I don't see why it can't happen.

[Job Corps Tree]

I don't see why it can't happen

My first job in tree work, the boss would meet you on neutral ground a park the forest preserve. He would have all the gear in the back of his pick up and have the new guy go ahead and pick out what he would need point him at a tree and go climb it to trim. some would just walk over and put a leg up , some would go with half the gear we would need, some would go back to their ride and get their gear and do it right. If Bob thought you may work out than back to the shop, if not he would just load up and drive away. His business address was not the same as his shop. worked very well for 26+ years

 

[tree md]

Just had one of my competitors call me asking if I had anything for him to do. He's wanting to contract for me. He's got all the gear and is in the yellow pages as well. I told him I am in the same shape as everyone else, slow. Told him I might use him if things pick up but I am a little funny about working with my competition. I would really rather not share with them my marketing strategies or climbing techniques. He's a removal specialist and a pretty technical climber so I might try him out just to see what he knows. We talked a little bit and he told me that two other local companies when out of business. One just went out of business and another long time area service's owner died 2 months ago. He said both of their climbers are looking for work. The long time service's climber worked for 15 years at the place. Tough times out there right now. I got a call on a tree today as well so I feel pretty lucky to be weathering the hard times.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I never said this and never believed this. Sorry J.P. but you have the wrong guy.

I don't need to meet a guy I ain't going to use again. I don't need him checking out my trucks, my dump, my shop, if I ain't gonna call him back.

It is what I inferred. I'm not saying that you see me as not worthy of trust, but the concept of the climber for hire.

If a guys is good as he says he is but out of steady work, wouldn't he at least pull a little something off that I could drop by and watch and talk for a minute?

If he is truly a contract climber, then most of his work will be with your competition/friends in the area. What I have done is ask if they know any of my clients, and suggest that they call one or two of them.

 

[teamtree]

As a business owner, I am just about done trying to train climbers as an employee. I have one guy that has great potential but it will take him some time to get him to handle big rigging and take downs.

My new concept of running my business is to find good quality contract climbers and pay them the money they need to come in and do what we need. JPS came down a few weeks ago and did a tremendous job for us and he taught me a few things to boot. If he is willing, I would have him come back down in a heartbeat. He is a true professional and there is simply no whining about going up a tree. He could not make it down this week but he referred a guy to me and this guy, like JPS is a true professional. So now I have a couple of guys who I have hired and like to work with and hopefully I can get them in a couple times a year to do some work for us. They both are about 6-7 hours from us so travel is a bit of an issue but they get in get to work and the travel cost can be built into the job.

I am working on developing a relationship with another guy that is more local but once the weather breaks, I hope to get Monkey Man in here to do some climbing for us too.

I have rarely used anyone outside of one guy the last 5-6 years and now it is like I have been opened up to a wide variety of talented climbers and it is like seeing the light for the first time.

But to the point of the thread, yeah...how do you check a guy out? I am willing to have someone come out with us and show us what he can do.

I like the idea of the guy putting the gear on the back of his truck and telling them to grab what they need to go trim a tree in the park. I may have to use that...lol

 

[treemandan]

I'm not sure what you're asking here. Why wouldn't you want him to see your shop and crew? Is it possible that he doesn't want you to see his crew? Good climbers can fall out of work, if I were you I'd pick an easy job to try him out on, one with very few obstacles to avoid and see what he's got. When he straps his spikes on backwards you'll know he ain't your guy.

I was at a loss myself but buddy, come-on, you have to watch who you bring round. You put an ad out... watch out.


Anyway,

Cold calling is how I landed my first job in this bis. Dam it! But I have to say the first went well, good guys they were.

Now its one thing for the guy on the other end of the phone to have doubts when you tell him you are a good climber but its a whole nother thing when you tell a guy you have very little experiance and he hands you the keys to the top-kick and a couple of work orders





Whatever. its true, put an ad out, watch out. Oh boy! Avoid it if you can.

 

[tree md]

As a business owner, I am just about done trying to train climbers as an employee. I have one guy that has great potential but it will take him some time to get him to handle big rigging and take downs.

