The following are some highlights from this business plan for Green Lawn Landscaping:

1. Frank Murphy and Peter Perez are looking to start an landscape contracting firm called Green Lawn Landscaping. They have more than 55 years of experience in this line of work in the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania target market.
2. The company will be located in downtown Pittsburgh with plenty of residential and commercial structures presenting Frank and Peter with plenty of business opportunities for securing annual and seasonal lawn maintenance contracts and snow removal work.
3. The overall residential population and labor force in the target market declined 7.9% and 1.2% respectively between 1990 and 2014. The poverty rate is 12.9%.
4. 65.5% of all the folks in the target market make less than $75k per year.
5. The largest occupations in the target market is the Management, Business, Science & Arts occupation - these occupations represent 41% of the total for Allegheny County.
6. 88.9% of the housing stock of the target market is composed of homes whose value is less than 300k.
7. Almost 30% of the target market population of the target market has a high school education and another 38.7% have achieved either a bachelors or graduate degree.
8. About 68% of the population of the target market are between the ages of 18 and 65.
9. The Manufacturing, retail trade, Finance, Insurance, real estate, health care and professional services industries combined employ 51.6% of all workers in the Allegheny County.
10. After declining during between 2002 and 2006, the overall labor force in Allegheny County, has remained fairly constant at around 640k people. The level of unemployment has been declining steadily during the past 5 years and is currently below 5%.
11. Almost 73% of the total housing stock of Allegheny County is 1 unit structures.
12. 82.1% of all homes in Allegheny County were built before 1979 reflecting an aging housing stock.
13. Approximately 74% of all homeowners moved into their homes after 1990 in the Allegheny County.
14. Homes with mortgages in the target market are 62% of the total housing stock.
15. There are 451 landscape contracting firms in Allegheny County employing a total of 1,721 employees averaging approximately 3.82 employees for each establishment.
16. The annual payroll for the average employee in the electrical contracting business in Cuyahoga County is $39,169
17. 79.8% of all electrical contracting firms in the County employ less than 4 people.
18. Sales projections for the first three years in business are $295,000, $337,000 and $387,000.
19. Frank and Peter will be paying themselves a modest salary of $42,000, $47,000 and $55,000 for first three years of operations.
20. As business grows Green Lawn Landscaping will look to hire one administrative staff and later look to add sub-contractor for larger jobs.
21. Frank and Peter will be contributing $34,450 each toward the total estimated start up costs of $138,900
22. The company will be applying for a 4 year term loan in the amount of $70,000.
23. Operating Income is projected to be $73,469, $88,384 and $106,244 representing margins of 24.9%, 26.2% and 27.5% of sales for 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
24. The debt to equity ratio is projected to be 0.48, 0.23 and 0.08 for each of the first three years of operations.
25. Green Lawn Landscaping is looking to open its doors for business by the first week of May, 2016.

Quick Links:

1. Go to the Corresponding Questionnaire section for this industry.