The Most Profitable One-Man Business You’ve Never Heard Of — Transcript

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1. 0:00Would you believe that you can make 60 grand a  month just with a bobcat like this? What got you
2. 0:05onto this? A lot of demand. People that have  land, they they lose parts of their property
3. 0:10every year as the hunting cycle grows in on them.  No employees, not a [music] bunch of startup costs
4. 0:15cuz you can finance these things. You've paid  back all of your startup costs from your first
5. 0:19job. Yeah. That's incredible. [music] This year  we ended up doing about 565,000 in 6 months. Yeah.
6. 0:26Holy crap. It's never been so simple to start a  business. What did your first [music] customer
7. 0:31look like? Who were they? How did you find them?  Etc. So, they came into That's exactly what my
8. 0:37friend Alex did. So, $6,000 job, $4,000 profit.  How big could it scale? The sky's is the limit.
9. 0:43I could easily see this getting to about $30  million a year. Holy cow. I said, "Alex, I got
10. 0:49to fly you to Texas. You got to show my viewers  exactly how they can copy you." So, we'll make
11. 0:53around 10 to 11,000 per snow [music] event. How do  you find those customers? So, without further ado,
12. 0:59let's go meet Alex. All right, Alex, thank you  for coming. Yeah, no problem. How was the flight?
13. 1:04It was all right. It was cold getting on the  plane, but Okay. wasn't too bad. Okay. Well,
14. 1:08tell us uh tell us about your business. So,  we do forestry mulching and land clearing. So,
15. 1:13we just clear woods. Clear [music] land. And how  long have you been doing that? So, we're about 2
16. 1:18years in. Okay. And you you enjoy it? Oh, we love  it. Now, of all things, you could have started cuz
17. 1:22you're kind of an entrepreneur. Yeah. What got  you onto this? Um, a lot of demand for it. So,
18. 1:27you know, where we live in Cincinnati, there's  invasive honeysuckle issue. People that have land,
19. 1:32they they lose parts of their property every year  as the honeysuckle grows in on them. So, a lot of
20. 1:38people didn't know about this kind of business  and they were [music] paying tree services lots
21. 1:41and lots of money to do it by hand. So, we came in  and said, "We can offer a more affordable solution
22. 1:46and it's cooler [music] to watch." Yeah. Now,  have you ever used this yourself? Like were were
23. 1:50you a customer of this? Yeah. So I have 5 acres  and about three of it was wooded. It was an old
24. 1:55pasture that had grown up for about 15 years and  uh my old backyard was essentially unusable. Yeah.
25. 2:01So it was growing in on my barn and that's kind of  how I found this type of service was looking for a
26. 2:06solution that was reasonable. You know, I mean it  would be tens of thousands to have a tree service
27. 2:11to it. So landed on forestry mulching and noticed  it was mostly for commercial stuff and I said,
28. 2:18"Hey, someone needs to do this residentially."  We looked at the only company I could find was
29. 2:22pretty far away down in Lexington and uh so  I said, "Hey, we'll just start this." I mean,
30. 2:27Cincinnati, it's a big city and you couldn't find  anyone to do this just to clear your land. No,
31. 2:31couldn't find anybody. Wow. Yeah. Now, how did  you aside from just like looking on Google,
32. 2:36how did you actually learn that there was more  demand than supply? So I started I did a lot of
33. 2:41keyword research on it just looking into you know  what if people are searching clear my land maybe
34. 2:46not necessarily searching for forestry mulching  that's a more of a commercial term it's just more
35. 2:51of clear my land get rid of this honeysuckle just  everything that I could possibly think of I would
36. 2:56run it through keyword search terms and I had  hundreds and hundreds of them and then I compared
37. 3:01that to concrete work and you know the demand for  forestry mulching was pretty close to concrete it
38. 3:08wasn't quite as much but you know there's a  thousand concrete companies. Yeah. So people
39. 3:13were searching for these terms and so that's  how I just decided hey this is going to work.
40. 3:18Now give me an example of like what they call a  longtail search term right like cuz you said you
41. 3:23looked hundreds of them up. What's is it like land  clearing near me like affordable land clearing how
42. 3:29clear land stuff like that like is that very  few people are searching but in aggregate
43. 3:33there's a lot of them. Yeah. So a longtail  keyword would be more like clear my woods,
44. 3:39open up my land. They're not as like lane clearing  and forestry watching are more the commercial
45. 3:43terms. Honeysuckle invasion. Yeah. Yeah. How  do I get rid of this honeysuckle? You know,
46. 3:48like that would be a longtailed keyword. And then  on top of that, I use chat GPT and I just to kind
47. 3:52of see like, hey, this is the service. What would  people look for? So just created a big list,
48. 3:58ran it through a keyword tool and just saw there  was a lot of demand. Okay. So, you buy five acres.
