How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Landscaping, Nursery, or Lawn Service Business by Lynn Wasnak

Author:Lynn Wasnak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: landscaping, nusery, lawn service, business, outdoors, small business, home-based business, service business
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group
Published: 2013-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9: Locating Your Office

As a landscaping or yard work professional, you will need a base of operations. If you have multiple vehicles, trucks, trailers, and other large pieces of equipment, you will probably need a garage or other facility where they can be stored and worked on. However, even if you rent a facility to house your equipment, you may keep your actual office somewhere else — such as a spare room in your home.

Home or Facility, Pros and Cons

More than half of America’s small businesses are home-based, according to the Small Business Administration. A home office is ideal for a landscaping business, providing you have space for it and your community allows home-based businesses.

Let us examine the zoning issue first. Many communities have restrictions on businesses based in private homes, mostly because of the traffic and other issues associated with operating a business. Check your local zoning. You can do a Web search for your local government or look up the number in the phonebook. Explain what you plan to do. You may be required to pay a license fee. Be aware that your business will have an impact on your neighborhood if you park a truck that says “Lance’s Lawn Care” where everyone can see it. If you live in a suburb, you will have a trailer, big pieces of equipment, and employees coming and going — it is not reasonable to operate from a residence. One compromise would be to have your office at home, but rent a storage space for your equipment.

Assuming it is legal for you to base your business at home, why would you want to? For starters, the commute is great. Plus, you always can do the laundry while you are catching up on paperwork. You do not have to pay rent, and there can be some tax benefits too. The Internal Revenue Service has strict guidelines for claiming a home office as a business expense, so discuss the details with your accountant.

While the flexibility of moving around or working whatever hours you would like can be nice, if your office is just down the hall from your kitchen, you never leave work. If a customer calls with a question at 9 p.m., it is tempting to take the call and run to your office for a quick look at whatever the customer is concerned about. Of course, you always can ignore the phone, but the thought of a paying customer is a motivating factor to answer it.

Some other home-office matters to consider are family, friends, and possibly a landlord. Kids may have trouble understanding that you do not have time to play with them or drive them to the mall. Friends may assume that working at home is the same as not working at all, so they drop by to hang out next to your desk. If you rent your home, be sure to inform your landlord about your plans to set up a business there. You do not want to be evicted two weeks after you order letterhead that has your address on it.

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