How I'm able to get a lot of calls (please don't tell anybody)
1 - Exterminators, most don't do bees and will gladly pass honeybee calls your way.
2 - Google, Bing, Yahoo, & Yellow pages - "Place Pages" - all are free. How they work is anybody who does a computer search for bees or bee removal within 45 miles of you, your name and contact information will automatically pop up. Here is one of mine:
https://plus.google.com/104618104641332484790/photos?gl=us&hl=en
3 - Craigslist Add- Refresh your add every week during early swarm season. 1st line needs to say "Free swarm Removals, free estimates for colony removals".
4 - Animal control officers, 911 calls get directed to them.
5 - Swarm lists: Ag. Extension office, Forestry Service, Local Agricultural Colleges, BeeSource, BeeMasters, Bees-on-the-net, etc.
6 - And my favorite, Bee Trees - Find them and mine them. When you get a call that turns out to be a bee tree, try to talk the owners into keeping them, then educate the homeowners about what a swarm looks like and have them call you when they swarm. Repeat business is wonderful, probably 10 of my swarm calls last year came from the same bee trees I got calls from the year before.
7 - Photobucket page - where you post pictures of every job for your customers to see. Here is mine:
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/j...e/Bees 2011/
8 - take care of your customers, pint jar of honey to every body when you catch a swarm, case of pints to the exterminators and animal control officers that send you repeat business at Christmas.
9 - Get your equipment ready, and always have at least 3 boxes for swarms in your truck ready for new bees at all times. A lot of swarms occur on the same day, I've had 4 calls in one day several times.
Good luck, location is very important, some places just don't have many swarms.
....Don
(If your in the Kansas City area don't listen to this guy he is a lying sack of **** and has no idea what he is talking about)