How Did It All Begin?

[Menchhofer]

Would like to know how everyone got started in the tree care business. Do not know if this topic has been brought up before but thought I would give it a try.

I was working in a factory and started cutting firewood to keep warm. This went on for a few years and I decided I would try to remove trees.

I started out placing ads in the newspaper reading "Free Tree Removals". Needless to say, I received many calls daily and I did for a few months cut down trees just for the firewood. Boy was I stupid. Eventually I began to charge $50.00 or so for a tree that took me a day or two to do.

Got laid off with the factory and with the job market needing skilled labor or experience, decided to try to start my own business. At first, I removed only simple trees and began topping also. Actually started to make more money than I made before.

As time went on, the "Free" part of the advertising was eliminated and simply began to advertise as a tree service.
I found myself getting more business each passing year. I went from doing most of the work myself to hiring a groundie and eventually another one. Business continued to increase.

Could not afford a chipper in the begining so I hauled all brush and debris to lanfill. As I received more business I decided could not work without at least a chipper and landfill fees were skyrocketing.

Purchased small 6" Bandit, pulled behind pick up for a few months and unloaded chips by hand. Decided I could buy an old International 1 ton dump truck....I really thought I had something then. Chipper and dump truck..I was in heaven.

The internet came along and changed my entire view. Tree service became tree care. Knowledge became the number one issue. My topping days were over.

To make a long story short, replaced the 6'Bandit with a new 9" Bandit and another newer Chevy 1 ton. Chevy could not haul large amounts of chips from the Bandit so purchased F600 with Abortech Dump bed and eventually purchased 250xp. Should have bought the larger chipper in the first place.. purchased two buckets through the years and remain very grateful to all the people who have helped me out.

Would I do it all again???? YOU BET, in a heartbeat. I only wish I had started when I was 16 years old.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I was in a plant science specialty in high school. Graduated in '83, tried to find a job before that in tree care, but could not even find something in ROW.

Went into the USMC, found I liked it so did another hitch.

I had access to lutility belt, gafffs and a saw so I did removals in NC the few months a year I was in ConUS. Beer & Gas money type of work, simple stuff. Top and flop.

By the time I got out, after 8.5 years, I had started doing a little ornimental thinning. Stayed in the JAX, NC area from FEB-JUL of 92 working for my landlord, bouncing at clubs and bumming on the beach. Got home Aug 8 for my Dad's birthday.

Started doing treework, climbing and dragging, for small companies around here as stopgap employment and weekend work. Did this whilst going through several low level mamagement (indentured servitude) positions. I was telling myself i did not want to do this as a career.

Found the internet, found Pirone, then Shigo it snowballed form there. Fell into a part time draggers job with the local TruGreen branch and within a month I was running the crew, then the "division" of 1.5 crews. Durring that time I found Russ Carlosn's Knothole and realy started to understand what Arboriculture is.

My opinions and gols started to diverge from TG/CL after around 4-5 years and I started to do freelance work, then got my own insurance and have been making a comfortable living with it since (well there was that gig with MCC for 7 months in there last year....)

Would i do anything differently?? Well there was this one lady i should ahve married.... but then I probably would have stayed in the Corps.

 

[treeclimber165]

I started out in lawn care. I bought my first lawnmower (a commercial 21" Lawn-Boy) when I was 13 and mowed lawns after school and then after work as a teen. At 17 I started mowing lawns full time and bought a 36" Bunton and decent trailer.
I think it was the winter of '82-'83 when we had a severe cold snap that ended up killing most of the citrus trees around here. Most of my lawn accounts were in a sub-division that had been built in an old orange grove and almost every yard had a couple (now dead) citrus trees. One of my customers offered to sell me an old chainsaw he had in his garage. I agreed to buy it, borrowed it to go cut down a dead orange tree on the next street, and used the $40 I got to pay for the saw.
I ended up cutting down hundreds of dead orange trees that year and progressed to bigger jobs. A year later another customer had a huge oak split out in a storm and it covered his whole front yard. I agreed to remove it for $700 and bought a brand new 038Magnum to do the job. 3 days and 3+ loads later it was done, but I had a big saw.
I used freelance climbers for anything I couldn't do off a ladder or freeclimbing until I learned how to tie a tautline hitch. I had gaffs and a lineman's belt I had bought at a pawn shop, replaced both with new tree gear within a year. Sold my lawn service at the age of 25 and have been doing tree work full time since.

