Just a little insight for you, as to how I did it.
You can get by low buck if you buy the right things. A good saw and a decent log slitter will get you going for a couple of seasons to find out if it's for you.
The type of wood you are cutting, there is no profit in it cutting it down unless you are getting paid to cut it down as well. Sorry, thats a cold hard fact!! You have to sell mixed wood cheap, and that is you're bread and butter!!
Get some land, you're folks a buddies folks whatever it takes, then get with the local tree services. Ashplunhd has been great for us! They have a hard time getting rid of the logs, so if you offer them a place to dump for free, they will ussually jump all over it!!!
Yes, there will be a bunch of crap, but you have nothing invested in it, so if it's junk use it for burn piles in the winter time when you are selling it to keep warm!
Now you aren't scavaging for wood, it's in a convienian location and you can work on it at you're leisure.
Not really knowing what you have for tree's there this is iffy at best, but we try and mix 1/3rd of it with hardwood. That way it'snot all pine or cottonwood, and the customer is happy with the wood and will want more.
If you want to get into selling hardwoods, there is money in it, but it's a LOT more work, and I can't say it's worth it!
So now you have some land, lots of wood thats fairly easy to get to, two guys can cut split and stack a lot in a short time and you are getting a lot ready for the season. Now you need customers.
Easy, flyers work GREAT!!!! You can hire a tageting company to send mailers to selected neighborhoods for you, go for the rity type areas, they are used to gettin ripped off so you offer a good product for a fair price, they wil be happy as can be and will ell their friends!!!
Still want to sell more wood? Start targeting apartment complexes with fireplaces! Laugh all you want, but these are the people that buy wood at Quik Trip a Dillons fo stupid pices!!!! Talk to the manager and set up a time to si in the parking lot and GIVE (yes I said it) away small bundles, aout the size at the stores or smaller, to the residents. Give them a flyer or better a magnet and hit the next one a week latter.
Get with one of the state lakes deparments and set up to be the source of sales for wood for them, thats a lucriive market!!!
It's just a matter of how much you want to put into it. I've had years I couldn't cut wood fast enough!!! I've had winters where I had wood ready and it sat there until the next season. But wood was VERY good to me, especially in a time when I needed it!!! I made more than enough money one winter to care for my family, buy some saws and have some left over.