1. Determine where you would like to locate your business.
You need to think more broadly about which town or city around Uganda you would like to start your business. Locating yourself in places with great potential may change your landscaping opportunity. You can even relocate and stay close to potential constructing areas.
2. Investigate the landscape design or compound design in the area.
Investigation of the market of compound design is important, also check out and understand the competition of compound design in that given area.
3. Understand your Primary Market
This will determine your service to your customers, are you a residential or institutional landscaper or are you specialized in gardens only, or are you specialized in maintenance. Think about this critically before actually stepping into the business.
4. Find some other extra services you are willing to offer to your customers
Consider services that will make your customers attach more personally and comfortable with you. Such as maintenance of constructed landscape.
5. Get some Accounting Skills
Accounting skills is the most important in this art of landscaping, since you will be calculating and estimating almost everything.
6. Write a Business Plan
When starting up you will need to get some startup capital from an investor, or family and friends. A business plan gives assurance of actual reality of where the business is going. 90% of businesses without a strategized plan collapse due to poorly planned businesses.
7. Acquire Startup Capital
With a business plan you will prove that your business is surely profitable and surely this gives the confidence to and investor to fund you. Investor may not be fixed to someone rich, but it could also mean a person that is close to you and is willing to give you a heads up. Such as friends, family among others. The best business plans are not business plans that are impossible to fund.- Joshua Gwamoiza
8. Set your Prices
Your costs are determined by your local competition and operating costs and the season of other factors. This involves you asking local landscapers around you how much their rates are and getting a reasonable average. Cut costs when necessary.
9. Produce a manual for your operation
This codifies the company into a clear successful system that is in the favor of building the values of the company. This enables you focus on what you are doing.
10. Design a Website
Best landscape design has 99% of its customers wealthy. 80% of the wealthy are online. Willing customers and customers ready to get the best landscape or compound design, are customers that get to you. The can call directly, Text you on WhatsApp among others. So place advertisements online- This will enable people to find you. Check my post on 3 Must have tools for landscape design in Uganda.
Bonus:
1. Offer discounts
Offering great offers to customers makes you win more customers as fast as possible.
2. Host or attend events like Business retreats will open a lot of door and guests for you.
This will enable you meet the right people at the right time, word of mouth is the most important fact for marketing.
3. Partner with other local businesses, including other landscapers
No man is an Island, work together and share customers does not rob you the fact that you are great landscaper. Contact the best landscapers and share ideas together, and one way or the other share customers.