Contract climber rate?

[Wwallace52590]

So this past weekend I got “hired” to “help” a guy with a couple tree jobs. I’m slow right now so I messaged some people I saw advertising tree services letting them know I could help them on saturdays and that I had my own equipment.

The guy showed up in a ford focus packing 2 saws in his trunk…. That’s it’s. We used all my equipment to do the jobs (ropes, pole saw, blower ect.) he paid me $200 and while I was kinda upset it was my fault for assuming I was going to be working for someone more experienced than me.

My question is what should I ask for next time, I’m sure this guy will call me again because he damn sure can’t do this stuff on his own, he has less experience than me (which is saying a lot I’m very green). I was thinking about asking for a split of the job but the I’d be waiting on him to get paid and I don’t know the guy that well. Should I just ask for a flat rate? Like 5-6 hundred bucks or something like that?

I know that’s a hard question to answer if it can be answered at all but any advice would be helpful.

 

[BlackBikeDave]

My tree company friend told me $400 to $700 a day as a contract climber. That's a day rate and not hourly. I'm currently looking for insurance so that I can get that money.
I have similiar story as I "helped" my friend, meaning "I did all the work", take down a good size black walnut in his front yard. Had to climb and piece it all down. All my equiptment, saws ropes and experience, gas to get there and back, ...etc..
Well 200 bucks and a shitty pizza afterwords and he got a great deal. Friend rate that is... Then of course he needed 2 bigger oaks taken down in his back yard which would have been easier for me and he paid some guy he barely knows 5 grand to just get them on the ground without even calling me just because the guy showed up at his house.
Yeah 200 bucks is 200 bucks but after all was said and done I think I got screwed outa more than 5 grand. Lesson Learned I promise you that and hopefully you learned from your experience too. When it comes to money there are no friends in business. Get the monies settled up front and take the guessing out so you know what you are working for. imho
Also do you have insurance?

 

[Wwallace52590]

My tree company friend told me $400 to $700 a day as a contract climber. That's a day rate and not hourly. I'm currently looking for insurance so that I can get that money.
I have similiar story as I "helped" my friend, meaning "I did all the work", take down a good size black walnut in his front yard. Had to climb and piece it all down. All my equiptment, saws ropes and experience, gas to get there and back, ...etc..
Well 200 bucks and a shitty pizza afterwords and he got a great deal. Friend rate that is... Then of course he needed 2 bigger oaks taken down in his back yard which would have been easier for me and he paid some guy he barely knows 5 grand to just get them on the ground without even calling me just because the guy showed up at his house.
Yeah 200 bucks is 200 bucks but after all was said and done I think I got screwed outa more than 5 grand. Lesson Learned I promise you that and hopefully you learned from your experience too. When it comes to money there are no friends in business. Get the monies settled up front and take the guessing out so you know what you are working for. imho
Also do you have insurance?

Not currently no, he said he did but i think that was a lie. My insurance for my lawncare is lapsing in about a month and im going to add tree work onto it.