Adding Lighting to Your Landscaping Business

Consider adding lighting to your landscape business. Why? Because if you are not offering lighting, you’re leaving serious money on the table. We’ve seen companies struggle with razor-thin margins on mowing and blowing work while the smart owners are banking an extra $50-100K per year just by stringing up some lights. OK – so it’s more than stringing up lights, but it’s pretty simple.

Your customers already want it. They want to use their deck more at night, or feel safer in their driveway, or make their house look better from the street. They might have tried those solar lights from some big box store that die every season, never seem to stand up straight, and look like crap. You can offer something much, much better.

People are dumping serious cash into their outdoor spaces. Ever since COVID, people are investing more in making their home someplace they want to spend time. We’re talking about a market that’s predicted to hit $25 billion by 2027, and most of that growth is in LED systems and smart controls. 

But forget fancy market research. Here’s what matters: lighting work pays 3-4 times better than your average landscaping job, customers don’t usually shop around once you quote it, and the repeat business keeps you busy during the slow months.

There are guys making $300-500 per fixture on installs that take maybe 20 minutes each once you know what you’re doing. Try making that kind of money pulling weeds or blowing leaves.

Top Five Categories:

1. Accent Lighting: This is your bread and butter. Customers want their trees, garden beds, and fancy hardscaping to look good at night. You’re basically painting with light – uplighting trees, washing walls, creating shadows. It’s not complicated, but when it’s done right, it looks like a million bucks. Customers are delighted with the end results and each house becomes a nighttime billboard for the work you do.
2. Pathway and Safety Lighting: Every homeowner with a nice house wants their walkways and driveways lit up. It’s partly about safety and partly about showing off. Offer low-voltage LED fixtures, usually 12 volts, buried cable, and weatherproof connections. This kind of stuff practically sells itself. No one wants people tripping on steps or some stranger skulking in the shadows of their driveway at night.
3. Entertainment Lighting: Decks, patios, outdoor kitchens – anywhere people hang out after dark need light. Could be recessed fixtures, string lights, or mounted spots. This kind of project can easily tie into bigger hardscaping projects you’re already doing. Again, it looks like a magazine cover when done correctly, and every guest there will want to know who did it. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising.
4. Security Lighting: Motion-activated floods, driveway sensors, perimeter lighting. Commercial properties eat this stuff up, and homeowners in upscale neighborhoods want it too. There is higher voltage involved, so get proper training, but there is good money to be made.
5. Seasonal Work: Holiday lighting is stupid profitable if you can handle the seasonal rush. But don’t be afraid to offer permanent systems – customers can change colors with their phone year-round. You install it once and they’re happy forever.

Essential Gear

You probably have half of this stuff already: wire strippers, voltage tester, basic screwdrivers. What you’ll need to add: low-voltage transformers (these convert regular house power down to safe 12V), a selection of LED fixtures, trenching tools, waterproof wire nuts, and maybe a few choices of smart controllers if you want to get fancy. Here’s an article from SiteOne Landscape Supply on essential tools.

Don’t go crazy buying inventory upfront. Start with a basic kit from one manufacturer – Kichler, FX Luminaire, Unique Lighting, Volt or Pro Trade from SiteOne Landscape Supply. Build your stock as you book jobs or book each job as custom work if the turn times from the manufacturers/suppliers are decent. Keep bulbs and a few fixtures on hand for instant repairs.

Learning the Ropes

This isn’t rocket science, but you need to understand the basics. Low-voltage wiring is pretty forgiving, but you still need to know wire gauge, voltage drop, transformer sizing, and local codes. You don’t want to get zapped or start a fire. That’s why people hire professionals – they are afraid to DIY it.

Lighting manufacturers usually offer hands-on workshops – and they want to sell you their fixtures, so the training is often free or cheap. Udemy has a course, and there are lots of videos on YouTube. Do yourself a favor and take a weekend course before you start quoting jobs. Install something in your yard to work out some of the kinks in the process.

Supplier Relationships

Get set up with a wholesale distributor. Don’t buy retail – you’ll kill your margins. Kichler, FX Luminaire, Volt, and Unique Lighting all have decent dealer programs. Shop around, but pick one and stick with them initially. Better to know one product line really well than fumble through the pages of five different catalogs. Pick one that has a variety of styles that will appeal to a variety of clients. 

Forget what some website tells you about “industry standards.” Here’s what works in the real world:

• Basic Fixtures: $250-500 each, installed. That’s your pathway lights, basic spots, wash lights.
• Complete Systems: $3,000-8,000 for a typical residential job in a typical market. Could be 15-30 fixtures depending on property size and complexity.
• Security Lighting: $1,000-3,500 depending on coverage area and complexity.
• Holiday Work: $500-10,000. Seriously! High-end residential holiday lighting can be insanely profitable. And you get to keep coming back to change, repair, and expand. You can’t be afraid of heights and be sure to make safety a priority for your crew.

The key is package pricing. Don’t quote individual fixtures – that makes it sound expensive. You’ll hear “ I’m not paying $350 for you to install one light,” kind of reaction. Quote systems. “Basic Package,” “Premium Package,” “Whole Property Package.” People see value in packages.