 

[treeman82]

I started out cutting grass for other people when I was 12. Around when I was almost 15 I was watching the Stihl Timbersports on ESPN and decided that I wanted to learn to climb trees. So I wound up working for a "tree company" who's owner I had known for like 9 years or so. Started working with him, dragged a bunch of brush. Bought a BASIC saddle and BASIC spurs and BASIC rope, and BASIC lanyard that summer when I was 15. Kept on doing my own lawns, and working for the tree guy on weekends and during the summers. On my own I would do a couple of "run up that tree and cut that one branch" type deals when I was 15 / 16. I enrolled in an urban forrestry program at the local tech center in addition to regular school which focused primarilly on tree climbing. I spent the last 2 years of high school in that program. Got a bit better at climbing in there. One of my classmates had met a guy who needed a LOT of tree work done, and wanted me to come work for him as a ground man... but we would split the money down the middle. Wound up partnering up with him for only about 3 months legally. Then I fired him and took over the business for myself because he was not pulling his own weight. Got a LOT better during the year I turned 18. A bunch of customers wanted trees removed from their houses and businesses... so I did it. Bought a couple of new saws that year... (020T, 066 Magnum at 17) 044 and picked up an HT75 for doing a job. Anything I was not "comfortable" with I would sub out to a friend of mine who had hooked me up with a bunch of nice places to work at. By not comfortable I basically mean something that I could do... but that would go a LOT faster if he did it. I enrolled at UMASS Amherst to study Landscape Contracting... that did not last long because I cannot do drafting. So I went from there to turfgrass management, because I thought I enjoyed starting new lawns. LOL! I lasted in that for about a year before I decided it was too boring, and that there are too many people around here that will do the job for a LOT less... and not do the job the right way either. So this past September I switched over to Arboriculture and Parks Management and have been pretty happy since.

 

[TREETX]

Tree care is a first career, not a second, etc.

For me, oak wilt. I used my forest pathology and analytical chemistry background to get into oak wilt injections. From there, tree care via lots o sweat.

Other than a short stint as an analytical chemist, I have always worked with trees. I am only 27 though.

 

[sonny]

was young & was a pecan tree shaker for extra cash in the winter.Came to Cali. They gave me an axe & a list of stumps to chop. When I caught up with the removal crew I could be on it.It was easier than bucking hay & payed well . The rest is history.

 

[DDM]

I was a Brain Surgeon But.......... There was too much stress so now Im a tree Surgeon.

 

[treeclimber165]

Don't lie, Dave. You just wanted an excuse to buy lots of trucks and chainsaws!

 

[DDM]

Busted Again, But True I Do like my Trucks.

 

[Crispin Hoar]

They say the best job is the one you love. I grew up with scouting in the family and did alot of camping. Thought of being a forester but partied too much in school and didn't have the marks. I took a year off, bought a saw and went to work in the woods. City kid never touched a power saw before and had choosen an employer that did not train. Almost starved that first year. I did learn that I didn't like cutting trees down. Then got into silviculture and took a professional forestry course. Being a city kid and working in the woods I started to cut trees in back yards. You know the type nylon rope tied from waist to chain saw, use legs to hold onto tree and cut. I am lucky to still be here. I saw an ad for a tree climber and applied. They were impressed that I could tell the species and could fell trees. One day I was in the office and saw a bookshelf full of tree related books. I asked the boss if I could take one home to read? Only if I brought it back the next day. That night I read it cover to cover. The next morning the boss could not believe I had read it all amd wanted to take two tonight. I heard about some tree meeting at a local hotel and asked to go. The boss said no. I payed the registration myself and took the days off without pay and went. It turned out to be the local I.S.A. chapter getting its charter. What an introduction to the great world of Arborculture not just tree trimming and removals. That was 15 years ago. Today I work for the "City of trees" and do almost all of the climbing. It is true the best job is the one you love. After work I come home and climb with my kids. They are 8 and 10 and think this is fun not work. I hope to climb until the day I die.

 

[treeclimber165]

Welcome to the forum, CH. Glad to have you aboard. I hope you enjoy it here, sounds like you will fit right in!


Looking forward to more posters in this thread, this is interesting!

 

[ORclimber]

The short version

I grew up hunting, fishing, camping, my eagle scout project was labeling trees in an city park arboretum. Got out of Oregon State with a degree in forest management and after several seasonal, temp jobs decided it wasn't for me. Answered an add for a groundman/climber trainee for Morton Tree Service in the Oregonian and was in the hooks 2 weeks later, and a certified arborist 6 months later loving it. Tried spraying at Pruett thoght it would be more intellectual, but got fat and bored went back to climbing. Learned how to prune at General Tree Service a 1st class company. Left to work for Asplundh and make the big union bucks learned to work around power lines, pulling overhang is fun. I was working weekends with my own equipment and got to a point where I would be working every weekend for 3 months straight and so I went full time.

 

[Stumper]

I'm third generation in the tree biz. My grandfather pruned citrus commercially in Fl. back when the trees were really pruned instead of sheared. My father went into the residential side of tree care after a hitch in the US Navy and a short stint with IBM. I grew up working with dad. I spent a couple of years in Argentina when i 'came of age'and came back to the States and went into business for myself. I started with nothing and still have it! I have moved my business twice. The first move was not advantageous from a business or financial standpoint. The second has been working out better and did get me into an area that I really enjoy living in. Theoretically I would be sitting pretty financially had I stayed where I started but there is more to life than money.-no regrets or at least not many.