Hello everyone, I've been clearing land as a side hustle for neighboring ranches but I am officially going full time and starting my business beginning July. I have a website, Facebook page, but I have done zero advertising this far. i plan to soon though, have to contact the marketing peeps. For July I have a quick 2acre job locked in. I also have a 5 acre clearing job locked in which is mostkey cleared he just wants me to make it look pretty. I'm doing that job free but in exchange he is leasing me 1acre of land for my business and equipment for 12 months. Then I had a contractor call me for a large 11.4acre job for a residential neighborhood. They basically just want me to clear out the roadways and cul de sacs. I sent a quote to them and they haven't made a decision yet but I just want yalls thoughts on if I bid too high or too low. The quote I sent is attached.

First let me say this: I'm outlining what I did. It's worked so far very well for me. You are welcome to take, steal, edit or completely ignore everything here. I'm sharing what I did and if it helps you in any way, excellent. My story in a nutshell. A couple decades in corporate America, IT manager (I was a nerd, now I manage nerds) plus I've run some side gigs that employed people. IT right now is pretty scary, everything will look different in the next few years and most of the jobs I'm qualified for will be taken by automation and AI so after a few months of research, I selected Forestry Mulching for the 2nd phase of my life. My plan is to own/manage and to hire out the operator positions. I'll learn how to operate for fun so it makes sense to me and I can 'talk operator talk' but I won't ever be more qualified than who I hired to do the job. Eventually I want to be at scale with several teams but for now I need to hire my first operator, which is the most important hire. They can make or break your start, which could make or break your business. For me they are going to do everything operational - help me walk jobs while I learn how to quote them, they will mobolize, handle all mulching activies, light maintenance, etc. They'll need a Class A CDL. They'll shoot video at the job site, take before/after photos of every job, read from scrips for ad content (I don't want to be on camera yet as I still have the corporate job). Intially I was requiring skid steer experience and forestry mulching / land management was a bonus. Now that I'm done this process and hired my 1st operator, next time I'm going to require land management and/or foresty mulching experience. I next had to figure out my requirements. Who we are looking for: Self starter, able to work alone Reliable and high integrity Complete daily paperwork Documentation for each job Willing to be on video - capture before and after photos daily, take video of operations, talk through scripts Safety minded

Just left the Army after 10 years. I've been doing land clearing and mulching as a side gig whenever I took leave and on weekends. I've got two machines and working on doing this full time. Pretty good at operating equipment but clueless how to start and run a successful business. Here's the biggest project I've done about 2 years ago. A 10-acre job on a cattle ranch. Looking forward to learning and being a part of this awesome community.