Has anybody ever made it who did not come up "through the ranks"?

[tree md]

I really don't know who is working with him now, just that he is still in business. Been a slow Summer here. I did about a third of the work I did the previous year for much less money. Competition is tight here and prices are rock bottom. Had one guy bid ahead of me on a job to pick 2 trees over a house for $1100. My jaw dropped when I heard that.

Haven't been on in awhile because my computer was fried. I finally got it up and running again.

Good to hear from you bud.

 

[tree MDS]

I really don't know who is working with him now, just that he is still in business. Been a slow Summer here. I did about a third of the work I did the previous year for much less money. Competition is tight here and prices are rock bottom. Had one guy bid ahead of me on a job to pick 2 trees over a house for $1100. My jaw dropped when I heard that.

Haven't been on in awhile because my computer was fried. I finally got it up and running again.

Good to hear from you bud.

Likewise!

Dont feel bad, this year sucked here too - at least it looks like I'll make it through the recession...that is if it ever ends for working people that is! One of the biggest PITA with the recession for me is that my thing was finally starting to take off after all the years, sales up 40% last year - now this year? I dont where I stand anymore. getting through though, like I said.

 

[defensiblespace]

I wouldn't say I've made it yet, but I am seeing improvements in my business. I got my intro to chainsaws about 15 years ago when I worked trail crew at a ski area. They needed some trails cut that year, so they taught me how to run a saw and do a plunge or bore cut, gave me a safety lesson, chaps and a helmet and sent me out into the woods. I definately learned from my mistakes. I got several saws pinched, but got better every day. I then did some tree removal for another ski area on the east coast after the big ice storm of 97. The trees were all bent over because of the ice and loaded in all kinds of ugly situations. I saw several trees snap and barber chair on other guys, but managed to stay safe and efficient. I moved to CA about 10 years ago and heard about defensible space some time after that. I decided that was an easy thing to get into. I started off with a saw and a truck and now have a Dodge 2500 diesel with a dumping trailer, 3 saws, an atv that we use as a skidder, a pole saw and lots of landscaping equipment as well. I am still waiting tables a few nights a week to pay the bills. A lot of my money goes towards licensing, insurance, education and new equipment right now. I passed my contractor's license last year and am taking my arborist exam in less than a month. The biggest problem here is the competition. With the economy being down, everybody with a truck and a saw is now trying to cut trees down to make a buck. That is why I am investing in education so that I can hopefully pull ahead of a good part of my competition. I just invested in some climbing gear as well and will spend the next several months learning to climb before I bring a saw into a tree. Our other problem here is that we are seasonal. We spent almost 2k on an insurance policy, yet we only are able to work about 6 months out of the year. I took on a business partner last year who has a degree in forestry. We split everyting down the middle. He has been a huge help and has relieved a lot of the stress of trying to figure out the business by myself. The business aspect has been the hardest part, but that gets easier over time.

 

[Mr. Woods]

No apology needed

No need to apologize for running on about yourselves. The human experience is as valuable as the technical advice. I just found this site yesterday while considering if I should get into this business at age 41.
Thanks to all of you for sharing.

 

[ForTheArborist]

No need to apologize for running on about yourselves. The human experience is as valuable as the technical advice. I just found this site yesterday while considering if I should get into this business at age 41.
Thanks to all of you for sharing.

My pops ended about 30 years at the plant at age 47, and he began a tree and landscaping business. He was doing a lot of property management for a few years, and he landed a govt. contract where he has to cut through the Ozark Mountains for several miles to make a scenic trail with all of the seats, bridges, and viewing decks. This job is estimated to take several years, and he is likely to get hired to do the maintainance on it after that.

He's got a lot of saws and heavy equipment after doing this for about 5 years now. The guy is on a healthy diet and has stayed active all of his life with activities like hunting, fishing, and work projects around his homes. For all of the years I lived with him, we were constantly clearing properties of his, so this stuff wasn't exactly new to him. The thing is that he doesn't do any of the climbing. He can subcontract someone for that or rent a lift.

 

[treemandan]

Just in case you missed it in the music thread Plas...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o

Yes, yes it is. Oh my God its a long way.

