How To Make Money As A Landscape Designer

There are many reasons to want to be a landscape designer, but none of them matter if you can’t make a good living doing it.

I started designing because my family’s landscape construction firm was failing. It was 2009, and the connections and word of mouth that had always kept us busy before were no longer cutting it. A designer who used to send us 4-7 high end projects a year took a position at the Portland Japanese Garden. The middle class clients who use to refer us to their neighbors were being gutted by the recession. We had let half our team go and at times went a week or two with no work at all. Something had to change.

I did two things. First, I started learning SEO and redesigned our website. Second, I bought a landscape design program (on a credit card) since I can’t draw and don’t know CAD. I spent a few weeks learning the program and then actively marketed our landscape design services.

From the very beginning I knew that designing was going to take a lot of my time and mental energy, so it had to be profitable on its own- it couldn’t just be a way to get installation clients. Today landscape design brings in about 10% of our revenue, with profit margins that are 75%+. I could lose all my employees tomorrow and still provide for my family of 6 with just design work. What has worked for me?

These four things have been my keys to being profitable as a landscape designer:

Know your worth and charge accordingly. I’m not Piet Oudolf and (most likely) neither are you. I don’t have the broadest knowledge of plants. And while I am creative, I don’t consider myself an artist. But, I have a deep understanding of materials and garden structure. Designing gardens that really work for people and that age well is a strength. And all of that has real value.

Your relative strengths and focus as a designer will be different, but they have real value as well. If you have doubts about your value as a landscape designer, hide them. Charge a healthy rate for your work, see how people respond to what you do, and the doubts will recede.

Assert and maintain control over your design services. You need to have a very well defined list of services that you provide. If you don’t, you’ll either find yourself with no clients (because no one understands what exactly you offer) or with a bunch of clients you don’t want (because you’ll do anything for anyone).

Will you do garden consulting? Great. Be sure your website spells out exactly what that means and what it doesn’t. Otherwise you’ll show up thinking you are going to show someone how and when to prune their Japanese maples and they will be asking about which raised bed to start their cucumbers in.

Charge a flat rate for your landscape designs and collect it up front. This has been the single most important driver of profit for my landscape design services, and I’ll be writing on it more soon. (Shoot me an email if you would like to see a copy of my design contract.)

Many designers charge an hourly rate, with or without a retainer. The problem is that this essentially sets the stage for an open ended engagement and uneven cash flow. Clients can request revisions into (what feels like) eternity. They can become unresponsive after receiving a preliminary version of the design, making it difficult to send them an invoice for time you have already devoted to the project. You are not a task rabbit and they didn’t find you on Fiverr.

Having trouble convincing people to pay in full before you start work? Then you need to work on your website, your messaging, your portfolio, and your reviews.

Market yourself aggressively. Why would you do that when you are a small company and don’t actually need that many clients to be fully booked? Because the more potential clients you have, the more profitable your actual clients will be. When you have 20 people interested in hiring you, and you only need 3 new clients this month, you can choose the projects that are best fitted to your skills. And when you can fire off proposals without fear (not needing any one potential client to hire) you can charge a higher rate for your work.

Each of the above has played a roll in my landscape design business. And each one will get their own post soon. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss them! Not yet a landscape designer and wondering how to even get into the field? This post, from a designer and person I respect, is a great starting point.