My new concept of running my business is to find good quality contract climbers and pay them the money they need to come in and do what we need. JPS came down a few weeks ago and did a tremendous job for us and he taught me a few things to boot. If he is willing, I would have him come back down in a heartbeat. He is a true professional and there is simply no whining about going up a tree. He could not make it down this week but he referred a guy to me and this guy, like JPS is a true professional. So now I have a couple of guys who I have hired and like to work with and hopefully I can get them in a couple times a year to do some work for us. They both are about 6-7 hours from us so travel is a bit of an issue but they get in get to work and the travel cost can be built into the job.

I am working on developing a relationship with another guy that is more local but once the weather breaks, I hope to get Monkey Man in here to do some climbing for us too.

I have rarely used anyone outside of one guy the last 5-6 years and now it is like I have been opened up to a wide variety of talented climbers and it is like seeing the light for the first time.

But to the point of the thread, yeah...how do you check a guy out? I am willing to have someone come out with us and show us what he can do.

I like the idea of the guy putting the gear on the back of his truck and telling them to grab what they need to go trim a tree in the park. I may have to use that...lol

The learning factor can not be stressed enough here. If your like me and have done your own climbing for a long time you can get stuck in a pattern of doing things the way you've always done them. Sure you can read about some of the new techniques here on AS but reading about things and seeing them put into practice are two different things. Sometimes it's worth paying a contract climber just to learn what they can teach you.

 

[teamtree]

I can only climb really short fat trees. I would break tall trees and small limbs in half as I go up...probably uprooting a few big oaks too. Imagine an NFL lineman climbing trees....lol

 

[asthesun]

The learning factor can not be stressed enough here. If your like me and have done your own climbing for a long time you can get stuck in a pattern of doing things the way you've always done them. Sure you can read about some of the new techniques here on AS but reading about things and seeing them put into practice are two different things. Sometimes it's worth paying a contract climber just to learn what they can teach you.

i lied about my experience for a long time. i'm sure it was very apparent to experienced people especially at first, but it got my foot in the door. after a couple years of taking direction and watching other climbers, i didnt have to lie any more. i borrowed money to buy my first climbing gear, which i paid back pretty quickly.

 

[Rftreeman]

Some people don't have that kind of drive or immagination. They are the ones that make good employees as they will never own their own business and will work for someone else forever.

Sometimes I would just rather be working for someone else exspecialy when something goes wrong.

every climber i've ever met thinks they're the best climber ever.

They can't be cause I'm the best ever..... at my fat ass.....

I can only climb really short fat trees. I would break tall trees and small limbs in half as I go up...probably uprooting a few big oaks too. Imagine an NFL lineman climbing trees....lol

Same here, 295 and counting......again..... at my fat ass.....

 

[tree md]

I worked for a guy in Atlanta who was 38 at the time, around 5'9" and prolly went 300#. He was probably the most successful tree service in the area. Had 5 crews, two cranes and all the toys. He still took his own crew out everyday and did the climbing. He took the newest of his cranes out and I worked with him a lot. He would use the crane whenever we could but did a lot of technical climbing and rigging as well. He absolutely rocked. I was amazed watching him climb at his size. He would coil his rope up, tie a throwing knot and sling his rope up advancing it in the tree as he ascended. He told me that you can always advance your rope and pull yourself up. I took that bit of knowledge from him and ran with it. I often shoot a line in the tree with a bigshot now or use my pole saw to advance the rope but it's still the same concept. For us heavy guys, it's the most efficient way to climb. Your rope is your friend if you are a portly climber.

225# here.

 

[Raymond]

Yeah see..Where all basically on the same page here.

But I'm to hunger to think for the moment. I will say you work with me, you get to know me. But the thing of it is, I wanna get to know you first. That make any sense?

Can't fix the upper opening line huh?

 

[treemandan]

But I'm to hunger to think for the moment. I will say you work with me, you get to know me. But the thing of it is, I wanna get to know you first. That make any sense?

sure, and let there be no hard feelings.

 

[Raymond]

sure, and let there be no hard feelings.

Oh brother me and you are fine.
We got off on the wrong start but yeah..
You're the coolest thing since peanut butter and jelly.

