# Just starting out



## Aldegar (Sep 25, 2014)

Hello to all my fellow tree care workers and business owners. I am new to the forum and a new business owner. I am 30 years old and been doing tree work since I was 16 and my partner is 35 and doing it for the last 10 years. We are both family men and work our asses off day in and day out. We are tired of working for shady and greedy people so we devised a plan to go out on our own. We are doing everything the hard way, we have nothing but our climbing gear, ropes, a couple saws, and a beat down flatbed truck for hauling brush. We have dedicated every Saturday to work for ourselves and put every penny we make into getting a descent truck and chipper. Our customers have been really understanding and let us schedule them out pretty far. If all goes as planned we should be full time in about a year. We cannot afford to tie up our families resources into this venture but have the knowledge and willpower to make it work through blood, sweat, and tears. We can use all the support we can get and have started a fund raiser by selling t-shirts which if successful could pay for our insurance for the first year. I am posting this on here because we really don't have much support and maybe you can help with advise and success stories. Also, it would be highly appreciated if you could help us out with our fund raiser by spreading the word about our bad ass tree shirts. http://www.tfund.com/bigfoottree

Troy,
Bigfoot Tree Service
Gig Harbor, Wa


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## CRThomas (Sep 30, 2014)

I am in the bundled firewood business My wife and I make a very comfortable living. I guess you haul you waste to the land fill there is the other half of your profit. Tree trimmers call me to to haul off there logs. I take the logs home split dry and wrap sell them to customers average $250.00 a rank or in your area it might be a face cord. I don't even advertise. Bundled firewood is called love wood by some of my customers.


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## Aldegar (Sep 30, 2014)

Here in washington it is a bonus for us that most customers keep the firewood. I do have a list of firewood guys that will come pick it up and happy to hear that there is people like you making a living by recycling this valuable resource. Your point is well taken though because it would be something to consider before we go at it full time and maybe a good supplement during the slower times which is usually the peak of firewood season. Like tree work I'm sure there are ways to do it efficiently to maximize profit, one outfit we know made a kiln out of a land sea container to dry out the wood in a couple weeks.


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## Aldegar (Oct 15, 2014)

So, we managed to get our license, bond and insurance!!!!!! So happy to be legit. Now we need a way to market our business. Here is our website www.gigharborbigfoot.com does anyone on here know about how to get up there in the search engines?


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## pro94lt (Oct 15, 2014)

First thing you need to do is split away from the partner. .. I couldn't imagine having a partner in this line of work


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## Aldegar (Oct 15, 2014)

We have been working as a team for years and don't need to hire employees. There is no drama, just two guys going to work and getting paid a lot more a day than if we worked for someone else.


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## CRThomas (Oct 15, 2014)

That know employed is the right think to do. My wife all our help they were tearing our profit up. Now just me and my wife we doubled our profit and then some. She let them go 2 years a go I am still fixing stuff they tore up.


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## Sharper Image Tree Co. (Oct 20, 2014)

Aldegar said:


> So, we managed to get our license, bond and insurance!!!!!! So happy to be legit. Now we need a way to market our business. Here is our website www.gigharborbigfoot.com does anyone on here know about how to get up there in the search engines?


Dont waste your money on google ad words, lets start with that. Next get on angieslist right way. You have to get 3 a ratings after your free listing then you can get paid advertisment and thats what you want. Its the best advertising money ive spent. Take it seriously though, your good reviews are like money in the bank.


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## Aldegar (Oct 29, 2014)

How on earth do you get your customers to sign up for angies list and give you reviews?


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## pro94lt (Oct 29, 2014)

Aldegar said:


> How on earth do you get your customers to sign up for angies list and give you reviews?


That's defeating the entire purpose of that service...


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## Aldegar (Nov 21, 2014)

So, for the last month I have been focused on gaining an online presence by building a website www.gigharborbigfoot.com and puting my name in all the typical directories like yelp and angieslist but when I type in Gig Harbor tree service my site still doesn't pop up until like the second page. Any advise on getting more customers? I am seriously considering door hangers with some sort of coupon and just hitting the streets.


