So you want to start a land clearing business? Here are 3 things you can do to get started today!
1. Knock on doors
There’s no secret that one of the best ways to drum up business is to start by knocking on doors and talking to people in your local community.
But every door is not the same.
When knocking on doors, you want to make sure you’re choosing the right doors to knock on.
- Find neighborhoods that are located in heavily treed / forested areas.
- Look for standing dead trees, brush piles, fallen dead trees, overgrown bushes on the understory, and other woody debris like twigs, branches, etc.
- Look for property sizes that are 1+ acres (the sweet spot is 1-3 acres in the beginning. You will get larger properties as you grow)
- Bonus if the homes are nice (ideally you want to market to middle to upper class properties who have expendable income to pay you)
Look for standing dead trees, brush piles, fallen dead trees, overgrown bushes on the understory, and other woody debris like twigs, branches, etc.
Once you find your ideal properties, start knocking on doors.
The Door Knock Script
drumroll please…..
Don’t overcomplicate this. The simpler the better!
“Hi, my name is Austin and I’m starting a land clearing business to help people clean up trees and brush on their properties.
Anything I can help you clean up today while I’m in the neighborhood?”
Let them talk. They will tell you what they want!
If they want to talk and shoot the bull, talk and shoot the bull with them!
Door knocking does not have to be “salesy.”
You’re simply talking to people in your local community to get the word out that you’re offering your new land clearing/ tree removal / brush clearing service.
Keep this in mind — you’re not looking to sell customers on the spot.
If they say yes, great!
But if they aren’t interested, you’re simply doing the work to get your name out there.
Think about it this way, every single person you talk to is one person closer to getting your first job.
Door knocking and sales are numbers games.
You don’t have to say the right thing, you don’t need a perfect script, and you don’t have to be 100% put together.
All you NEED to do is commit to doing the action that you can control.
What you can control in this situation is how many people you talk to.
YOU get to choose how many doors you knock on.
You CAN’T control peoples’ response.
But you CAN control how many people you talk to.
I guarantee you that if you set out to talk to 50 people in the right area, you would find your first job.
“Hi, my name is Austin and I’m starting a small business to help people clean up trees and brush on their properties. Anything I can help you clean up today while I’m in the neighborhood?”
2. Hand out flyers
While you’re door knocking to get the word out about your new land clearing business, you’ll want to take some flyers with you.
Flyers are a great way to end the conversation if people are not interested in your services when you talk to them at their door.
Here’s what I usually say, “Well, thank you for your time today. If you hear of anyone else in your area who might be interested in these types of services, would you mind to have them give me a call? I’m going to leave this flyer with you just in case you hear of anyone.”
I hand them the flyer and say, “Thank you & have a good day!”
How To Create Your Flyers
You can easily create flyers and print them for cheap by using canva.com
In fact, I’ve created a simple template for you that you can edit with your own colors and logo (if you already have one)
Visit this link and create your own land clearing flyer.
Download the flyer and email to your local print shop and ask them to print 100 on the thick paper (i don’t remember what it’s called, but just tell them you want the paper that is thicker than regular printer paper.) Doesn’t cost much more and it makes for a better flyer for people to hold in their hand. The little things matter!
3. Cold call
I recommend starting your business with small residential tree removal / brush cleanup jobs before you start cold calling the big guys for bigger projects.
The main reason I reccomend this is because it allows you to get your feet wet with the following processes:
- sending a quote
- fulfilling a job
- handling any customer objections / requests along the way
- sending your first invoice (I use Jobber) and will be creating another post on this
- collecting your first payment
But, if you’re confident as an equipment operator, have access to machinery, and want to jump straight into the big leagues, then pick up your phone and get to work!
4 Land Clearing Customers To Cold Call
There are 3 types of people you want to cold call.
- Residential Home Builders
- Land Developers
- Tree Service Companies
- Real Estate Agents
The same general script applies to cold calling as it did door knocking.
Remember, you’re not trying to sell them anything. You’re simply trying to get the word out that you’re offering land clearing services in your local market.
Residential Home Builders
These guys are great because they tend to have a pulse on the local market.
When I call home builders, I plan to shoot the bull a fair amount with them.
Here’s how I normally start:
“Hey my name is Austin and I started offering land clearing services. Just wanted to give you a call to get your take on the current building market.”
Here’s some questions you can ask home builders that will get them talking:
- “You staying busy?”
- “You have a lot of projects still breaking ground or interest rates holding it up?”
- “How many homes do you normally take on each year?”
- “Do you normally use your excavation contractor for the clearing or do you have a specific land clearing contractor you use?”
- “Who do you like to use for your land clearing?”
Let them talk. They are going to give you a great amount of information on your local market. Take the conversation wherever you want to take it.
But your main goal is to leave the conversation by letting them know that you are offering land clearing services in your local market.
Here’s what I leave with:
“I know you have your guys you like to use, but keep me in mind for your next project if your guy can’t fit you in.”
Ask for their email so you can follow up.
Send them an email with your name and contact info.
This will pay dividends in the long run!
Land Developers
Land developers can be a good source of business for a land clearing company. Landing one major development company relationship could set your business up for life.
Take a drive around your local community and look for new subdivisions or commercial developments going in. Make it your goal to figure out who is developing the ground.
Here are some ways you can find out who is developing the area:
- Look for signs. Any signs. Real estate signs, contractor signs, company signs. Call any number you can find and ask if they know who is developing xyz property.
- Call your local city or county building department. Ask them who is developing xyz property.
- Call local real estate agents. Ask them who is developing xyz property.
Do whatever you can to find the name and contact info of the land developer.
Approach them in a similar fashion to the Residential Home Builders above. You never know what can happen from one conversation with the right person!
Tree Service Companies
When I started my land clearing business, I called every tree service company in my area. I told them I had a skid steer & forestry mulcher and am starting a land clearing business.
A lot of tree service companies focus on volume — meaning they are doing residential tree removal / pruning jobs for one or two trees on a residential property.
Secondly, most good tree service businesses make a lot of their money on plant health care (PHC), which is a fancy word for fertilization services.
I made it very clear that I’m not looking to offer climbing, rigging, technical removal, or PHC. Rather, I’m looking to clear land with machinery.
Tree Service companies get a lot of calls for land clearing services. Residential customers immediately search terms like “tree removal” or “brush removal” and Google will serve up a tree service company.
If you can position yourself as the go to guy for larger land clearing jobs, there’s a chance that tree service companies will funnel larger land clearing jobs your way.
The second reason I like to make connections with tree service companies is because inevitably at some point, you will likely have a technical tree to remove (close to a home or power line) and you’ll need a trusted sub contractor.
I like to build good relationships with other sub contractors in my local area so that I can ask for their help when I need it and they can ask for mine when they need it.
Offering yourself to other tree service companies to work as a sub contractor for them is a good way to get started on the right track to building a solid working relationship.
Then, when you land a job later down the line that requires a technical tree to be removed, you can throw them some work, too!
Real Estate Agents
Last, but not least are local real estate agents. Call every single one of them.
You can easily find their numbers online, but a better way to find the good ones is to drive around and look for who has the most signs.
Call the agent, introduce yourself, and tell them what services you can offer.
When you find someone who is receptive and seems like they want to help you out, offer to take them out to lunch.
Business is about building great relationships.
The more relationships you have in your local community with real estate agents, the more work you will receive.
BONUS TIP: Offer to do some work on the real estate agent’s personal property to show them what kind of work you can offer.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve read this post, I hope you have some ideas for how to go and get your first land clearing jobs! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @theownerop
