The lawn care and landscaping industry is a competitive one, and it's important to know what a good profit margin is in order to stay ahead of the competition. According to Lawn Care Millionaire, the typical net profit margin ranges from 5% to 20%. However, successful lawn care and landscaping businesses can have operating profit margins of between 15 and 45%. This means that after deducting operating costs, labor, material, equipment, and overheads, you can take home a significant amount of money. Rod Bailey, certified by the landscape industry, is a management consultant and president of Alder Springs Enterprises in Woodinville, WA.
He suggests that creating professional estimates can be time-consuming, so it's important to have the right software to support your landscaping business and streamline the process. Additionally, the income statement or Profit & Loss Report should be monitored regularly to ensure that your gross margin is meeting your target. A general rule of thumb for a good margin is between 15 and 20% for residential jobs and between 10 and 15% for commercial jobs. However, many established landscaping companies aspire to gross profit margins of 50%. To achieve this goal, you need to determine the desired gross margins by considering the overall costs associated with income along with the fair market value for the work being performed. Phil Sarros, founder of Sarros Landscaping and Dirt Monkey University, shares some of his tips for keeping profit margins healthy.
He suggests that every expense in your business reduces the profits of a job a little: materials, depreciation of equipment, labor, and even the utility bills you pay to keep the lights on. Additionally, he recommends unlocking your price sweet spot in landscape pricing in order to make a lot of money and maximize profits in your business. However, finding the right prices for the landscape is more difficult due to the different services offered. If your business needs financial support, LMN Lend offers many rates and financing options that help garden companies get the cash they need to make those essential garden equipment purchases. Greenius also has a robust video-on-demand training platform with more than 50 landscaping and green industry courses in English and Spanish.
With these resources at your disposal, you can ensure that your landscaping business is profitable and successful.