Austin Gray: Hey, welcome back to another episode of the OWNR OPS podcast! I'm your host, Austin Gray. This is going to be another solo episode; we're doing three solo episodes just to sort of round up the year.

The reason I'm doing these solo episodes is that I want to ask you a question. If you've been listening to this podcast and you've received some value, I'd ask you to just listen up. The reason being is that I need your help.

All right, I've got my hands in a lot of different things right now. We're building Bearclaw Land Services, and that has been my main priority for the last several years. For those of you who may be listening to this for the first time, I started that business. We do land clearing, fire mitigation, excavation, and now we do snow removal.

In two years, we've generated right at $1.6 million in revenue. In the first three months, we did $60k before winter hit. We didn't offer snow removal then. I didn't do anything that winter from a service perspective; I was building my house.

The next summer, we started our first full year. We landed a government contract, and we did about $650k in revenue. This last year, we wrapped up right at $1 million. So, I guess we're closer to like $1.7 million based on quick math in two years.

I share that because, one, you're probably wondering why you should listen to this podcast. Two, I'm not sharing it to brag. There are way more people online who have generated and built much bigger businesses. I'm sharing this with you because I believe that I have something that can help you as a listener, especially if you're a male in your 20s, 30s, or early 40s who wants to start a service-based business.

I believe that the opportunity right now is in these service-based and trade-based businesses. Back in 2022, I realized that the need for contractors who are willing to answer their phone, show up, and give you an estimate within a reasonable amount of time is significant.

That introduced me to this concept: What if I took everything I learned from my tech startups or app startups in my earlier entrepreneurial days and applied it to a service or trade-based business?

I started figuring out where the need in our market was, and it ultimately came around to the concept that there's a need for wildfire mitigation. I'd always thought it would be cool to be a logger; I didn't know how much money they made. I had heard that there was never really that much money in logging, which was kind of like the old logger mindset.

But I found out that there was a need for this wildfire mitigation work, which is essentially forestry cleanup. They quickly found out that HOAs were trying to figure this out, and insurance companies were sort of involved; they were requiring it in these mountain communities.

So, a friend of a friend reached out and said, "Hey, I know you have a skid steer at your house. Would you bring it over to my property and help us with some of this forestry cleanup?" I did. I charged $3,500 for the job. I had bought a trailer while building my house, and I had a work truck as well.

That was something that I personally had. I also had a chainsaw, so it was like a chainsaw, truck, trailer, and a skid steer. Once I started leaning into it, things just fell into place, and I couldn't attribute it to anything other than maybe this was God's plan for me.

One thing led to another. People saw me doing that, I ended up doing another one of the neighbors' jobs. Then a real estate agent heard I was doing it, and she referred a client to me. It just went from there. I did a little dirt work that year, then I met my now business partner.

We joined forces, sort of just as subcontractors. Last year was my first full year in the business, and then this past year, we joined up. He's got some equity in the business, and we've divided and conquered responsibilities.

Here we are.

My point with this is that I love creating content. The reason is that I'm a marketer at heart; I just love the concept of digital marketing. It's what has always excited me.

I'm challenging myself to become a better marketer, and so I'm going to ask you guys: How can I be of help to you?

Do you operate heavy equipment and want to grow your business online? Check out Bearclaw Media!

Now, for those of you who have been listening, this was formerly known as Land Service Marketers. We decided to brand it all under the Bearclaw brand since we've already been building all the social media accounts.

So what is Bearclaw Media? We offer digital marketing services for other contractors throughout the US in the heavy equipment industry. Think land clearing, excavation, snow removal, and septic installation. If you're doing any of these and have a high-ticket order value, Bearclaw Media could be right for you.

If you want someone to handle all your social media management and bring you more leads to help you grow your business, then Bearclaw Media is the exact service that we've used to grow Bearclaw Land Services. We'll implement the same strategy into your business. You'll get a dedicated account manager; all you have to do is upload photos and videos from the field of your equipment into a shared iCloud album.

Visit bearclawmedia.com, and we can handle it from there.

I like starting things, and I feel like it's one of my natural gifts as a person or as an entrepreneur. I can just see opportunities, and then I just go 100 million miles an hour and trailblaze.

But to be quite honest, I didn't really have much direction for this podcast other than I wanted to selfishly interview people so that I could, one, become better as an operator. Because there are certain things—once I moved past the solo owner-operator aspect of the business—I needed to learn how to hire, how to compensate, and how to handle certain things like benefits.

I've interviewed some amazing guests on the podcast about these topics. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, go back and check out some of the episodes.

My strategy hasn't been to bring on people who are super popular on Twitter or YouTube or have huge followings. I just want to learn from others and do it in a public way so that you, as a listener, can learn as well.

I didn't have any revenue goals in my first year. I treated it as a business because I knew that if I was going to allocate time here, I needed this to generate some sort of revenue or cash-generating asset that I build.

