​How to Make Money Coloring Mulch: Here's the Math

The precarious balance of income and expenses that leads to profitability can be a challenge for any business owner. To be successful in the colored mulch industry, owners need to know their primary expenses, and the profile of their primary customer base. This objective can be realized with an honest and thorough evaluation of expenses — this is essential to establish pricing for the landscape mulch products you provide to your customers. Here's how to do the math:

1. Compile the expenses required for producing the final product — including colorant, packaging, fuel, labor, utilities, equipment and facility payments, maintenance, accounting, and other overhead.
2. Divide the total by the projected sales to determine per-cubic-yard cost.
3. Multiply that figure by the percentage of profit you wish to achieve.

For mulch producers who sell primarily to wholesalers, the volume of mulch delivered will likely far exceed that sold to retailers, so the markup will be less — primarily due to less cost associated with delivery of the final product.

Wholesaler landscape mulch providers work at higher volumes but with less profit per unit. Prices will most certainly vary by region, demand, availability of raw material and local competition.