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## TreeFeller11 (Nov 21, 2014)

Aldegar said:


> So, for the last month I have been focused on gaining an online presence by building a website www.gigharborbigfoot.com and puting my name in all the typical directories like yelp and angieslist but when I type in Gig Harbor tree service my site still doesn't pop up until like the second page. Any advise on getting more customers? I am seriously considering door hangers with some sort of coupon and just hitting the streets.


I also have a new tree service and started mine in April of this year. The best form of advertising is word of mouth, but I'm finding that that is hard to come by this early in the game. Generally on word of mouth jobs or if the customer's neighbor needs work you don't get haggled and beat down on your price. I feel like it's not even worth going in the local phone book with the 40 other competing ads throughout it. What has sadly worked best for me so far is Craigslist. Even though most people just go there to get the cheapest service possible, you will still come across some good, loyal clientele every now and then(20-25% of the time). I've had 4 or 5 of my Craigslist customers use me multiple times this year alone. Each year I am slowly noticing more and more repeat work or referrals from customers I did years ago (side work) before I went on my own. So hopefully in the years to come repeat work will be the majority of my work. Anyways....

I had 500 door hangers printed around July of this year for around $120.00 and hung a few hundred of them by the end of the month in high end neighborhoods where I could see tree issues. I try to knock on the door and talk with them about their trees and who I am for a minute or two if they are home. I also explain that I am not trying to sell them on anything right now, and that I am only asking to be one of there pricing options should they decide to move forward on any work. So far I have only gotten 3-4 jobs from them totaling around $2-3K. But my most recent job for $1K came in two weeks ago and they said they kept my door hanger in a drawer since July when I hung it. So hopefully some other people held on to theirs in case of some storm damage or anything they may need this winter. I was thinking of doing what you just said with the coupon on my next batch of door hangers. Maybe something like a %10 off coupon on any service to get my foot in the door in some of these neighborhoods. You can make the door hangers with a 2" perforation at the bottom so they can keep the coupon and contact info and toss the big door hanger out. I feel like people buy things everyday just because they are getting a deal, even if they feel they don't necessarily need it right now. I also made a website a few days ago so once that hits google I'm hoping to see some results with that.


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## TreeFeller11 (Nov 21, 2014)

Also when I was running my ad in the local paper during the prime season I was averaging 1-3 calls per week. Not a very high transfer rate though with 10 other competitors and half of them being amish hahaha


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## Shaunbobby (Nov 21, 2014)

Try google Adwords,
Door hangers are almost as bad as flyers on your windshield,
Most people get pissed off.


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## TreeFeller11 (Nov 21, 2014)

Shaunbobby said:


> Try google Adwords,
> Door hangers are almost as bad as flyers on your windshield,
> Most people get pissed off.


How much success have you had with adwords?


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## Shaunbobby (Nov 21, 2014)

We've had lots of success with Adwords,
You have to be willing to spend some money though,
I would say half our calls come from using Adwords and the other half repeats and referrals,


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## TreeFeller11 (Nov 21, 2014)

Wow that's awesome! How many calls do you get with adwords per month in the busy season? And with how much money if you don't mind me asking. Hundreds? Thousands?


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## pro94lt (Nov 22, 2014)

Shaunbobby said:


> Try google Adwords,
> Door hangers are almost as bad as flyers on your windshield,
> Most people get pissed off.


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## KPS (Nov 26, 2014)

I too started our Tree Service this year and tried Google Adwords for a while this summer. I got 5-10 calls a week with a capped Adwords budget of $100/month. Most were low-quality leads just kicking the tires and weren't serious about paying to get the work done. Out of all of those calls only a couple actually resulted in work. I spent a lot of time quoting and to this day when I drive by I see that the trees are still standing and they were never serious or never had the money. I have had the best luck with word of mouth and Craigslist. Adwords may work better in a larger city but, you will also rack up a bill for all of those search hits. Google said there were over 800 tree service searches every month in my service area but, either they weren't serious searches or Google was simply blowing smoke as the leads I got were crap. Word of mouth referrals and repeat customers are the best but, it takes time to establish that. I am going to have a Yellowpages ad starting in January to see how that works out. We did have some success with door hangers for tree removal in an area that had a wildfire burn through that left a number of standing dead trees. Door hanger may also work well in a storm damage area as well.


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## CRThomas (Nov 26, 2014)

Any business takes time to build a good customer base. It took me years to get my business built up to where I have all I want.


