How long are clients waiting to be serviced?
Are companies going out of business?
Are prices for service rising or falling?
How much advertising for the existing companies is there? (more advertising generally means they have to fight harder to find work...if you don't see any, that probably means they are as busy as can be and a new company can capture some market share relatively easily with some half decent marketing)
The other question to ask is what are the companies doing? Perhaps there is a void for high quality pruning? Maybe there is a market void for difficult removals (but those often mean a bigger upfront investment), or maybe low cost removals for smaller trees (everybody else in town can't afford to take down a 10" tree for $400 because their equipment needs more....but that tree doesn't need their equipment). Or is there anybody doing a good job with pest management? How about different client bases: residential, commercial, municipal - are they all being served well? etc...
Often the Chamber of Commerce or SBA will have a small business adviser who can help you think through those things.
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