Pro Tips:

• Material cost should be about 30-40% of your total price. If you’re hitting 50% or more, you’re pricing too low.
• Don’t buy junk that will break or corrode quickly – that will reflect poorly on you – not the light manufacturer.

1. Site Walk and Design: Spend some real time here. Walk the property at dusk if possible. Talk through what they want – safety, security, curb appeal, entertaining. Take photos, sketch out a plan, show them where fixtures will go. This is where you are selling the job, not just designing it. Here’s a 5-Minute video from Volt on lighting design.
2. Fixture Selection Stick with LEDs – they last longer, use less power, and customers expect them. Warm white (2700K-3000K) looks most natural. Make sure everything is rated for wet locations, not just damp. And different climates might need special considerations. Do your homework.
3. Transformer Installation: Size your transformer for about 80% of capacity – gives you room to add fixtures later. Mount it somewhere accessible but not obvious, they are not usually pretty. Most jobs need 300-600 watts depending on fixture count. Do the math and pick the right size. The fixture vendor can help you size things in the beginning. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. They want you to succeed so you will keep buying fixtures from them.
4. Running Wire: Bury your low-voltage cable 6-12 inches deep, depending on local code. Use direct burial cable, not regular THWN. Cables like UF-B are designed for direct burial and include multiple protective layers to prevent damage from moisture and physical threats, think shovels! Using THWN cable requires installation within a direct-burial-rated conduit, such as Schedule 80 PVC, to meet National Electrical Code (NEC) requirements. That just ups your cost. Plan your runs to minimize voltage drop – longer runs need heavier wire. Here’s where that training comes in handy.
5. Setting Fixtures: Follow your design, but be ready to adjust on site. If you work in certain areas, like the Northeast, you could hit a boulder the size of a car pretty much anywhere. And what looks good on paper might not work in reality. Angle fixtures to avoid glare in people’s eyes or into the house, especially on pathways. Remember that in-ground fixtures need proper drainage around them.
6. Testing and Fine-Tuning: Test everything as you go and especially before you bury the last connection. Walk the property after dark to check for hot spots, dark spots, or glare issues. Taking this level of care is the difference between a good job and a great one. Bonus points doing it with the homeowner so they can get exactly what they want. They will talk about you to all their friends after.

Your existing customers are a gold mine. You’ve already proven you can do good work, they trust you, and they probably need lighting even if they haven’t thought about it.

What Actually Works:

• Take good before and after photos. Post these everywhere: website, social media, truck graphics. Put one on your business card and create a leave-behind flyer. A picture is really worth a thousand words.
• Bundle with existing services. Every hardscape job needs lighting. Every landscape renovation could use it. Don’t wait for customers to ask – suggest it upfront. Show off those pictures and capture your customer’s imagination.
• Time your marketing. Fall and spring are when people think about home improvement the most. Summer is when they want to use their outdoor spaces, not work on them. Winter is obviously the holiday lighting season.
• Get your Google My Business dialed in. When someone searches “landscape lighting [your town],” you want to show up first. Good pictures, some great reviews, and regular posts make a huge difference. All these things build trust and make you stand out.
• Partner with complementary businesses if you can – or at least get to know the owners. Pool companies, deck builders, outdoor kitchen installers – they all have customers who need lighting. Maybe offer them a “finder’s fee” for bringing you a new customer. 

Door hangers, cold calling, and most advertising is a waste of money. You can try them to see if they work for you, but track the ROI. Focus on getting your existing customers to buy more and asking them to refer you to their neighbors. Leave business cards. Invest in a nice sign that you are able to leave at each jobsite for a predetermined time. Word of mouth beats everything else in this business.

Once you’ve done a handful of installs and figured out your system, you can scale this up fast. Train someone to handle the basic installs while you focus on sales and the big, complex jobs. Add maintenance contracts for bulb replacement and system checks – it’s easy money and keeps you connected to customers. Don’t get too greedy – make it a reasonable amount, you want them to be evangelists for you.

The real money is in Smart Home integration. Customers who want app control and automation will pay extra for it. You don’t need to be an IT expert, but understanding the basics of WiFi controllers and smartphone apps opens up higher-end jobs with bigger margins. See what fits your service area best – and double down on it. Be the best in the area and you can dominate the market.

Landscaping is tough work with tight margins. You’re competing with every guy with a truck and a mower. By adding lighting to your landscaping business, you set yourself apart. It requires just enough skill that most homeowners are afraid to do it themselves. It’s also great because customers see an immediate value, and the good margins actually let you build a real business instead of just buying yourself a job.

Start small, maybe add lighting to your next hardscape project, or approach a few existing customers about pathway lighting. Once you see the numbers, you’ll wonder why you waited so long.

The work is out there. Customers want it. Your competition probably isn’t doing it. What are you waiting for?

Keep your profitability strong with GPS tracking, and use automated job costing to make sure every job stays on budget. Sign up for Momentum GPS tracking for $20/month. No contracts, no upfront costs, and the first month is free. Start trial.

Other resources:

Trends in Outdoor Lighting 2025

Unique Lighting Resources

International Landscape Lighting Institute 

5 Landscape Lighting Keys to Success