Just starting out

[risinriver]

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!

 

[Aldegar]

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.

 

[TreeFeller11]

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.

 

[Aldegar]

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.

 

[Sharper Image Tree Co.]

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.

 

[jwade]

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