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Started by Moulder, March 27, 2003, 04:03:37 PM

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Moulder

FIRST OF ALL LET ME SAY YOU GUYS ARE VERY TALKATIVE BUNCH FOR GUYS. BUT THEN I HAVE WORKED WITH WOMEN FOR THE PAST 20 YRS AND HAVE BEEN INDOCTURINATED TO MY INNERSELF AND THE INTERPERSONAL REALTIONSHIPS WHICH LEND TOWARDS A  PEACEFUL AND HORMONEOUS (?) LIFE. OK ENOUGH OF THAT CRAP. SO OK I DID PUT IN THE PAPER THAT I WOULD CUT WOOD FOR FREE GOT LOTS OF CALLS . FIGURING THAT I WAS ONTO SOMETHING I THEN PLACED A AD TO MILL WOOD BUT NOT FOR FREE AND NOT ONE DARN CALL! GO FIGURE. I DO HOLD ON TO HOPE AS YOU ALL[ OR YOALL  AS WE SAY HERE IN THE MOUNTAINS ] HAVE INSPIRED ME WITH YOUR WIT,AND HUMOR.  SEEING THAT THERE ARE SUCESSESS TO BE HAD I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS, NO ANSWERS AND PROBABLY DON'T EVEN KNOW THAT RIGHT QUESTIONS,BUT YOUR SITE AND OTHERS HAVE GIVEN ME LOT'S OF INSITE. TKS RP
RANDY

Kevin_H.

Randy,
Just a personnal note of advertising, I have on several occ. placed adds in papers and mags. without much success. Being seen has always worked best for me. My mill gets a lot of miles on it without ever being used. When I worked in the bigger city I would pull the mill to work and park it by the street. at home I park the mill where it can be seen from the highway.

I also hand out many many business cards. If I want to add a special note to some of the cards I print these on address labels and put them on the back of my bus. cards.

Using publisher on the computer I have also made a trifold that can be sent though the mail. If someone calls wanting to know about and how much I give them as much info as I can over the phone and then send them a trifold though the mail.

In the trifold I have some info. about the type of mill I use and about how much I charge, as well as some cautions about the hazards of a sawmill.

I think you could add to a trifold some type of sawing agreement that the customer could sign and have ready for you when you arrive...Just some Idea's, sorry If I ramble.
Got my WM lt40g24, Setworks and debarker in oct. '97, been sawing part time ever since, Moving logs with a bobcat.

Ron Wenrich

Just a thought, since I do as little custom sawing as possible.  Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks.  His answer was because that's where the money was at.

Why not drop by some of the tree services in the area.  They have the trees, or know where there are some that will soon be hitting the ground.  They could spread your name to some of their clients.  It also saves them the time of cutting the trees into firewood or hauling them off.

You may be your own worst enemy.  Your first ad said you would saw for free (way too cheap).  Your second ad didn't say that.  Now you have people who won't call you since you  priced yourself out of a market you created.  No one will call you since they saw that someone else will do it for free.   ::)

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

biziedizie

OK so where did the phone #s go from the guys that called your free ad? Do you have call display so that the #s are there? I would be calling a few of them back to try to get some work. I say "OUCH!" to the free ad as it will hurt ya but give it time and people will forget.
  Here's my views on advertising based on the company I have now and not the mill: The local papers are worth it, mags suck, business cards are great, flyers suck, the local bulletin board works, internet sucks and I would NEVER advertise in the phone book again. The last two years I've spent about 7 grand on display ads and I've gotten 2 calls from it! lol! :D :D

   Steve

Tom

Your best advertising will be for people to see you sawing.  Offer to saw a log for a friend (next ot the street)  Ask a land clearer if you can saw a few of the trees he is taking down.(they use 2x8 dump truck boards etc. )  Charge a decent board footage and offer to drop the setup charge if you want to give him something.  Be on the lookout for people taking trees down in their yard (especially those you can easily get to.) Knock on their door and do a little marketing. "Is anybody in your family a woodworker", you might ask?

It doesn't take but a couple of these to get something started.

Joing a woodworking club will introduce you to folks that may be customers. :)

EZ

If you don't drink coffee, you should & like it. This past winter, I hook the mill on my truck & went to 4 different coffee shops. Pass out business cards, & got one job sawing 1 by 6 for fencing, it was a couple thous BF, paid for the coffee.
EZ

bull

What that saying "nothing in life is free" and you better make sure your not the guy stuck paying all the bills :o

 Word of mouth works great/ start w/ local cabinet maker and wood workers--- try dropping off some free samples...
 clear-short ---- use a new blade and make up a few samples.

