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Originally Posted by TREEMONKEY  I have bin in business for a year and a half. Give free Quotes everyone here does.
I started quoting 1/2 of the big guys and slowly got a good reputation and raised prices as we bought more equipment. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, or people seeing us work and a good clean up always helps.I now quote 2/3rds of what i think the big guys are quoting.Thier are 4 certified arborists or companies that have them that i know of that work locally .the 2nd,3rd, 4th biggest companies are not arborist. I am NOT A CERTIFIED ARBORIST but practice to the best of my knowledge. I refuse work from customers that want to Butcher a tree.
I am writing the arborists certification test in april and plan on continuing to learn more after getting my cerfification (hopefully). |
I think that it is very important to look at what you are offering the customer, and price accordingly. Each market is different, and the competition in each market is offering the customer different things.
The trick is to find an under-represented market niche and fill it. Our company that has been in business since 1995 offers an excellent middle-market service. As we looked into expanding into a different market, we realized that middle-market competition is very stiff in this area. To succeed, we started a whole new company with a service offering more focused on premium service, and a business model which will allow us to compete successfully in the premium niche segment.
Now, just because we have a "new" company, does this mean that we should discount the value of our services? Of course not. In fact, our services will be priced equal to or higher than our competition. We can do this because our service offerings are superior, and our target clientele are willing to pay more to receive a solution which more effectively fulfills their need.
The point is that, in any given market, different customers are looking for different things. If you find a significant group of customers whose needs are not being addressed, and create an offering which uniquely satisfies this need, you have a solid foundation upon which to build success.