4 Tips for Running a Successful Tree Care Company

Tree care companies can be incredibly lucrative, but it takes industry and business know-how to truly make your tree care company successful. In this article, we discuss some tips for helping grow and maintain a successful tree care company.

Tips for Running a Successful Tree Care Company

Running a successful tree care company requires a combination of performing your services well, managing your resources effectively, pricing correctly, and putting an emphasis on strategic selling. Below, we list 4 tips for running a successful tree care company.

Tip 1: Specialize in High-Value Services

One of the bests ways to improve your chances of having a successful tree care company is to specialize in high-value services. While it’s easier to find crews experienced only in fertilization and trimming, there is more money in the industry in services such as tree removal, root removal, and emergency care. This is especially true if there is not yet a solid market competitor offering these services.

However, this doesn’t mean you should pay labor costs for a full crew specializing in these more complex tasks. Instead, have a crew able to perform the simpler and smaller—but more reliable—tasks of trimming and fertilization. These will be your lifeblood when you are starting out and will provide a steadier stream of income than the larger, more specialized projects. Start with just one or two crew members who will be able to perform the specialty tasks. Grow the specialty side of your crew as the need increases—not before.

Tip 2: Cover Your Assets

Since tree care comes with increased risk, it’s important to ensure you are covered in case of an emergency. Make sure you have the proper insurance and that your crews are trained properly. Not only will this be important in protecting your business if something goes badly, but it is also helpful in the selling process.

Tree care, especially specialty services such as tree removal and emergency care is more expensive than traditional landscaping. It also carries more risk for the customer, who may have spent a lot of money on the specimen Japanese maple they’ve asked you to save or whose house is threatened by the root structure or tree they’ve asked you to cut back or remove. Because of these increased risks, many customers won’t consider your company unless they know there are licenses and insurance in place to protect them if something goes wrong.

Tip 3: Manage Your Resources

As with all field service companies, the profitability and success of your tree care company rely heavily on how strategically you can manage your resources. Because there is a lot of supplies and equipment necessary for a tree care business, you will want to be sure to manage your resources effectively.

You want to minimize the initial investment in resources—including supplies, employees, and equipment—while maximizing the output of each of these resources. That means you should have a method of strategically scheduling employees and equipment to minimize downtime and travel time, as well as having a method for tracking and predicting resource needs.

Arborgold is a leader in tree care business management software and resource management. To learn more about how this tool can help make your tree care company more successful, click here, or contact Arborgold to speak with an expert today.

Tip 4: Sell Smartly

Lastly, to build a successful tree care company you will want to be sure that you have a strategic sales strategy. This should include not only generating new clients but also in maximizing the clients you have.

This means upselling customers during bids, offering add-on services or bundling services, soliciting repeat business for care that requires regular maintenance (instead of assuming the client will come back season after season) and seeking referrals.