 As for the FREE ad  All slab wood is cut free and is not counted in the final board scale only 4 square sided boards are scaled.. All sawing is thru&thru, additional charge for grade sawing and 1/4 sawing  ;D
   Try that and remember there is a sucker born every day  8)

 We also advertise in our local paper,it hits 7000 + readers and its delivered FREE.......

ohsoloco

 So working with women for 20 years has led to what kind of life ?

oh yeah....HORMONIOUS :D :D :D

That sounds about right :D

Sorry....as far as advertising goes, I haven't paid for any yet (but have only done a few jobs for other people in the past year).   I'm considering making some signs to put on the mill with my phone# and such, and just pulling it around town.  When I happen to get a job it's on some farm back off the road, so I don't get much exposure when I saw  :(

Bibbyman

One way to meet a lot of people and get some jobs is to put on a demo at your local county fair.  We teemed up with another Wood-Mizer owner and did that once.

If this is something you think you may want to do,  you should get started soon and get with your fair board.  They will have to give you space to work and show.  

Somewhere off the main mid-way would work better.  (but not behind the hog barn :-X).  Don't pile your logs up where someone could get hurt - but spread them out so they'll have a place to set.  

Saw a log about once an hour.   Load one,  make a few cut and then turn it.  Stop for questions.  Saw a few more cuts, and so on.  Then take a break and let people come in and look at the lumber and mill.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Jeff

Anybody ever hit a dog at the fair? :o  I hit my set button in the middle of the log one time when the boss had his new banker up in the booth for a demo. :(
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Bibbyman

Wad'ya do?  Say; "I just wanted to show you what would happen if I hit this button now." :D :D :D
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Jeff

It made a heck of a racket and the saw wobbled BIG TIME.

He says, "IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN??" He also had his wife and daughter with him.  I told him bankers make me nervous. ;)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Fla._Deadheader

Do like I been doing lately; sawing off all the metal that sticks up above the bunks. Yesterday I got the sharp edges cut off the second log stop :o, and today I took the tips off the clamp. ::) :-[

  Sawing a moving LOG is MUCH easier !!  :)
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

WV_hillbilly

 This might be a great idea for advertising your mill but I don't know the cost involved but the exposure could be great.

There is going to be a Home &Garden show at the local fairgrounds in Washington , PA this weekend coming. In the newspaper is an ad for the vendors and a fella is going to set up his WOODMIZER and saw some logs. I don't know if this will work but with the better half nagging the men this man could get some business sawing logs that he other wise might not have.
Hillbilly

Bibbyman

I've checked with one of my friends at Wood-Mizer and they are still providing "demo kits" to those who want to set up their mill at some public event like a county fair or old thrasher's reunion, etc.

Back when we did our demo, the kit included some product handouts, log scales, ballpoint pens, hat, T-shirt, blade.  

The thing to do is call Wood-Mizer at 1-800-553-0182 and ask for Jeff Brown or Doug Keele.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

DanG

One little advertising trick I thought of, but haven't used yet, is to put a sign on your truck. Keep a few examples of your work in the back, just a few pretty boards, showing what you can do. Just toss them in, as if you were taking them somewhere, and folks will see them whereever you park the truck. Don't leave them in there long enough for it to look like they live there, or so that the same folks see the same boards over and over.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Bibbyman

We've got our company name and contact info on the side boxes and on the bug shield of our 99 Dodge 3500.  People have come up to us filling stations, etc.  Even have a few follow us until we stop.


Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Tim

I was sawing white pine shrapnal stock on a cutom basis for another mill in my area. They paid the damages, however.... 85,000 feet yielded 5 gallons of bits that were damaged beyond use at $1.45 can each and one 52" blade that was better suited for making knives than sawing. Sometimes you do silly things when you are hungry.

Word of mouth did it for me when I was doing custom work along with a considerable amount of persistance. You may want to consider milling some of your own material in the mean time. there are some plans available for low volume dry kilns in some of the magazines. The kilns aren't fast but, they are reasonably simple to build.
Eastern White Cedar Shingles

C_Miller

I almost hit a dog on the way home from a job one night. Comin' downhill in a 3/4 ton pickup and the mill tied on there was a small group of kids walkin' by the side of the road they had a beagle puppy with them that walked out in front of me. I figured if I swerved to miss the dog something would hit a kid, Murphy must have been on break 'cause the dog wandered back to the kids.
I still get that "that was close weak in the knee thing" when I think about it.

C
CJM

Neil_B

Nice truck bibby, Shawn would be envious of that. :D :D
Timberwolf / TimberPro sawmill, Woodmizer edger, both with Kubota diesels. '92 Massey Ferguson 50H backhoe, '92 Ford F450 with 14' dump/ flatbed and of course an '88 GMC 3500 pickup.

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