Landscapers who have a sense of the artistic can make a nice living with landscape design. Landscape designers often work for themselves, drumming up their own clients through their own websites and word of mouth. But big companies also enlist online experts for gigs.

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However, the bigger companies generally expect landscapers to have experience with 3D design software. So, you’ll need to know more than just what plants look good and grow well in your local terrain, if you want to nab contracts with the big online design firms. Here are your options

Local landscape design: Nextdoor

Because landscape design is driven by local factors — weather, terrain, zoning — the best place to find clients for your landscape design business is through your local community. Nextdoor is not a design site. It’s a social media platform, which restricts conversations to tight geographic regions. But it has become a popular way for neighbors to recommend their favorite contractors and for contractors to find local work. Signing up is free. So are word-of-mouth recommendations. The site offers advertising deals that can pump your business either hyper-locally or to a larger metropolitan area, too. Learn more about Nextdoor here.

Online landscape design: Yardzen

Yardzen is a rapidly-growing online landscape design operation that’s turned to remote, contract designers to fuel its expansion. Designers are expected to have experience, be adept at operating 3D design programs and be a master at multi-tasking. Though these jobs look attractive, some designers say the work load is overwhelming. You can read our full Yardzen review here.

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