A newbie in garden design business!

[Twotinysprouts]

Hi guys! I started a landscape design business called Two Tiny Sprouts Garden Consulting... Everybody kept telling me to do it for ages Question to any fellow landscapers though - was it really slow at first, and how did you get it going? I've had a number of projects, but it's all people I know, so I can't charge them anything... I don't do this for money, just live doing it, but it would be nice to get paid once in a blue moon, lol! Any advice greatly appreciated. I got the plants down, but this business thing is a bit weird!

[rainbowgardener]

Clearly this is marketing question, you just need to get yourself known. I haven't done it, but offhand I can think of two (not mutually exclusive) things to do, old school and new school. Old school would be to make yourself a ream of really nice artistic flyers (get some help if that is not your gift) preferably with a photo of a yard you have done and a quote from a satisfied customer (even if that customer didn't pay). Pass them out all around your area, post them on community bulletin boards, etc. New school is get a website, also with photos and quotes. There's lots of website design templates and packages out there. After your website is up, google "landscaping + Your City" and be sure you come in on the first page of the results. If not keep adding code words like the city name and anything else people might search for, plus some links to other information. Also you can put free ads in places like craigs list. Get your friends and people you have done work for to do reviews on Google+ and other customer review sites.

[Twotinysprouts]

Thank you for the suggestions. I've had some trouble with getting the website to come up early in search engine searches... It's really hard! I will definitely take some pictures - starting with my own yard. I'm building a huge flagstone patio right now, should be nicely framed with some plants when I'm done (if I'm still alive that is) lol.