You’ve considered endless ways to grow your small business, and it’s reasonably safe to assume that landscaping never came up as an idea. It’s not something you immediately think about when trying to attract more customers and create more sales, yet it’s genuinely a hidden growth factor. 

It all comes down to your public image and how people perceive your business. Of course, we’re only talking about businesses with physical premises. If you have an online-only business, then this won’t help you in the slightest! 

Your premises – be it an office, a cafe, a retail store or whatever – will be the first thing people see when interacting with your business. This is where landscaping suddenly becomes one of the most critical parts of engaging an audience and curating positive first impressions.

If this still confuses you, then don’t worry; everything shall be explained in the blog below: 

A Nice Exterior Grabs People’s Attention

Running a business is all about grabbing people’s attention. In fact, one of your biggest pain points will be an inability to get people to notice you. Why is everyone paying attention to other businesses and not yours? 

Plenty of things can be in play here, but sometimes it’s as simple as your storefront or office exterior not looking good enough. This is especially true if you’ve got grassy areas or trees right out front – if they’re not kept in good condition, then people will naturally start shying away from your business. 

You need to stop your small business from looking like an overgrown and uninhabited building with some good old-fashioned landscaping. Get the lawn mower out and cut the grass so it’s always neat and short. Use various gardening tools to trim and prune overgrown trees or bushes – and think about adding nice things like colorful flowers or plants. All of this helps you create an exterior that genuinely grabs people’s attention. Your business looks more inviting, which draws more people through its doors. 

As a physical company, foot traffic is always a good thing. It’s the hardest part of securing sales; if you nail this with an inviting exterior, then there’s a solid chance people will start becoming regular paying customers. 

Good Landscaping Creates Positive Emotions

We spoke about positive first impressions in the introduction, and this is one of the major advantages that good landscaping brings. The fact is that a lot of your customers or clients might interact with you in the physical realm for the first time – as opposed to the online realm. They haven’t seen your classy business website or your social media posts, so their first impressions depend on what they see with their eyes. 

It’s nigh-on impossible to get positive first impressions when your landscaping is terrible. Again, if people see overgrown exterior elements, then they’re likely to ignore your business and never go inside. But they’re also highly likely to form negative opinions of your business. This is worrying because they good talk badly about your brand to friends and family based purely on how it looks from the outside. 

On the other hand, good landscaping creates positive emotions. Imagine that same person sees your storefront or cafe, but you’ve got lovely flowers decorating it, there are neatly pruned trees, and a beautiful grassy area at the back. It’s hard not to fall in love with a place like this – or at least feel very positive about it. There’s a way higher chance that they’ll talk about your business with friends/family and say things like, “That place looks nice; should we check it out sometime?” 

Always remember that 20-50% of purchasing decisions are mainly driven by word-of-mouth. You can probably increase that for physical businesses in local communities, so you need positive words to spread. Suddenly, you see just how valuable landscaping will be for a small business like yours! 

Nice Landscaping Features Can Help You Provide More Services

We’re talking about landscaping as though it’s purely beneficial from a visual perspective. That’s only partially true – nice landscaping features can actually help you provide more services. If you’ve got a lovely area outside your premises (either in the front or back), then you suddenly have a chance to cater to more customers. 

This is more of a direct point for restaurants, cafes, or other food-based businesses. Hell, even a little deli or store could use an outside area to provide extra services. You could sell drinks or food for people to sit down and consume after shopping! 

Landscaping can literally expand your business, especially if you don’t have much space inside. This drives so much business during the sunny periods – it’s almost a necessity if your small startup is involved in anything food/drink-related. 

A Well-Kept Exterior Sets You Apart From Your Competitors

Last but not least, managing your exterior sets you apart from the competition! Look at the examples we mentioned above; imagine you run a cafe, and yours is the only one with outdoor seating. It gives your business a competitive edge and drives more customers to you than everyone else. 

Even just from a purely visual point of view, good landscaping helps your business stand out. More people notice it, but it also looks better than your competitors. When you think about it, business is probably the biggest beauty contest on earth. You need to drive foot traffic into your premises, but that’s only possible if people like the way it looks. Yes, working on your front windows will also be extremely important, but proper landscaping gives you a much-needed boost. 

After looking at all of these points, can you see the true importance of landscaping for small businesses? It’s so easy to forget or neglect this, but you’ll rue it forever. Make your business look as attractive as possible by taking care of its exterior. Keep everything green and full of life; then think of ways you can utilize your landscaping features to offer more services or cater to a larger selection of customers.