North America’s needs for residential, commercial, and metropolitan landscaping are increasing.
And with growing interest in climate-friendly botanical design driving the lawn care and landscaping industry, you might be wondering how to level up your landscaping business to join the boom?
This might come in the form of getting business insurance, applying for a loan for a capital injection, or even aiming for a very lucrative state contract.
What all these potential growth avenues have in common is that they all need your firm to have a NAICS Code.
What Does ‘NAICS’ Mean?
NAICS (pronounced ‘nakes’) stands for the North American Industry Classification System and was rolled out in 1997 to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.
In essence a NAICS Code is a 6-digit code that specifies the type of industry and business of your firm. It is a self-seclted code, no government agency officially assigns you a NAICS Code.
In practice, this means that the company selects the code that best describes their primary business. You can also use more than one NAICS Code if your business activities include more than one unique line of business.
The NAICS code system was formed in a joint development by Mexico’s INEGI, Statistics Canada, and the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee. The aim of the tri-national collaboration was to produce common industry definitions for the three countries to help with economic analysis and development.
What is NAICS Code For Landscaping?
The main NAICS code for landscaping is NAICS code 561730: landscaping services.
However, there are three other codes to be aware of:
- NAICS 441320 – Landscaping Architectural Services
- NAICS 541690 – Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- NAICS 561730 Landscaping Services
But why get these codes?
If you run a business in the landscaping services industry, whether it be installing trees, shrubs, plants, lawns, or gardens, or even snow plowing services combined with other winter care and maintenance services, there are plenty of reasons to get a NAICS code.
Read on to find out the benefits and which code suits your landscape care business best.
Top 6 Benefits to Having a NAICS Code
Across the U.S., a wide variety of local, state, and federal organizations use NAICS codes to classify businesses for different commercial purposes.
Being part of this database can help you gain more contracts and new clients and provide a variety of opportunities.
Here are the 6 best benefits of having a NAICS Code!
1. Grants and Incentive Programs
There are many grants and incentive programs out there that your business can benefit from, especially with an increase in climate landscaping initiatives.
Take a look at your state government’s website to find out what is on offer or you can find some information on stateincentives.org. Many of these programs require applicants to have a NAICS assigned to their business for the application process.
2. Federal Contracts
If your landscaping services business is interested in attaining government contracts, you would need to be an eligible vendor. To even participate in such bids, you would need to have a NAICS code. This allows the government to identify your industry and your key business activities.
Furthermore, many other government-aligned organizations such as the Small Business Administration and the Department of Veteran Affairs also require your firm to have a NAICS Code to be part of their designated database, which in turn increases your chances of getting a government contract.
3. Loan Approvals
Having access to capital allows businesses to grow, but many banks and commercial lending services require small business loan applicants to have a NAICS Code.
4. Tax Benefits
Start by checking what credits and exemptions might apply to your business on your state’s department of taxation and finance website, having a NAICS code allows you to benefit from these.
In addition, the Internal Revenue Service uses NAICS codes to make decisions on your tax returns by comparing them with similar businesses in your industry. If you do not have a code, you might be classed in a different industry group than what you should have been.
5. Insurance
Many insurance carriers require your NAICS code to be able to compute your premiums and risks.
6. Marketing and Research
Having a NAICS Code means you are part of a database, and allows you to compile reported survey data to be able to target potential clients as well as better understand your industry competitors and what best practices they might have.
Landscape and Horticultural Services NAICS Codes
There are three main NAICS Codes that apply to the landscaping services industry:
- NAICS 441320 – Landscaping Architectural Services
- NAICS 541690 – Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- NAICS 561730 Landscaping Services
Let’s look into what these three main segments entail and where your company’s landscape services fall under.
1. NAICS Code 541320 – Landscaping Architectural Services
Here we look at establishments primarily engaged in providing landscape architectural services i.e. the planning and development of land areas for projects, generally large-scale commercial ones but also for industrial and residential areas.
