Marketing a new Sawing Startup

[Rougespear]

After last year sawing 25mbf for myself, I would like to go into part-time business primarily portable sawing but would also be interested in filling timber orders at my place as they come in.  I saw about 250bf/hr stacked and stickered with a helper.  I also build custom cabinets/kitchens in my shop.

The market around here is softwood (Doug Fir, Pine, and Cedar): timbers for timber framing, live-edge slabs, and everything under the sun in a portable on-site job.  I don't want to sell lumber, just sawing primarily.  There are several large stationary mills in my area, and I don't intend to compete with them.  My customer would be private owners, land clearers, timber framers, etc.  I have looked locally and there is not much advertisement for local portable sawyers (that doesn't me there are none, just that they are not advertising).  I am wondering if folks have suggestions on moving forward and marketing such a business endeavor?  I have seen some advertise on Craig's List/Kijiji... are websites valuable assets or more $$ than they are worth to a start-up?  How would I begin distributing business cards?

Thanks for any suggestions.   

[Magicman]

Seed and feed, chainsaw shops, equipment rentals, and hardware stores have landowner traffic as well as cattle auctions, etc.  There will be a limited number of folks wanting/needing sawing "right now".  It may be a year (or more) after they get your card that they have a sawing need and call you.

Volunteer to set up and saw at one of those locations and give the proprietor the lumber.  Saw a little and talk a lot.  Visit your local newspaper and have them come by and take pictures and do a article.  Here are two different front page articles about my sawing that resulted in many calls/customers:


 


 


  
Get a website or use facebook or whatever to capture that market.

[Ga Mtn Man]

Most of my new customers find me through my website, a few on CL.  There are plenty of free website building/hosting sites out there, you just have to pay the annual domain registration fee (around $25US).  It can be a challenge to wade through the steps necessary to get search engines to find your site and you might want to hire someone to do the search engine optimization.  Jeff, the founder/owner of Thee Forestry Forum can help you with all of this for a very reasonable price.

[paul case]

I guess it all depends on what type of customer you want.

I couldnt get enough customers to come to me so I went and found a few. I buy logs and sell the lumber and cants from them. Much less stress than dealing with people bringing you a mess and wanting you to make a masterpiece out of it.

I found my best customers by going and talking to people in the businesses that use wood. My best customer id a guy that has his own mill but cannot make enough to supply all the skids he sells. You never know til you ask.

PC

[terrifictimbersllc]

My website is by far the best advertising for me.  I set it up myself with no knowledge of programming, it is from ATT and uses a simple program there called Easy Site.  For almost 10 yrs now it has cost $10 a month.  If you can write posts and post photos here on FF you should be able to do one like mine yourself.   That's not to say I wouldn't be better off if someone like Jeff for example designed and maintained one for me, but that costs a little more.  I tried stepping up to a more snazzy one with a web designer I know,  but halfway through the design exercise I decided working through someone else was cumbersome and also I wouldn't be happy unless I could maintain it myself.

I also advertise on Craigslist.  Repeat customers including regular commercial customers are also a significant part of my sawing.   Many new customers also come from referrals.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Agree with MM. I advertise at my local feed and seed, hardware store, barber shop, country stores, local grocery store, TSC, local sporting goods places, auto parts stores, etc. I make half page flyers (2 to a sheet and tear then in half as needed - costs almost nothing to print) "Got Logs, Need Lumber?" in large font then details about what I can saw and contact info. I post them on the community service boards. I also advertise in our local trade paper selling some of my excess wood, slabs, tomato stakes, mantels, etc.  When people call I also often tell them if they have trees I can come cut their logs for them. Another technique I used last year and will repeat this years was/is going to be taking a trailer load of assorted rough sawed wood, slabs, mantels, stakes, log benches, etc. to our big local Flea Markets and talk to the people and give out cards. That got me several jobs right away and as recently as last month (over 9 months later) I still get calls and have customer collecting their logs right now. Every time I sell someone a board or cut lumber or something I give them a business card or two to give their friends.

   We donated wood to the local HS shop to build some picnic tables (Thanks to my Lion's Club wife). While there I offered to bring the mill and saw some logs as a demo for the shop and ag classes and expect to do that in the next few weeks. While this is actually educational it will help get the word out to the community. Volunteering at Boy Scout and other community events helps get the word out. If you are stationary invite different groups as an educational event.

   I advertise periodically in the local newspaper but not all the time.  Good luck.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Oh yeah - I forgot. Every time I see a stack of fresh cut logs in someone's yard or field or someone cutting trees/clearing land I stop and talk and/or leave a card. If nobody is there I sometimes leave a card in a small snack size ZipLock bag stapled to the end of their log stack.

[longtime lurker]

Lot of good advice above but one thing I've picked up on is that you do custom kitchens etc.

And for a lot of people the one thing better then a custom kitchen is a custom kitchen that started as one of their trees.

In this business the real money is always in the value add. If you can start with a tree and turn it into a kitchen thats a pretty fair margin for value adding... and along the way you get paid to saw, and paid to kiln, and paid to finish and install. And it kind of becomes a captive market... you get the kitchen job because you got the sawing job. Might be worth some investigation.

