Start & Run a Landscaping Business. Joel LaRusic

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      In this section you summarize the “five Ws” of your business: the who, what, where, why, and when. Start-up companies should also list what resources they will be starting with.

      • Company summary. What is your company’s name? When did it start and why? Where is your home base? Where will you do your work? What services will you provide and to whom? Will you specialize in anything or are you going to mow, blow, and go? These are the types of questions you need to answer in the Company Summary. It may be a paragraph or it may be a full page or more.

      • Company ownership. Here you describe the business structure you have decided on and explain the specifics of how your business will be organized. If you are a sole proprietor, this would likely be a single paragraph. If there are several owners and you have decided to incorporate, you would need more explanation to introduce all the people involved and their roles in the company.

      2.3 Start-up summary

      In the first part of this section you explain how much money you will need to spend to start your company, how much you already have, how much you still need, where the money is coming from, and what exactly you will be spending it on.

      In the second part of this section you follow up your written summary with a spreadsheet that neatly lists all the financial information to do with your start-up. It is important to note that all the items in this table are items that come into play before your first day of business. Do not include revenue figures or ongoing monthly expenses at this stage.

      Although the spreadsheet follows the written summary in the plan, it is probably easier to complete the spreadsheet first.

      2.4 Management summary

      Your readers met the owners of your business in the company summary. Now you need to provide a little more information about each person. If there are key people involved in the business who are not owners, include them in this section, too. If you will be sharing your business plan with potential investors, this is where you really want to sell yourself and your team. What is your background? Why do you want to start a business? Why landscaping? List qualifications, experience, passions, and anything else that will prove your dedication to your business. Complete this section even if you are not looking for external financing. It will give you a comprehensive record of your (or your team’s) assets. It may also reveal areas that need improvement. Make a note of these insufficiencies on a separate personal list, not on the business plan. You are trying to sell your competence as a business owner here. This is no place for modesty!

      2.5 Products and services

      In this section you want to tell readers what services you will offer and what products you will sell, if any. List all the services you plan on offering now or in the near future. Be specific, listing specialties or areas that you are most interested in growing. Include any innovative ideas you have about your offerings. For example, in my business, many of my full-service programs end in November. However, I offer an extra visit right before Christmas to clean up the last of the leaves and debris that may have blown around. People appreciate this small extra, as it shows I am interested in their property.

      Will you sell products? To keep things simple, you should consider the application of products, such as fertilizer, as a service. But if you sell something to your customers without a service attached (e.g., summer annuals for customers to plant themselves), then you would list product sales as part of your plan.

      2.6 Your market

      In this section, describe your target customers, your competition, and any peculiarities about the marketplace. All of the information in this section can be extracted from your marketing plan (see chapter 6), which should be prepared first.

      2.7 Your financial plan

      This is where you deal with the nitty-gritty of your business plan — the numbers. Do not skip this section, even if you are only completing a business plan for your own benefit. It is important for tracking your company’s progress, or lack thereof.

      To produce a financial plan, you need to complete three other forms:

      • The pro forma profit and loss statement (forecast)

      • The balance sheet (current snapshot)

      • Cash flow projections

      2.7a The pro forma profit and loss statement

      At the very least, you should try to estimate your income and expenses for one year ahead of time, but I recommend trying to look ahead two years. It’s difficult to project any longer than that, especially when you are starting out, because you don’t know the industry well and you can’t anticipate what modifications you might make over time that could throw long-term projections out the door. For example, you may plan to pursue multi-dwelling property (such as condos and townhomes) contracts in your third year of business, but discover after two years that you are happy and profitable doing residential work only.

      First-year forecasting can be challenging. How do you estimate what you simply don’t know? How much fertilizer or equipment fuel will you use? How many customers will you attract? How fast will your business grow? The bottom line is this: You make an educated guess and you do the best you can. After that, you will test your business savvy and your confidence in yourself and your new enterprise as you project yourself into the future and think about how you want your business to grow. You will probably be surprised at how close your estimates are if you put some thought into them.

      The profit and loss statement is your guide to your business projections. (If you are new to record keeping and accounting, you may want to pause here and read chapter 7 on record keeping before proceeding.)

      The first item to consider is income. As you think about your income projections, ask yourself key questions about how much work you will do. How much are you going to work each month? Will you work full time or part time? Will you work by yourself or will you have a helper or even a second crew? How much are you going to advertise? Are you going to blitz certain areas? Are you planning to use many different marketing techniques or just a couple? Over what time period will you advertise — in the spring or all through the season? Also, how motivated are you to get work? If you have a small contingency fund to get by with as you get your business started, you will be more motivated than if you have a large surplus of cash after start-up expenses. What are your financial obligations? A mortgage, car payment, and kids to support are strong motivators to turn a coin in this business!

      Depending on where you live, certain months will be slower than others. No matter where you live, spring and fall will be busy. An old saying in the gardening business is that if you are not busy in the spring and fall, you’re doing something wrong. Summer can be slower if you don’t have regular maintenance customers; you may not have many in your first year, so expect to hustle. Winter revenue depends largely on where you live and if you will be offering snow-clearing services.

      Set a goal for the number of regular maintenance customers you want in your first and second years. Are you starting from scratch? Perhaps set a goal of generating $1,000 per month in regular cuts by May. Regular maintenance customers are a beautiful thing because they are as close to a steady paycheck as you get working for yourself. You can count on this money each month. Will you buy any maintenance contracts (see section 3.4 in chapter 6)? Prices may vary from place to СКАЧАТЬ