49. 4:04Yeah. Three of it is unusable. Y you start looking  for someone to clear it. Tree trimming companies
50. 4:09are like, "We'll do it. It'll take us two weeks  and it'll be $12,000." And you're like, "No,
51. 4:14there's got to be a better way." You start  looking up land clearing, forest mulching.
52. 4:17Their company's doing it, but mostly commercially.  They're using these industry specific terms that
53. 4:22consumers don't even know, right? They don't even  know what to search for. And you kind of find this
54. 4:26arbitrage opportunity, right? Coming from like  being an internet marketer. Yep. and you say,
55. 4:31"I should do this." Yeah. Is that accurate?  Yeah. Okay. So, what did you do next? Like,
56. 4:36you go spend a bunch of money on one of these  things or what? Pretty much. Yeah. So, you know,
57. 4:40the smart thing would probably have been to start  the business and and then buy the equipment,
58. 4:44get the customers. I was very confident in the  demand. Yeah. We bought the machine first and
59. 4:49then sought the customers. What made you think to  compare it to uh like concrete work? Is it because
60. 4:54it's like a comparable price point? Yeah, it is  really. I mean, it is pretty comparable. concrete.
61. 4:59I just kind of looked at it was more so because  I just see concrete companies all the time,
62. 5:02you know, and I just if I can compare it to their  demand, I guess at least have a general idea of
63. 5:07how many concrete companies are out there. Yeah.  And how many people are looking for their service,
64. 5:12you know, while it's not necessarily in the same  ballpark. The price-wise, it kind of is. So all of
65. 5:18these search terms, the traffic that you found  was specifically for like greater Cincinnati,
66. 5:22not just nation. Yeah. So essentially  50 miles outside of where we are. Yeah.
67. 5:27our range. I'm just making these numbers up, but  let's say you look up all these longtail concrete
68. 5:31work search terms and a thousand people a day in  Cincinnati are searching for them and there's 100
69. 5:36companies ready to fulfill that service and  then for land clearing there's 800 people a
70. 5:40day searching for it and there's two companies and  you're like, "Huh, there's something." Yeah. Yeah.
71. 5:44Yeah. It was it was a no-brainer. Yeah, for sure.  Okay. All right. So, when did like the website
72. 5:49come and like the entity formation like walk  us through from like day one to day 30? Yeah,
73. 5:55day one is more as we start to I start building  the website first as at the same time we're
74. 6:02kind of getting quotes on the equipment. So we  probably launched the website within a few days
75. 6:07of actually buying the equipment because I needed  something that I could send leads to and then the
76. 6:13idea of the YouTube channel came about to educate  people and then that kind of started. So when we
77. 6:18got the machine and then we used the machine on  my property, I took a bunch of videos and clips
78. 6:25and stuff and I created a YouTube video to kind  of educate people on what this is. Okay. I then
79. 6:31utilized started running the ads then the ads I  would include the YouTube link in there and then
80. 6:36send them through that and then to the website to  close the sale. So once we launched and people saw
81. 6:42it and it I mean we took off very quickly.  Okay. when you look at acquiring customers,
82. 6:46like how do you approach that? Do you have like  what sort of a process do you use for that? So, we
83. 6:51have a three-step framework for Okay. All right. I  want to get into that. Okay. But first, like what
84. 6:55did your first customer look like? Like who were  they? How did you find them? Etc. So, they came in
85. 7:02through through our ads and um she actually had  a parent pass away and their property had been
86. 7:08sitting vacant for like 15 years, overgrown.  So she wanted the property that she grew up
87. 7:13in to look like it did when she lived there  when she was a kid. And so we went out there,
88. 7:19didn't really know we were doing, started quoting  by the day at the time. We had some experience
89. 7:23running equipment our property, but we cleared her  property. She, you know, went with us and learned
90. 7:29a lot on that job. But she was just absolutely  over the moon about it. You know, when we were
91. 7:33done, she was crying. She was so happy like this  is what it looked like. Yeah. And so that was kind
92. 7:38of very rewarding. And it's not something that  we thought about when we started. You didn't
93. 7:44expect someone to cry. Right. Right. Right.  Yeah. We didn't expect it. And so it just kind
94. 7:48of reinforced this idea like, hey, we're on the  right path. We're doing something very valuable
95. 7:52for people. Yeah. That's awesome. And once sales  start coming in, do you use something to make sure
96. 7:58that you're in compliance with the state? I mean,  so you don't even have to think about it because
97. 8:02one of the first things you got to do is register  as an LLC before you start pulling in real money
