Removals almost certainly make up the bulk of your business, and that’s probably the way it’ll always be. At up to $10k or more each, big-ticket removals are the best way to generate the kind of ROI you need.
But thriving tree-care companies often add other services to their lineup to keep the cash flowing. They also give you another chance to enjoy the cost-effective marketing that comes from having your branded trucks parked in wealthy neighborhoods all day.
The trick is figuring out what other services to offer.
Six New Services to Offer Your Tree-Care Clients
You probably offer the same core services every other tree-care company in your area does — removals, pruning, stump grinding, and installations. Maybe you also offer some storm cleanup options too.
But the competition for these services is often just as fierce as it is for big removals. So, you’ll want to consider adding a few other, less-competitive services to your lineup, like the six we’ll lay out below.
1. Plant Health Care Services
Plant health care (PHC) may be the most rapidly growing sub-field of arboriculture. And that makes sense for several reasons: Not only do these kinds of services benefit trees and your clients, but because many PHC services must be carried out repeatedly, they provide you with a recurring revenue stream.
Take EAB treatments, for example. This is obviously a declining need, given that most untreated ashes are long gone, but it provides a great economic example.
To get this kind of service cranked up, you’re only looking at a few thousand dollars in equipment, as well as some negligible costs associated with getting your crew trained and licensed. But you’d end up charging up to $400 or $500 to treat each individual tree — and then returning two or three years later to do it again. That could easily represent $2,000 to $5,000 per day in invoices.
And EAB treatments are only one potential type of PHC service you could offer. You could also provide treatments for oak wilt or hemlock wooly adelgid, offer root collar excavations, conduct soil tests, or provide growth regulator services to homeowners.
2. Tree Protection Plans
Because you have to compete with every Chuck-in-a-truck for removals or pruning jobs, you’ll want to start offering things that these types of competitors can’t provide. Tree protection plans are the perfect example, as they present a very challenging entry barrier to most run-of-the-mill tree guys, who aren’t ISA-certified or particularly educated on trees.
Meanwhile, you almost certainly have staff members on your team who’re qualified to do this kind of work right now. Even better, you don’t need expensive equipment to produce tree protection plans; you could conceivably start offering these kinds of services within 30 days.
You’ll want to grab a copy of the tree construction BMP and review ANSI 300 (Part 5) before adding this to your official menu of services, and you’ll want to review the tree ordinances in your area to familiarize yourself with the relevant requirements. But aside from that, you’ll just need to start networking with architects and land developers to get started.
3. Tree Inventories
Tree inventories essentially involve walking around and cataloging a large number of trees. You’ll record basic info about them (species, size, and general condition) and then provide some kind of written report to the client.
Tree inventory work is generally most viable in areas with strict tree ordinances. But that’s no longer rare; according to a 2019 study published in Landscape and Urban Planning, 80% of the Florida cities the study examined had some type of ordinance in place. All of this often means that many clients — including commercial property managers, HOAs, land developers, and municipalities — have to find someone to do this kind of work.
Tree inventory work is particularly attractive because it provides two-for-one value; you not only get to charge for completing the actual inventory, but it also gives your arborists a chance to flag trees for pruning, removal, or replacement. And if you provide high-quality service while carrying out the inventory, the client will almost certainly hire you to perform the subsequent jobs.
You won’t get rich doing this kind of work, but it will keep one or more of your arborists busy racking up billable hours. Most importantly, you don’t need anything to get started, aside from some clipboards or tablets.
4. Tree Transplanting
If you’re interested in adding another big-ticket service to your lineup, it’s hard to beat tree transplanting. With rates in the $2,000 to $10,000 range (and some jobs even jumping up into six-figure territory), transplantations can generate a lot of revenue quickly. And it is worth noting that there isn’t much competition for these services in most areas — you could conceivably corner the market in some cities.
But there are a few significant obstacles to offering these kinds of services. For starters, you’re going to need some new equipment in all likelihood. Minimally, you’ll need a crane, as well as a spade and a root-boxing setup. You’ll also need to invest in some additional training for your crew, and you’ll need to build in some budgetary breathing room to accommodate higher insurance rates.
These challenges help illustrate why transplantations are not a super-competitive space. But if you work in an affluent area, this kind of work can become a valuable income stream.
5. Lighting Rod Installations
Lightning rod installation is a fantastic add-on service you can offer homeowners and commercial clients.
It’s never going to produce the kind of income your core services do, but it can help you bump up your average ticket price up a couple of hundred bucks if your sales team starts talking about the value lightning protection systems can provide to customers (“We can put a protection system in that tree for $400 or so, or we can come back and remove it after it is struck for $4,000”).
Best of all, the startup investment for this new service is minimal. You already have the most expensive part of the job — your climbers — built into your budget. The actual materials don’t cost much at all.
Now, it is worth noting that the need for lightning protection varies from one state to the next. There just isn’t a huge demand for this kind of work in, say, Washington or Maine. But if you’re in the south, or even a place like Illinois, most of your customers should understand the value lightning protection provides.
6. Cabling and Bracing
You obviously want as many big removal jobs as you can get, but you’ll often generate more revenue over time by helping your clients avoid removals when possible.
Let’s say you show up to a client’s property to look at a 50-foot sugar maple in the front yard. The client loves the tree, but it has a sketchy pair of co-dom stems that are making her nervous.
Let’s say you’d charge $3,000 to take it down. That’d be a lucrative half day’s worth of work, but that’s all you’d make from this client. On the other hand, if you sent one of your climbers up to cable or brace that crotch, you could probably keep the tree safe enough to retain.