 

[Raymond]

Oh brother me and you are fine.
We got off on the wrong start but yeah..
You're the coolest thing since peanut butter and jelly.

That ain't what you meant, is it?
Man I need to eat, where the hell's the pizza guy?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Can't fix the upper opening line huh?

Ain't nothing but a thing, I was not trying to bust on you, just pointing out a theme I've seen in the past ten years. There is probably some truth to it, I quit calling myself freelance, because I could not get my foot in the door with it. As soon as I rephrased it to subcontracting it got better. Now there are 5-6 guys in my area who do it the same way, when I started there was only Sean Gere out in the Madison area. He has a truck, chipper and a honest to God crew now.

 

[Raymond]

Ain't nothing but a thing, I was not trying to bust on you, just pointing out a theme I've seen in the past ten years. There is probably some truth to it, I quit calling myself freelance, because I could not get my foot in the door with it. As soon as I rephrased it to subcontracting it got better. Now there are 5-6 guys in my area who do it the same way, when I started there was only Sean Gere out in the Madison area. He has a truck, chipper and a honest to God crew now.

My funniest times were when I freelanced. Just follow some tree guy to a job and hammer down. Stress free...If I didn't have such a repeat customer list I would love to get out of town with a new start.

I would only work for other tree guys part time and whistle while I work.

 

[treemandan]

Ain't nothing but a thing, I was not trying to bust on you, just pointing out a theme I've seen in the past ten years. There is probably some truth to it, I quit calling myself freelance, because I could not get my foot in the door with it. As soon as I rephrased it to subcontracting it got better. Now there are 5-6 guys in my area who do it the same way, when I started there was only Sean Gere out in the Madison area. He has a truck, chipper and a honest to God crew now.

we are all lost.
1. I think Ray was reffering to fixing the upper line(title) of his post because he mispelled a word
2. I was reffering to if I go out with someone and they don't like me after the first day -no hard feelings. Of course that's a 2 way street. I only had one guy tell me over the phone that he heard it all before and wasn't interested in my BS. I saw that guy trying to take down a tree , one foot on a ladder, one on a branch ( his lanyard around that branch) and reaching up with a stick saw trying to cut a notch on a branch standing straight up from him. It didn't take so he got a dull 20 and just let it rip ... onto the shruubery. Stanly Pupek of Pupek Cutting service, yer a G-Dam joke. Ok, so maybe some hard feelings but a fair shake is in order it just sucks when every screw-up answers the ad.
I was working at Rick Landis' place, got cut and went on a 3 month vacation. I was doing pretty good at rehab and called to tell him I would be back soon. HE said he hired Johnny from Advanced Tree to fill my shoes.Not only did Johnny ruined a few good saws but he also robbed the shop, broke windows out of peoples cars.

 

[asthesun]

we are all lost.
1. I think Ray was reffering to fixing the upper line(title) of his post because he mispelled a word
2. I was reffering to if I go out with someone and they don't like me after the first day -no hard feelings. Of course that's a 2 way street. I only had one guy tell me over the phone that he heard it all before and wasn't interested in my BS. I saw that guy trying to take down a tree , one foot on a ladder, one on a branch ( his lanyard around that branch) and reaching up with a stick saw trying to cut a notch on a branch standing straight up from him. It didn't take so he got a dull 20 and just let it rip ... onto the shruubery. Stanly Pupek of Pupek Cutting service, yer a G-Dam joke. Ok, so maybe some hard feelings but a fair shake is in order it just sucks when every screw-up answers the ad.
I was working at Rick Landis' place, got cut and went on a 3 month vacation. I was doing pretty good at rehab and called to tell him I would be back soon. HE said he hired Johnny from Advanced Tree to fill my shoes.Not only did Johnny ruined a few good saws but he also robbed the shop, broke windows out of peoples cars.

i'ma call him and tell him what you said
spring city, PA
610-948-6678

 

[treemandan]

i'ma call him and tell him what you said
spring city, PA
610-948-6678

That was the idea whipper snapper

 

[treemandan]

but I think he allready knows.