It used to be that all people expected of their backyard was a lawn, maybe a few beds of flowers, and perhaps a set of plastic lawn furniture and a relatively small barbecue grill. If only it were still that simple. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, the American market has gotten a lot more demanding of their landscapers these days.

The modern trend is towards outdoor rooms, where the interior of the house and the exterior can merge perfectly into each other for maximum available living space. While this can be quite lovely, and a boon to landscapers who can charge a whole lot more for it, it also does take more time, trouble, work, and coordination with the interior decorator. Landscapers can only do so much to achieve the indoor/outdoor integration by themselves, after all.

However, assuming the interior of the home is laid out for integration, creating outdoor rooms can become a specialty of any landscaping company quite easily, and net a fine return on investment as the value is much, much easier to sell.

First, if not already accomplished, the landscaper will want to partner up with a decent and reliable small contractor to provide plumbing, electricity and maybe even sheetrocking services. Consumers are starting to demand sinks, counters, gas ranges, and computer hookups, among other things, in their outdoor rooms. If a landscaping company can reliably provide these in a total package, so much the better.

When looking for design ideas, Mediterranean and Asian style exterior design motifs lend themselves handily to the creation of exterior rooms. The simple, clean lines of both these styles lend themselves handily to exterior rooms that both look good and stand up well to the elements.

Last, everybody knows that repeat business is the best business. While a given customer will probably only want one, at the most two complete exterior room makeovers, they will certainly need help when their trees or perennials inevitably die.

You may consider a variety of giveaways to your clients, such as imprinted BBQ gift sets with your logo emblazoned. Any way you go, it’s important to keep them remembering you, because, whether they realize it or not, they will need you in the future.

Loni L. Ice is a copywriter and editor in Lawrence, KS. All rights reserved.

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