Becoming an independent landscape gardener : Instructions for use!

Landscape gardeners are specialists in thetechnicalaspects of landscaping and maintaining green spaces. He can also contribute his expertise to sports fields, roadside verges and other types of green spaces.

Their day-to-day work involves preparing the soil, planting, installing equipment (automatic watering, fencing), light masonry work, maintaining green spaces, etc. You can work as an employee for a company, or on your own account, as a freelancer.

Many landscape gardeners opt for a freelance experience, to better choose their assignments, their customers, and the organization of their days. Would you like to try your hand?

Follow the guide!

What qualifications and training are required?

The profession of landscape gardener is not regulated by the State.

In this sense, no diploma is required to enter the profession. On the other hand, it is highly recommended to have a recognized training in order to convince your customers.

The most common are :

• A CAPA with the option "Travaux paysagers", "Productions horticoles, spécialité pépinières, productions florales et légumières" or "Jardinier paysagiste".
• A BEPA with the "Landscaping" or "Horticulture & Nursery" option
• A BPA with the "Landscaping" option
• A vocational baccalaureate with the "Landscaping" option
• STAV Technological Baccalaureate (Sciences and technologies of agronomy and life)

How do you choose your legal status?

To become a freelance landscape gardener, we recommend that you choose one of the following legal forms:

• EIRL (Entreprise individuelle à responsabilité limitée). As the name suggests, the entrepreneur is only liable for the amount of capital he or she has contributed to the company. His or her personal assets are protected in the event of bad business, and cannot be used to recover any debts.
• EURL (Entreprise universelle à responsabilité limitée). It offers the same advantages as the EIRL, but its manager is considered a self-employed worker. They benefit from a specific social protection scheme, which is less effective than that of salaried employees.
• The SASU (Société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle). is particularly flexible. Its day-to-day operation is set out in the Articles of Association. The Chairman of the SASU is covered by the general social security system.
• The micro-entrepreneur status status is particularly easy to set up, manage and wind up. Your social security contributions are calculated on the basis of your gross sales. This is capped at €176,200 for sales activities and €72,500 for services. This is the option favored by the majority of entrepreneurs, due to the administrative, legal and fiscal flexibility of this status.

How do you make yourself known?

Developing your customer portfolio is a priority, to ensure the success of your project. As a landscape gardener, you can :

• List your business in all professional directories and online databases to be visible to BtoB and BtoC customers
• Don't forget social networks (Google MyBusiness, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), clearly specifying your geographical area of travel.
• Spread the word by word of mouth, and promote local communications by posting flyers in shops, putting lettering on vehicles or advertising in local newspapers!

Finally, there's a valuable element that is all too often overlooked when it comes to facilitating the success of your project: using the services of a domiciliation company.

A domiciliation company offers legal domiciliation services to individuals or legal entities.

Approved by the prefecture to which it belongs, it provides its customers with a registered office as well as a postal, commercial and administrative address.

Choosing your own home means you have to publicly disclose the address of your home, threatening your privacy. At the same time, you won't have to rent commercial premises, and can improve your local SEO ranking on search engines, thanks to your headquarters' keywords!

You can also reduce your tax bill by choosing a commune with a low CFE (Contribution Foncière des Entreprises) tax rate.

With SeDomicilier, you can obtain your certificate of domiciliation in less than 5 minutes, in a 100% online process. What's more, all your services are then available in a personalized, secure virtual office!