Hi everyone, has anyone else had difficulty getting general liability insurance for their forestry mulching business? The broker I've been working with is telling me that I keep being denied coverage because of the type of working I'm getting into and the combination of being a start up company, anyone have any suggestions on a route to take?

Since my vehicle is 11,200 lbs and considering the weight of some of this equipment, I'm considering getting a CDL. I plan on taking a 4 day course in MO for the hands on portion and road test. Does anybody have an advice on a good a source to study for the learners permit? I haven't started YouTube research yet because the algorithm will start force feeding me trucker stuff. In 2 days it'll start showing the top 10 Lot Lizard hacks that no one wants you to know about.

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?

Hey everyone. My name is Cameron Miller. A short intro about myself.... I'm 34 yrs old with a wife and 2 kids. USAF Veteran. I'm currently in the process of starting a forestry mulching business in northeast Ohio. I'm still working my 85K/year W-2 job, but things are coming together quick. Got the truck, trailer will be here next week, and waiting a few more weeks on the equipment (CAT 275xe). I feel like I'm in a really good spot at the moment and I'm ready to cruise when the work comes in. Finances are in order and CRM is set up and ready to go. I'm taking a bit of a risk in starting with project pricing off the rip, but I believe it's ready. I've actually automated a good portion of the process. I've built a full automation (customer receives quote while i'm still standing there with him/her), but I don't trust that process without extensive data to test it. So I believe that will be in the future. I have targets for 30, and 60 days, but not necessarily 90 days. (starting when equipment arrives) 30 days - 20-25k revenue 60 days - 45k+ 90 days - sky's the limit i guess My weakness is creatives. I've never been a creative person. Figuring out how to advertise with no equipment, no before/afters, no action videos, that's where I'm struggling. I need to put the pedal down as soon as possible on the ads. I'm excited to find this group of like minded individuals, wanting to grow and help others grow similar businesses. The posts I've read have been very encouraging.

1) Should be receiving my bobcat and mulching head next week which will be sweet. Run it on my own property for a week to figure it out 2) Website Should be up and running next week through Stryker; Jobber set up; Phone set up 3) Going on my first bid and their neighbor wants their property cleared as well 4) Taking Permit test next week and after that schedule for CDL A class 5) Hopefully locking down work truck and then ordering trailer Goal is by beginning of May to Have CDL and be fully running