Austin Gray: In this video, I'm going to share with you four skid steer services you can use to start your business in 2025.

My name is Austin, and I started my business with a skid steer in 2022. Since then, I've used the four services I’m going to share in this video to generate $1.7 million in revenue.

Stick around, watch the whole video, and implement these four different types of services to grow your business in 2025.

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

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

So, what is Bearclaw Media? We offer digital marketing services for contractors throughout the U.S. in the heavy equipment industry.

Think land clearing, excavation, snow removal, and septic installation. If you’re doing any of those 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 grow your business, then Bearclaw Media is the exact service we've used to grow Bearclaw Land Services.

We'll implement the exact 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 gobearclawmedia.com, and we can handle it from there.

Number 1: Gravel Driveway Repair Services

Most people overlook this, and the reason why is that a lot of big excavation companies don’t take on driveway jobs. They're considered too small—typically $5,000 to $15,000 jobs, depending on where you live.

I like these jobs because there’s not a lot of competition. If you implement basic digital marketing skills and market yourself to position your company as the go-to gravel driveway builder or repair provider, you can succeed with this using your skid steer.

All you need to do is find a subcontractor to deliver materials with a dump truck. Often, if you just call your local aggregate pit, they’ll deliver the material for you using their own in-house trucking.

Then, what you need to do is show up with your skid steer to grade out the driveway or repair it. You may need some compaction equipment, but you can always rent that.

I love gravel driveway repair; we still offer this service to this day, and it makes up roughly half of our business.

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 for my specific search term within my state.

If you want to learn more, visit stryker-digital.com (that's s-t-r-i-k-e-r digital.com).

Number 2: Land Clearing or Brush Control

Depending on which part of the country you live in, you’ll need to position this search term on Google accordingly.

If you reside in the Western United States, we use land clearing equipment for fire mitigation services. If you're already a contractor—maybe in the snow removal business—consider renting a forestry mulching attachment and offering fire mitigation services.

This is one strategy we employ in our business here in the Western United States.

If you’re in the Eastern or Southeastern United States, Texas, or other areas in the South, land clearing and brush control are search terms people will be looking for online, so you can offer that service.

Number 3: Snow Removal Services

If you live in an area where it snows, it’s very simple to just go plow snow with the skid steer.

Now, is it the best piece of equipment for doing multiple residential driveways? No. Either a truck with a plow or a mini loader with a plow is better suited for that.

However, if you have several accounts within one neighborhood, you can effectively use your skid steer to service those accounts. Alternatively, you could use it for one commercial job, like a large parking lot, or multiple commercial jobs that are interlinked or close to each other.

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Number 4: Subcontracting

This is often the most overlooked way to make money with a skid steer, and I’m going to tell you why. It was one service that I used very early on that helped us get our name out there and get the business off the ground.

You’re probably wondering what this mysterious fourth service is.

Many people are against it and overlook it as well. If you simply pick up the phone and call other excavation contractors, especially if you're starting out and have purchased a skid steer, tell them you are willing to help.

Ask them where they need help, and let them know that you are an operator with a skid steer willing to work as a subcontractor.

I guarantee you can keep that machine busy. If you approach other dirt work companies and express your willingness to work underneath them as a subcontractor, come up with your operator rate from an hourly perspective, as well as your equipment rate.

Show up when they call you, do great work, and this will lead to more jobs. If you prove to them that you can help, they will funnel you more jobs.

Bonus Tip: Networking

If you want to start a skid steer business in 2025, call all the general contractors, developers, and property management companies.

Look those three professions up in your local area, and call the people listed online. I guarantee you’ll find work. Just tell them you are a local new business that owns a skid steer, and if they ever need help on any of their properties or projects, they should give you a call.

If you haven’t signed up for the Weekly Newsletter yet, go to OWNROPS.com/newsletter (that’s o-w-n-r-o-p-s.com/newsletter).

We summarize all the learning lessons from the interviews with guests on the podcast and distill those into short, actionable tips, tricks, tactics, and strategies to help you grow your own local service business.

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Those are the four services I would offer, along with the bonus tip to find more jobs, if I were restarting my business in 2025.

If you enjoyed this type of content, make sure to like and subscribe to this channel. Then, check us out on our podcast, called The OWNR OPS Podcast.

We're also available on Apple and Spotify, where we discuss starting and growing local, service-based businesses.

Once again, my name is Austin. I've started a land clearing, excavation, and snow removal business in Colorado, and we’ve grown that over the last several years. I also host the podcast, where I bring in other service business owners from across the country to share startup stories, growth tips, and strategies for helping you grow your own local service-based business.

What you’ll realize is that most business principles have tons of overlap. You need to figure out how to get jobs, market effectively, hire, delegate, and manage accounting.

We talk all about that on the podcast.

Another great thing we do is distill those tips into a Weekly Newsletter. Every Saturday morning, we summarize the main points learned from our guests.

If you haven’t already, go subscribe to the newsletter; it’s free! Visit OWNROPS.com (that’s o-w-n-r-o-p-s.com) for the newsletter. You’ll get notified about weekly episode drops and access links for Apple and Spotify.

If you liked this video, please like and subscribe; it helps our channel out.

We’ll see you in the next one!

Don’t forget: work hard, do your best, and never settle for less.