I started my exterior cleaning business in 2019. I currently offer pressure washing, window cleaning, gutter cleaning and holiday light installation.
I want to start doing lawn care in the spring. My question is, would it be better to start a separate lawn care company or just add a lawn care division to my existing company? Long term strategy is to add landscaping and tree care to the business in the years to come. The end goal is a truly full service outdoor service provider.
My initial thought is to rebrand the entire company to â_____ outdoor solutionsâ
Thoughts?
Reason I picked a kind of generic name. We have a landscaping division, though relatively small but I agree, I think offering a total exterior service business is where itâs at if you can find employees. âTotal Outdoor Solutionsâ not a bad name.
Outdoor solutions sounds more like hardscape to me.
Iâm in the mindset of keeping Central âpressure washâ âlandscapeâ âtree trimmingâ âwhateverâ as extensions of the original company.
I played around with the idea of running âOhio Snomoâ for plowing and âOhio Gromoâ for landscape⌠but the liability for plowing and the permits for buying bulk fertilizer didnât work with my budget this year so Iâve got time to think about it.
I like Ohio snomo for plowing, sounds neat. Plowing isnât very profitable in my area, everyone has a side by side or a pickup with a plow. It is pretty cutthroat for residential, and you know 3/4âs of them donât have insurance. One look at half the pickups and drivers will tell you all you need to know. Commercial is pretty tight too. I know guys that do it just to keep workers on during winter (landscapers and asphalt guys).
Add to it the fact that itâs hit or miss each year on how much snow we get (nothing appreciable so far this year) and I wasnât willing to risk it this time around.
Agreed, stick with something generic. Keep Central if you think the brand recognition is there.
Weâre setup as Red Door Unlimited for the LLC, with D/B/As for âProwashâ and âLighting Companyâ, we recently added âHome Servicesâ as well since we got a contractors license.
We had a different name initially for the holiday lights, which we had to change when that became year-round lighting. People were using both services and had no clue it was the same company/people⌠since we changed it a few years ago, the brand recognition has been huge (good marketing and strategic partnerships have certainly helped that as well).
Depends, are you going to invest the time and energy into growing that business? If so, I would recommend creating a separate company for it geared specifically to lawn care. That will be better long term for SEO.
We had tons of people asking about permanent holiday lighting, so a couple years ago we got into that as well, which is a year-round thing. Since we were going full-time, we hired an experienced lighting guy and got trained up on landscape lighting as well.
We worked for a holiday lighting fella this winter. Heâs also a pressure washer (our local mentor) and I think we will start doing it as well just really slowly. Even if that means only ten customers next year then snowball. Itâs definitely a long term investment. First year pays for the lights next year is all profit minus labor
