"so....hows bizness"

Almost 2 months out here. More tree work has rolled in.. But most of the work are small clearing jobs. 2 days work... One days work. One man jobs. My monthly jobs are starting back up from now till spring, so that helps fill some days. Rob is out tidying up a job right now. Making firewood for the HO out of the trees we cleaned up. I am watching the kids. Katy is working today at Rite Aid. So even though I am not working today.. There is income coming into the house and I am saving some money on day care. Once they open burn season up here I will be balls to the wall hopefully. Nice that people are forgetting about their weeds right now and are calling for more tree work. :lol:
 
Other than wanting to strike out on my own, my employer keeps us fairly busy, 45+hrs a week.

We keep getting enough work to keep us going, our bigger customers are the road maintenance co. out here and the Ministry of Environment. They are good contracts, but often we lose out on resi jobs scrambling to get their priority work done. :(

Got a few reports on the backburner and have managed to convince a few other customers to wait until the fall or winter to do some larger jobs so we should be skookum.

Although, there is definitely a niche for a fella like me to strike out on his own. Especially with a spray tank. Unfortunately, this is just something Imma gonna have to wait on, need the stability with the new little one and such. One day...
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #54
Keep learning from everyone you can while you're in an environment with lots of other tree guys (even if most of them don't know what they are doing). Once you go out on your own it's too easy to become myopic due to thinking you know it all because you never see anybody else doing it any differently.
 
Skwerl said:
...Once you go out on your own it's too easy to become myopic due to thinking you know it all because you never see anybody else doing it any differently.
Click to expand...

Here here! (Or Hear hear!)

That's a big reason why I like to get up with folks in other areas, to see what works/what doesn't and ways to generally improve myself.
 
SouthSoundTree said:
. I'd rather have someone else take some of the unskilled strain, and save my finite allowance of wear and tear for more technical work.
Click to expand...

Thats what I have been doing but then as things get slow you give them work you could do alone so you don't lose them...
I'm thinking my bucket truck and a roll off/ hook lift chip truck, mini, wraptor and occasional doofus from labor ready could be a money maker. Then when the economy takes off I could be in a position to expand financially
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #57
Willie, isn't one of your employees a member here? Does he know that you want to boot him to the curb? :O
 
What are the benefits of a hook-lift chip box?

I imagine if you put it on the ground, you can drive a skidloader into it, as well as dump over the sides. I would suspect that once you have a base of brush or logs, you can dump things over the lip without destroying the floor.



Willie, are you able to effectively transport that stuff, solo, or with family help?



Around here, I have a hard time doing the required rigging effectively without ground support. I could lower it myself a lot of the time, but less effectively, though the landing is often tough due to structures, landscaping, fences, etc.

I wonder about machines over people, but haven't figured out a way that works in my situation, plus the up front cost.




Finding a good employee that has low personal overhead, and a desire for time off, helps a lot. Ben likes tree work, and he does some work for his landlords and enjoys the diversity, as well as being able to be his own boss some days. This helps me a lot. Also, he is willing to put in long days when needed. He just got a bump in pay. I feel lucky to have him to work with, and tell him so.
 
SouthSoundTree said:
What are the benefits of a hook-lift chip box?
Click to expand...

Ease, greater stability when the bin is on the rails vs a cable winch. Saves time. Compared to a pto hydraulic dump, the benefit is that one truck can serve multiple purposes ie; you could pull up a flat deck for logs or equipment, have a flatdeck for spray rig....lots of possibilities.

That is probably the route I'll go when I start my own thing.

The cable winch is nice because it can pull trucks out when they get stuck ;)
 
A hook lift would rock for the reasons you mentioned plus, I could bring chipper and box, leave both, go back for bucket and work. Between bucket and wraptor, I could go up and down as much as needed to prevent huge brush piles. Of course I would need help to bid on the biggest trees or busy roads. With a crew and 2 hooklift beds, the crew could continue chipping while one box is being dumped or loading wood, rakings etc. No ramps needed for mini, mini could load box clear full with minimal effort. Wood, grindings, whatever
 
stehansen said:
I have three guys now and I only work 'em when I need 'em.
Click to expand...

Just what do these individuals do otherwise that allows them to be ready whenever for tree work?

In this economy I couldnt imagine having to keep a crew "fed". Lucky enough to have my brother help me these days, no labor issues for the time being........
 
I have 2 main part time helpers, excluding Treesmith when we link up.

One does industrial maintenance work, the other is a nurse in the ICU.
 
just like a curb, slow down like you need to for tracks or maybe a bucket full of chips. Track machines dont mind that
 
Adds wear to the undercarriage and requires you to slow down every time both ways though. Ramps are an easy time saver, unless you're loading over the side.


Then again, ,we're just takling out our 4th point of contact. :lol:
 
cool, booked till the 14th of october, 4 days are volunteering but thats ok, its career / relationship building with industry compatriots. That and I get my saturdays with my son :D
 
Madly busy which is good, trying to find time to do the Uni work is the biggest issue at the moment! I've got 150 miles of highway woodlands to survey!
 
Greenhorn said:
Just what do these individuals do otherwise that allows them to be ready whenever for tree work?

In this economy I couldnt imagine having to keep a crew "fed". Lucky enough to have my brother help me these days, no labor issues for the time being........
Click to expand...

That's a mystery to me Greenhorn. One of them has a regular job installing garage doors and my deal is on the side for him. He is only working one day a week or so now at his regular job. The big guy works for his FIL in his orchards once in a while but his main gig is with me. His Wife works at a bail bond place. The other guy I don't know. Everytime I call him he's doing nothing. I have told all of them that I would certainly understand if they found something else.
 
Phone call from the doggy in trouble people ..... They are now on a payment plan over the next 5 months ....
On a good note.. The last customer I did this with just sent me their final payment out of the blue.
Just kinda sux. I did a lot of work over there and really could use the money this week :(
Guess I will just go make more..:|:
 
They'd be paying interest in my book.

Picked up another job today, only a day's work, but still, things are going fairly well. Got around a week's worth on the books from 4 jobs, all are within a 5-10 minute drive from each other. :)
 
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