Focusing on Pruning

[zlarborprotc]

I recently branched off on my own and started my own company. I had worked for a larger company for a while as a climber and crew lead, and felt that it was time for a taste of the "good life" as a owner operator.

I've been blessed in the sense that we've received a good amount of calls regarding potential work very early on. The problem I am having is that it is mostly removal work. I am not currently set up for removals, and have no desire to go out and spend the money on a chipper, loader, and chip truck this early on, to be honest. My current setup is a 1 ton, a 14' dump, and my climbing gear. All paid for, and that's a comfortable feeling.

My questions is...how did you market for pruning? Ive seen a lot of small companies post on here, and state that they've built small businesses focused on almost entirely pruning. That is the market I'd like to stay in for as long as possible. I have done an enormous amount of pruning for the company I was working for, and feel very confident in the science behind it, as well as proper pruning to ANSI standards, however, my current market that is reaching me, is just focused on giant removals. All of which seem to be hypoxylon canker oaks and giant silver maples. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Reach]

A couple suggestions I have: the conventional idea - get on CraftJack and HomeAdvisor, accepting leads only for pruning. You’ll get a lot of bad leads, but you’ll get some good ones too. The more unconventional idea - call the local larger companies and try to work out a deal, perhaps where you trade some referrals. They can send you smaller projects and prunes that they don’t want, and in return you’ll refer them your calls for the larger removals you don’t want. And of course set up a website, detailing what you do and do not offer, and explaining clearly why you should be hired to prune their trees, what makes you uniquely qualified.

 

[cerviarborist]

There is an art and a benefit from referrals. When a prospective client calls, and you walk them through checking off the boxes that make removal a necessity, and then say something to the effect "It seems you have a solid reason to want to remove rather than retain this tree. I specialize more in retention than removal, so let me give you the name and phone number of the best technical removal specialist I know in this area."

Your esteem with that prospect will go through the roof. In their perception, you had their checkbook in your hands, but handed it back and suggested a better option. They will appreciate your ethics and will likely consider you a resource for all things tree going forward. You'll be on their lips as an ethical provider and a maven in the realm of pruning.

The flip side of this is that the firms you refer must do work commensurate with keeping you in the best light possible.

 

[Merle Nelson]

I do impeccable clean up on top of great work and good customer interactions. My clients market my services to neighbors, family, friends.

My wife used to (since fallen by the wayside) send out a thank you card a few days after a job pointing out also that referrals were the most valuable/meaningful way we gain new customers. Inside were a couple extra of our business cards.

From that I got stand out referral "hubs". I used to mentally track how much work one "hub" or the other had gotten me. Several over the years have gotten up into the hundreds of thousands.

People love to share who does great work. I do the same with handymen, carpenters, yard people etc.

 

[VenasNursery]

I do impeccable clean up on top of great work and good customer interactions. My clients market my services to neighbors, family, friends.

My wife used to (since fallen by the wayside) send out a thank you card a few days after a job pointing out also that referrals were the most valuable/meaningful way we gain new customers. Inside were a couple extra of our business cards.

From that I got stand out referral "hubs". I used to mentally track how much work one "hub" or the other had gotten me. Several over the years have gotten up into the hundreds of thousands.

People love to share who does great work. I do the same with handymen, carpenters, yard people etc.

Word of mouth is
The Best advertisement
Or
The Worst advertisement
It’s what You make it!!!

 

[evo]

Networking, networking, networking. Documenting and documenting..

Get in with a few large removal companies, that you trust. Do what they can’t do for a fair price, with excellent pruning, refer them for the removals.

Get in on nurseries referral lists, just be clear on what you want.

Give a talk or two on tree care and how to pick out a good tree.

Fruit tree pruning, it’s mind numbing but it gets your foot in the door.

Now when you save a tree, document it throughly. Take before, durning, after pics, and a year later. I don’t do this nearly enough, but I use it for advertising and it works amazingly well

 

[ATH]

....

Now when you save a tree, document it throughly. Take before, durning, after pics, and a year later. I don’t do this nearly enough, but I use it for advertising and it works amazingly well

I'm really good at taking before pictures or after pictures, but almost never do i remember to do both of the same tree! Just want to get started when we show up and just want to get moving on when we are done.

 

[evo]

I'm really good at taking before pictures or after pictures, but almost never do i remember to do both of the same tree! Just want to get started when we show up and just want to get moving on when we are done.

Same here, but a few pictures are worth a 1000 words.

 

[evo]

 

[evo]

July 29 2017 to August 26 2017
Order backwards..

 

[evo]

Sorry to bomb this thread with my photos. The point is each series tells a story without words that most anybody can pickup on. They don’t need to know the details of what was done, how it was pruned (or even if it falls within standards), they need to know the tree is better than it was before and that I did that.