Selfishly, that comes from the fact that I've got a wife and daughters. I've built a home, and I need to pay for that. I want to provide my wife the opportunity to stay at home if she chooses to. I don't think she ever will; she likes working and is great at what she does.

But the coolest thing, as I've gotten older, is watching my wife become an amazing mother, which will only grow as we have our second child. So, I want to keep working as hard as I can to provide a great lifestyle for her and for my children.

The podcast is one avenue that I believe can help achieve this, and I've got some interesting things in the works. I've set some goals on the sponsorship side, and the only way this works is if I commit to adding value to your life.

So, I'm asking you right now: What do you need help with? Why are you listening to this podcast? If you're listening right now, remember that I'm just a guy. I have my email on my YouTube account; that's my personal email. I read all the emails that come through.

I read all the comments. I don't think there's ever been a comment on my YouTube channel that I haven't personally replied to.

It's pretty cool to look at the analytics and see so many of you listening. I didn't initially check the analytics for the first six months, and then I looked at them and thought, "Holy crap!"

I just got a call from another big podcaster in the service business space today, and he said, "Hey man, can I buy a couple of your podcast sponsorship slots?" I thought, "Holy crap, this is awesome!"

I set a goal to sell four podcast sponsorship slots at $1,500 a month. It's nothing crazy—just $6k a month—but we need revenue to continue doing this at a high level.

In the future, I need to increase prices because I must hire people. I need someone full-time to manage the podcast and ensure everything happens. The second we sell those slots, I'll just hire the right person to help manage it.

Then, we’ll level up and improve every single time.

But I'm challenging myself to be of service. Do I have enough on my plate? Yes! I need to focus on growing Bearclaw, and that will still be my priority.

However, if I just allocate an hour each week to record thoughts or interview someone else, I believe we can be of value to you guys. I want to know where you need to go in 2025.

So, I'm asking you: If you're listening on YouTube, just click the show email and reach out to me at austinrileygray@gmail.com. Let me know what you want to hear more of, and I will make it my podcast goal to get you those answers.

If I have the answer and feel confident enough to share it, I will. That's another thing about me: I've generated around $1.7 million over the last few years, and I believe it’s because we've done a really good job of marketing and sales.

So, if you need help in the early days with marketing and sales—or just getting your first jobs—I fully have the confidence and believe I'm qualified to help you with that.

If you're around the $1 million mark and trying to get to $2 million, I haven't hit that yet. So, I'm not going to act like I have the qualifications to teach you how to do that. What I'm going to do is figure out someone I can interview who recently grew from $1 million to $2 million.

Every phase of business has different struggles. John Wilson, who I had on the podcast and hosts the OWND & OPERATED podcast, talks about how each phase of business is a gut punch, and you have to be willing to weather that gut punch and find a way to push past it.

Right now, the gut punch for me is that I’m wrapping up 2024, and I don't have an exact plan for 2025 with the podcast yet. I want to keep discussing building service-based businesses, but I don’t know exactly what you want or need.

So, I'm committed to either helping you personally by answering questions in a public format or, if you email me, I’ll give you my thoughts. If I don’t have the answers, I’ll find the right person to interview.

So, what can I help you with in 2025? Please let me know!

This Episode is Sponsored by Striker Digital

Striker Digital specializes in SEO services specifically for local service businesses. Bod and Andy, the two co-founders, have helped me get Bearclaw Land Services to the number one search result on Google in my state for my specific search term.

If you want to learn more, visit stryker-digital.com (that's S-T-R-I-K-E-R-D-I-G-I-T-A-L.com).

I know from the analytics that the majority of you listening are in your 20s and 30s, with some in your early 40s. The people who have reached out to me thus far are either in college or in their early 20s, wanting to start a service-based business. They have the entrepreneurial bug, or they're someone like Trevor, if you're listening to this.

I've had so much fun just interacting with you and helping share some thoughts around building a fire mitigation business. Nothing satisfies me more than to help you build a great lifestyle for your family and escape from that corporate drag.

Another selfish reason I'm doing this? I get joy and satisfaction from helping others succeed.

I took care of one of our snowflake clients' accounts; I drove around and looked at some of them. I noticed they had a bunch of ridges in front of their garage, so I bought some ice melt and spread it. I went back for three days in a row, chipping away at it and putting ice melt where needed.

On the third day, after it was all clear in front of their garage, I got a text from them saying, "Thank you so much for doing that! It was incredible!" The wife texted me, and the husband responded in a group message, saying, "Dude, you don’t know how much I appreciate that. I'm traveling for work right now, and it means so much that you would take the fortitude to find a problem and fix it."

I smiled ear to ear. My wife asked, "What are you grinning about?" I showed her the text, and she said, "That's so awesome!"

