Business Goals

[sequoia20]

Going over stats from this season. what have you noticed over the years? Has one piece of equipment increased production noticeably. How about going from a two man operation to a 3 man crew. In our climate we have about a 8 month (harvest time) mid march to mid november. the other is gernally spoty work and equipment matainence. So the eight months hopefully is full time, factor in one week vacation so 34 weeks = 170 work days for sanity reasons we try not to cut on weekends but still do estimates.
some days two man can knock out 1500 or 1600 other days a 500 a half day 95degress that day, then down pour another day and only get a 300 trim in. Factor in the other winter four months when some money is made. It seems like 170000 for a season is achievable. (2man crew) location changes price alot well done rambling I'm not used to having extra time to think. do you have weekly and seasonal number goals?

 

[treeman75]

Definitely doable, round it up to 200k and see how close you can get. Its important to have goals both work and personal. One of mine is to put more money away and not live so high on the hog during the busy season. Im going to try to bring my lunch more and not eat out as much.

 

[teamtree]

IMHO.....a three man crew is 50-75% more efficient than a two man crew, especially on removals, add a 4th if you have a small dump truck/trailer to haul the big wood...so 3 guys are on the job at all times. You will get more done over time...thus increasing revenue at a higher rate than expenses.

Going from 1 crew to 2 crews is the hardest thing to accomplish. I have had most of my success with one crew....when I have added a second crew...I have lost money becuase I could not control efficiency and quality. When I can stay with a crew, there is a sense of urgency to get jobs done under budget.

Take care of the customers.

 

[mckeetree]

Going from 1 crew to 2 crews is the hardest thing to accomplish.

Yes, it is. We have over the past 28 years worked from one to as many as three crews not counting a guy or two that was strictly doing PHC. We have done the best with just the one crew set up and then a one to two man crew just doing PHC.

 

[teamtree]

I would do well as well by sending a guy (or myself) to do small jobs like PHC or stumps. It is just hard to schedule steady work and have everything to fall in place.

 

[sequoia20]

Definitely doable, round it up to 200k and see how close you can get. Its important to have goals both work and personal. One of mine is to put more money away and not live so high on the hog during the busy season. Im going to try to bring my lunch more and not eat out as much.

200k would be averaging about 1200 daily in season. maybe if you stay motivated and the right calls come in. Our area the average home value is about 95000 to 100000, not sure what your is. Stopping for lunch 170 times on work day at 8 bucks is $1360 well worth getting in some ac in the summer

 

[sequoia20]

Fp

IMHO.....a three man crew is 50-75% more efficient than a two man crew, especially on removals, add a 4th if you have a small dump truck/trailer to haul the big wood...so 3 guys are on the job at all times. You will get more done over time...thus increasing revenue at a higher rate than expenses.

Going from 1 crew to 2 crews is the hardest thing to accomplish. I have had most of my success with one crew....when I have added a second crew...I have lost money becuase I could not control efficiency and quality. When I can stay with a crew, there is a sense of urgency to get jobs done under budget.

Take care of the customers.

If we had a removal everyday 2 ground man would be the way to go. sound like second second crew is more stress than worth. Even going from 1 ground man to 2 or 3. I would not like the estimates. Selling that much more work. Do you own the biz but have someone else running down the estimates? Just a stat questions, how many estimates does you biz do in a year?

 

[treeman75]

200k would be averaging about 1200 daily in season. maybe if you stay motivated and the right calls come in. Our area the average home value is about 95000 to 100000, not sure what your is. Stopping for lunch 170 times on work day at 8 bucks is $1360 well worth getting in some ac in the summer

I pay my two guys for the hour lunch so its 28x170=4760 and I seem to get stuck buying lunch too. I dont mind the guys taking breaks but was just thinking of eating at the job site to save some time and would be eating better also and AC makes ya lazy.

 

[imagineero]

Kinda surprised by the low numbers being put out there, I guess the cost of doing business is a lot lower in the states than it is in aus. Profit is about the same though (very little!). A 3 man crew in aus costs about $140,000 in wages alone here, with workers comp being another $20,000 on top of that. A truck and chipper will cost about $40,000~$70,000 to keep on the road with registration, insurance, fuel, taxes and maintenance. You'll probably spend $10,000~$20,000 on saws, ropes and rigging and miscelaneous stuff. The basic cost of running a small single crew company is easy a quarter million here before you even make your first dollar, and can be a whole lot more with breakdowns etc. A small crew needs to be turning over $300,000~$400,000 before it becomes viable. Any less than that, you're better off selling up and going to work for someone else for the same money and half as many hours per week.

Shaun

 

[teamtree]

Kinda surprised by the low numbers being put out there, I guess the cost of doing business is a lot lower in the states than it is in aus. Profit is about the same though (very little!). A 3 man crew in aus costs about $140,000 in wages alone here, with workers comp being another $20,000 on top of that. A truck and chipper will cost about $40,000~$70,000 to keep on the road with registration, insurance, fuel, taxes and maintenance. You'll probably spend $10,000~$20,000 on saws, ropes and rigging and miscelaneous stuff. The basic cost of running a small single crew company is easy a quarter million here before you even make your first dollar, and can be a whole lot more with breakdowns etc. A small crew needs to be turning over $300,000~$400,000 before it becomes viable. Any less than that, you're better off selling up and going to work for someone else for the same money and half as many hours per week.

Shaun

I would say you are right on the money Shaun. I felt like I needed to be around 300k to run the business with no financial worries. $250k was about where I was at usually.