Most landscaping companies run a 5% to 20% net profit margin, on gross margins of 50% to 70% before overhead. Recurring maintenance is usually the more profitable side — predictable work, tight routes, busy crews — while installation brings bigger tickets but lumpier demand. A well-run, maintenance-heavy company can clear 15% to 20% net.
This guide shows how to calculate your own margin, why maintenance beats install on profit, and the levers that actually move the number. We build websites and marketing for landscapers, so the lead-cost lever is one we know well — and it's the one most owners ignore.
Two numbers matter, and people confuse them:
Revenue minus direct job costs — crew labor, materials, fuel, equipment — divided by revenue. This tells you whether your pricing covers the work itself.
Gross profit minus overhead — insurance, office, software, marketing, your salary — divided by revenue. This is what you actually keep.
If you can't separate these, you can't tell whether you have a pricing problem or an overhead problem. Job costing per job is how you find out.
Before you spend on anything, look at routing and pricing — both cost nothing to fix and both move net margin directly. If your crews drive 90 minutes between two jobs across town, no marketing will save that day. And if you're underpricing to win bids, more leads just multiply unprofitable work. Fix the math first; you don't need us for that.
The lever we do help with is lead cost. Once pricing and routing are sound, replacing expensive shared leads with owned search traffic is one of the cleanest margin upgrades a landscaping company can make.
We lower your cost per lead. A hand-built site that ranks for landscaping searches plus AI lead capture means calls come to you instead of through a broker's markup. Plans start at $249/mo with AI lead capture, $597/mo adds the SEO content engine and attribution so you can see which jobs pay, and from $1,750/mo a custom CRM — month-to-month, and you own it.
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We don't post stock testimonials. On a 15-minute call we screen-share the real dashboards behind our own businesses — live leads, rankings, and the exact page that produced each one. See the proof →
It's middle of the pack. Solid but with room to grow. Tightening routes and shifting toward recurring maintenance can push a healthy company toward 15–20%.
Yes. Pay yourself a real salary as overhead. Net profit on top of your wage is the true picture; counting your labor as free hides a problem.
Usually overtime, rushed routing, and saying yes to low-margin work. Job costing reveals which jobs to drop next year and which to repeat.
Send your company name and metro — we'll confirm your market is open and build a working demo within 48 hours. Free, no card, no commitment. From $249/mo, month-to-month, and you own it.
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