New markets

[sac-climber]

Has anyone had experience breaking into a new market? Were looking at adding tree services in a market that we already have an established landscape maintenance branch.

Metro area of around 150k people, 3-5 reputable companies with an established name exist already. Less than 10 legit, by my standards, tree companies in the area. Plenty of hacks with a saw and chuck 'n duck. College town, lots of trees and people that care about trees. I sort of feel like this will be the kind of place where one job leads to 6 more on the block. I'm a little hesitant though, we're looking at a pretty big capital investment to start it and float it until it really gets roaring. Rough figures show it needs to bring in $3200 per week in order to start turning a profit in 90 days. Our crews run 4 days with the 5th being a 6hr day dedicated to maintenance.

I guess my real question is what sort of marketing if any have you done when going into a new market with established competition?

 

[TC262]

I don't have much experience in my current market let alone a new one, but just curious about your situation. How far is it from the area your currently servicing? Can your current crew cover the area until you have a steady flow of jobs coming in? Or if you add a new crew for the new area if they get slow can they come grab some of your current workload?

 

[sac-climber]

About an hour and a half away. It's just not profitable to send a crew up for 3 hrs of driving, 5 hrs of work minus lunch and breaks, and a tank of gas. What going to end up happening is I'll run it for a month or so in addition to all the other crap I do and ill take a floater from the maintenance side as a ground guy.