4000 landscapers in WA state

[dkeisala]

I just read on article in the local newspaper that said by the Washington state department of licensing records, there are 4000 LICENSED businesses under the landscape catagory. So, I looked up some census data and did a little basic numbers crunching. There are 2,271,398 housing units in the state and another 484,698 establishments in the state, totalling roughly 2.8 million structures. That averages a pool of 700 potential clients for each of the 4000 licensed providers. If you are one to look at statistical data, those numbers are pretty discouraging considering only a small percentage of those 700 clients are looking for our services at any given time.

Thoughts?

 

[qualitylandscaping]

You have way too much free time!!!!!

 

[dkeisala]

Yeah - I know! It's 2pm and already rained 3/4 of an inch, what else is there to do?

 

[turf9]

not much diff up here in Langley 4000 what the

 

[tiedeman]

that is a lot. But I wonder where most of them are located at? You could find out where the majority of the competition is.

 

[Let it Grow]

Yeah, a lot of them are probably over in your area! Although there are quite a few over in my neck of the woods.
Did that report say if all of those had contractors licenses?

Good luck with your 700!!!

 

[dkeisala]

No, it didn't give a breakdown or specify what types of services offered. I was just kinda surprised by the number plus you just know there's a boat load of unlicensed ones running around. Just need to be that much sharper I guess.

 

[JimLewis]

Yah, that's the downside for having such lax licensing criteria. In WA, anyone with a bond and insurance can be a landscape contractor. You could know nothing about the trade and be fully licensed, bonded, and insured as a landscape contractor in 2 days! The downside is it makes it so easy that everyone can do it - and they do!

I am not saying this is all bad. I rather like the way WA does it compared to OR - which is the whole other end of the spectrum. Here, you have to be married to the governor's daughter, have a PhD in horticulture, have worked for a licensed landscaping company for 10 years, write 8 job reports for each year you've worked for that company, and pay a gazillion dollars - and that's just to take the test!

But the upside to the Oregon method is we don't have nearly as many licensed landscape contractors. Although I bet the number of those who are unlicensed and still doing landscaping work are 5x what they are in WA.