Essential Business Forms for the Start-up Landscaping Business

Spring is just around the corner with a sense of new beginnings.  Let’s face it –you love to work outside, preferably around the yard, tending the lawn, upgrading the landscape, giving the atmosphere a sense of aesthetics.  After years of doing the “same-ole-same ole” you have decided to start up a landscaping business.  You have all the equipment needed to successfully carry out any landscaping assignment and you have the principle to start.  In addition, you have a discount at a friend’s landscape supply which you have been using for a decade or so, continually upgrading your private piece of paradise.  You and your wife talk it over, and as a willing partner and co-worker decide to “go for it” together.  First a landscaping contractor’s license is a valuable and credible asset to your profession and may be required in your respective state. Secondly, you need to plan the range and scope of services, as well as the number of employees needed.  In addition, beyond accounting software and other digital business software –on the site or in the office forms are needed to initiate your services.

Services and Expectations

Services will be based on customer need and desire.  For lawn maintenance, homeowners who are frequently out of town, retirees who cannot or do not want to do their own lawn any longer, snowbirds in with winter homes in the climates which are warmer, possibly Golf Course, Rental Properties, Condominiums, or governmental facility management of public spaces - the last would most likely be a green type of maintenance and landscape detail.  For landscaping services, customer needs and desire would be:  Homeowners or small businesses who don't have the time, vision, skills or tools to design their landscaping. New homeowners who want to upgrade and update the existing landscaping.  Those who wish to put their home on the market in pursuit of "curb appeal" with a fresh coat of updated landscaping.  Builders of commercial and residential properties who lack a landscape contractor on staff.

Forms and Documentations Needed

As a start-up business, the landscaper must have the proper forms and documents to initiate contracts with potential clients and customers.  Many contracts will be closed at the job site.  The first landscaping form to consider is a landscaping estimate, which would detail materials needed, the quantity and price, any additional trees, shrubs or plants, sod and seed materials, labor involved in the estimated amount of working (this would cover all the activities involved in the actual work - whether it be lawn maintenance or installation, other hard materials, such as stone or masonry walks and pathways, or construction of a pond and installation of irrigation).  Landscaping proposals are usually left lined but blank to be used in a bid for work, or sketched out with the client and customer at the potential-future job site.  Lawn maintenance invoice forms are usually specialized to the work performed:  Lawn mowing, Edging, Weed Eating and Control, Pruning & Trimming, Fertilizing and Spring/Fall Clean-up are major categories to invoice the client.  Similar to a landscaping estimate, a landscape work order/invoice form can be used for either action of ordering the work and having the client sign it to be released as an invoice after the work is completed.  With the start-up of your new landscaping business, you may be a phone call or two away from a huge contract, and having these forms at hand, will not only heighten your professional credibility as a landscaper, but initiate the work that you desire to do in your life.