Best Practices for Smooth and
Successful Expansion
Is your irrigation business ready for the next step? Are satisfied customers beginning to request services that are outside your current scope?
If so, 2025 may be the year to consider expanding your business and your reach. Here are some proven techniques to get you started.
What Do Your Customers Want?
Before you decide which services to add to your menu, find out what your customers want.
Conducting an online survey is a relatively quick and easy way to gauge customer needs and interests. Social media platforms like Instagram, X, and Facebook allow you to create a questionnaire for your followers. Some points to consider:
Green Industry Growth
by the Numbers
62% — Percentage of all landscaping customers who are residential homeowners.
5.6% — Percentage of market increase for residential landscaping services expected in 2025.
4.5% — CAGR between 2020 and 2025 for the U.S. landscaping market (nearly double the pre-Covid growth rate).
Source: Zippia
- Choose the right platform. Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer different tools and target different audiences, although they all offer a polling option.
- Keep it short and straightforward. Limit the number of questions and use clear and concise language to keep your audience engaged.
- Use visual aids. Incorporate images, GIFs, or videos to make your survey more engaging.
- Offer incentives. Encourage survey participation by providing incentives, such as discounts or freebies.
- Track and respond. Monitor the responses and thank participants for their feedback.
Once you’ve analyzed the data collected through your survey, you’ll be better positioned to make an informed decision.
Become an Expert
Before adding a new branch to your business, you must learn everything you can about the service you’ve selected to offer. Just because you can provide that service in a pinch doesn’t make you an expert. You must become proficient.
That means thoroughly training yourself and your staff before offering your customers a new professional service. Landscaping suppliers and numerous lighting vendors offer on-site and online training sessions on various subjects.
If you think adding drainage services may be the way to go, the experts at Site One have some ideas to get you started:
Whatever service you decide to add, training your crews during the off season will ensure they’ll be ready to roll come Spring.
Timing Is Everything
Make sure you’ve truly mastered your new service before launching it. A Florida-based contractor explained how his company added a service before it was ready, and it almost backfired: “We made so many mistakes because we hadn’t done enough due diligence before releasing the service that clients were losing confidence in us…It could have been a disaster.”
Even if the new service seems to fall within your skill set, that doesn’t mean it’s time to roll out that service to your customers. It must be the right time for your business to expand.
“I’m in a very fast-growing section of Ohio, and I knew that there weren’t a whole lot of people doing lighting in my area…[so I began] adding those services to the business.”
– Adam Puhl, Puhl Landscape Design
Analyze the industry and market opportunities. Are they increasing? If so, there’s a good chance your company can capitalize on that growth.
Dollars and Sense
Once you understand the market and the service you intend to add, it’s time to explore the financials to determine if you have the wherewithal to invest in the equipment, training, or talent necessary for expansion.
Look for ways to optimize current revenue streams by allocating labor and equipment methodically. For instance, instead of hiring new staff to initiate the service, cross-train current employees who desire to learn new skills and assume more responsibility. You could also repurpose some of your current equipment to reduce overhead or consider renting the necessary gear rather than investing in new equipment.
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When pricing your new service, avoid undercutting your competitors. That would only drive down the market and adversely impact everyone’s profit margin. Instead, talk to your suppliers to gauge the local market effectively while recognizing that it may take a while to find your optimal pricing schedule.
Continuing Education
Once your new service is up and running, continue learning as much as possible about it. (You want to be more knowledgeable than your customer!) Education and experimentation are the keys to success when expanding your service menu.
Sources:
Featured Images: Adobe, Licenses Granted
Irrigation & Lighting
Forbes
ReadWrite