It is awesome when you genuinely help someone. I want to help you guys. If you're starting a business, I'm confident in helping you grow.

I know exactly what you need to do. I might sound a little cocky, but I believe you could put me in any city in the United States, and I'd find an underserved service. I’d develop a digital marketing plan, let it work in the background while I hustle and network to generate business.

When you're starting a business, don’t think about going one-to-one; think about going one-to-100. Who holds the keys to 100 customers? I’m confident I know how to do that.

My strength lies in building relationships, but I still have a lot of work to do on hiring and delegating and the other essentials you need as a business owner.

What I can help you with is getting off the ground. If you have any questions about the early days or how to get jobs, reach out to me. Maybe you've got a few jobs so far and are wondering why you can't find more.

It’s crucial to invest in a website as soon as you can, especially once you've identified a need. I built a website for a hot tub company before I left for Florida over Thanksgiving, and even then, we got calls for hot tubs. It was incredible!

If those people only knew I had just built a website and launched a beautiful brand with a professional address on my Google My Business profile, they'd respond. So, I went and met an operator, sold him the business, and that's how I scaled it.

The hardest thing isn’t starting a business; it’s generating the SEO that will kick off leads over the next 12 months.

If anyone wants to start a tree service business, I've got a fantastic domain I bought—arborhosting.com—and it's a beautiful brand. I’m willing to work a deal with anyone looking to launch a tree service business, regardless of where you are in the US.

If you have some capital and are willing to invest in an SEO plan, that will kick off leads. Once your cash flow is rolling, reinvest back into paid advertising.

At Bearclaw Media, we specialize in helping businesses get more jobs. Many people say, "I've tried advertising, and it didn’t work." But what works for us?

I booked two crews simply by relying on Facebook ads. Marketing is what makes me tick, and I want to help you guys.

When doing market research for your service-based business, go out and ask your customers what services they need help with. Talk to your County Commissioners about local problems and see how you can offer solutions.

This episode is brought to you by Dialed In Bookkeeping. Ben and his team provide bookkeeping services, job costing reports, and accurate financial information for the home services industry.

If you're seeking reliable bookkeeping, visit dialed in bookkeeping.com. You'll get your first three months at 50% off by using this specific landing page.

If I were starting a new service market today, I'd find the wealthiest neighborhoods and look for swimming pools and golf courses. Why? Because that's typically where the mid-to-upper-class families live—your attorneys, your judges, and your corporate executives.

Those are people with money who are willing to pay for services, whether it’s window cleaning, lawn care, or forest cleanup.

Start by knocking on doors. Some might say "no soliciting," but who cares? Just walk through it. I know how to do door-to-door sales; you can generate business this way. You’re not hard-selling but rather doing customer research.

Ask them about the services they pay for and their satisfaction levels. You'll quickly gather plenty of information, making this market research invaluable.

From this experience, you'll figure out which services are in demand and which ones deliver low quality. Then, go start that business.

Practice your new service enough to deliver a five-star experience. Once you start, you should have your Google My Business profile ready to go.

YouTube tutorials have tips on setting it up. If you need help, reach out to Striker Digital; they are incredible at what they do.

Once you generate $1,500 or $2,000, invest it in a website. Even if you can’t afford SEO services at first, the sooner you can combine the two, the better.

I tell people that once you start getting cash flow, invest in SEO. It might be an upfront cost, but one or two leads from that investment can pay for an entire year's marketing costs.

So pay pros like Striker Digital to handle your SEO. Hustle to get those first jobs, then watch your visibility grow.

Remember, it can take time for Google to start ranking you, and I guarantee it will take 6 to 12 months.

There’s only one company I recommend for service-based SEO, and that’s Striker Digital. I still see leads coming in for Colorado Power Wash, and I’m currently strategizing my 2025 plans with them.

The first two steps are straightforward: go get jobs, and then generate cash flow. You'll also need to set up your LLC and insurance, but you can figure that out with YouTube.

I'm excited about this and want to help you grow your business in 2025. What do you need help with? Comment below on YouTube or email me at austinrileygray@gmail.com and let me know!

I'll do my best to either give you an answer personally or find the right person to help you.

2025 is going to be the best year yet!

Our goal is to double Bearclaw’s business and crank on the marketing agency. If you're a fire mitigation contractor or a snowplow contractor looking to offer fire mitigation services in the western United States, let us know. We have a winning campaign that can help you grow.

We also have excavation clients that can help get you septic leads.

If you're in rural areas with gravel roads needing grading or driveway repair, we can run ads for that too. We can help you with everything related to land clearing, forestry, excavation, and snow removal.

I want to know how we can best serve you with this podcast, so let me know, and let’s make 2025 a fantastic year!

Don’t forget to work hard, do your best, and never settle for less. Let’s rock and roll and have some fun!

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