Greetings

[Polly-O]

Hello everyone! I am new to this site and looking forward to learning from you all. Here's my quick story:
I have been in management (IT, Facilities, Project and Production) for the last 20 years. I am looking to make a new career and business venture in the trees. Always having a love for working with my hands/body and cutting, bucking and splitting wood, I have come to the realization in life to do what my passion is for a living. All the people I work with hate their jobs and most of them hate their lives. I believe that you can love your profession!

Anyway, I am in the process of starting a new business for tree services. I have the DBA, domain name and my friend is designing a logo. The equipment purchases are just beginning. I have a Stihl MS271, some used climbing spikes and a small harness, but I think I might buy one of those kits from wesspur.com that I saw some guys suggest and I need to buy a limbing saw before I start my first job.

I would love to hear any advise, wisdom, warnings or encouragement that anyone would like to offer up. I am going to keep my Production Manager job and start out on at nights (after 5) and weekends. I have 4 jobs lined up already and cannot wait to get started!

Thank you in advance for all responses.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

I too am looking to change careers. I was thinking of becoming an IT guy. I know nothing about it, but how tough can it be? I have an old Commodore 64 a buddy gave me, but I'm not sure how to plug it in. Any advice?

I truly hope you're a troll, or you're gonna get hurt.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Hello everyone! I am new to this site and looking forward to learning from you all. Here's my quick story:
I have been in management (IT, Facilities, Project and Production) for the last 20 years. I am looking to make a new career and business venture in the trees. Always having a love for working with my hands/body and cutting, bucking and splitting wood, I have come to the realization in life to do what my passion is for a living. All the people I work with hate their jobs and most of them hate their lives. I believe that you can love your profession!

Anyway, I am in the process of starting a new business for tree services. I have the DBA, domain name and my friend is designing a logo. The equipment purchases are just beginning. I have a Stihl MS271, some used climbing spikes and a small harness, but I think I might buy one of those kits from wesspur.com that I saw some guys suggest and I need to buy a limbing saw before I start my first job.

I would love to hear any advise, wisdom, warnings or encouragement that anyone would like to offer up. I am going to keep my Production Manager job and start out on at nights (after 5) and weekends. I have 4 jobs lined up already and cannot wait to get started!

Thank you in advance for all responses.

>I would love to hear any advise, wisdom, warnings or encouragement that anyone would like to offer up.

advice: be careful!

wisdom: dress well, start with ten, end with ten! think safety!

warnings: don't fall!

encouragement: cut in daylight hours

Bonus encouragement: follow your dreams!

ps: btw, Welcome to the AS! maybe you and The JollyLogger could team up, you know partener down... you want to be a logger, and he wants to be an IT person...

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I too am looking to change careers. I was thinking of becoming an IT guy. I know nothing about it, but how tough can it be? I have an old Commodore 64 a buddy gave me, but I'm not sure how to plug it in. Any advice?

I truly hope you're a troll, or you're gonna get hurt.

> I know nothing about it, but how tough can it be?

can't be too tuff, JollyLogger... I mean, what is there to do but sit on tail end in chair all day, look at screen... surf net, etc. hang out at AS, no?

 

[Oldmaple]

Welcome to the site. Some good advise here. Safety is job 1. Proper PPE is needed. Don't get in over your head, not all jobs are suited for you. Insurance paid, you don't need it until you need it but then it's too late to get it.

 

[Polly-O]

Thank you, Guys. One day I am excited as all get out and the next day I scared. Is that normal?

 

[Polly-O]

wisdom: dress well, start with ten, end with ten! think safety!

Backyard Lumberjack, can you define this, please?

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Backyard Lumberjack, can you define this, please?

dress well: as oldmaple also suggests... don't cut wood w/o proper gear (PPE)

start with ten, etc: don't cut yourself... old adage in carpentry work... saws r notorious for taking fingers...

think safety: if you need an explanatioin on this 'un.. um, imo... go beyond being scared... go think another gig!

 

[BC WetCoast]

A corollary to Backyard's comments, it's ok to fall, just don't land.

My advice, get a job with a tree service as a groundie and learn how the job is done. Why do I say this, you don't have the knowledge to do any proper pruning (how to prune, when to prune, what you are trying to achieve), you don't have the climbing skill to do removals larger than about 20', you don't have the equipment to do anything.

How hard can it be to be a production manager, just sit around in your office, write people up for missing hitch pins, sign some time sheets and scream at staff if targets aren't met. If it was the good old days, you'd have a bottle of scotch in the bottom drawer and be banging the secretary.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

You are planning on starting a new career you have no training for with used inadequate gear. Yeah, that is scary.

