Sell a business · Landscaping & lawn care
Sell your landscaping business, on your terms.
Landscaping covers a wide spectrum - weekly residential mowing routes, commercial maintenance contracts, design-build installs, snow removal - and each piece is valued differently. Recurring maintenance contracts, especially commercial ones with annual renewals, are the part buyers pay real money for. One-time install and design work counts, but it is priced as work you have to win again every year.
Route density matters more in this trade than almost any other. Fifty accounts in two zip codes are worth more than eighty scattered across a county, because the buyer inherits margins, not just revenue. Sellers who can show tight routes, contract renewals, and a crew lead who runs the day earn the top of the band.
What buyers pay for
What moves your landscaping business toward the top of the band.
Recurring contracts and renewal history
Commercial maintenance agreements with two or three years of renewals are the backbone of a landscaping valuation. Month-to-month residential routes count too, with retention history.
Route density
Tight routes mean less windshield time and better margins. Buyers will map your accounts - a dense book in a defined territory prices above a scattered one.
Crew leads who run the day
If the crews roll out on time without the owner in the yard at 6am, the business transfers. Buyers ask which crew leads stay and what they're paid.
Prepare before you list
Diligence starts long before the buyer shows up.
Split recurring from one-time revenue
Show maintenance contracts, install work, and seasonal extras (snow, cleanups) as separate lines for the last three years. The recurring line is what carries the multiple.
Prove retention with a customer list aging
A simple table of accounts by start year demonstrates stickiness better than any narrative. Buyers trust cohorts, not adjectives.
Have the equipment list priced and clean
Mowers, trailers, and trucks are part of the deal. List age, hours, condition, and any financing balances so the asset conversation is short.
Free valuation calculator
What is your landscaping business actually worth?
Two minutes, no signup. We start from the typical landscaping & lawn care band of 2.0x to 2.8x owner profit, then adjust for your growth and track record. The math runs entirely in your browser - we never store what you type.
Estimate my business valueThe Slyced Exchange
Sell without telling the world.
When you are ready to ask the market, the Exchange is a private way to do it. Your listing is anonymous by default: built from ranges and categories, screened word by word for anything that could identify you, and reviewed by a person before it goes live.
Buyers verify their identity before they can request access, you approve every request, and a real NDA is signed before your name is revealed. Listing is a flat subscription - never a percentage of your sale.
The Exchange opens soon. Join the owners preparing to list.
Talk to us about sellingAnonymous by default
The public profile is built from ranges and categories. Your name and exact numbers have no field to live in.
Verified buyers only
Anyone can browse, but requesting access requires identity verification first. No anonymous tire-kickers.
NDA before any reveal
You see who a buyer is before they learn who you are, and a real NDA is signed before the reveal.
0% commission, ever
A flat software subscription. We never take a percentage of your sale - not at listing, not at closing.
Plain answers
Questions landscaping & lawn care owners ask.
- What is a landscaping business worth?
- Typical small-business transactions put landscaping and lawn care companies at roughly 2.0x to 2.8x SDE. Contract-heavy commercial books with dense routes price at the top; scattered residential routes with no contracts price lower. It is a typical range, not a promise - your contracts and retention decide where you land.
- Is seasonal revenue a problem for buyers?
- Seasonality is expected in this trade - buyers underwrite it. What matters is that the pattern is documented and that off-season work (snow removal, cleanups) or contract billing smooths cash flow. Surprises hurt; seasonality itself doesn't.
- Do my crews transfer with the sale?
- In most asset sales the buyer rehires the team, and key crew leads are often a condition of the deal. Talk to a buyer about retention plans before closing - in a labor-short trade, the crew is a large part of what they are buying.