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## risinriver (Feb 4, 2015)

I know it's been a while since anyone has posted, but I thought I'd share my two cents. The absolute best advertising we've got (aside from word of mouth) is by having a logo and phone number on our trucks. You might not be at that point yet, but I really recommend it once you have a vehicle. A good half of the phone calls we get start with "I saw your trucks, and…"
The second thing is business cards, even if it's just to hand to the neighbors who flag you down because you're next door and they want an estimate. Always have something to give them with contact info.
Finally, put contact info in any and all free advertising out there- google, yelp, etc. Then put a yelp link on your website, too! 
By the way, I love the "high five" photo in your gallery!
Good luck!


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## Aldegar (Mar 7, 2015)

Update, I am a sole proprietor now as my partner ended up joining forces with his brother (also a bad ass climber) and they are doing rather well so everyone is happy. I am still in the weekend warrior stage but getting to the point where I have too much work to schedule weekends only and will hopefully be able to switch to part time soon. Got a truck and chipper this year (no loans) so no more looking like a low life slasher. All my calls are from the internet, did a lot of diy seo and made it to the first page of google. Get about 4-5 calls a week without ever spending a dime on advertising and this is all during the slow season.


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## TreeFeller11 (Mar 8, 2015)

Aldegar said:


> Update, I am a sole proprietor now as my partner ended up joining forces with his brother (also a bad ass climber) and they are doing rather well so everyone is happy. I am still in the weekend warrior stage but getting to the point where I have too much work to schedule weekends only and will hopefully be able to switch to part time soon. Got a truck and chipper this year (no loans) so no more looking like a low life slasher. All my calls are from the internet, did a lot of diy seo and made it to the first page of google. Get about 4-5 calls a week without ever spending a dime on advertising and this is all during the slow season.


First page of google? That's pretty impressive. Where did you learn to do your own seo work? I've done some work with mine, but it doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere with it.


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## Aldegar (Mar 8, 2015)

Did a bunch of research on how to do seo. Make sure your keywords are on your site, try to use phrases that your customer might be searching for but use them in context of explaining your services in a way that if customers do stumble on your site they will be inclined to give you a call. Upcity has a free trial that will get you started getting backlinks, these are references to your business like yelp or angies list. Upcity makes it easy because all these references are listed so you don't have to try and figure out which ones you should sign up for. Most are free, I chose to only sign up for the free ones and cancelled my account after two weeks of setting up backlinks. Facebook activity and other social media are monitored by google, any sort of direct link to your business will be added up and whoever has the most high quality links will be listed on google in order. The best advise I can give you is let the world know you are there in any way possible without trying to sell yourself and eventually your customers will start to find you.


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## Sharper Image Tree Co. (Mar 18, 2015)

Aldegar said:


> How on earth do you get your customers to sign up for angies list and give you reviews?


You just offer to pay for a years membership to angieslist if they will leave you a review. Its $40.00. just discount that off of their bill after the work. Once you get 3 a reviews you can advertise. I was paying $275.00 per month to advertise to about 20,000 angieslist members in the Dallas metroplex. Last year I added new territory to my advertising and now I have over 50,000 member localy that see my ad. Angies list has over 1 million members in the DFW alone. These people are not the cheapskates the are good people that want excellent service and theyre willing to pay a fair price for it. I only have to compete with 14 other companies on the first page of the listings which is all paid advertising but you wouldnt know its advertising by looking at it. The reviews are real and they will make or break you in this business.


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## jwade (Apr 20, 2015)

risinriver said:


> I know it's been a while since anyone has posted, but I thought I'd share my two cents. The absolute best advertising we've got (aside from word of mouth) is by having a logo and phone number on our trucks. You might not be at that point yet, but I really recommend it once you have a vehicle. A good half of the phone calls we get start with "I saw your trucks, and…"
> The second thing is business cards, even if it's just to hand to the neighbors who flag you down because you're next door and they want an estimate. Always have something to give them with contact info.
> Finally, put contact info in any and all free advertising out there- google, yelp, etc. Then put a yelp link on your website, too!
> By the way, I love the "high five" photo in your gallery!
> Good luck!


welcome rising river, really sounds like you are doing it right


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