Lawn Landscaping Business Plan

Greens Manicure Service is a seasonal residential lawn care service targeting suburban middle-class homes with larger yards. A large grouping of this demographic is located in Steve’s neighborhood. Steve will leverage his connection to the neighborhood to sign up customers.

For year one Steve will have one employee in addition to himself. By year two Steve will purchase a second vehicle, additional equipment, and hire two new employees to form a second work crew.

Greens Manicure Service is projected to reach profitability by month seven and will have profits of $10,000 by the end of the third year. Revenue activity will occur from April through November.

1.1 Objectives

The objectives for the first three years of operation include:

• To create a service-based company whose primary goal is to exceed customer’s expectations.
• The utilization of Greens Manicure Service in at least 20 different residential homes.
• To increase our number of clients served by 20% per year through superior service.
• To develop a sustainable home business, surviving off its own cash flow.

1.2 Mission

Greens Manicure Service’s mission is to provide the customer with professional lawn care. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Greens Manicure Service is a seasonal residential lawn care service targeting suburban middle-class homes with larger yards. A large grouping of this demographic is located in Steve’s neighborhood. Steve will leverage his connection to the neighborhood to sign up customers.

For year one Steve will have one employee in addition to himself. By year two Steve will purchase a second vehicle, additional equipment, and hire two new employees to form a second work crew.

Greens Manicure Service is projected to reach profitability by month seven and will have profits of $10,000 by the end of the third year. Revenue activity will occur from April through November.

1.1 Objectives

The objectives for the first three years of operation include:

• To create a service-based company whose primary goal is to exceed customer’s expectations.
• The utilization of Greens Manicure Service in at least 20 different residential homes.
• To increase our number of clients served by 20% per year through superior service.
• To develop a sustainable home business, surviving off its own cash flow.

1.2 Mission

Greens Manicure Service’s mission is to provide the customer with professional lawn care. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Greens Manicure Service will provide residential lawn care service which includes lawn cutting, edging and trimming. Optional services will include hedge trimming. The service is typically offered once a week in season, but Greens can create a custom schedule for clients.

Greens Manicure Service will be targeting one specific segment of the population, suburban middle-class families with no children and larger lawns. This group of people are the most likely to use a lawn care service such as Steve’s.

Steve will be canvassing his parents neighborhood, developing a client list. For the second year, Steve will expand service beyond his general neighborhood, utilizing advertisements in the local newspaper to develop visibility for Greens Manicure Service.

4.1 Service Business Analysis

Greens Manicure Service will be working in the lawn care industry. The industry is both residential business (individual home) and commercial businesses (apartment complexes, business parks, schools, etc.).

The commercial side is generally serviced by larger landscaping services. The residential side is serviced by both landscaping companies and basic lawn care service companies.

The lawn care business is made up of many small companies. This occurs because of the high labor intensity, low start-up costs, nature of the industry. The industry is also vulnerable to recessions as lawn care is a luxury. Lasty, lawn care is seasonal, the high season is spring through fall. There is little activity in the winter.

4.1.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

The lawn care business can be divided into two types, residential and commercial. As a smaller company or start up business, it is much easier to enter into the residential market compared with the commercial market. The commercial market is dominated by larger, established companies.

Within the residential market, there are two competitors: full-scale landscaping companies and basic lawn care services. The full-scale landscaping companies will generally be handling jobs outside of Green’s range. They are servicing even larger homes that require other landscaping activities that need more equipment and higher-skilled employees. The margins are therefore larger for the full-scale companies because they can charge more for the higher-skilled work. The other competitor is the basic lawn care services, not unlike Greens Manicure Service. Most markets, including Greens, the competition is not overwhelming and often lacks basic quality and professionalism.

More often than not, residential customers make purchasing decisions based on referrals and perceived professionalism and quality.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

Greens Manicure Service’s segment will be initially targeted by canvassing the neighborhood and offering a free estimate and cut. Steve will be basing the business out of his parents home, right in the middle of a target neighborhood. Steve will walk the neighborhood and leverage his relationship in this community to gain a foothold. Although some people are put off by solicitors, Steve is their neighbor so he will generally be able to make his spiel.

Once Steve  has built up a steady list of customers he will begin to run advertisements in the local paper to gain a foothold in different neighborhoods. This will take place during the second year as Steve will have sufficient business for year one in his neighborhood.