98. 8:08just to protect yourself. Any business you start  needs to be protected because if you get sued,
99. 8:13you don't want to be personally liable. I use  Bizzy for all of my entity formations. Basically,
100. 8:19filing an LLC. Busy is awesome because they  actually don't even charge you to file for
101. 8:23an LLC. You just pay your states fees and they  provide a nice clean interface for it because
102. 8:29they just handle all of it in the background. So,  I'm not wondering if I miss something or set it
103. 8:34up wrong. I just know it's taken care of and then  I get to focus on actually running the business
104. 8:38instead of babysitting paperwork. Separate your  business from your personal stuff. And then
105. 8:43there's the annual filings, registered agent, all  these things that you don't think about until they
106. 8:48become a problem. So Bizzy supports this channel.  I use them personally. I file all my LLC's with
107. 8:54Bizzy. Check out busy.com. All right. So this is  part of what we'll be mulching today. Tell me what
108. 8:58we're looking at here. So this is what we would  consider. So the way we do our pricing is by the
109. 9:03quarter acre. We used to do it by the day. We've  kind of adapted that model. So, this one we would
110. 9:07consider like a medium brush density. Okay. And  a tier one terrain for us. So, it's pretty flat.
111. 9:13Very manageable by the skid. Okay. And this would  be like a tier two densities. It's if it's This
112. 9:19is tier two here. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's a little  bit difficult to walk through is kind of a the
113. 9:23easiest way to put it. Um nothing too crazy large.  This is definitely pretty it's medium work for the
114. 9:30machine. It's not going to be anything too crazy.  So, that's kind of how we decide how we quote
115. 9:36things and it allows us to be scalable with our  pricing. Okay. So, how many tiers are there? So,
116. 9:40we've got three tiers of brush density and three  tiers of terrain. Okay. Okay. So, do you have like
117. 9:46a formula in your head where if it's like tier  3 plus tier 1 plus 7 acres equals this price or
118. 9:51Yeah. So, it is formulated. So, when we quote  a property, I'll highlight the area that we're
119. 9:55clearing. Let's say it's 5 acres. I can separate  that out. If this area is a tier 2 terrain,
120. 10:01it has a multiplier applied to that base quarter  acre price. Okay. Yeah, it's a little bit more
121. 10:06complicated. However, if like you wanted to start  out like we did, you could also just do it by day.
122. 10:12Okay. And be pretty comfortable with your pricing  and customers are pretty happy with that pricing
123. 10:16model as well. Okay. Uh we just kind of adapted as  we expanded and [music] needed a little bit more
124. 10:22definition to how we price. Yeah. So, roughly,  let's say it's a tier 2 density, 3 acres. How
125. 10:28many days would that take? Half a day, two days?  Three acres would be on a tier 2 density roughly
126. 10:323 days. Okay. And what would you charge for that?  That would be somewhere around 6,000. Okay. Yeah.
127. 10:39A little bit higher than that, but yeah, about 6  to 7. And your costs on that are really no labor
128. 10:46if you're doing it yourself. Right. Right. So, we  have one guy, one machine. So, very simple. Um,
129. 10:51I go out and quote it. I mark everything out  for the operator. They can see what we're doing.
130. 10:55They can see the area that we're clearing and  they just show up with the machine and run it
131. 11:00through. So our cost on that is pretty low,  pretty reasonable. How much in fuel roughly?
132. 11:05So we'll probably run about $80 to $100 a day in  diesel fuel. Okay. Let's say 300 bucks for fuel.
133. 11:10If you're paying someone to do it, what are you  paying him per day? So they're making about $250
134. 11:16to $300 a day. Okay. Let's say 300. So 1,000 bucks  for labor, 600 bucks for fuel. Yep. 1,600. You've
135. 11:22got to put some aside for repairs. Yep. Right.  How much roughly do you set aside? Um, it's about
136. 11:288% is what we put aside for years. We used to do  10% but we just, you know, it ended up being too
137. 11:33much. Let's be conservative and say 10. So, we're  at like 2,000 now, I think. Is that right? We're
138. 11:39at 2,000 and then payment on the vehicle, what is  that per month? 1,500 a month. A month. So, it's
139. 11:44like your costs even if you pay someone to do it  are like 30% 40%. And and and that would be if it
140. 11:51was just mulching. And you know, other things that  we offer, which most customers take advantage of,
141. 11:56is going to be something like grapple work. We  charge $750 to run the grapple. So $6,000 job,
142. 12:02$4,000 profit. Yeah. And if you do it yourself,  $5,000 profit. Same job, give or take. Yep. Any
143. 12:08ups, you know, any of the upsales too can  even increase it more. Yeah. So, okay. So,
144. 12:13tell me what we're looking at here. So, this is a  Bobcat T86 with a Superflow Bobcat mulching head.
