I needed some trees removed so put an inquiry in with one of those lead gen companies HI-Pages to get a few quotes from arborists in my local area here on the Gold Coast.

They were quite responsive, even over the Easter break. First to arrive on Easter Monday was Peter from “Your Branch Manager – Gold Coast“, a very punny name indeed. Nice bloke, who took the time to educate me, and explain the ins and out of the job, and the quote come back at quite a reasonable price.

But you know me, I need to get at least 3, especially with a service or industry I am not too familiar with.

Also, I can’t help thinking how much Peter could use my help in getting some good SEO on his business. He basically got my lead for around $40-50 from Hi-Pages, and when I try to find him, through a Google search, it is quite difficult, as I get jobs for branch managers.

I would love to do a service swap, tree work in exchange for digital marketing, after all, I don’t have a local tree services business on the Gold Coast that I am working with yet, and he seems to be no stranger to paying for SEO services, with the footer on his one-page website, carrying. the backlink of another SEO service provider.

But that’s just it. A one-page website is hard to find, and the funny “punny name” leads to confusion. With my help, and if he were open to a little tweak here and there, he wouldn’t be paying out $40 a lead anymore, but he probably would need to invest that savings on managing his inbound leads, through implementing automation, a funnel or by hiring a receptionist.

Which would be a good “problem” to have if you ask me.

The next local gold coast arborist I had to take a look at the gum trees that need to go, was Ethan from Lord Brothers Tree Services. Still through the same Hi-Pages initial inquiry, so he too paid $40 to make contact with me. Nothing against Hi-Pages, I mean the service is invaluable to those starting out, but I feel many tradies who are customer-facing, may lean on it to much, and just be a little to vulnerable in my opinion.

After all, Hi-Pages may get outranked or outbid for some juicy search terms, or they may favour another tradesman, creating a bidding war for leads.

After talking with Ethan for a while, I understand he luckily doesn’t have to depend on them as much as he used to, and is getting contacts and repeat work to keep him going strong. Still, I wonder about the end game. How is he planing to profit from the goodwill the Lord Bros would have accrued by the end of his business run.

It is concerning to me, that some of these top-tier trades, don’t seem to be thinking about their end game more. Or perhaps, they are thinking about it, but just don’t have the time to deal with it, or have the right person to help them strategize for the next step.

I am talking about tradesmen who build businesses, run them successfully for years, enjoy the fruits, and then at the end of the day (the end of their working life) have little to nothing to sell, or pass on.

That is, their business will most likely not survive them. Without them, they but trading names on fading yellow pages. Or websites being pushed to page 200 if you want a modern analogy.

My Pop had a plumbing business, which fizzled as soon as he retired. There was not a crumb of value, or a dollar of profit, that come after his last day on the tools. The tools are all he really had, and they didn’t go to rust, but they were dispersed and given away, to tradie mates, family, and friends, for pennies on the dollar (if that)

He of course is forgiven, as it was normal back then. It would have taken incredible foresight and education, for him to understand, he could capture and profit from anything other than his daily service.

It was like the tree that was his business, was simply removed, and the bush simply filled its place over time.

He could have easily captured and sold some IP to an up-and-comer that was ready to fill the void that he was creating. They could have had the Hoopey seal of approval and collected something

Now these were the days before the democratization of advertising, and the multichannel we have now, so he probably wouldn’t get $40 a lead, but even if he got $40 a day, it would have eclipsed the pension quite quickly.

So here we are, 20-odd years later, where you pay to play – pay per click, pay per lead. It’s a common and expected part of running a business. Carve off 8-10% for marketing and you will be sitting pretty. Pop would have been lucky to have business cards. It just wasn’t needed.

So if we are as business owners spending so much more on customer acquisition, shouldn’t it be more critical than ever, to capture this goodwill through branding and nurturing, so we can reuse, rent or sell it in the future?

As self-employed businesses in highly skilled fields, we will not always be able to create a turn key operation that would triple the value of our business, but we can do more and should do more.

Even if it were to just keep the profits locally, passing our goodwill on to the next up-start, rather than getting shipped offshore, to a global web co with no need to spend a dollar in our towns, cities, or country.

Surely that would be better right?

I believe so, so let’s… Re-Brand A Local Tree Lopping Co.