IndustriesLandscaping
A landscaping business plan that survives the winter
Landscaping plans fail on seasonality and cash. Revenue arrives in seven months, equipment finance is due in twelve, and the crews you cannot afford to lose in November are the crews you cannot replace in April.
Written for an SBA or bank loan, which is where most plans in this sector goNAICS 561730
Where the money goes
Typical shares of revenue in this sector. Shown as a starting point to argue with, never as a target to hit — your own figures replace all of these at intake.
- Crew labour
- 38%
- Seasonal. Retaining crews through winter is a real cost with a real return.
- Materials
- 16%
- Plant, mulch, stone. Pass-through on install work, near zero on maintenance.
- Equipment and fuel
- 9%
- Mowers, trucks, trailers. Maintenance rises with hours, not months.
- Insurance
- 3%
- Liability plus vehicles. Tree work carries a materially higher rate.
A worked model
One plausible landscaping, built out in full.
Not an illustration. These assumptions were run through the same engine the product uses, and the plan review was run over the result. It is here so you can see the shape of the answer before you start.
- Year 1 revenue
- $247.6K
- Year 3 revenue
- $910.1K
- Operating profit from
- Month 8
- Year 3 net margin
- 9.6%
- Coverage, first full year
- 5.78×EBITDA less tax, over debt service
Balance sheet ties in all 60 periodsNo blocking findings — this model would exportLowest cash $28K in month 12
The revenue build
Not a growth rate. These are the drivers a reader can argue with, which is the only kind worth putting in a plan.
Maintenance and install
Contracts × monthly value
- Opening contracts
- 0.0
- New per month
- 5.0
- Monthly value each
- $470
- Term
- 24 months
- Cost of salesMaterials and consumables
- 16%
Snow and winter services
Contracts × monthly value
- Opening contracts
- 0.0
- New per month
- 1.4
- Monthly value each
- $640
- Term
- 24 months
- Cost of salesMaterials and consumables
- 12%
Sixty months of it
Monthly revenue against monthly EBITDA. Both are flows, so they share an axis honestly — plotting a cumulative cash balance beside a monthly figure would flatten the one that matters. The cash trough is in the strip above.
- Monthly revenue
- Monthly EBITDA
Year by year
| Year | Revenue | EBITDA | Net income | Closing cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $247.6K | -$67.6K | -$103.1K | $28K |
| Year 2 | $702.6K | $156.7K | $118.7K | $136.6K |
| Year 3 | $910.1K | $142.3K | $87.2K | $235.4K |
| Year 4 | $910.1K | $101.8K | $56.9K | $295.9K |
| Year 5 | $910.1K | $99.1K | $56.6K | $353.8K |
Sources and uses: $115K debt, $155K owner capital, $140K of fit-out and equipment. 11 people on the payroll by month 36.
Against the landscaping and grounds maintenance band
Benchmarks warn; they never overwrite. An assumption outside the band is flagged with its source so you can justify it — substituting an industry median would destroy the specificity that makes a plan credible.
- Gross margin
- 39.3%in band
- 34.0%median 45.0%56.0%
- Net margin
- 9.6%in band
- 4.0%median 9.0%16.0%
Source: Grounds maintenance trade benchmarks, 2026 · NAICS 561730 · secondary tier. Secondary-tier bands are usable as ranges, not as something a lender will read; where a figure has to survive scrutiny we substitute RMA Annual Statement Studies or IRS SOI data. Seasonality, not margin, is what strains these plans: a year-round crew against a five-month season needs a winter line or a documented layoff.
What they will ask first
A plan that answers these before they are asked reads as competent. One that does not gets sent back with them attached.
- What is the maintenance-to-install split?
- Maintenance is recurring, contracted and low margin. Install is lumpy, higher margin and hard to forecast. A reader values them completely differently.
- How do you cover December to March?
- Snow removal, holiday lighting, or a cash reserve built in season. A plan with a flat twelve-month revenue line has not answered this.
Where these plans get sent back
Seasonal cash trough
The lowest cash point is late winter, not launch. A model that does not show it has almost certainly smoothed the revenue.
Weather
A wet spring moves a month of install revenue into the next quarter. Debt service does not move with it.
Licences and filings to budget for
These belong in the use of funds, not in a footnote. A missing permit line is the cheapest possible reason to be sent back.
- Contractor or landscape licence where the state requires one
- Pesticide applicator certification for chemical treatment
- Commercial vehicle registration and trailer compliance
Requirements vary by state, county and city, and they change. Treat this as the list to go and verify locally rather than as legal advice — the product tracks the dated ones as configuration with a source and an effective date, and prints which version it assumed.
Start from these defaults, then make them yours.
The intake pre-fills this sector’s drivers and tags each one as your figure or an industry default — and says which in the finished plan.