You’d probably only bill that kind of work at around $1,000, maybe a little less. But you would end up with an ecstatic customer, who probably wouldn’t hesitate to have you prune the tree next winter and then apply fertilizer in the spring. And don’t forget that you’ll also be billing her periodically for reinspecting the cables or brace rods.
Kaching, kaching, kaching.
Now, you’ve not only invoiced this client for just as much (and potentially more) than you would have for a removal, but you’ve also earned her trust, made her happy, and are likely to benefit from all of the word-of-mouth referrals that will follow.
Tips for Selecting the Best Additional Services for YOUR Tree Company
Again, these kinds of services aren’t going to alleviate your need to win the big removal jobs. But if you are able to start offering a couple of ones that are well-suited for your business, you’ll be able to boost your bottom line without a lot of additional expense, effort, or risk.
But that’s just it — you have to pick ones that make sense for your specific tree company. So, keep the following things in mind:
- Leverage the equipment you already have. When trying to carve out a unique niche in your area, you’ll want to identify services that are easy for you to start offering yet difficult for your competitors to offer. One of the best ways to do this is by identifying services that require expensive equipment that you already own. Air compressors, large tree spades, and cranes are all pricey items that fit this bill.
- Leverage the skills and expertise you already have. Expertise, training, and skills are another asset you’ll want to maximize. Have a TRAQ-credentialed arborist on your team? Put a tablet in his or her hand to start doing inventories and flagging hazardous trees. Already have a team member with a pesticide applicator license? Start thinking about the best kinds of PHC services you could offer.
- Think about the needs of your customers. Is oak wilt threatening the canopy in your area? Is lightning especially common in your state? Do local tree ordinances require landowners to have regular inventories conducted? Identify the things that your potential clients need and build these services into your business plan.
- Choose services that are hard for clients in your market to find. Don’t offer services that five other companies in your area do. Instead, invest some time in researching the services your competitors don’t offer and figure out which ones would best fit your business.
- Consider the seasonality of the services you’ll provide. Many tree-care businesses struggle to balance their workload throughout the year, but some of the other services discussed above — including lightning rod installation and cabling — are easier to do during the winter between pruning jobs.
- Factor in the ancillary benefits the services will provide. Offering additional services is about more than just generating more revenue; it can also provide other kinds of benefits. For example, if you break into the tree inventory market, you’ll likely make connections with local land developers, which will make it easier to land other kinds of jobs in the future.
Don’t Forget to Market These New Services
Adding some new options to your service menu helps put a few new tools in your sales team’s toolbox. It gives them the chance to boost invoices with add-on services, and it’ll also help them “bundle” services to provide more perceived value to your customers.
But you have to market these kinds of services aggressively. They need to be listed (and optimized) properly on your website. You need to mention them in your social media posts and PPC campaigns. And when you’re ready to update your print materials, you’ll want to carve out space for them.
You can do all of these things yourself, but outsourcing this kind of stuff to the professionals at ORB Tree Service Marketing is usually the better option. That way you can spend your time running your business, while letting the experts get your phone ringing.
Getting started is easy. You can book a call with our CEO right here.
Sources and References
- 3M – “The Power of Fleet Graphics”
3M marketing authority source on vehicle wraps, reporting impressions per day and cost-per-impression data.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/graphics-signage-us/applications/vehicles-and-transportation/fleet-graphics/power-of-fleet-graphics - TCIA – “The Business of PHC, Part 1”
TCI Magazine article describing plant health care (PHC) as a fast-growing and high-opportunity segment for tree care businesses.
https://tcimag.tcia.org/sales-marketing/business-of-phc-part-1-plant-health-care-it-could-be-the-shot-in-the-arm-your-company-needs/ - Colorado State University Extension – “Insecticides Used to Control Emerald Ash Borer on Residential Shade Trees”
A detailed guide to EAB control options, efficacy comparisons, and application schedules for urban and residential settings.
https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/insecticides-used-to-control-emerald-ash-borer-on-residential-shade-trees/ - ISA Best Management Practices – “Managing Trees During Construction”
An ISA-published BMP guide outlining proper tree protection techniques for development and construction sites.
https://wwv.isa-arbor.com/store/product/139/ - ANSI A300 (Part 5) – “Management of Trees During Site Planning, Development, and Construction”
American National Standard defining tree preservation practices during construction projects.
https://www.tcia.org/Maint/iCore/Store/StoreLayouts/Item_Detail.aspx?iProductCode=A300P5_2019&Category=ANSI - USDA Forest Service – “Tree ordinances, urban forests, and community characteristics in Florida cities”
Peer-reviewed study published in Landscape and Urban Planning showing that 80% of Florida cities surveyed had some form of tree ordinance in place.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2019/nrs_2019_hilbert_002.pdf - WAMU/NPR – “How (and Why) Do You Move a 600,000-Pound Tree?”
A fascinating look at the logistics, risks, and cultural value involved in transplanting massive specimen trees.
https://wamu.org/story/19/01/23/how-and-why-do-you-move-a-600000-pound-tree/ - National Weather Service – “Average Number of Days with Thunderstorms by State (2015–2019)”
NOAA-published data showing regional lightning strike density, useful for justifying lightning protection services.
https://www.weather.gov/media/safety/lightning/15-19lightning_density_state.pdf - University of Tennessee Extension – “Cabling, Bracing and Other Support Systems for Trees” (SP659)
A technical guide summarizing ANSI A300 Part 3 inspection intervals and best practices for structural tree support systems.
https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/SP659.pdf
