From Lawns to Riches: Landscape Owner Salary

Have you ever wondered how much money you could make owning your own landscaping business? In this post, we’ll look at the average landscaping owner salary and if it’s worth having a landscaping business in the US. 

How Much Do Landscaping Companies Make?

The average self-employed landscaping business owner’s salary in 2023 is $73,911 annually. The lowest earners make $18,500 per year, and the highest earn over $249,000 per year.

Salaries vary greatly depending on several factors, such as the size of the company, the location, and the owner’s experience level (1).

Factors That Affect Salary

Experience

Experience is one of the most critical factors affecting your salary as a landscaping business owner. The more experience you have, the higher your salary will be. 

• According to Payscale, entry-level landscaping business owners make an average salary of $42,500 per year (2).
• As you gain more experience, your salary will increase. For example, mid-career landscaping business owners make an average salary of $50,209 per year. 

Not only does experience affect your salary, but it also affects your ability to get clients and grow your business. 

You will be responsible for finding your own clients as a business owner. The more experience you have, the easier it is to find and keep clients. First, because you will be more trusted, but second because with experience comes a base of clients and connections from the past.

Experience will affect the type of clients you can work with.

• When you first start, you may only be able to work with small residential clients. 
• As you gain more experience, you can work with larger commercial clients and on larger contracts. 

Years Established

If you are new in town, other than attracting people with discounted prices, it might be challenging to attract people for any other reason. 

• Years established shows your customers you have a solid foundation of knowledge, have a good track record of completing projects and are more likely to be around years from now. 
• The number of years your business has been established is a good indicator of the stability of your company.
• A company that has been in business for a long time is more likely to be stable and have a good reputation than a new company. 
• Reputation is important for attracting and keeping clients. Potential clients will be more likely to use your services if you have a good reputation. 

The number of years you have been in business will affect the type of clients you can work with, as larger companies will want to work with well-established businesses with good resources and a long-term history of great work. 

Business Size

Smaller businesses will have a lower overhead, which means the owner will take home a larger percentage of the profits. According to The Balance, the average salary for a small business owner is $63,560 per year (3). 

• Larger businesses will have more overhead costs, such as employees and office space.
• They also may pay a subcontractor to do certain aspects of the work when specialist knowledge is required. So, a large business owner will take home a smaller percentage of the profits. 

Although when you start to grow, your turnover substantially increases. So regardless of your percentage taken home, your pay should, in theory, go up. This is where business efficiency comes in.

Business Efficiency

Running an efficient business machine, where all cogs turn analogous to one another, isn’t easy to create. 

In a business, there are potentially millions of different touch points so getting things running efficiently takes a lot of effort. 

If you can get the machine well-oiled and running efficiently, you’ll be on your way to financial success. That means not spending money on things that don’t matter, getting the correct staff members who truly care about your business and clients, and focusing on what makes you money. 

Doing all these things can create a well-oiled machine that can make you an absurd amount of money. 

Pro-Tip: To run a business efficiently, try not to grow too fast. Starting as a one-person landscaping business is advised, and then growing one team member at a time. This allows you to iron out inefficiencies early on, giving you more chance of growing to a substantial size over time. 

Location

The location of your business will also affect your salary. 

• If you are located in a rural area, you will have less competition and may be able to charge more for your services. 
• If you are located in an urban area, you will have more competition and may have to charge less for your services. 
• Tennessee, Hawaii, and Minnesota are the top three states with the highest national averages, with all their average earnings being over $77,000 per year as a landscape owner. 
• Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida all have the lowest averages, earning under $56,000 per year. That’s more than a 30% difference! So location is a huge factor in pay scale. 

How Does Salary Stack Up Against The National Average?

The national average salary across all sectors and lines of business in the US is $53,924 per year, according to Indeed (4). While the national average for a landscaping business owner is $73,517 per year. So the national average is much higher for a landscape business owner. 

Just make sure to stack up the different factors explained above to get a rough idea of what you could be expected to earn. 

You may be in a state where you can earn more than the average pay, but then again, you may be low-paying and have little experience to draw on. 

Conclusion

So overall, do landscapers make good money? Yes, self-employed landscapers make about $20,000 more than the national average wage.

Many different factors will affect your salary as a landscape business owner. These include the size of your business, the number of years you have been in business, the location of your business, and the efficiency of your business. 

The average salary for a landscape business owner is $73,517 per year. However, this figure will vary depending on the factors mentioned above.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

1. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Landscape-Owner-Salary
2. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Landscape_Manager/Hourly_Rate/8d0ea366/Entry-Level
3. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/average-small-business-owner-salary-in-the-u-s-4176311
4. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/average-salary-in-us