Offering additional services such as lawn mowing / landscaping

[Bendroctanus]

The only upside I would see is an Arborist is probably the best person to be landscaping around trees. It grinds my gears to see what some mow-rons do to roots and trunks. Not all of them. But I’ve seen it a lot. That and it could potentially make for easier yard clean up after the tree is pruned or removed.

 

[Mowerr]

I've done like 20 or so cat rescues up here in New york...your never getting 500 or even 300 for a rescue here. To this day no matter the situation I've never got more than 200. I've had people tell me to just cut it down with the cat up there!

 

[climbingmonkey24]

@climbingmonkey24

If getting enough tree work is problematic, consider your signage, customer response time and demeanor, community contacts, salesmanship, online presence, etc.




If you're a Facebook user, have a business page and post pics, letting customers know/ agree.

Get pictures of their property/ home/ lans/ treescape from an interesting vantage point. Maybe something that they would like to 'share'.

Nextdoor is a good help, here.

The last 1-2 years has been a challenge, but part of that is my own doing.

Rewind back to 2023, and I had a pretty steady stream of organic work coming in, in addition to call backs, referrals, etc. That was with a website, social media profiles, and me regularly keeping them up to date and uploading photos. Some here and there but not a significant monthly investment in advertising / leads at the time. It would’ve been a good place to start doing more advertising for some real growth because I had a decent organic foundation to build off of.

Long story short, I closed down from about January 2024 until June 2025. I was still working, but only taking on repeat clients or client referrals. The reasons don’t really matter at this point, it happened and I regret it. Once I started up again in June 2025, I noticed that organic call volume I used to have wasn’t there. I suspect it might have something to do with my online presence dropping in rank from not being active. I also don’t know if the economy is a factor. A friend of mine who does tree service in my area said last year he noticed he was getting less calls and more clients saying they couldn’t afford to do work.

I probably need to be more patient, and give it more time. Spring is around the corner, so I feel like actively marketing / advertising during the warmer months will be a better indicator of things than in the middle of winter when it naturally is a more slow period.

I have thought about lawn care and landscaping services for a little bit now, so while it isn’t necessarily a direct response to my being frustrated with the current work flow, I think that probably has increased both the desperation and motivation I’m feeling to try and figure things out. By no means is it a lost cause though, nor will I give up.

 

[climbingmonkey24]

I haven’t made it through all the posts yet, but there are some very valid points here. Certainly wouldn’t want to do anything that would harm my current brand or take away from my current work.

More recently I’ve started branching out into a little more removal work then what I did previously. The PHC is something I’ve thought about too, all in due time though.

 

[climbingmonkey24]

I’ve been on a few cat rescues over the course of my career, but it’s not something I’ve got called for often, and I don’t list it as an official service. I never really charged a set price because I suppose I was trying to do a good thing, but I can also see the benefit of charging.

 

[evo]

Do the work you want to do while maintaining bread and butter. If you can find a food bank or non profit that has plants and donate to them.
Basically keep working regardless if it’s bringing in income, that will follow.
Does your town have a Main Street association?