If working outside is an activity love to do, then starting a garden service business may be something that you would definitely enjoy.

Although you aren’t physically working from home, a garden service would be a home based business, meaning you would be your own boss, set your own schedule, and work as many hours a week as you want to.

What kind of services should you offer?

This depends on your skill levels and the type of work you are willing to take on. You could provide super basic level services like grass cutting and weeding, and become busy enough with work all year round, or you could offer more skilled work, like fencing, landscaping and garden design. Of course, you don’t have to do everything on your own. It may be a good idea to partner up with someone or use subcontractors that already have the right skill-set.

How do I get started?

Once you have the equipment needed, the best way to start is to offer to do jobs for friends, family, and neighbors. Tell them you are new to this business and are happy to offer good rates as you’re trying to build your reputation. Give outstanding value and complete the work to the best standard, and eventually word of mouth will start to spread, leading to more work and inquiries.

Advertising your service and bringing in more work

Garden services will always be in demand, so a door to door flyer drop around your local area can bring in some work instantly. Use a distribution company to deliver between 5000 and 30,000 leaflets for a good start. Effective flyer design templates for garden service companies are easy to find online.

You can also purchase pre-qualified leads from websites like Home Advisor. These sites serve as aggregates for people who need work completing. There are many targeted prospects here that need the services you offer, allowing you to contact them directly. Although this is not the best long-term strategy to secure clients, it will help you in the beginning to get work in straight away.

Another form of advertising, guaranteed to get you quick results is search engine marketing or PPC. You will need at least a basic website for this, detailing your service and contact information.

PPC marketing will place your ad at the very top of the search engine results of the search phrase you choose (and bid on). Google is the best place to start because it is the number one search engine that most people use. You can usually obtain a $75 voucher to use on a new account, so it might not cost you a penny to start getting work.

With PPC, you target the relevant keywords that people will be searching for, and bid on a price to pay per click for your ads to be placed right at the top, or next to the search results. Local keyword search phrases will be best at first. For example “grass cutting Oswego,” or “landscaping in Ayers Village.”

People who are searching for the services you offer will, nine times out of 10 click on the top search result – this is why Google AdWords is so powerful.

Depending on your budget, your ad can be left on display in Google all the time if you needed to, just set a budget that you don’t want to exceed like $10 a day for example.

Other than leaflet drops, PPC marketing, and word-of-mouth, most other advertising mediums will turn out too costly to pursue, especially for the return that you will receive. Most garden service companies stay extremely busy from word-of-mouth alone.

The demand for maid, janitorial and domestic cleaning services has increased over the last few years. As household members become increasingly busy, it has become more common to delegate the task of cleaning and maintenance to external agencies.

Within the trend of domestic cleaning is the desire for more nature-friendly, hypo-allergenic, waste conscious cleaning. As more people come to understand the dangers of using toxic chemicals in our home environment, and as collectively we begin to understand the impact our actions have on the earth, we’re starting to become more “green” when it comes to cleaning.

To create a green cleaning business, the business model will need to be adapted to allow the extra expense and effort required to keep the business green and environmentally friendly. By offering a green cleaning service, you will set yourself apart from the standard home cleaning company, targeting a unique customer base, those willing to spend a little more for the sake of preserving and protecting mother earth.

How to start an eco green cleaning service

You’ll need to target more affluent areas of your neighborhood, those who would be more interested in green cleaning. Look for the type of person or family that are already environmentally conscious. Perhaps they would be driving a hybrid or electric vehicle, have solar panels on display and use separate recycling trash cans. It is important to assess demand in an area before deciding to concentrate your marketing efforts there.

Get your paperwork in order

Whether you start out as a sole trader, or you wish to set up a limited company, ensure the right paperwork is in place before you go out and clean. The most important thing you need to have in place is insurance. Your vehicle and equipment insurance will need to cover trade use. Your business will also need insuring for public liability and cover possible damage to clients property.

Employ or not?

If you’re just starting out, it would be an idea to do a few jobs on your own, or with a partner to get used to things. If your marketing is good, though, you’ll soon start receiving frequent calls and inquiries. Having employees in place to cover extra work will enable your business to expand very quickly. Advertise for potential employees on internet job sites, local shops, moms groups and the like.

Is your business really green?

You’ll need to be thorough with this. Some clients will hire a green cleaning business, not solely because of protection of the environment, but because they may be allergic to certain, (or all) types of harsh chemicals and surfactants usually used within domestic cleaning.

If you slip up once with this, your client may come up with an allergic reaction. Not the best customer feedback for your business. When purchasing cleaning supplies, be very vigilant about checking the ingredients and guarantee. They need to be 100% organic, and chemical free.

Marketing and customer service

Effective marketing can make or break your of business. If you had a simple service to offer and spent 5% of your time providing your service and the other 90% marketing it, you are much more likely to be successful.

Cleaning is a very competitive industry, and because of this, clients have a huge choice, making it very easy for the service vendors to not only gain work but lose work as well.

You need to have a strong web presence. Your website should show what you offer, why you should be trusted, what makes you different to the others, and your connection to the local area. Clients are much more likely to hire a local firm than a multinational, faceless corporation to do their cleaning.

Green or “eco-friendly” cleaning is a great service to offer and is part of a growing trend that only seems to be getting stronger. Domestic cleaning is a very easy business to start up, with a relatively small overhead. Perfect for the work at home mom needing flexible hours.