How do they know where to find these oppotunities?

[customsawyer]

BCC that is the thing about a website. You don't have to leave the farm. They come to you. When I get asked to set up the trucking, I refuse. I explain that I run a sawmill and don't have the time to shop for the best trucking deal for them. I give them a few numbers to trucks that have came through here in the past but that is all I do. The second reason for that, is once the product goes past my mailbox, it is between the trucking company and the customer. Me and mine are no longer involved in the deal. 
My little area is just about as country as you can get. I ride my SxS about 4 miles to get groceries. Heck half the stop signs around here still say "Whoa".

[cutterboy]

Heck half the stop signs around here still say "Whoa".

[rusticretreater]

Heck half the stop signs around here still say "Whoa".

Signs around here carrying the buckshot warning.  You can't even read them anymore.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Well, so far I have located, contacted, and been given a flat "No" by four companies that do buy firewood.   Just not from me right now.      Two were right here in Pa. One in Ohio not far from the Pa line and one in Texas.   Don't laugh about trucking the stuff to Texas cause there was a fellow not far from me at all doing that very thing for some years.   I have another to talk to tomorrow in IL.    I got nothing to lose so I'll keep asking till somebody is interested.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's the way to do it, just keep at it. It is also helpful if you leave something with them they can find and reference down the road when their business changes and they NEED suppliers. I have seen this often. So if you can send him/her an email they can go back and find with your contact info when they find themselves in a bind, and likely they will some day, you stand a good chance of getting a call back.  Even getting some kind of cool desk thingy made up with your contact info and logo that folks will want to keep/use on their desk is a good way to keep your name in front of them. I have gotten a a lot of clients that remembered me from somewhere and had my card tucked away. WHen they get in a bind is when you want them to call you. Now you just went from zero to hero.
 Keep on bangin' at it!

[Old Greenhorn]

I just thought of a recent example of this very thing: When I started the mushroom log thing I got on the internet and cold called a bunch of folks I thought grew mushrooms, plus some places that gave workshops on the process. All dead ends at that time. But one fella was pretty nice and he offered me some advice and a few other contacts. He said he cut his own logs for his classes, which made good business sense to me anyway. About 7 months later, he broke his ankle about a week before he had a class and needed 40 logs in a hurry. He was in a bind. I was bust then, but he was helpful and nice to me on the phone, so I took a day or two out, cut his logs and delivered them. Turned out my logs were a LOT better than what he cuts and he realized for him, with his available time running the rest of his business, it was much more economical for me to cut all his logs and pay me. I have been cutting his logs ever since, plus he has special ordered 2 full inoculation benches and a waxing station custom made, to the tune of a few grand. Bonus, we both enjoy working with each other.
 But that was a dead end phone call when it started. So, the moral is: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[hedgerow]

A hard No doesn't mean no forever. In the selling game you have to have a thick skin. Growing up in the fuel, truck stop, trucking business you got a thick skin real quick. Now days business cards are still good but if you can get a email address that would be better. I have had a lot of hard no's that turned into real profit over the years. B.C.C. Lapp hang in there. Its funny the last farm I bought a few years back I had tried to rent it a few times over the years when I had cattle and he always told me he like his tenant but I guess not well enough to sell it to him. He drove up from Texas and sold me the farm. I had no idea this was going to happen. Never say never.  

[Rhodemont]

The trip to Tahiti is not a vacation but a business trip and therefore a tax deductible expense.  The Mrs is you financial advisor and therefore her expenses are included.