145. 12:20Okay. And this one in particular has the knives  on it with a what they call bite limiter. So,
146. 12:26this little drum keeps the teeth from going too  far into the ground. Okay. Can you adjust these
147. 12:31like the distance between this? You can. Yeah.  So, there would be like there's some adapters,
148. 12:36but you don't really necessarily need to. These  are designed as all one. Okay. And then what is
149. 12:42the carbide version that you were talking about?  So, the carbide version is rather than it being
150. 12:47kind of like a blade right here, it's got carbide  tips on it, and it's a lot better if you're going
151. 12:52to be in a rocky area. If you need to hit the  ground for any reason, and you can push those
152. 12:58teeth into the ground without dawing it. The  knives will doll, but they also cut through wood
153. 13:03about 50% faster. Okay. What would the attachment  cost new and used, and what would the Bobcat cost
154. 13:09new or used? So, our first attachment we got was a  Fecon attachment. We bought that used. It was part
155. 13:16of their rental stuff. We picked it up for 15,000.  Okay. A brand new one, you're going to be around
156. 13:2240,000. Okay. And then what about the machine?  So, an 86 is going to be about 115,000. Um,
157. 13:30our first machine was a 770. We bought that used  for 74. Okay. Did you start by financing these or
158. 13:37did you just have cash for the whole thing? So, we  definitely financed, you know, we put about 5,000
159. 13:41down um and financed the first machine. Okay. What  was your first payment on your first machine and
160. 13:46attachment? So, it's about 1,400. Okay. A month  for that. And that included that attachment as
161. 13:53part of it. Okay. So, you got in this business  for five grand or was there more to it than that?
162. 13:58Yeah. Well, we bought the trailer. So, we did buy  a trailer that was which you could have financed.
163. 14:02You could have We could have Yeah, the trailers  are pretty affordable. So, we we just paid cash
164. 14:06for it, but it was about 11,000. Okay. Um, and  then we needed a truck that could pull it. So,
165. 14:11we just bought a a used truck uh for about $8,000.  Okay. That could pull it safely. And uh so yeah,
166. 14:18really the startup cost is uh pretty reasonable.  Yeah. And how much was your first job? First job
167. 14:24we did was about $6,500. Wow. Okay. The one where  the lady cried? Yeah. Yeah. That was a multi-day
168. 14:32job. Yeah. So, if you had found a way to finance  the truck and trailer or lease the truck and
169. 14:35trailer, five grand down for the equipment, you  could have paid back all of your startup costs
170. 14:40from your first job. Yeah, that's incredible. And  then how much was your second job? That's It's
171. 14:45been a while since it was probably just a day job.  I think it was about 1,800. I think at the time
172. 14:49we were at 1,800. Uh we moved to 2,000 per day  pretty quickly. Okay. How long between the time
173. 14:55when you first started running ads in earnest to  closing that first deal? 2 days. Wow. Yeah. That's
174. 15:01just when she was available to do the quote.  Yeah. I mean, as soon as I published that ad,
175. 15:05I had people reaching out. Oh my gosh. So, we were  we were hitting the ground running pretty quick.
176. 15:09And first 30 days, from the day you start ads, 30  days later, what was your revenue or andor profit
177. 15:14if you remember? Uh, first 30 days, I think it was  about 25,000. 20 25 and profit. Profit. I mean,
178. 15:23you've got your startup cost. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You  know, just that month. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty
179. 15:2917 maybe 16. Wow. Yeah. All right. So, what year  is this machine here? Uh, this is a 2025. Okay.
180. 15:35Could an F-150 pull this or do you need something  bigger? No, this would need especially this
181. 15:39machine. This one's about 12,000 lb. Okay. So,  you're going to want at least uh a 3500 truck.
