Firewood business from scratch??? You must be nuts!
In addition to the severe competition from tree services, there is a severe problem with cash flow and sales lead generation.
1. Firewood needs to be cut at least 6 months before it's intended use, otherwise it is too green, won't burn well, and then your customer never calls you back. That's a long time to wait before you get paid.
2. Most sales for firewood are in the fall, when folks are stocking up for the winter. This means that you must have all your wood cut up, seasoned, and ready to go when the calls come in. Can you afford to work all year preparing firewood, and then make all the money in 3 months ? Oops...that 3 months of sales must last until NEXT fall also.
3. How do you intend to generate the necessary sales in 3 months to support your annual budget? Spend too much on marketing and you will not be able to compete with the other guys that have an established customer base.
4. Because of the many uncontrolled variables in firewood quality, most buyers of firewood tend to be loyal to the fellow that has a proven record with that customer. That makes it tough to get a large amount of sales in a short season, even if you have great pricing and advertising.
I crunched a couple of quick numbers. If you were planning on cutting, splitting and delivering better than 2 cords per day for 260 days per year, it sounds like it might work.
Where would you store that much wood until it was seasoned ?