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I spent 20 minutes watching a tree trimming guy explain how he makes £3,000+ ($4,000) sending emails to other people's customers.
Sounds dodgy. It's not.
The business model: you approach small businesses with dormant customer lists and offer to reactivate them. You handle the emails, the offers, the follow-ups. They do nothing. You split the revenue.
Here's the example that made me pay attention:
Tree trimming business has 4,000 previous customers sitting in QuickBooks or Stripe. Haven't touched the list in months. You pitch them: "Let me email your list with a winter special. Any revenue I generate, you give me 10%. If I generate nothing, you pay nothing."
No-brainer offer. They can't lose.
You send the email. Something about ice storms and tree trimming. Call to action: free quote.
The maths:
4,000 emails sent
2% respond (80 people)
Close half at $1,000 per job
That's $40,000 revenue for them
Your cut: $4,000
For sending an email!
AI that works like a teammate, not a chatbot
Most “AI tools” talk... a lot. Lindy actually does the work.
It builds AI agents that handle sales, marketing, support, and more.
Describe what you need, and Lindy builds it:
“Qualify sales leads”
“Summarize customer calls”
“Draft weekly reports”
The result: agents that do the busywork while your team focuses on growth.
How it actually works:
The guy uses GoHighLevel (all-in-one marketing automation platform). They've got templates for this exact thing. You import the customer list, set up the automation, tweak the offer, press send. System handles replies, books appointments, sends follow-ups.
No tech wizardry required.
The magic isn't the automation. It's the positioning. You're not selling software or teaching them to do it themselves. You're selling results with zero downside.
Most small business owners know they should do something with their customer list. They just don't. You solve that completely.
Where this fits: Pure active service income (bucket two). You're trading time and know-how, but the economics work because you're leveraging their assets—customer lists, brand relationships, existing products.
The obvious problem: How do you track if they actually closed those jobs? You don't have visibility into their operations.
Solutions:
Build trust (risky)
Charge flat fee: $1,000 upfront OR 10% revenue, whichever is less
Do first campaign free, prove results, then charge monthly
That last one's interesting. Prove you can generate results, then upsell ongoing services. Monthly emails, SMS automation, review requests, missed call text-backs, AI appointment setting. All things you can charge for monthly.
The barrier to entry is stupid low:
GoHighLevel subscription ($97/month), basic email marketing knowledge, confidence to approach businesses. That's it.
No inventory. No employees. No expensive tools.
Where it gets interesting: Once you nail the offer for one tree trimming company, replicate it across every tree trimming business in your area. Same template. Same offer. Same automation.
The video mentions A/B testing on your first client to figure out what converts, then using that winner everywhere else.
Five clients at $3,000-5,000 each = £11,500-19,000 ($15,000-25,000) monthly.
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The catches:
You need to write emails that actually convert. You need to be comfortable selling (though the no-brainer positioning helps). And you need businesses with decent lists—200 customers won't cut it, but 5,000 past clients absolutely will.
If you're looking to replace your salary with service income, this makes sense. Low startup cost. Clear value. Recurring revenue potential.
Not passive. Not sexy. But it works.
Lewis
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