182. 15:46Yeah. Okay. And this one you would need a CDL to  pull. Okay. Yeah. Now, talk to me about renting
183. 15:52machines because from what I understand, it's  pretty easy to rent a Bobcat. [music] The hard
184. 15:55part is the attachment. Yeah. Exactly. I rent  Bobcats on Facebook Marketplace for my property,
185. 16:00right? I've never tried to to rent the attachment.  Well, that's a good point, too. So, the Bobcat,
186. 16:05the reason is is you have to run a forestry kit  on the machine. Okay. Um, so like on this machine,
187. 16:11for example, you can see this is a fall guard.  So, if you knock any trees, come down in the
188. 16:15cab. A regular Bobcat doesn't have that as the  Forester kit ones have it. And then you can see
189. 16:20this door. It's a 3/4 in polycarbonate door. Okay?  So, it's a expensive add-on for the machines, but
190. 16:28that's why they won't rent you one that doesn't  have that. Okay. That specific stuff. Bobcat
191. 16:33does most Bobcat dealers will rent them, you know,  unless you're renting it for like a month. Yeah,
192. 16:38it is expensive to rent. Well, I rented a  Bobcat. It didn't have the forest mulching kit,
193. 16:42but just from an individual, it was like 350 a  day. 350 bucks a day. Yeah, these are quite quite
194. 16:47a lot more. Yeah. All right. So, you just finished  this. Walk us through what we're looking at here.
195. 16:51So this is kind of like the finished product of  mulching. Just kind of like a fine wood mulch. It
196. 16:56takes about 12 to 18 months to break down and then  the grass will come back in. Okay. You don't need
197. 17:02to remove it or anything. It just No. And I would  actually recommend you don't remove it. Yeah. Is
198. 17:06there any type of like tree or vegetation that  people should watch out for or just stuff that's
199. 17:11too thick? Well, in our area we have what's called  Oage Orange Tree. Very hardwood. When you hit it,
200. 17:18it's like concrete. We can mulch them. It just  takes a long time. Um it can break some teeth
201. 17:23sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. It just it depends. You  don't want to hit metal. So before a job, we'll go
202. 17:28through and make sure all the metal's picked up.  Rubber, like tires, things like that. Barb wire.
203. 17:34Barb wire. Yeah. So we actually include it as  part of our emails to the customers. So we'll say,
204. 17:40"Hey, if you could clear the area of debris." If  they don't do that, that's fine. We'll do it. It's
205. 17:46just that's part of the billable time. Okay. All  right. So walk us through the revenue and profit
206. 17:50numbers. So tell me what day you started the  business. So it was May of May of mid May 14th
207. 17:56maybe somewhere around of 2024. 2024. Yeah. Okay.  So this is about 19 almost. Okay. So what did May
208. 18:04through December your first year look like? So  we did around 170 to 180 off the top of my head.
209. 18:10Thousand. Yeah. Wow. Okay. How much of that was  profit? Gross profit was about 70%. Wow. Yeah.
210. 18:16Okay. It was exactly like 69 point something. So,  six figures of profit your first seven months.
211. 18:23Yeah. Give or take. Okay. That's incredible.  What was your best month that first year for
212. 18:28the first seven months? 45,000. Wow. I say. Yeah.  And that was that's hustling. That's running that
213. 18:34machine every day. Which month was that? I would  say it was October off top of my head. Yeah. So,
214. 18:39your fifth month in business, just in that month  alone, you did $45,000 and over 30,000 of that
215. 18:45was profit. Yeah. That's incredible. All right.  So, then January 2025 starts. How does that year
216. 18:50look? We're seasonal where we're at. Um, not  everybody would be seasonal. Like, you know,
217. 18:55down here in Texas, they're not. They can run  all year. Um, so our second year was a very slow
218. 19:02start. It was no mulching in January, February,  March. We had anticipated starting first week
219. 19:09of April for spring. We just got record-breaking  rain. So, we didn't end up getting started until
220. 19:16June. Okay. How did it look from June to December?  So, we bought another machine cuz at the time
221. 19:23we're selling jobs, right? So, we we just started  stacking jobs like crazy. I mean, it was just two
222. 19:29every day. And do you collect a deposit? How does  that work? We actually don't unless it's over a
223. 19:35certain amount. So, if it's like over $10,000,  then we'll collect a 20% deposit. Okay. But yeah,
224. 19:41this year we ended up doing about 565,000 in  6 months. Yeah. Holy crap. Yeah. And then we
225. 19:48also picked up the remote controlled machine.  The RCU is amazing. It's a high dollar service
226. 19:54for that one because it's very specific. It  serves hillsides and what kind of advantage
227. 20:00we got. Last year we stopped mulching at the end  of November, about third week of November. This
228. 20:05year we've been able to just keep pushing. Yeah.  And I also learned from the first year that we
229. 20:10need to have large farm properties and stuff set  up for the winter. Okay. So what I did was as I'm
230. 20:17out doing quotes, let's say I'm doing a quote in  July, but it's a large farm property. I'll ask
231. 20:22them. I'll say, "Hey, do you mind if we do this  in winter, do you have a certain time frame you
232. 20:27want this done?" They say, "Oh, I don't mind at  all." And I'll offer them a 10% discount for us
233. 20:32to move that to the winter. So I'll look at make  sure these are great properties, filling in the
234. 20:36gaps. Right. Right. I'm basically now last year we  stopped all winter. This year I learned, hey, we
235. 20:42can actually run year round if I plan ahead. Yeah.  And I can point out, hey, this property doesn't
236. 20:47hold water. This is a large farm property. They  don't care about ruts on their property. They just
237. 20:52have a it's serving a specific purpose for them.  So I'll I filled up our whole winter schedule. So
238. 20:57now we're running all winter. Wow. So you're not  really seasonal right now, even in Ohio. Yeah. So
239. 21:03we found a way to get around being seasonal. Oh  man. All right. So, first 6 months in business,
240. 21:08$180,000, over 100,000 in profit. Then you take  some time off, it's winter, it's it's wet, it's
241. 21:14raining, you don't know what you don't know. The  next 6 months after that, you do $565,000 in in
242. 21:20revenue. Y put those together in a 12-month time  frame, you do over a half a million in profit,
243. 21:25like net profit. Yeah. That's incredible. Um,  now let's gross profit. Gross profit. Okay.
