What Counts as an Essential Business?
It is challenging enough to market your landscaping business and generate enough customers. This becomes even more complicated when world events like the pandemic of 2020 make things even harder. Amid the Coronavirus pandemic and competitive markets, essential businesses have the security of knowing that they won’t be prohibited from operating and as a result are relatively secure from going out of business. Therefore, if you own a landscaping business, you may be concerned about whether you should prepare for the worst amidst these uncertain times.
So, is landscaping an essential business? Here is everything you need to know about essential businesses and landscaping.
Landscaping Involves Little Personal Interaction and Work is Performed Outdoors – Making it More Likely Than Not to Be Considered “Essential” in Most Regions
What may be essential for one group of people may not be essential for another group. But is landscaping an essential business? While other businesses and industries can afford employees to work at home, others must close their doors and wait for the storm to pass.
An essential business usually provides a range of services that, without them, critical infrastructure operations wouldn’t be possible. Things like water, power, food production and distribution, and child care fall into this category. But does landscaping fall in there?
Landscaping is a Grey Area
Hospitals and grocery stores are crucial and integral for keeping citizens safe and healthy, but landscaping? Of course, outdoor maintenance is important to homeowners, considering the number of pests and diseases it keeps at bay and how appealing it makes your home appear. But not all landscaping services are considered “essential” for infrastructure operations.
Landscaping services fall under the “public works” industry, and landscape professionals fall in line with plumbers, electricians, and sanitation workers. In layman’s terms, landscapers contribute to keeping the community safe and sanitary.
Unessential Landscaping
While the professionals that do landscape services count as essential workers in the COVID-19 pandemic, they can put some of their services on hold. The NALP’s top priority is maintaining essential businesses and buildings (schools, hospitals, government facilities) to support public safety.
Generally, this means landscaping businesses will have to put a hold on their services to private homes and buildings. You shouldn’t prioritize it if it doesn’t provide an essential service. And if your business continues to provide these services, it won’t fall under the essential services umbrella.
Trimming Health Concerns
As any landscape professional knows, tall grasses and weeds are havens for pests and vermin. These critters can either get into your home or pass on diseases they carry from the outdoors to your immune system. And with the threat of COVID-19 always present, this can compromise your health and safety.
Homes and businesses benefit from having clean and tidy greenery. If certain businesses are still open, they will likely want to keep up presentations to attract customers. You could say the same about people trying to get together and impress the people they haven’t seen in a while.
Keeping a clean lawn and garden encourages people to stay outside, where they will likely line up outside businesses. And with a nicely kept garden, customers are less likely to contract an illness while they wait in line outside.
More Than Trimming Hedges
If you’re from a warm state, you may think of lawn mowing and hedge pruning when you hear the word “landscaping.” But in midwestern and northern states, these service providers are lifesavers more often than not.
Commercial landscaping services (like interior landscaping) are responsible for removing ice, snow, and debris in regularly used spaces. So when the autumn and winter months come, landscaping becomes an incredibly essential operation in some areas of the country. 
While Rules Will Vary in Different Regions, Commercial Landscaping is More Likely to be Considered “Essential” Than Residential Landscaping
Benefits for COVID-19
Aside from keeping citizens healthy from common pests and vermin, landscaping is an ideal industry to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Reducing your chances of becoming immunocompromised is a big plus, as well as keeping your home safe from pests. But all parties involved must be safe in the middle of this pandemic, including commercial landscapers.
Landscapers work in an outdoor environment, which goes a long way toward preventing the spread of the virus. Workers must also practice social distancing to avoid accidents with their machinery and tools. Compared to environments like hospitals and grocery stores, landscaping is an ideal work setting to stop the spread of and keep the public safe.
Outside of the Pandemic
If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, things are looking up from the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. Unfortunately, whether a new strain of the virus emerges or an entirely different virus spreads, another pandemic may happen. Even if you don’t live to see the next pandemic, what if a different disaster strikes your area?
Adverse Weather Conditions
Hopefully, the next pandemic won’t be happening for a long time or won’t affect business as harshly as it did. However, weather is a bit more predictable and, in recent times, can result in more extreme consequences as more and more people live in high risk weather areas than ever before. So, if your community encounters wind storms, downpours, or heavy snowfall, your landscape business will be essential for the area’s recovery.
Whether you’re based in an area that gets snow or not, debris can make road conditions dangerous for the public. And if your local government office is snowed in or trapped under tree branches, you will be the first line of defense to clear the area.
Generally, don’t be worried about finding work after a rough patch of weather. Depending on the amount of cleanup after the storm, this could be a lucrative time to pick up extra work.
Another Pandemic
No one hopes to have a pandemic hit their country, but these things happen without any say-so. If you’re still working and another pandemic strikes, don’t worry. You still have the opportunity to make a steady income as an essential public works business.
Essential landscaping is pretty straightforward, and any business can expand its services to stay in the clear in the event of a global lockdown. Landscape maintenance and lawn care will be necessary for other essential businesses and buildings. And specific industries may need extra construction services to accommodate their customers.
In the event of another pandemic, it might be beneficial to stretch your services into commercial landscaping. Strictly commercial landscaping services are in the best position to continue their work when the rest of the industry has to stay at home.
