lawn maintenance, and dealing with edging can be a real plus. It will keep you out of those beginner mistakes like trying to grow grass under an evergreen tree or placing a vegetable garden next to a walnut tree. You will also gain an appreciation of where a mower can go, and whether mulch will keep down the weeds.
Education is a big plus, too. While only a few states in the USA have licensing and certification requirements for landscapers, classes in botany, landscaping design, drafting, and similar sorts of education will not only make you look better on paper, it will help you understand soil types, land gradients, proximity between plants and buildings, and how to draw up your ideas so that others can see them. Your learning should not only include information directly connected to landscape design, bookkeeping, accounting, and general business practices but should d be part of your educational goals. Nor should you discount the value of working for an established landscaping company for a year or two, just to see how they do it.
How Much It Cost To Start A Landscape Design Business
Basic Business Requirements
There are a lot of different ways to get into the landscaping business. You can start with one of those “Mow your lawn?” door-to-door lawn mowing/weed-pulling business models and work your way up. If this is what you have in mind, don’t be “that guy”, the one who only gets hired once and is never invited back. Building a landscaping business from the kid who mows lawns into a landscaping designer business that has multiple employees to take care of the hands-on parts includes several important things:
- Good listening skills. When a home or business owner explains their vision of how a space should look, pay attention to what they are telling you. Listening and taking notes will help you understand what needs to be kept in a lawn space and what needs to be removed. If you persistently mow down your client’s wildflower bed (instead of weeding it) or mistake her prize pink yarrow for a weed, you reduce your chances of being invited back again. This also applies to planning a large project that involves earth movers and mature trees.
- Willingness to work outdoors in all sorts of weather. Even if you work your way into a situation where you mostly sit at a computer and use simulations to determine whether azaleas or cacti are a better choice for a location or the best spot to place a shade tree, sidewalk, or picnic area, there could come a day when everyone calls in sick and you have to go pick up the slack.
- The ability to create sketches using either drafting or computer simulation to help the client visualize a space. This is where formal landscaping classes can come in handy, or even some art classes in drafting or design.
- Facility with a computer. Not only will you need to use your computer for drafting and design work, but it is also your best tool for keeping records and staying on top of your business growth.
- Certifications. You might not need a license to mow lawns or pull weeds, but if your client wants chemicals applied to their lawn, such as weed killers or even fertilizer, city, county, or state regulations might require that you be licensed to handle such things. Even more regulations might apply if you are moving on up into large machinery, such as a backhoe or bucket lift.
- Register your business. If you have even one employee, you need to obtain an employer ID number to facilitate reporting and paying salary deductions. Depending on location and activity, there might be other regulations you need to observe.
- Education. Depending on the direction you wish to take your business, as a landscaper, classes in botany, ecology, drafting, and business are all going to be to your advantage. You can take formal education classes at a local college or university, or you can enroll in self-paced learning online, or a mixture of both.
- Hire on With an Established Landscaping Firm. Depending on the company, you can gain valuable experience as an employee while getting a look at the industry from the ground up, as it were.
How Much Money Landscape Designers Make On Average
Maintaining Your Business as a Landscaper
As with most entrepreneurial endeavors, there are a variety of levels of business models for your landscaping business. The most common is single proprietor, where you do it all. That could mean that you actively participate in all levels of landscaping, from planning to maintenance. You might gain employees to the extent that you only do the planning, and other people do the hands-on work, including having an accountant to keep track of the financial end of things. You might partner with someone who prefers outdoor work, or with someone who likes design more than hands-on.
You might develop a specialty, such as managing mature trees or developing Japanese gardens. Or you might have two or three models for interaction with customers, ranging from maintenance to development.
Reputation as a Landscape Designer
Regardless of your business model as a landscape designer, your most important commodity is reputation. You want to be known as the guy (or gal) who creates beautiful outdoor spaces. You also want to be the person who shows up on time with the right equipment and gets the job done efficiently, weather permitting. If for some reason you can’t do the job or someone messes up on the job, you want to make good on it so that you don’t ever become “that guy” who couldn’t tell Hosta from plantain.
How To Become A Good Landscape Designer
Frequently Asked Questions
I just want to make the designs; I don’t want to plant stuff or mow lawns. Can I do that?
Maybe. Your best chance of being a designer who never leaves the office is to sign on with a large company. With that said, there is something to be said for understanding how a lawn mower behaves in the field or having first-hand knowledge of how a seedling will change the character of a space as it grows.
I’m interested in sustainable gardening and designing spaces that will nurture people and animals as well as look beautiful. Can I do that?
This sounds like a specialized single proprietorship unless you can get on with a large landscaping company that is already doing this. With that said, edible landscaping, sustainable native growth, and avoiding the introduction of invasive species are all great ideas that are catching on.
Which states require licensing for landscape designers?
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Maryland require a home improvement license, Minnesota for installing plants, Mississippi has two licenses: horticulturalist and tree surgeon, Nevada if doing more than lawn maintenance, New Jersey if your service includes tree care, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah. Most states require licenses if you apply pesticides or other chemicals as part of your activities. Some areas/cities/towns have local licensing requirements, so check in each county or town where you plan to operate. Also, some areas require licenses to operate heavy equipment such as bucket trucks or backhoe diggers.
To learn more on how you can start your own landscaping business, check out my startup documents here.
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Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Landscape Business Fan.
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a landscape business owner at a job site, driving down the road or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Landscaping Business Boss: I want to help landscape business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.