@Jake Russell thanks, glad you are enjoying the pod

and welcome to the crew!

@Patrick Murphy this is a great response

hey @Austin Emry here is one of the free training videos on doing market research. take a look and let me know if you have any questions. it's under the training "Messaging Mastery" inside the Classroom https://www.skool.com/ownrops/classroom/9a730364?md=78066e52683344f19f67bebdd4333710

1. I will answer these from my perspective. I did sell a different business but I did not want to rely on that cash for any startup costs. My goal was to bootstrap so the business could fund itself. I focused hard on building a great reputation on Google Business with 5 star reviews, and then started running facebook ads after I had 10 reviews to get the first jobs, I printed off simple flyers and went and talked to the people in the subdivisions I wanted to work in. left them with a couple flyers and simply asked them "if you or your neighbors ever need a property cleaned up, please give me a call" I also called all of the builders in town and let them know I could help them clear their lots for new construction or help out with small dirt jobs that their excavation guy didn't want to do (driveways, grading, boulder walls, trenching, etc.) 2. I rented for the first months of business while focusing purely on marketing & sales (to validate there was sufficient demand in my market to support the purchase of a machine) there were no forestry mulching units for rent in my market, therefore I rented a skid steer & mini ex on as needed basis and hauled all debris away with my truck and trailer. I did this as a solo owner operator until I had $60k operating cash in the bank. did everything solo to save as much cash as possible and relied on sub contractors when I got into jobs where I needed help. yes, purchasing on finance agreement makes much more sense from a monthly cash flow perspective, but it only makes sense once demand is validated with consistent lead volume I see a lot of guys spending money on the machine first, when they should be spending money on marketing to validate demand (my personal opinion) but the way I see it, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to purchase a machine if you can't get the work! this is why I always recommend guys rent while you validate demand Gooogle Business Profile is free to set up Flyers are inexpensive to hand out

@Steve Adams to clarify - i wanted to start the business in a way that could self fund as we built (aka, wanted to use the cash the business generated to continue reinvesting into what was needed next) I did already own a truck, trailer, and chainsaw personally that I used for the business. those were the bare bones tools I started with the $100-$200k listed on startup costs is accounting for the cost of the first machine (but this can be financed through the equipment dealer) and my approach was to buy the equipment only after I validated demand i started with a DIY website & Google Business Profile as soon as I generated cash from the first couple jobs, I reinvested into professional website and kept hammering the phones calling builders, general contractors, real estate agents, and property managers to get the word out. in between jobs, I also printed more flyers and kept knocking on more doors... anytime I saw someone inside my target service areas , i stopped to talk and hand them a flyer. no high pressure sales, just simply told them what we do and asked them to call us in the future if they ever need their property cleaned up then once jobs started rolling, I made it a point to over deliver and ask for 5 star reviews. then google started serving up traffic the next year I started experimenting with FB ads, but it took me several seasons to dial these in to find out the format that works hope this helps!