About this episode

Colby McArthur shares his journey of growing his tree service business from $400K to $850K in one year and the strategies that fueled this growth.

Colby McArthur bought Clifton Tree Service at 22 years old and ran it as a solo owner operator for the first year — climbing trees, answering calls with a headset at 100 feet, estimating on weekends. He finished that year at $400K. One year later: $850K. In this episode, Colby breaks down the three things that drove that growth and what he's focused on as he targets $1.3M in 2026. What you'll learn: Why undercharging is the most common and most costly mistake owner operators make — and how to fix it fast The first hire Colby made that changed everything (hint: it wasn't a climber) How to build an opener/closer sales model even when you're still in the field How Colby uses Claude and ChatGPT to build a pricing tool, estimate from photos, and build SOPs What Colby would tell himself at $100K if he could go back To contact Colby McArthur: colby@cliftontreeservice.com 🔥 Services We Use 🔥 We use Jobber to handle our estimates, scheduling, & invoicing ➡️ Get 20% off Jobber here: https://go.getjobber.com/ownrops 💰 Bookkeeping: Get 50% off bookkeeping for 3 months with the Home Service Bookkeeping Pros: https://dialedinbookkeeping.com/ownrops 🚀 Get ranked #1 On Google With…

People in this episode

Host: Austin Gray

Guest: Colby McArthur

Topics covered

• business growth
• entrepreneurship
• service-based business
• pricing strategies
• sales models
• technology in business

Keywords

• tree service
• business growth
• owner operator
• pricing tool
• sales model
• ChatGPT
• SOPs
• entrepreneurship

Sponsors

Jobber, Home Service Bookkeeping Pros, Stryker SEO

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Clifton Tree Service

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