[YellowHammer]

The best way to market is to be seen, be heard, be honest, and be skilled.  Webpages, word of mouth, social media, signs, etc will all work.  The key is to take the time to do it right, and look at it as an important piece of the business. Not saying take out a Super Bowl commercial, but I've always wondered how much business I could generate if I rented one of the huge LED billboards in the midddle of town, the ones where hundreds of thousands of people drive by every day.   

[Brucer]

Contact Jeff about building you a web page. He has great artistic sense and knows how to build a site that loads quickly and efficiently. He built me a one-page web "site" that resided under the Forestry Forum domain, and at a very reasonable monthly rate. He has also built complete web sites for many of our members.

The great thing about having Jeff do it is that your site will appear high on the first page of most Google searches.

Other things to consider ...

Print up some business cards. You can buy card stock by outfits like Avery that give you 10 cards on a page. It's easy to print up however many you need using your favourite word processor. The "perforations" between the cards are clean and sharp. By doing it yourself you can change your cards as your business develops. I started out with no business name and no cell phone. I just printed my name, address, and home phone number on a card, along with the words "Portable Custom Sawmilling".

I'm not good a marketing myself, but I soon learned how to quickly steer a casual conversation over to what I'm doing right now. Then I'd hand over a couple of cards to the person (never just one).

At one point I was set up for a couple of years right across from the local recycle depot. That attracted a lot of attention (sometimes too much ;D).

We have a weekly free classified paper in this area that covers most of the region (the paper is free , the advertising isn't :( ). Early on I advertised in there -- just a cheap 15-word classified ad, not a display ad. The key thing here is to run your add for a minimum of six weeks (if you just want to kick things off) or right through your sawing season as an ongoing program.

Those are the low cost (but effective) options.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Business cards are an absolute must have and you should have them handy at all times. I put a magnetic sign on my truck door which has also gotten me several jobs. When I see people looking at the sign I automatically give them a card. I also put a 1/4" International log scale on the back of my card which is handy when a potential customer wants to estimate how many logs he will have to have to cut to do a project or to estimate his costs. Just having the handy log scale is often enough reason for him to keep the card. I buy mine from Staples for about $27/thousand.

[Rougespear]

Wow, what a gold mine of information!  I have a Master's degree in natural resource management, but next to no business experience/training.  Due to difficulties finding work recently, I've decided to pursue my own business (the bank wants its money back).  Thanks to everyone's valued opinion.

Longtimelurker picked up on an important point: I intend to market my primary service as cabinet-making/kitchens, but love milling lumber on the side.  It would be great to connect the two - I like the idea of advertising the connectivity between the trees and the finished cabinet.  I am looking at developing a short phrase, for example: "Raw logs to fine cabinets", but hopefully something a little more catchy ahah.  I agree, the "value-added" is an important component to advertising.

Lynn: wonderful success with the newsprint article... I can see how that sort of advertising could work wonders.  Setting up at the local hardware store or high school would be interesting... sure would want to make certain nothing went awry haha.

Terrifictimbers: I want to pursue a website, but don't have much in the way of disposable income - I may look into building my own site.  I am impressed by your site, it's simple and intuitive.  I would absolutely love to engage Jeff in very simplistic webpage, but I'm short of money with lots of time... I hope in the future I can connect with Jeff and move forward with such an idea.  I may begin with a Facebook page and move up from there.

I am in the process of developing business cards and will look into a magnetic sign for the side of my pickup. 

As Yellowhammer put it well: Overall, I am confident in my abilities to saw logs and build beautiful kitchens, and I'm about as honest as they come in the trades.  All I am short of (and I'm well aware of this) is marketing sensibilities.

Thanks for the great discussion everyone - hopefully we can keep it going.

[Magicman]

Sawing unique book matched stuff like this for cabinet door panels should be eye catchers.


 
This happens to be Hackberry that I sawed Saturday, but the species or even the pattern does not matter.  Live edge and book matched pieces seem to be very popular right now.

[Magicman]

... sure would want to make certain nothing went awry haha.

Actually setting up and sawing in front of a crowd almost guarantees that something will go awry.   :-\   :D

[Larry]

As Yellowhammer put it well: Overall, I am confident in my abilities to saw logs and build beautiful kitchens, and I'm about as honest as they come in the trades.  All I am short of (and I'm well aware of this) is marketing sensibilities.

I also have built kitchens and pride myself on one board raised panels, centered grain, same board for drawer fronts, and solid wood end panels.  I've sawed logs with a cabinet cut list to insure I have the right width/length board for the right spot.  Culled boards with a little stain or other defect.  All stained cabinets. 

As much as I like my cabinets the style in my area from cheap to high end houses is painted cabinets.  Doors and drawer boxes come from the big door factories and the cabinet makers are really box builders.  If one can build a box they qualify to be a cabinet maker.  I would starve if I had to make a living building the cabinets I like.  I could make a comfortable living banging out boxes provided I wanted to work 80 hours a week.

Just thoughts from an old guy and not based on a lot of experience.  Hey, I was a telephone man.

[Cedarman]

There is no bigger bang for the buck than a good website.  Figure out what you want your website to do for you.  Look at others websites and see what you like and what you do not.  This is what takes the time.  Get some good pics of what you build.  Jeff built our wood fibers website and it has paid off well.
You can go from "Fine Logs to Finer Cabinets".

[woodweasel]

All of the above!!! Good stuff!!

[red]

KFC , Kentucky fried chicken just launched a chicken sandwich to the edge of Space . Now that's marketing . Mostly because it makes no sense at all.