If you’re a small business, it’s often hard to avoid competing on price. Perhaps you’re afraid to lose a prospect or worse a client to a lower-priced competitor. Or you’re looking to get established in a new market. Or you want to make sure you keep your guys working all season long. Whatever the reason, competing on price is a loser’s game.

So how do you avoid competing on price? Develop a compelling story around why you are providing a unique landscaping service at the investment level you’ve established and sell that story. There are actually several benefits to this approach – you get the chance to build a unique brand that sets you apart from the competition and that uniqueness enables you to establish a fair price without having to engage in price wars with the generic, me-too landscaping services.

One of the biggest challenges for landscape contractors is managing cash flow. Seasonal variations, fickle customers, weather, and suppliers can all wreak havoc on your cash flow – one week you can be rolling in dough and the next struggling to meet payroll. What’s a landscape professional to do?

First and foremost, establish a reliable banking relationship and an appropriate line of credit. Then use it. The Number One pitfall that traps small business owners such as landscape contractors and designers is using their own money to address short-term cash flow variations.

I know, I know. That’s probably not the advice you really wanted to hear, but you need to hear it. Banks are not the enemy. In fact, a good bank will be the very friend you need when you’re experiencing a cash crunch and need a little help.

This is a problem most landscape contractors would probably love to have – too many clients or projects and not enough time to handle it all. Meaning there is tons of demand…and not enough supply (i.e. you and your team) to go around. Still, it’s a serious issue that many of us in the landscape design and contracting business sooner or later face. 

So exactly how do you get potential clients to commit and wait for you to free up the time and resources to handle their business?

“Sorry, I can’t take the job. I’ve already got too much work” – said no one ever!

If you’ve been in the landscape contracting business for any length of time, you probably adhere closely to that old farming adage, “make hay while the sun shines.” In other words, if there’s work available, GRAB IT!

The risk you run, of course, is that all that additional work eventually catches up to you and you begin to lose jobs – even clients – because you’re having trouble handling it all. So how do you get around that problem? By adopting a landscape business model that provides high enough value early in the sales process to satisfy the client enough for them to be willing to wait until you’re ready to deliver more services.