I'm assuming you received a little training before you started a career in IT. Why would you start a career in the most dangerous career out there ( you're an IT guy, Google OSHA stats ) with no training?

 

[Polly-O]

dress well: as oldmaple also suggests... don't cut wood w/o proper gear (PPE)

start with ten, etc: don't cut yourself... old adage in carpentry work... saws r notorious for taking fingers...

think safety: if you need an explanatioin on this 'un.. um, imo... go beyond being scared... go think another gig!

After I read the "start with 10..." again, I got it. That is good, sound advice. Thank you!

 

[Polly-O]

Boy, I did not expect anything like those last couple of responses. Thanks for the encouragement. What possesses people to talk to another person like that? You have no idea what I have done and what I do every day, inside work and outside of work. I sure hope that this forum isn't just a bunch of rude people that like to try to destroy people's dreams... SMH

 

[BC WetCoast]

Suck it up buttercup.

This isn't a job where there is time for everyone to have a committee and sing kumbya to each other. There is only so much time bid for each job or you start losing money (fast). If you're on my crew and I suggest something, it isn't a suggestion, it's an order, hop to it. No time or energy for a discussion.

Rude, you bet. I won't even introduce myself to you around the yard until you've been there 3 weeks, because 90% of the people can't handle the job and quit.

Yah, I'm the mean old miserable prick, who charms the customers.

 

[Polly-O]

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Polly, there's a difference between rude and brutally honest. Aside from office shootings, no one gets killed in the IT business. Follow your dreams, sure, but you have a fantasy. Pretty much everyone that has responded has either witnessed or experienced themselves serious injury or death on the job. Stop selling jobs and start finding a mentor, get some training.

 

[RajElectric]

Watch that gravity thing. It can hurt you, and others and damage property. Really sucks when you learn about gravity the hard way.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

View attachment 492809

And that reply is exactly why you should hang up your spurs before you ever tried them on.

Gotta be a troll...

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

polly-O

just roll with the punches! take it on the chin. if u r in IT u r no doubt familiar with net and its forums. the buck stops at the top and the Sh*t rolls downhill! u slung it back, and got it back again. this is a warm, sweet near-on loving crowd! but all forums are like that... umm... this! you set yourself up for it, ol' chap... imo, the 'buttercup' response should be taken as a compliment... lol... if he dint like you, he mite have used stronger language!!! lol... it's kinda like if there was a NHRA forum like this... and all the T/Everything Kings where there, too... and low and behold... here comes Polly-O: hello everyone, I just got me a new set of tools from Walmart, a welder from harbor freight... got me some leather boots... and I been fixin' the neighbor's lawn mowers and edgers for 20 years... and I am going to foller my dreams... and build and race Top Fuel Dragsters!! anybody got any thots to share, advice or comments... what do i need to know about nitro and superchargers! ??? LOL

see what I mean?!

but the thing is you are probably not a careless kinda guy, especially if married with kids! and u said u got 4 jobs in the making, and u are doing a dotcom URL and even business cards with a DBA! and u aren't quitting your day gig! seems a sensible approach to me...

hey man! its your dream, no one else's! learn all u can, discount the flak... consider the helpful stuff. I am sure there are plenty of arborist-type guys, companies that started with less than you have stated in your current equipment crib! laff it off, keep posting, no one is intentionally rude, but many can be forum opinionated. its like the new swabbies in the Navy... 2 days in service on the ship... new boot recruits... and they have to contend with the C Petty Officers and their entire salty clan!!!

here as in the Navy, there are some salts! salt's opinions no matter how they color them are worth hearing... even if a bit crusty in places!!

keep us posted! pix of your operation. you doing the 4 new jobs. the new crews! your new harness outfit, etc... and of course... that first dollar, you earn as a newly minted arborist, too!

ps: oh, yes! pix, lots of pix... the new saws... all the new saws! truck with co logo on side, too! that sort of thing. and wood, as well... few here if any don't just totally love pix, lots... of wood and saws!!

newly minted arborist's first dollar is green, too!

 

[Polly-O]

And that reply is exactly why you should hang up your spurs before you ever tried them on.

Gotta be a troll...

Not a troll at all. Just a guy that knows I don't know much at all, but wants to make a go at it and looking for wisdom from the masters.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Well, you got it, you just don't like it. You can learn a lot of things on the web, but climbing and tree care just isn't one of them. We are here to help, and are happy to answer questions, but if you're looking for our blessing to just go out and start climbing trees with no training, not going to happen.

A good analogy is your drivers license. Would you be comfortable sharing the road with everyone if there was just a written test?