For those of you that didn’t have equipment before you started running ads, what did you do to create your ads? Were you using stills that you found online, using AI, or maybe filming your own before video but using an after photo that you had found? Also, how long did you have to rent before it became obvious that you should go ahead and buy your own equipment?

I have a one day $2400 job scheduled for next week on Wednesday, the problem is it’s six hours away from where I have to pick up my drum mulcher and my rental skid steer, so I may end up having to rent the skid steer for two days. I have another customer near where I pick up the skid steer who declined my bid for an $1800 job, but I think he was close to approving, if I could lower the price on that job because I already have the skid steer rented for the other job should I go back with a counter offer or is that not something that we should ever do? I am quoting a third job that is near where I pick up the equipment tomorrow, it is a 500 foot logging road and then a acre of 10 foot tall blackberries and small alder and Willow and the owner wants everything smaller than 3 inches cleared. Ground is fairly level 5% slope. I was probably going to quote that at around $2500 as a day and a half of work. So my only fixed expense isthe skid steer rental is $300 per day (up to eight hours of machine time) or $1250 for a week, (seven days - up to 40 hours of machine time). I own the mulching head and the trailer. Of course I have all the additional overhead of fuel and insurance and maintenance costs on my truck and stuff, but I’m keeping those out of the picture for now. If I could get back the job that was declined and add this new job that I’m doing the site walk for tomorrow, and rent the machine for a week I think I would come out ahead overall, and it would be less stressful to have to do the turnaround with a 12 hours of driving to complete the one signed job on Wednesday. Attached photos showing the WET western Washington jobs with alder and blackberry (declined and quoting tomorrow) and the dry eastern Washington fire prevention jobs with mountain willow and small pine and fir trees (contract signed planned for Wednesday). Thoughts?

Name's Tolli, owner of Cascade Mulching Pros LLC out of northwest and north-central Washington. I run jobs in Whatcom, Skagit, and Okanogan Counties, based out of both Everson (west side) and Winthrop (east side, Methow Valley). Background is a little different than most of you probably. Spent my 20s doing environmental consulting fieldwork, then pivoted into IT for 30 years, the last 16 as a Technical Program Manager at Microsoft. Got laid off in June 2025 and after no luck finding another job paying $200k/year I decided to stop trading hours for someone else's stock options and build something of my own. Started Cascade Mulching Pros last September. Here's where I'm at honestly: Equipment I own: - HY14C mini excavator (1.4-ton, hydraulic thumb) - 14hp gas - needed for a house project but use for root removal on blackberry clearing projects billing at $225/hr for equipment & operator ($7200) - HY480C mini skid steer - 24hp gas, triple pump, 10GPM+ AUX flow - runs brush cutter well ($6700) - 14-foot 16,000lb gooseneck dump trailer to haul everything and use to dump debris when I upsell that ($11700) - 2005 F350 diesel dually with goosneck ($9000) - 72-inch Chinese drum mulching head - bought for $3000 off Marketplace last fall so I could do 2 demo jobs to create marketing material (broke 6 teeth holders the first day hitting rocks, cheep junk Chinese steel, so had to buy a welder and weld them all back the first night - field-repaired, gets the job done as long as I keep it out of the dirt until I can afford a used Fecon) What I rent: Mini CTL 42" Brush Cutter ($85/d), Grapple ($50/d), land leveler ($40/d) as needed Full-size high-flow CTL for larger mulching jobs. Deliberate choice right now while I build the customer base before making a major equipment purchase. Unfortunately I have to hang a temp plexiglass panel in front of my rental equipment glass doors as none of the local rentals have the demo doors. Created LLC in September, did business plan and created website and all the social media sites for the business and then took a break over the snowy winter months in the PNW. Started back up early April after I finally got my insurance and general contractor license all in order. Printed business flyers and put them on all the bulletin boards in the 3 local counties I am targeting (Whatcom, Skagit & Okanogan for those in the Washington) Started getting some calls almost immediately. In the first 2 weeks I got two paying job completed for blackberry & debris removal projects.

After a month of being overwhelmed by everything related to starting and running a business I finally was able to start my first META ads Tuesday evening - just a simple before and after still photo. I'm in the initial 72 hour let it sit and work phase. I know I need to tweak a few things but I'm happy with the results so far from only a $15/day spend. Messaging conversations started: 9 Cost per Messaging Conversation Started: $4.01 Views: 2.3K I wish I had started this in March - a month before I started work in April!!! I want to expand my spend and tailor the ads to higher paying customers soon. What was your first ad and how quickly did you scale your spend? I have time lapse and drone video, I have lots of photos. I'm trying to figure out what to do for ad number two.

There is approximately a 500’ completely overgrown driveway (logging road) and then about an acre+ of overgrown blackberries, deep grass, and smaller <5” alder and cottonwoods to be removed. Larger trees staying to be cut for firewood. - I’m thinking of quoting 2 days and $3000 (I’m thinking I may be able to finish it in 1.5 days as long as I don’t break any teeth on rocks, old car frames or old well heads. How do you protect yourself in the contracts from unmarked debris such as the car or well? Do you offer discounts on multi day jobs or do you always try to stick to your day rate?