How to start a tree service business in 2026

Forget the business-plan template for a minute — when a lender or a partner wants one on paper, start from the free tree service business plan and put your own numbers into it. Here's how most tree services actually start. First, decide your lane: begin with trimming, pruning, and small removals you can do safely from the ground or a rope — leave crane removals and utility line clearance to outfits with the iron and the certs. Get your general liability policy active before your first cut; one dropped limb through a bay window ends an uninsured business. Then gear up: a good 60cc felling saw, a top-handle climbing saw, rope, harness, helmet, and chaps. Rent a chipper by the day until you're booking enough brush to own one.

Your first jobs come from people who already know you. Send this to every friend, neighbor, and old coworker:

Hey [name] — I just started my own tree service. If you've got a dead limb hanging over the roof, an overgrown maple blocking your light, or a stump that's been sitting in the yard for years, I'd love to take a look. Free quotes, fully insured, and I'll do a friends-and-family rate on the first job. Know anyone dealing with storm damage? Send them my way.

Price per job, never per hour — homeowners can't judge how long a removal takes, but they can judge a firm quote. Walk the property, check what the limbs could hit, factor in haul-away, and set a minimum job charge around $300 so small prunes still pay for the drive. Then do the thing most tree guys skip: rake the lawn, blow the driveway, and text the customer that evening asking for a Google review. A tree service with 30 five-star reviews and photos of clean job sites wins the whole neighborhood after the next windstorm. When the friends-and-family jobs run out, our guide to tree service marketing covers what brings the next ones: the Google profile, a storm page and the advertising that works.

Do you need a tree service license? In the US there is no federal one, and most states issue no license by that name — but in the places below the company has to register, or keep a licensed person on the payroll or on every job, before it takes money for tree work. This is the business side, from each agency; the person’s exam, experience and fees are in our guide to how to become an arborist.

• New Jersey. The business registers with the Board of Tree Experts, $200 every two years (the board’s fee schedule), and must “Have at least one licensed individual working full time in the company” — a Licensed Tree Expert or a Licensed Tree Care Operator — carry “a minimum amount of $1,000,000 of general liability insurance” and workers’ compensation, and display its NJTC number “three inches high” on at least two sides of each truck (New Jersey Board of Tree Experts).
• Connecticut. Since October 1, 2013, “any business out for hire to perform arboriculture must have a certificate of registration” from the state’s environmental department, at $240 a year — “There is no exemption for single arborist businesses” (Connecticut DEEP) — and the pruning, trimming, feeding and spraying need a licensed arborist (Connecticut DEEP, arborist license).
• Minnesota. “All companies and persons that provide tree care or tree trimming services and/or who remove trees, limbs, branches, brush or shrubs for hire” join the state’s Tree Care Registry: $25 plus a $5 processing surcharge (Minnesota Department of Agriculture).
• Maryland. The law “requires anyone advertising or performing tree care for hire—including removal—to hold a Tree Expert License”, except for work on “trees under 20 feet tall”, and the license number goes on “trucks, proposals, contracts, and advertisements” (Maryland DNR, February 2026).
• Maine. The state reminds hirers that “the Department licenses individuals, not companies” and that “Companies that run more than one crew must have a licensed arborist on each jobsite”; each licensed arborist signs that they carry general liability of at least $150,000 per occurrence and $300,000 in aggregate (Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry).
• Rhode Island. On a crew, “at least one person at every such job site must have a valid arborist license” (250-RICR-70-00-1).
• Louisiana. An arborist license to “make recommendations or execute tree removal, pruning, trimming, cabling, fertilization, and cavity work”: a $150 exam and $125 a year (Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry).
• Oregon. Mowing, edging and small shrub and tree pruning are not state-regulated, but the Landscape Contractors Board lists tree removal, stump grinding and guying limbs among the work that needs its license or a Construction Contractors Board license (Oregon LCB).
• California. A contractor’s license in the C-49 Tree and Palm classification (CSLB) once a job reaches $1,000 or needs a building permit (Bus. & Prof. Code §7048) — and the tree classification (written D-49 in the statute) is one of a handful, roofing’s C-39 among them, that must carry workers’ compensation even with no employees (§7125).
• Washington. “Washington State requires all construction contractors to register with L&I,” and tree removal is one of the specialties it names — a $150.20 application and a $15,000 bond for a specialty contractor (Washington L&I).
• Cities. Denver issues its tree service license to a person who represents the company, and a company whose license holder leaves has 30 days to name another (City of Denver); Colorado Springs charges $110 a year, wants $1,000,000/$2,000,000 of general liability and $1,000,000 of workers’ compensation with the city on the certificate, and sets a 40-question exam — 20 questions for an ISA Certified Arborist (City of Colorado Springs).

Everywhere else the business needs its ordinary registration and city license, and two more rules still reach a new crew: in Texas, applying “any pesticide (regardless of classification and including general-use)” to trees or lawns for hire takes a Department of Agriculture license (Texas Department of Agriculture), and every state licenses the applicator of restricted-use pesticides to the federal standard, with many — Connecticut and Texas among them — licensing any spraying for hire; and OSHA keeps an unqualified worker in an elevated position at least 10 feet from overhead lines of 50kV or less (29 CFR 1910.333), with line-clearance tree trimming under its own standard (29 CFR 1910.269). Check your state’s and your city’s rules before your first quote.