Becoming an independent landscape gardener : Instructions for use!

A landscaping gardener specializes in the technical operations of developing and maintaining green spaces. They can also offer their expertise for sports fields, roadside edges, and other types of green spaces.

His daily work involves preparing the soil, planting, installing equipment (automatic watering, fencing), carrying out light masonry work, maintaining green spaces, etc. He can work as an employee in a company, or on his own, as a freelancer.

Many landscape gardeners are choosing to go freelance to have more control over their projects, clients, and daily schedule. Thinking of giving it a try?

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. However, it is strongly recommended that you have a recognized qualification in order to convince your clients.

The most common are:

• A CAPA with a focus in "Landscaping Works", "Horticultural Productions, Nursery Speciality, Floral and Vegetable Productions" or "Landscape Gardener"
• A BEPA with a focus in "Landscaping Works" or "Horticulture & Nurseries"
• A BPA with a focus in "Landscaping Works"
• A Professional Baccalaureate with a focus in "Landscaping"
• A Technological Baccalaureate STAV (Science and Technology of Agronomy and Living)

How do you choose your legal status?

To become a freelance landscape gardener, we recommend you choose from the following legal statuses:

• The EIRL(Individual Limited Liability Company). As the name suggests, the entrepreneur is only liable up to the amount of their capital contributions to the company. Their personal assets are protected in case of bad business, and cannot be used to recover any debt.
• The EURL (Single-member limited liability company). It has the same advantage as the EIRL, but its manager is considered a self-employed worker. They benefit from a specific social protection system, which is less comprehensive than that of employees.
• The SASU (Single-Shareholder Simplified Joint Stock Company) is super flexible. How it runs day-to-day is written in its articles of association. The President 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 to get noticed?

Growing your client portfolio is a priority to ensure your project's success. As a landscape gardener, you can:

• List your business in all the professional directories and online databases to be visible to BtoB and BtoC customers
• Don't forget social media (Google MyBusiness, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) by clearly specifying your geographical area of operation.
• Get the word out and focus on local communication by posting flyers in shops, vehicle signage, or advertising in local newspapers!

Finally, a valuable element is too often overlooked in the prospect of facilitating the success of your project: using the services of a domiciliation company.

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

Approved by the prefecture on which it depends, it provides its clients 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!