This could be for parks and other recreational areas, airports, highways, hospitals, schools, land subdivisions, and more. The landscaping services here are about applying knowledge of land characteristics, location of buildings and structures, use of land areas, and design of landscape projects.
Businesses that engaged in providing landscape architectural services such as garden planning services, golf course or ski design services, landscape design services, landscape counseling, and planning would generally fall under NAICS Code 541320.
Read about the top 10 outdoor design and commercial landscaping ideas.
2. NAICS Code 541690 – Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
Under NAICS Code 541690, the industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing advice and assistance regarding technical and scientific issues to other companies or organizations.
Note that establishments primarily engaged in environmental consulting do not come under this NAICS Code, and are instead classified under industry code 541620 – Environmental Consulting Services.
3. NAICS Code 561730 – Landscaping Services
NAICS Code 561730 landscaping services cover two categories of landscaping companies. The first includes establishments primarily engaged in providing landscape care and maintenance services. This would include installing trees, shrubs, plants, lawns, or gardens.
The second covers establishments primarily engaged in providing the above services along with the designing of landscape plans, and/or the construction of walkways (i.e. installation of walkways), retaining walls, decks fences, ponds, and other similar structures.
Two other points to note:
- Establishments that are primarily engaged in the installation of artificial turf, as well as the installing of walkways, retaining walls, decks, fences, ponds, or similar structures, are classified under Sector 23, Construction.
- If the firm does not provide the installation of trees, shrubs, plants, lawns/gardens, walkways, retaining walls, decks, and similar items or structures while engaging in the planning, designing and the development of land areas for projects, such as parks and other recreational areas, airports, highways, hospitals, schools, land subdivisions, and commercial, industrial, and residential areas, it would then fall under NAICS Code 541320 instead of NAICS Code 561730.
Common types of examples within NAICS Code 561730 landscaping services are:
- Arborist services
- Cemetery plot care services
- Fertilizing lawns
- Garden maintenance services
- Hydroseeding services (e.g., decorative, erosion control purposes)
- Interior landscaping services
- Landscape care and maintenance services
- Landscape contractors (except construction)
- Landscape installation services
- Landscaping services (except planning)
- Lawn care services (e.g., fertilizing, mowing, seeding, spraying)
- Lawn fertilizing services
- Lawn maintenance services
- Lawn mowing services
- Lawn mulching services
- Lawn seeding services
- Lawn spraying services
- Line slash (i.e., rights of way) maintenance services
- Maintenance of plants and shrubs in buildings
- Mowing services (e.g., highway, lawn, road strip)
- Ornamental tree and shrub services
- Plant and shrub maintenance in buildings
- Plant maintenance services
- Pruning services, ornamental tree and shrub
- Seasonal property maintenance services (i.e., snow plowing in winter, landscaping during other seasons)
- Seeding lawns
- Shrub services (e.g., bracing, planting, pruning, removal, spraying, surgery, trimming)
- Snow plowing services combined with landscaping services (i.e., seasonal property maintenance services)
- Sod laying services
- Spraying lawns
- Tree and brush trimming, overhead utility line
- Tree pruning services
- Tree removal services
- Tree services (e.g., bracing, planting, pruning, removal, spraying, surgery, trimming)
- Tree surgery services
- Tree trimming services
- Tropical plant maintenance services
- Turf (except artificial) installation services
- Weed control and fertilizing services (except crop)
Find out 10 Garden Aesthetic Tips To Master Beautiful Landscaping.
4. Other Related NAICS and SIC Codes
Remember that you can always register for more than one NAICS Code. In which case the following codes might be relevant to your business too:
- NAICS Code 444220 Nursery Garden Center, and Farm Supply Stores cover businesses that engage in retailing landscaping materials and providing the installation and maintenance of these materials.
- NAICS Code 115112 Crop Planting, Cultivating, and Protecting industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in forestry services.
- SIC Code 0782 Lawns and Landscaping
- SIC Code 0788 Lawn and Garden Services
Learn tips for interior landscape design.
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