cost of doing business question

[climber338]

ok so i added up all of my insurances, cost of running all of my equipment and salary for me and came up with about $65 an hour working about 700 hours from now until September when i go off to college. now I'm a very small company and all i have is a ford ranger, 12 foot trailer, 3 saws and climbing gear along with a lawn care half which is very small as well. No chipper yet but i have connections with a larger company that i also work for and he will helping me out allot this year for chipping brush. My total insurance for everything is going to be around $2500 a year and that's including the truck insurance. The rest is all expenses like fuel, and parts for equipment and so on. So after all of that i came up with $65 an hour in order to make a good profit. I feel like this i alittle on the low side and i was just wondering what all of you guys think. Im paying my self 25 hour so that leaves 40 for everything else. Any advise business wise would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[ozzy42]

Depends on a few things.

You did not mention how much experience you have.

Who will be helping you [even the most experienced climber should not work alone,you need somebody on the ground ]

Is the 25 pr hr time on job,time you leave the yard or house?

Don't forget time to fetch parts ,and do repairs,trips to dump.
As well as bidding jobs.
It all adds up.

 

[Blake VP of TSC]

$65 per hour

$65 per hour would not cut it for an actual tree service. It sounds more like you are looking for some work during college and are just starting off. You should always have at least a ground worker with you if you plan on getting in a tree, but if you are just looking to do some basic trimming to add to your lawn business, you could get some additional income from this. There is definitely a need for in between lawn and tree services. Most large tree services can't afford to even leave their office for less than $300-400. But a guy like you can get some good extra $100-200 jobs and keep things reasonable for the customer while you are getting yourself experience.

Bottom line, if you are a legit tree service-you aren't charging $65 an hour. If you are starting up and doing smaller trim jobs, you should be able to get some work in a nice little nitch area.

 

[climber338]

$65 per hour would not cut it for an actual tree service. It sounds more like you are looking for some work during college and are just starting off. You should always have at least a ground worker with you if you plan on getting in a tree, but if you are just looking to do some basic trimming to add to your lawn business, you could get some additional income from this. There is definitely a need for in between lawn and tree services. Most large tree services can't afford to even leave their office for less than $300-400. But a guy like you can get some good extra $100-200 jobs and keep things reasonable for the customer while you are getting yourself experience.

Bottom line, if you are a legit tree service-you aren't charging $65 an hour. If you are starting up and doing smaller trim jobs, you should be able to get some work in a nice little nitch area.

For now i want to fit into that nitch area. im also doing lawn care a bit of landscaping and work 2 jobs as well. 1 with 3 arborists who are really some of the best in the industry (IMO) and the other in construction. Im pretty busy with them but once school ends i wont be anymore because of the extra time. i just want to do the little birch over there and take a few limbs off in the back yard kinda jobs. i have another guy who in insured and is pretty good at running the ropes for a landscaper if i do say so myself. Now that i think about it i may bump it up a bit to about 100 and hour or something like that. i know theres no real set way to charge for tree care but if you keep your expenses down then you can afford to go cheaper on jobs.

 

[tree md]

$25 an hour is climber's pay. If that is all I was looking to make I would just work for someone else to make that money and let them handle all of the headaches of owning and running a business.