So my husband and I recently formed a LLC and started a small excavation business in our local community. He is a heavy equipment operator by career and has been for the last decade or so. Currently, he works full time at a quarry, usually running a huge loader in the pit, but he does all kinds of things with equipment just depending on what is needed.
We also bought some acreage a few years ago and he has done all of the work (land clearing, roads, ditches, culverts, trenching utilities, leveling/grading for buildings, etc.) We learned a lot working on our land with heavy equipment and it is really what planted the seed for this new sweaty startup.
Next steps
—> don’t go online and google liability insurance for ___ business, you’ll just sign up for spam calls. We reached out to a local office and we’re definitely going to get insurance figured out ASAP…I probably should have been doing that instead of writing this post.
Any thoughts on our process? Criticism? Something big I am forgetting? I have never done this before, my husband has, we will both be replying to comments on this post later on if we get any interaction though.
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Update- we have another bid we are going to go look at tonight down the road from our home. This lead came from Facebook, I commented on a post where he asked for someone to grade and gravel his driveway before the end of the month. I know he has a few other companies coming out so it’ll just depend on price and if they have availability this month like we still do right now. We aren’t going to try to lowball it to win the bid, it has to be worth the time and effort and lost weekend day.
We also bought some acreage a few years ago and he has done all of the work (land clearing, roads, ditches, culverts, trenching utilities, leveling/grading for buildings, etc.) We learned a lot working on our land with heavy equipment and it is really what planted the seed for this new sweaty startup.
Details of start-up so far:
- We DIYed forming LLC and getting EIN (YouTube helped). The first job we took was for a friend so SOI
- We got two leads for jobs just through friends. The first was a small job resurfacing a road to prep for new gravel which we bid on and finished in a weekend. The other is still pending…the homeowners are suing for the neighbor to pay for the damage so we provided an estimate and have stayed in contact with the homeowner while pursuing information on permits that would be needed…the county moves slow but we have at least determined we only need one thing, just waiting on the guy to get back to us since we received an out of office reply to our inquiry.
- We made our own logo/branding on Canva using the free trial of pro. I definitely think we could go back and pay someone to do this better one day if the budget makes sense, but we really tried! It’s not just clip art next to the name lol
- We formed a Facebook page using logo/branding from step 3; joined local community groups; like and follow local businesses near us, especially if they interact with us; alternate days/weeks posting in community groups with either an introduction as a new business or before/after pics (I’m still posting intros bc we’re still pretty new and rural so there are a lot of different towns/communities around with different Facebook pages)
- We got 3 calls off the first two ads we posted. One was a big job and took us a few days to price materials and send the estimate just because of the scale, the other we are set to complete this weekend. With this being a side-job and working part time I didn’t post again in the community groups until after Easter just because I didn’t want to get us overwhelmed.
- We got signs and business cards made online with designs from Canva (5 plastic signs with stands for $40, business cards were 500 for $20, both prices include shipping). In hindsight, I wish I had looked to see how much the double sided signs were instead of single sided bc I want one already.
- Last weekend we put one sign out at the end of our road at a crossroad with a busier street, near similar signs from some other businesses. Last night we put another sign out, in the ditch by our neighbors land across the street from us—with their consent and permission ahead of time. So far no calls from them but it has only been a few days so I’ll be patient.
Next steps
- ??????????
—> don’t go online and google liability insurance for ___ business, you’ll just sign up for spam calls. We reached out to a local office and we’re definitely going to get insurance figured out ASAP…I probably should have been doing that instead of writing this post.
Any thoughts on our process? Criticism? Something big I am forgetting? I have never done this before, my husband has, we will both be replying to comments on this post later on if we get any interaction though.
—————————————————————
Update- we have another bid we are going to go look at tonight down the road from our home. This lead came from Facebook, I commented on a post where he asked for someone to grade and gravel his driveway before the end of the month. I know he has a few other companies coming out so it’ll just depend on price and if they have availability this month like we still do right now. We aren’t going to try to lowball it to win the bid, it has to be worth the time and effort and lost weekend day.