4.3 Market Segmentation

Greens Manicure Service will be targeting one specific group of customers, the suburban middle class. Greens is targeting middle-aged homemakers as they are more likely to rely on a lawn service. Younger homemakers are more likely to do their lawn themselves. Greens will also be targeting homes that do not have teenage children, as the youngsters are likely to help out with the lawn. The median income is $60-$120K, just enough to have disposable income for the care of their lawn. Greens Manicure Service will be targeting larger size lawns, from 4,000-7,000 square feet. This is done because the margins are higher with larger lawns once you factor in transportation time and costs. Lastly, white collar families will be targeted instead of blue collar families as the blue collar families are more likely to do the lawn themselves.

Greens Manicure Service will be aggressively targeting Steve’s neighborhood community by emphasizing its competitive edges of quality and professionalism. For year one Steve will be personally canvassing the area signing up clients. He will be able to leverage his competitive advantages as well as his status as a member of the community. For year two Steve will begin advertisements in the local paper to generate additional business.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Greens Manicure Service’s competitive edge will be based on quality and professionalism. During the first year Steve will be doing all of the lawns with only one other employee. This provides him with direct supervision of the employee and direct involvement with the job. This will ensure customers receive a quality job. Steve knows what quality work is, based on previous experiences to be detailed under the Management section.

Greens second competitive edge is professionalism. Steve will ensure that all interactions between the customer and his employee, as well as himself, ooze professionalism.

Steve truly believes that professionalism and quality are the factors that attract and maintain customers. Consequently, Steve will be truly vigilant in ensuring that his competitive edges are always apparent to the customer as his livelihood is dependant on this.

5.2 Sales Strategy

Greens Manicure Service’s sales strategy will be based on one-on-one communications with prospective leads. Steve will first be leveraging his relationships with his parents (pillars in the neighborhood) and his connection with the neighborhood. The prospectives will generally form a bit of a bond with Steve because of local familiarity and then Steve will need to communicate his experience in lawn care and his constant benchmarks of quality and professionalism. Steve is willing to offer a free estimate and cutting for those that are interested in a possible contract. Although some of the free cuttings will not turn out to be long term customers, he is confident that his competitive prices and superior service will turn most of the leads into customers.

By year two, the business will be ready to expand outside of the neighborhood and Steve will be using advertisements in the local paper to generate business. When people call with questions, Steve will have already (the previous year) built up a loyal following of customers that will serve as an effective referral system in which prospective people can call the current customers and get a glowing testimonial of Green’s service.

5.2.1 Sales Forecast

The first month will be used to set up the office, purchase the necessary lawn care equipment, hire and train an employee. Additionally, during the last two weeks of the month, Steve will be canvassing the neighborhood to build up a customer list.

Month two will see some business. The business will be growing as Steve continues to increase the number of jobs that he has. Month two through October will see a steady rise in revenues. Business will pick up again in April of year two. From February through April Steve will be working hard on generating new customers and will bring on two additional employees to service the new customers.

5.3 Milestones

Greens Manicure Service will have several milestones early on:

1. Business plan completion. This will be done as a roadmap for the organization. While we do not need a business plan to raise capital, it will be an indispensable tool for the ongoing performance and improvement of the company.
2. Set up the office.
3. Signing up the 20th client.
4. Revenue exceeding $50,000.

Greens Manicure Service is owned and operated by Steve Greinthum. Steve was first introduced to lawn care while he was pursuing his bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Oregon. Steve worked for a large, well-respected landscaping company. He started out his freshman summer year as a mower operater. During his four years at school he eventually moved up to crew manager. 

Steve enjoyed taking care of lawns. He was always excited about working outside. He also liked the management responsibilities that he had his last summer. The one thing he longed for is operating his own company. He decided the only thing stopping him was money, he already had all the experience and knowledge necessary. So Steve got a loan from his parents and started the company.

6.1 Personnel Plan

Greens Manicure Service will consist of Steve working full time. Steve will be the manager for the business, signing up new customers, managing customer accounts, hiring, training, supervising, and cutting grass.

Greens Manicure Service will use a total of two people during year one. For year two Steve will hire an additional two people to create a second work crew.

The following sections will outline important financial information.

7.1 Important Assumptions

The following table highlights some important financial assumptions of Greens.

7.2 Break-even Analysis

The Break-even Analysis indicates approximately $3,900 is needed in monthly revenue to break even.

7.3 Projected Profit and Loss

The following table indicates the projected profit and loss.

7.4 Projected Cash Flow

The following chart and table will indicate projected cash flow.

7.5 Projected Balance Sheet

The following table indicates the projected balance sheet.