Logging and sawmilling for a living?

I have an entry level sawmill and recently just removed a white oak from the woods with winches, trucks, and tractors and have it sitting by my sawmill.  I know there is money to be made on all sides of this industry, especially with the prices of wood.  Is anyone doing it all or part of it and what input can you give me on income streams?  I feel like I can offer full services like removing the tree, milling it, drying it, and crafting whatever item they may like out of it or I can offer one part or multiples.  Missouri has lots of white oak and black walnut and both of those are at a premium.  I assume the only other items I likely need are a trailer and possibly lift for the trailer if I don't trailer the tractor with loader.

I looked into that option back in 2020. I didn't end up buying a sawmill. But I read a lot of Jim Birkemeier's writings on the subject. He grew trees, cut, milled and dried them, then installed the wood as hardwood floors. I also found the Woodpreneur podcast. Their latest episodes talk a lot about adding plastic to wood. But their first ones discussed the sawmilling and tree felling business.

Wow! Thank you for all of that info. I'm excited to look into it because I'm not familiar with either.

When we lived in the Piney Woods of East Texas there was a person who made lots of money just taking down one or two trees at a time.  Or even just removing some limbs.

As far as milling lumbers I see several folks on Homestead Rescue milling a few downed trees to build on a current project.

Matt does custom sawing, drying, and furniture, so he works the whole spectrum. We’re going to learn how that all progressed, as well as check out his vacuum kiln and see how that works.

https://mattcremona.com/blog/field-trips/starting-a-sawmill-business-from-the-ground-up-tour-of-ruben-custom-sawmill

Many years ago I was CEO of a mental health center. We found our clients could not find employment directly or indirectly due to their disabilities. So, we provided them employment by setting up manufacturing of pallets, shipping crates, and fruit bins. We were able to pay well above minimum wage. After some highly successful years we had to shut the operation down.  We could not find wood in the volume we needed.  

This may give you an idea of where to look for customers.  

having capability to move trees and lumber and storing, drying lumber is as important as being able to mill a tree into lumber. there used to be a sawmill on my property and the structures to dry and store the lumber take up much more space then the structure where the actual sawmills were. its a great way of life but is very physical work from what I understand. as far as income streams selling lumber of course and milling trees into lumber for people who bring their own trees to you. but the folks that used to live here went a step further and build a large woodworking shop with all the basic craftsman power tools, planer, joiner, router, saws, drills, sanders and would build all sorts of stuff in bulk from knick knacks for tourist shops to bird houses and bird feeders and cedar chests too.
good luck and success in your endeavor

Thank you for all the replies and encouragement! It's seems like a fun idea but also one where I may have too many irons in the fire. I'm definitely interested in giving parts of it a go once I'm living on my land and can operate the mill and kiln frequently. I do have a shop/garage right next to those that I can store lumber in and craft the wood too.

I did what your talking about doing for a few years,its pretty interesting work and you can make a living at it.I was portable and went to customers sites to mill logs for them and also cut and sold other logs i would buy or trade for sawmill service,Its a lot of work and gave it up for a regular job just for stabilty and insurance.Start slow if you can to see if its something you really like doing.Perhaps hold a part time job for awhile.I still do it for side work or storm damage trees we have or people we know want to get rid of.

Join this forum and you will see many people are earning a decent living doing sawmilling fulltime,lots of helpful people there too for any questions you have,you will have lots.

https://forestryforum.com/

BTW what mill are you running?

The most prized drum sticks are crafted in Japan from white oak which comes from America cuz they can't harvest their own. So there might be a buyer/shipper for that