244. 21:30Gross profit. Yeah. Yeah. Not net. What would  net be? So net is about 40%. Okay. about 3640.
245. 21:36All right. So like 750 in revenue, call it 550  in gross profit and 300,000 in net profit, give
246. 21:45or take. And and that's you got to keep it that's  with a lot of growth investment. Yeah. So that's,
247. 21:51you know, new trucks, trailers, equipment, ads.  Yeah. So next year we expecting that to be quite
248. 21:57substantially higher. Yeah. What do you expect  to do next year? We expect to do over a million.
249. 22:02We're hoping to hit 1.2 too. And we can do that  with the machines that we have now. Wow. So,
250. 22:07we don't have to buy any more equipment. Okay.  So, tell me about this three-step marketing
251. 22:12method that you have. So, the three-step marketing  framework is capture, educate, sale. Okay. So,
252. 22:18essentially, we do a meta ad to capture their  attention. Only video ads. Only video. Vertical.
253. 22:24Vertical. Okay. Yep. It'll be showing that mulure  shots and the really interesting shots, you know,
254. 22:30slow-mo shots of the mulure before and afters,  real attentiongrabbing stuff just to show people,
255. 22:36hey, you have this problem. Here's the solution.  Yeah. And then we include our YouTube channel link
256. 22:42into that. In the ad. So, the call to action  to click in the ad is to your YouTube channel.
257. 22:46It's to our website, but then our website also  features YouTube up front. Yeah. So, but I also
258. 22:52include the YouTube link in the ad itself and the  ad text. Okay. Okay. So, kind of leading them,
259. 22:57they can capture the YouTube through the site or  through the YouTube link on the ad. Okay. Yeah.
260. 23:03So, then our YouTube channel then educates them.  Most people don't know what forest streaming is,
261. 23:08what land clearing is. So, we show them what it  is, show them how it's done. They can see what to
262. 23:14expect on a job, what it looks like when we show  up, what the end result looks like 18 months from
263. 23:19now. just kind of educate the customer on this  service and then that leads to the sale. Okay. To
264. 23:25saying, you know, kind of show by also showing our  work, it also shows them that we know what we're
265. 23:30doing. Yeah. Right. It's legitimacy, right? It's  adding, right? Adding legitimacy to the company
266. 23:35and and to the service itself. So, um and then  they funnel from there to our website where they
267. 23:41contact us. Our leads are very hotly. They're  basically already sold by the time that I even
268. 23:47go out there because they've already seen it all  through our YouTube channel. Okay. So, what do you
269. 23:52spend per lead on to what do you give to Facebook  for every lead on average? So, our per lead cost
270. 23:59is $20. $20. All right. How many of those turn  into a physical quote? Almost all of them turn
271. 24:05into a physical quote. Really? Yeah. And then  what percentage of your quotes close? So about
272. 24:1049% of our quotes close. Yeah. Okay. So let's  just say a lead's 25 bucks to be conservative.
273. 24:17You're spending $50 to acquire a customer. Yeah.  What is your average job size? Our average job
274. 24:22is about $3,300. Holy cow. So that's like a 66x  return on ad spend. Oh yeah. Give or take. It's
275. 24:29ridiculous. But I think it's incredible that video  is so central to this whole business. So, are do
276. 24:36we need like a bunch of videography equipment or  can someone take their iPhone and a $20 tripod
277. 24:41and just throw it up on a time lapse and just  like during a job? Is that realistic? Oh, yeah.
