Great Day :):):):)

[Lumberjack]

Had to remove 2 trees in a neighboring city today. 1 shagbark hickory and an oak. They grew together, and neither one was big. The realtor said that the homeowner said that there was 1 tree in the yard (kinda sad to not know that there were 2). Anyway I made (profit) $115 and hour, for 4 hours. Thats almost 2 dollars a minute! Wish I could make that workin in air conditioning, at this time in my life.

I am ready for buisness to pick back up to where I have the huge backlog.

I gonna be ready this spring for it, fast effecient, and TCOB.

Days like today make me smile

Carl

 

[Stumper]

Congratulations Carl. Not to nit pick.....well yes to nitpick-I bet your profit was considerably lower than you stated. I don't mean that you were unable to do the math for your immediate expenses. I do mean that profit is pretty elusive stuff. Operating costs wind up consuming great quantities of superficial 'profit' over the course of a year. Nevertheless it sounds as if you had a very fine day and I'm happy for you.:angel:

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Stumper
I do mean that profit is pretty elusive stuff. Operating costs wind up consuming great quantities of superficial 'profit' over the course of a year.

Got that right. When I get a big check I smile, then I think about rain days and eqpt, ad, admin, training costs, and I still smile but not as wide.

 

[Ax-man]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
Got that right. When I get a big check I smile, then I think about rain days and eqpt, ad, admin, training costs, and I still smile but not as wide.

Right on, it seems that the cost of just doing business is on the rise and trying to make fair return on the dollar for a profit is getting more elusive than ever.

 

[MidwestTree]

I agree with the fact that the cost all add up. But an hourly charge is very different by location. To look at different tree companies in different locations you see a wide difference in what they can get out of the client and what their overhead is. My opperation is in small town USA. My overhead is low, as well as my insurance and labor. But on the other hand my rates are lower than many that I have seen on this site. I guess what we all need to look at is net dollars opposed to gross dollars. If a company brings in 500,000 a year but needs 499,999 to opperate, then the company bringing in 10000 and opperating on 5000 is a better company.

Stumper, don't get me wrong. I was talking with a friend, that is in the green industry, about this same thing at breakfast. We were talking about a site that he is on in which there is alot of discussion about profits but he said that there is never a true understanding of the different input costs from location to location.

 

[Tree Machine]

It ain't always what it seems

Good point, Stumper. Profit is pretty elusive stuff, especially if you have a gear addiction. I thought I did great making $90,000 last year, but my wife, after looking at the end-of-year statements told me I made about fifteen bucks an hour. My gear vendors did OK, though. -TM-

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

You need to cound shop time, but the time taking pictures to post here does not count

Seriously though, one needs to buget and then save big ticket neat but unnessesary purchases for December when you know you have a writeoff


Now I will be serious, with a startup company it is hard, but a sole proprietor needs to pay himself a wage/salery, not just for a wrietoff, but to make a realistic budget.

Say you work 200 days per year in production with an average of 6 hours a day. But you do 10 hours a week on general maintinance and 20 on off production customer service, office and sales.

So you would need to pay yourself $25/hr to make $33k per year you need to bill out at leat $28 for you time alone.

If it is a hobby or secoondary income then the proffit=pay outlook is fine, but if you are a real buisness it can be disaster.