 

[B-Edwards]

I started as a groundsman for Asplundh at $5 an hour doing R/W and I was happy to have the job. Things were different than they are now. Asplundh lost the contract and I stayed with the new company then they lost the contract and I stayed with the new company again. The fellow who owned the last company was envoled (and I think still is) with ISA. I got my cert before I went on my own and it helped me greatly when I started on my own. I am currently closing the tree biz but it has to do with health instead of failing as almost 2 years after my heart attack the phone is still ringing and I havent advertised ANY in 10 years. I just cant take the stress anymore. But to answer your question yes I know one man who didnt start at the bottom , he married the owners daughter and started at the top and has grown the company to 3 times it's original size , maybe larger. I wont say his name because I am positive some of you know him but again to answer your question,, yeah some have made it who didnt start at the bottom.

 

[treemandan]

No need to apologize for running on about yourselves. The human experience is as valuable as the technical advice. I just found this site yesterday while considering if I should get into this business at age 41.
Thanks to all of you for sharing.

Well I guess since the President thing is over you might as well become a treeman like the rest of us Mr. Bush

No, just joking but for the first post you made a good one.

 

[B-Edwards]

Yes, yes it is. Oh my God its a long way.

This band had a version of that song also, I couldnt find it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzmzQW5ptho

 

[Mikecutstrees]

When I was a kid I would split firewood and drop trees with my dad. I went to school for environmental and forest biology. I ran an environmental center and aquarium after graduating but it changed hands and I was out of a job. So I started working for a tree service. People began asking me to do little jobs and the jobs got bigger and bigger. I taught myself to climb with some pointers from my foreman. I did some climbing at work but mostly did evening and weekend jobs. I bought a DR Chipper on my credit card and quickly outgrew that. Got a nice 6" vermeer which I wrecked about 6 months later and then got a BC1000. Which I still have. Bought my F-450 while I was working for the other company. Eventually I quit and went full time on my own. It's been growing since then. So I definately started at the bottom..... Mike

 

[treemandan]

I guess the first tree-related job I had was working for a local logger in the afternoons and evenings splitting firewood... with an 8-lb maul. After a while, I started running a saw for him, and he taught me how to fell, buck, skid, grade, and sell timber. After about a year with him, I went to work for an old Austrian dude that really knew his stuff. He hated everyone, except me... he was a miserable human being in general. I ran a saw for him, a big Husky (I'm a Stihl guy... does a Husky 1080 make sense?), felling timber, for about a year. After he died, there was no one to take over for him, and his gear was siezed as part of his estate and sold off.

I was cutting firewood, which I was harvesting off the back acreage at my dad's farm, when people started stopping and asking if I was selling firewood. I wasn't, just cutting and splitting for personal use. After the 10th or 12th person stopped and asked, I was in the firewood business. As my name got spread around town, people started asking me if I could remove their trees. I was good with a saw on the ground, and I took on several jobs that I could accomplish easily from the ground. After a while, people started calling wanting to know if I climbed. I was in the process of explaining to one woman that I didn't climb, when my dad snatched the phone out of my hand, and yelled "Hell yeah he climbs, he'll be by Friday!" and hung up on the woman.

My dad was in the line construction biz for 42 years, and immediately took to teaching me the ins and outs of a belt and hooks. Granted, in hindsight, he tought me just enough to be dangerous, as linework and arboriculture are two completely different things.

I started getting more work. I also took a job at the local Agway, where the Nursery Manager was a former tree guy, had his own business back in the day. HE took to teaching me the latin names of most of the Northeast Species (alot of which I have since forgot) and showed me how to climb with ropes, and knots and hitches, and alot of other sacred tree knowledge. I was also handing out business cards like crazy to all the rich people who came up from NYC to spend the weekends in the Adairondacks. The business grew quickly from an old Ford Ranger and a Poulan Pro (it hurts to even mention it...) into several trucks and pieces of equipment, and all the Stihl saws, ropes, rigging gear, and everything else to support the biz.

So to answer your question after all of that blabbering, I dont think so. I think it is valuable to know all aspects of the business for several reasons, and one fo the best ways to gain that experience is from starting at the bottom.

Sorry for the disertation,

T

THANKS DAD!

I haven't read anything this good in years.

 

[TreEmergencyB]

i guess i havnt really made it yet...i dont own my own biz yet...

i started at age 19 dragging brush and loading logs...23 now still dragging brush but alot more climbing and cutting now.

 

[treemandan]

i guess i havnt really made it yet...i dont own my own biz yet...

i started at age 19 dragging brush and loading logs...23 now still dragging brush but alot more climbing and cutting now.

you are on the road to fame and fortune... if you quit right now and go into high finance that is.