278. 24:45You could just use your phone. Yeah. You can strap  it to your chest, get some stuff on the inside of
279. 24:49the machine. You can set it up on a little tripod  and get a time lapse. Use like free apps, Cap Cut,
280. 24:55Instagram edits. Like, you don't need editing  experience or anything. And you don't necessarily,
281. 24:58it doesn't have to be good. You have to just show  people what it is. It's visual. It's fun to watch.
282. 25:03Right. Now, you're only showing your ads to people  in the greater Cincinnati area. Yeah. So, within
283. 25:09about 50 mi of us, 50 mi. Okay. What other things  can you do with a Bobcat? Like if it's seasonal,
284. 25:15what like snow removal. Let's say worst case  scenario, someone cannot get forestry mulching
285. 25:20leads, but they have this Bobcat. How can they  use it to make money? Oh, man. There's a million
286. 25:24things you can do with a Bobcat. I mean, there's  hundreds of different attachments you can street
287. 25:30sweeping, snow removal. They've got you could  have a tree spade. You could transplant trees
288. 25:35with it. You can grind asphalt. That's a big one,  too. We actually see a lot of people with asphalt
289. 25:39grinders dirt. Yeah. Literally, it's a tool that  can be used for thousands of different things.
290. 25:48Have you ever done snow removal? We do do snow  removal. Tell me how how the numbers break down
291. 25:52on that. So, snow removal is very lucrative. So  if you get a good snow event, so we'll make around
292. 25:5810 to $11,000 per snow event and that is within  about 20 hours of clearing and then we spread that
293. 26:06across different machines that we have. Holy cow.  Yeah. So if you've got one machine, let's say,
294. 26:10and you've just got to clear some snow and you  get a good season of snow, you've essentially just
295. 26:15paid for that machine for the whole year. How do  you find those customers? So in that case, I mean,
296. 26:20the demand for snow removal is extraordinary. So  the general contractors, at least in our area too,
297. 26:26I know it can be different for people up north  where snow in itself is its own thing. A general
298. 26:31contractor will typically oversell their capacity  and uh we can just we come in, contact a general
299. 26:37contractor. Hey, we've got the snow boxes.  We've got everything we need. What sites do
300. 26:42you want us at? You know, and they'll always  give you something. They always need people.
301. 26:47So that's just a different attachment. That's just  Yeah. And that's probably the the most affordable
302. 26:51attachment is a snow box. I mean, you can pick  those up for a couple thousand dollar. Wow. So,
303. 26:57yeah. And you're just plowing? Yeah, we're just  pushing snow. Okay. So, just pushing it off of
304. 27:01the parking lots and HOAs. So, you're doing it for  general contractors so they can keep working. So,
305. 27:07yeah. I mean, general contractors, what they do  is they capture the snow contract. So, they'll
306. 27:11get they're they'll have a snow trigger. So, in  in our case, they'll have one some properties
307. 27:17that are 1 in. So if it is one inch of snow on the  ground, you're out there pushing snow. It doesn't
308. 27:21matter if you're expecting 13 inches. If it's at  one inch, you're running constantly. So they're
309. 27:26getting paid by a landlord or something. Yeah.  They're getting they're subbing it out to you,
310. 27:30right? Commercial property owners. Okay. Yeah. And  then they sub it to us. So then they get they make
311. 27:36their cut and then So they might be getting  paid 20 grand for that parking lot. They're
312. 27:39giving you 10 of it or 15 of it. Yeah. They're  making and killing off of it. Yeah. All right.
313. 27:44So if someone's watching this, they don't have a  lot of money. They've got some time. They have an
314. 27:48internet connection, a credit card. What would you  suggest they do that first 30 days to start this
315. 27:53business and to be as successful or more as you've  been? So, the first thing I would do is create a
316. 27:59brand, build a website, you know, borrow images.  In our case, when we started out before we had
317. 28:04all of our images, we just borrowed Bobcats, you  know, cuz it's we kind of looked at it like that.
318. 28:09It's uh it's advertising. Yeah, it's advertising.  They they probably wouldn't mind having stuff,
319. 28:13but yeah, we just use that and put start an ad.  You don't have to put a ton of money into an
320. 28:18ad. About put about $500 into it, you can get a  pretty good idea. What should a daily budget be,
321. 28:23would you say? So, right now, we run about an $80  a day budget. Okay. So, but when we started out,
322. 28:29we ran $20 a day. Okay. Yeah. Are there any tools  that you would suggest that people use to build a
323. 28:34website or a logo or like what types of tools do  you use for this business? So, when we initially
324. 28:39started, we just used WordPress and I built a  website, but now with AI, you can just throw
325. 28:43a website online with lovable, one prompt. Yeah,  one prompt. You could oneshot the website. I mean,
326. 28:48it's never been so simple to start a business.  Now, what are the must haves on the website?
