Starting a Firewood Delivery Service for Landscaping and Tree Care Business

Do you work in the landscaping or tree care industry and want to branch out during the offseason? At Arborgold, we supply business software for field-based companies like yours. Recently we’ve noticed a trend in landscapers taking on additional job opportunities during the cold seasons. One of these opportunities is firewood delivery.

Working in the firewood market is an easy avenue for landscapers and tree care specialists who encounter unwanted wood regularly. Whether you’re cutting down trees for clients, or partnering with a third-party supplier, there are a variety of ways to break into the firewood market.

Reasons a Customer Might Purchase Firewood

There are many reasons consumers in your area might be looking for firewood. This provides ample opportunity to sell year-round. The most common reasons North Americans search for firewood include:

• Camping
• Wood stove
• Outdoor firepit
• Wood fireplace

While summer activities like outdoor fires call for most of the wood, you can keep your business going throughout the winter season when lawn care and landscaping bids are low selling to customers with indoor fireplaces.

Reach Out to Local Campsites 

Camping is a huge revenue stream for firewood, and while some campgrounds may have their own source of wood products, it never hurts to reach out and make connections with local campsites.

One of the best parts about camping is roasting marshmallows over an open fire. Campers can go through entire bags of kindle and wood logs in a single night, but many choose to camp for two or more evenings. This creates a broad market for firewood.

Arborgold business software can help you connect to local campsites. By inputting contact information and choosing a template to facilitate your email campaign, you can connect with multiple campsites simultaneously, and monitor responses from any mobile device.

Incentivize Wood Donation

Working with so many landscaping and tree care clients, you likely see your fair share of wood waste. One way to implement a firewood sales strategy is by offering tree care clients an incentive for donating their unwanted wood parts following the cutting down of a tree.

Many landscaping customers may not realize they can offer their excess wood to you, following landscaping projects. By offering a reward such as a discount or free service, you give your customers a reason to offer their wood to you before using it as firewood themselves.

Treat Your Wood 

To make firewood, the wood must first be dried, and in some cases treated. Untreated firewood produces a lot of smoke and has even been banned at some campsites. It’s better to use pre-treated wood or find a way to treat the wood yourself.

Treated wood also burns better, as the drying process removes unwanted moisture from the logs, ensuring your firewood produces a lasting flame.

Consider Partnering with a Logging Company

If you aren’t getting enough wood through tree care jobs in your area, you could reach out to a logging company for firewood products. Logging plants process wood for many reasons but use only the main body of the log. Often, the entire top portion of the tree is chipped or tossed.

As a local lawn care company, you can connect with logging companies in and around your area and bargain for the bits of the tree the loggers don’t need. You may even find they are willing to give you the treetops for free as long as you’ll transport them at your own cost.

Partnering with logging companies is most beneficial for lawn care companies who wish to sell and deliver firewood themselves, rather than networking with local retailers.

Connect with Local Businesses That May Sell Firewood 

“Firewood near me” is a common Google search phrase, with more than 40-thousand queries each month. So, partnering with a local firewood dealer could be beneficial, if you want to go the supply route, but not sell directly to local customers.

If you have a supply of firewood, but don’t want to be responsible for selling the wood products yourself, you can work with a third-party business to handle the sales.

Many businesses sell firewood, including gas stations and grocery stores. If you have a means of obtaining wood through your tree care business, networking with local firewood retailers could be beneficial in structuring a supplier and retailer relationship.

Want to go it alone? Arborgold can help you market your company with analytics reporting, automated email, blog and social media post scheduling. Our specialized landscaping business software also provides a customizable CRM to manage consumer communication.

Join a Forestry Group Online

If you’re feeling a little out of the loop with your firewood start-up, you could look for likeminded business owners in a forestry group on social media or a forum. Reaching out to other landscaping business owners with similar goals can help encourage you and offer some unique ideas on getting started.

When joining a group, you might consider a domestic club, but not a local one. Connecting with nearby firewood businesses might give you ideas on your own, but you don’t want to give away all your bright ideas to the competition.

At Arborgold, our landscaping business software can help you keep track of local competitors, and even send out follow-up emails to new connections in your forestry group.

Contact Arborgold to Learn More

Arborgold landscaping and tree care software help you manage everything from scheduling and GPS tracking to invoicing and bidding. Follow your team in the field, monitor inventory, and maintain an up-to-date schedule of employee comings and goings with ease.

At Arborgold, we understand that as a field-based company, your business is unique. Generic business software may help you manage some of your marketing and production goals, but the tools and apps aren’t bespoke to your business model.

Arborgold works tirelessly, updating our software as necessary based on customer need, industry type, and popular projects. We work with landscaping companies across North America, and know what it takes to run a successful field-based business.

Interested in learning more about Arborgold and how our services can benefit your landscaping, tree care, or firewood business? We invite you to take our tour today.