Strumming up business!!

ROYCE

ROYCE

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Vermont
So I made the decision in winter to start my own tree company. I have dedicated all winter to researching everything about owning your own business. I have talked with accountants, insurance agencies, state officials, a few tree business owners and a lot of friends of mine.
I have purchased a truck, skid steer with grapple, saws, pruning tools, cabling tools, and am looking into getting a brush chipper in a few weeks.
My question is how do I get business. I have made flyers, constructed a web-site, I plant to put an add in the paper when my general liability insurance is finalized. I want to connect with clients that need tree work. I don't want to wait for my phone to ring, I want to be busy trying to get jobs.
Any other idea's on how to strum up business for a first time business. I am going to be a small operation offering many services to my clients, I just need the clients to offer the services to.
 
Hi Royce,

If you'd like, I can have a look at your website and talk with you about some other internet-based marketing options you might want to look into. I'm next door in Rhode Island (lived in Massachusetts over 30 years--I looked at your profile on the Buzz). Is it possible for you to volunteer near your "base" on a Mass Arborist Assoication's Arbor Day of Service coming up in the next week? You could get some visibility working with other pros on a public project and if you get some passersby asking questions, give 'em your business card/flyer (what I call your propaganda!). Lot of communities organize some kind of spring clean up in parks and playgrounds and nature trails where they look for volunteers--you can leverage that because every person you now meet is a potential client. Every municipality in Massachusetts must have a designated Tree Warden, so maybe the towns/cities in your area have someone you can talk to about being a new business in the area and if they have someone who has a private tree the town won't help them with, they can steer the person to you for consideration.

You can find me via www.yourvirtualsherpa.com if you want to talk. Good luck!
 
Carol,
Thanks for the help. I have moved out of Massachusetts and started my business a bit north, in Vermont. Its much harder to get business in this area, but people do care about their trees around here too. I just need to brake into that world.
Please have a look at my web-site. It was designed and built by my wife and myself. We are not professionals and just wanted to get something on the web to help people connect with us. I would love any advice.
I like the idea of volunteering. I have my truck that has my name and contact info on it. I could show up and have advertising all day long with the truck parked out front. Thats a good place to start.
My web site is www.arborclimbtree.com
 
Jonathan,

I had a quick look, and it is a very, very good first effort--clean with a lot of white space to rest the eyes, great logo and tag line! I believe you use Weebly, which is a good way to ease into websites. I didn't go into it in great detail but there was one typo that stood out, spelling error where it says ANZI A300 instead of ANSI A300 on the Home page.

Stepping up your game:

  • Google Places for Business is critical to add so that your company begins turning up when people type in anything from "tree care near Brattleboro" or "arborists near Brattleboro". You can indicate a service area that encompasses your towns served. Also get listed on Bing and Yahoo, as well as Yelp!, Yellow Pages, and other directories, especially one where people can leave reviews.
  • I might work on formatting the Resources page so that the two columns are visually easier to spot, and if you can put descriptive text underneath the links to documents so people know what they're getting, that would help.
  • Consider a blog or a blog-like page for posting helpful hints such as invasive species updates, signs of problems due to unusual weather (burn from road salt worse due to long hard winter that may extend into critical spring time rejuvenation), and so forth. Fresh content keeps the Google, Yahoo, and Bing indexing robots excited about your site.
  • Build out some social media, specifically Facebook, and then link back to your website. Also, give your clients a way to share the stuff on your website with other people, even if you personally don't use all the different social media. If the clientele are a lot of young couples and you think many women in the late 20s to mid 40s age bracket are making key decisions on how the house and yard look, consider Pinterest where you put pictures of your work and interesting ideas for treescapes. Know your demographic and then follow them there.
  • Need more photos and possibly video of you at work on the website. Sort of like "needs more cow bell." Show them what you do with before and after shots that show vista improvement, crown thinning for healthier air and sun ratios (and how a neat tree adds to property appeal), etc... This is why I am keen to work with businesses like yours because I think they're a natural for the visual aspect of the internet.
  • Any testimonials from past work you've done. Definitely get those on Google+ business page. You have worked hard to get where you are so you must have left a lot of happy people from where you worked before, even if you were working for someone else.
  • Can your newspaper ad have have a "call-to-action" to get people to your website to sign up for a special deal? Maybe offer the first 10 clients who respond VIA YOUR WEBSITE and sign a contract to hire you a 5% or 10% discount on the price of a service like tree evaluation and pruning. Reward them for being the first to come to your online home and ask you to do work for them, and really nurture those folks so they will spread the word.
I think that's enough to get started! Good luck.
 
What connections do you have to the community? Friends and family? Connect with the master gardeners, environmental and or shade tree commissions. Offer to do seminars on tree care. Are there any consumer home improvement or landscaping shows you can attend or set up a booth? Identify your target market and which neighborhoods they live in. Get your flyers mailed out to those areas or drop them yourself (there may actually be a law against this if you put them in the mailbox).
 