327. 28:53Lead capture, pictures, videos if you have it, you  know, your logo is a description of your service,
328. 29:00before and afters if you can find something that  you can use. What would you have done differently
329. 29:04going back in time? How could people avoid  headaches? So, what I would have done differently
330. 29:09is bought a new machine. I wouldn't have bought  used. Start new, not use. Yep. The reason is is
331. 29:14because forestry can be hard on equipment and  and it's hard to determine what you're getting.
332. 29:19It's just best to just start new. That way you  know exactly what's going on with the machine.
333. 29:23You know it's new. You know it's going to run.  You know it has a warranty. Yeah. Warranty is a
334. 29:27big part of it. So yeah, I would have started new  because especially with you can get 0% financing
335. 29:34on new. We looking back that's what we would have  done. Okay. What are your insurance costs run? Um,
336. 29:39so insurance for us is actually pretty reasonable.  For one machine, I want to say is about
337. 29:43$150 a month. So, wow. Pretty reasonable. And the  reason in our case, they consider us an excavating
338. 29:49company. Okay. Um, not a tree service. So, that's  [music] pretty affordable for insurance. What
339. 29:55about like general liability insurance or more  like umbrella? Do you have that? Yeah. Yeah. What
340. 29:59does that run? So, that's 225 a month. Any other  unexpected costs in this business? unexpected
341. 30:07costs or downsides, I would say. So, your wear  parts with mulching are going to wear faster. So,
342. 30:13you're going to break hydraulic couplings.  Like I said, it's harder on the machine. So,
343. 30:18having a stockpile of wear parts, if you buy in  bulk, it's a lot cheaper, you know. So, you know,
344. 30:23you're going to break hydraulic couplings and  they're super easy to just unscrew and screw
345. 30:26on. So, yeah, I would say that wasn't something we  expected starting out, but we figured out pretty
346. 30:31quickly. Yeah, unexpected costs went more around  machines. was like grease, fluids, fuel is pretty
347. 30:38pretty easy. You know, the machines are kind of  made to run for 8 hours a day on a fuel tank. So,
348. 30:43let's say that someone wants to start this  business. They don't want to hire, they don't
349. 30:47want to scale, they just want it to be them and a  machine. How big could this business get if they
350. 30:51stayed 40 hours a week busy all year? How like  on a revenue and a profit basis? Um, I would say
351. 30:57with one person, one machine running year round,  they could do reasonably about 35,000 a month. A
352. 31:05month in profit or revenue? In revenue with one  machine. Yeah. How much of that profit would you
353. 31:09say? I would say they're going to end up about  20,000 a month. And Okay. Quarter million a year
354. 31:14in in profit running this business yourself. Yep.  Running yourself. How big could it scale? Like if
355. 31:20they just wanted to go all out hiring like [music]  big building. Yeah. Oh man, the sky's is the limit
356. 31:27because you can get into commercial, you can get  into rightaway clearing. Um, you can government
357. 31:32contracts. Yeah, solar fields is another big one.  So, you can do solar field clearing. There are
358. 31:38hu huge companies that do this like Asplond and  they're a multi-billion dollar company. In just
359. 31:43your city alone, depending on where you live,  like in Cincinnati, for example, I could easily
360. 31:48see this getting to about $30 million a year.  Holy cow. Just in Cincinnati. So Cincinnati
361. 31:53has 300,000 people and the whole metro area has 2  million people. So you're saying in that area it
362. 31:59could [music] this could be a your business could  scale in time to a $30 million business. Yeah,
363. 32:04I could see it being quite large. Okay, Alex,  thank you for your time. Where can people find you
364. 32:10if they want to learn more? So they can find us on  our YouTube channel at brushworksco and then our
365. 32:15website is brushworksco.com. Okay. And we'll link  to both of those. Thank you very much. Yeah. So,
366. 32:20these videos take a lot of time and money  to film, and my entire goal is to get you
367. 32:24to start a business with or without me. So, if you  appreciate this video, please just do me a favor,
368. 32:29subscribe, share it with someone who might be  entrepreneurial. Even if you're watching this,
369. 32:33you might think you're subscribed. Most of  you actually aren't. Thanks for hanging out.