I come out the tree, I grab a drink, get the saw dust out my underpanties and start moving debris.

 

[TreEmergencyB]

you are on the road to fame and fortune... if you quit right now and go into high finance that is.

I come out the tree, I grab a drink, get the saw dust out my underpanties and start moving debris.

i know it sucks right...o well cleaning up part of the job as well, if i could i would quit climbing (even though i love it) to cut timber, nothing better then droppin a tree cut it to size and let the machines take over....

 

[Treehound]

I got my start by working for my father as punishment for being bad.

He paid me fifty cents an hour, and seventy five if I sweat. this progressed to weekends and eventually I was climbing for his company. I learned a whole bunch from my father, what a great guy. I eventually left to start my own business because my father wouldn't let me run his company the way "I" wanted. silly man didn't he know at twenty five I had all the answers...sheeesh

My first year in business, I made a hundred and ninteen thousand dollars in ten months. I didn't own a stump machine, and I didn't own a trailer. did I have help? yes I did, and where did that help come from. You guessed it, my father. My father gave me work, let me use equipment (for a rental fee of course) always picked up the phone to answer any question, and did anything he could to help.

That was fifteen years ago, My father has since been diagnosed with lung cancer from agent orange in vietnam. I purchased my fathers company four years ago and merged the two together. I run my company with my father in mind, so when I get someone on the job who wants to tell me how to do things or show me what "they" know I simply step back and say there's always a better way.

As far as im concerned I did come up "through the ranks". My father ranks very high in my book. He helped me grow as a business owner, a man, and a friend. When my father speaks these days it's very soft and my ears are very open. The older we get, all our answers at twenty five become questions at thirty eight.
The sap is in my blood as they say and I love my work. Remember it's all relitive and coming up "throughn the ranks is exactly what I did.

WORK SAFE

 

[RVALUE]

No need to apologize for running on about yourselves. The human experience is as valuable as the technical advice. I just found this site yesterday while considering if I should get into this business at age 41.
Thanks to all of you for sharing.

Get into this business at 41????? He must have already been dropped on his head. (guess the cabinet business is all took up....)
















oh, yeah welcome.. (I know, dirty trick)

 

[tree MDS]

Has anyone ever made it who has not come up through the ranks??

Yeah sure, happens all the time, its one of the latest trends: instant tree service, just add money and watch it grow.

Theres really not all that much to this biz - just buy a bucket truck and go cut the :censored: tree. cut and hold baby! cut and hold!

lol

 

[Treehound]

Has anyone ever made it who has not come up through the ranks??

Yeah sure, happens all the time, its one of the latest trends: instant tree service, just add money and watch it grow.

Theres really not all that much to this biz - just buy a bucket truck and go cut the :censored: tree. cut and hold baby! cut and hold!

lol

lol sooo true

 

[Plasmech]

lol sooo true

After watching Gerry B's "Working Climber" DVD set, I'm 100% sure that there are a MILLION things to this business!

 

[ForTheArborist]

After watching Gerry B's "Working Climber" DVD set, I'm 100% sure that there are a MILLION things to this business!

Well to the highly motivated and high aspirating individuals, there are a million things to it. To the millions of regulars that litter the floor of the tree biz colosseum, there are few things to know.

You can take your millions of things you know, and make it very useful to people for a big payoff. The thing is you have to know how to market your expertise, or never any payoff. Otherwise you can't take what little you know to the people out there, and receive any big payoffs. Just some payoffs.

Just to add my perspective of this. There are two sides to this business. There is the actual treeing skills i.e. climbing, rigging, all of the biological knowledge, and systematized expedition of all of the debris removal which includes management of working hands and machines. The other side is all marketing. Here is where you can put your know how on a jet instead of a chip truck. Any guy can know everything about how to run an operation, but if that guy is no good at systematizing an advertising campaign, it's no good because he doesn't have the clientel to sell it to.

Personally I think the right guys could come to this show, and make a killing. Just like in the food business there are McDonalds and there are Olive Gardens. I think that the reason for the minimal franchising on this market is because it's an unsavory field of work. Stinkin', dirty, gripin', haphazarous.... Cooking food and cleaning restaurants is nothing like this. That is easy money, and it's safe. This is a little like being on the bomb squad.