WOW, thank you all. This has me really motivated. All good stuff. Carol, thank you for the advice. I will look into all of it. I really appreciate it.

Tree Humper, I am planning to do a planting workshop. Just looking for the right organization to sponsor with. I also am looking into some volunteer work on some trail maintenance for a mountain close to me. We shall see how this goes.
 
EasyPhloem- Good advice, I will look into that. I agree, those are the clients I want. People who care about trees and see their property as an investment.
 
x2 on the NPR thing. VPR has worked really well for us up here in Burlington. The listener base is perfect for what we do. My boss has seen visible upticks in calls around periods where our name is mentioned.
 
macswan said:
x2 on the NPR thing. VPR has worked really well for us up here in Burlington. The listener base is perfect for what we do. My boss has seen visible upticks in calls around periods where our name is mentioned.
Click to expand...
It's funny. In Charlotte, NC, the company I worked for always supported public radio. They ran a series of ads on the local AM talk radio station. The response from retired cranky old men with nothing to do but complain was amazing. Not our demo.

SZ
 
Could always do free work, sort of along the lines of charity. Talk to the city, find one of their trees in a public space and prune it out, to generate interest. Do a press release on it where they can photograph the tree, try to get an article written about you and proper tree care or the benefits of trees to the urban landscape. You have the time if your not doing paid work, just try to work paid or not then the calls will follow.
 
Royce,
Congrats on the new business and moving to the green mountain state. You are dead smack in the middle of my old stomping grounds. I ran a small business (not trees as my tree boss got mad if we did them). My customer base began with my neighbors. Do a good job and people in that area will pass your name around (they value good hard work). I wouldn’t spend too much on internet based marketing yet. Look at the demographic, lots of people don’t have the immediate access to the web like other places in the country. Spend your time making yourself visible, volunteering, networking and the like. I will warn, you will have a tough time competing with that crowd up there. You need to sell yourself and your service. There are a bunch of cut throat hacks in that area, so sell the quality of your work not the quantity, and bidding on work is what it is up there (Vermonters are very frugal (cheap)). If I were to venture out up there (unless something has changed drastically since I left) a yellow pages add would be one of the first marketing items I did. And the Brattleboro reformer would be next. Have fun and be safe, hope this is helpful.
 
Big pro signs on your truck, up high, that can be seen over cars and shrubs. If you're not busy, and are set-up with a mobile office type-a-thing, or just want to read a book, park at a garden center on Saturday, or Home Depot parking lot. A mobile sign that works around the clock, and builds brand recognition (Oh, yeah, I've seen your truck around town). My web address is 12-15" tall on the side of my chip box, at the top. Easy to remember web address without strange spellings.

Facebook seems to be a good possibility if you can take good Before and After shots and send them to the clients however that FB thing works.

When people compliment you on your work at the end of the job, remind them that word of mouth is the best advertising, and keeps your overhead lower, allowing you to focus on quality service and value.
 
southsoundtree said:
Big pro signs on your truck, up high, that can be seen over cars and shrubs. If you're not busy, and are set-up with a mobile office type-a-thing, or just want to read a book, park at a garden center on Saturday, or Home Depot parking lot. A mobile sign that works around the clock, and builds brand recognition (Oh, yeah, I've seen your truck around town). My web address is 12-15" tall on the side of my chip box, at the top. Easy to remember web address without strange spellings.

Facebook seems to be a good possibility if you can take good Before and After shots and send them to the clients however that FB thing works.

When people compliment you on your work at the end of the job, remind them that word of mouth is the best advertising, and keeps your overhead lower, allowing you to focus on quality service and value.
Click to expand...


This is great stuff, the stuff I need to hear. I have been working really hard at getting my name out their. I have been meeting with many people who are very connected in my neighborhood. I have offered two 250 dollar prizes to silent auction at local events that attract MANY people. It gets my name out their, and is an easy thing to do. I have time right now, not a ton on money. Doing small jobs don't really cost me much if it's in my community.
I have some leads and am realizing that this stuff takes time. It is still early here, and hopefully by the middle of summer I will have enough work for three days a week. Hopefully that will carry me until the snow falls.
I like the idea of parking the truck at the park. It does get my name out there for people to see.

All great idea's.
 
Right now work when other HOs are around. That may mean putting in a Saturday but, we always had people flock to us when we showed up in a neighborhood on a Saturday.
 
I donate to a local radio station and in return get a business card type reading for each show. I also donate firewood to fund raisers and certain local raffles. Exposure is everything. My website only pulls about 20% of my overall the rest is from word of mouth and being seen. As much as I hate road side signs, they work. With the seasonal population here, a few well placed signs at Easter and Mother's Day makes all the difference.
 
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