Is going out of town profitable?

[logantree]

Is going out of town on storm clean up profitable? I'm not talking about FEMA work, or contract work, just basically going from door to door. Wingin' it. I've started to head to some of these ice storms and see if I could make any money, but I always chicken out. I'm not interested in screwing people in a time of need, but it looks like you could make a good bit of money just charging a normal rate, because of the quantity of work. Just wondering if anyone had any advice/experience.

Thanks

 

[gr8scott72]

Is going out of town on storm clean up profitable? I'm not talking about FEMA work, or contract work, just basically going from door to door. Wingin' it. I've started to head to some of these ice storms and see if I could make any money, but I always chicken out. I'm not interested in screwing people in a time of need, but it looks like you could make a good bit of money just charging a normal rate, because of the quantity of work. Just wondering if anyone had any advice/experience.

Thanks

I made about $9k in 11 days in the Houston area after Ike just grinding stumps. I'd have to say that it was worth it.

 

[Mikecutstrees]

when your on the road like that how do you support the equipment. I mean like if the stump grinder needs it's teeth resharpened how do you do that on the road? Do you just bring alot of other sets of sharp teeth?... Mike

 

[gr8scott72]

when your on the road like that how do you support the equipment. I mean like if the stump grinder needs it's teeth resharpened how do you do that on the road? Do you just bring alot of other sets of sharp teeth?... Mike

I use the sandvik wheel/teeth and don't sharpen them on the machine anyways. I left with the set on the wheel sharp and went thru basically one full set and broke about 4 or 5 iirc. I brought all I could but still had a part break that had to by overnighted saturday delivery and hed one other o-ring go out. Other than that just a lot of diesel and a bunch of grinding.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I question the term "normal rates". Do you mean normal charges for regular treework at home, or do you mean your normal charges for storm damaged treework done on the road? It certianly cost more money to operate away from your home area. You have travel expenses, food and lodging, and any problem or break down tends to cost more to fix on the road than at home.
I also find that storm damage tends to be more dangerous than the normal "day to day" tree work. Trees leaning on other trees, lots more widowmakers, the stress of longer work days and the constant pressure to pack as much work as possible into each day so as to make as much money as possible before the work runs out. All of these factors increase the risk of having some kind of accident. You should charge a higher price for the higher risk.
Yes, you can make good money on the road doing storm work without "ripping off" the customers. Just don't rip off yourself by trying to charge normal home rates while doing storm work on the road.
Rick

 

[logantree]

VA-Sawyer, thanks for your reply...I've never been sure exactly what to charge going out of town like that, but I figured it would have to be more than normal rates at home. Can you just wing-it though? No contracts or anything, just door-to-door.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[B-Edwards]

Logantree I can hook you up with some work in Sparta NC area. I got out of it this year and the phone is still ringing. I am pretty sure I have seen you in Independence VA, so it's not that much further. I wont promise work but like I said my phone is still ringing.

 

[logantree]

B-Edwards, That would be great. Independence is a bit far, but I don't mind as long as the job is big enough to pay for the ride, or if the customer is willing to pay for the ride. Independence is about an hour maybe a little more from my house, but not too far from where I park my chip truck in Hillsville.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

You can calculate how much extra you will need to charge by running a few numbers. Out of town work is harder on the crew, mainly because of the longer hours worked, but there are often other personal issues caused by working away from home. Plan on a higher than normal payroll.
Say you plan on working an ice storm a days drive away, that means 2 travel days of payroll with no income. Don't count on making any money the first day on site either. ( It takes time to figure out where to set up home base, get jobs lined up etc.) If you plan on working the storm for 2 weeks then you have to make the money for 14 days of expenses in 11 working days. Figure meals and lodging for the crew X 14 days. Two days of travel expenses for equipment. Depending on the season, you may need to factor in weather days as well. Add everything up, divide by the number of working days, and you know how much more you will need to charge each day to make money like back home. One thing that offsets the extra costs is 12 to 16 hour workdays of very steady ( sometimes overwhelming! ) work.
About contracts.... YES! Get carbonless 2 or 3 part custom printed ones to serve as combo bid sheets/contracts. Include your insurance info and home contact info as well. Have flyers printed up, 5x7 or 6x8 size that gives more details about your services than your business card does. You can leave these at homes you think could use your services. These work fairly well even if nobody is home when you stop by. Try to include 2 cell numbers on the flyer to reduce losing customers due to busy signals.
Driving through a neighborhood looking for jobs and knocking on doors is OK as long as your initial image is that of a professional outfit. If you can get a good size job or two in a nice neighborhood, do it in as professional way as possible, for the best price you can give them. Nothing works better in your favor than a good reference from your customer to their neighbors.
Rick

 

[mpatch]

out of town prices

I have been away from home doing storm work since Sept. in LA, TX and now AR. The weak economy is not helping. We are lucky if we can get $70 a man hr. as of late. A lot of lawn care guys went out and bought tree gear and are now trying to be a bonafide tree company. The money was a lot better in LA and TX. It's very competitive, know your sh!t and do quality work at a fair price and it will work out.(I hope)

 

[GLOBOTREE]

Finders Keepers

Dont chicken out man, remember you only live once! I have responded a few times to a major storm path, yes it is very good for business. You can do good in a short period of time. I responded one day to this one customer who turned out to be in desperate need, I was sub contracted to do the work by his general contractor( he was actually desperate). I charged normal rates no problem, why not? the next guy would have. Funny thing happened there though! this guy left his helmet in the ditch, it was a major storm so there was debris everywhere. We picked it up and one of my men was wearing it, and this guy literally had a fit, he was cryin'! awwww! I told him when he was getting violent to get off of my site, Finders keeprs!That job paid $2500. one job!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

As said above you need to budget, and have some working capitol before you roll out.

Cost will depend on how many people you can put in a room, and how you want to eat. Murphy likes getting a suite so they can cook in, conversely I like cheap diners so I don't have to put the time into cooking.

For myself, I figure around $100-140 per day just to live on the road. The hotel cost is the biggest part, if there is a Waffle House near by i can get away with around ~$20 a day for food. Fuel getting there is a big kicker too.

Getting into a storm well after the initial event is problematic, for the best money you need to get in there withing days of the roads opening. make deals on your first few jobs and word of mouth gets the ball rolling. If you are a few weeks out from the event, then hooking up with a local is a good way to go, you will mostly be chasing hangers by this time. Most of the urgency premium is taken up.

Demographics is a big problem fro the carpetbagging tree company. You need some local help telling you where to go to get started. The offering them a referral fee, or equal donation to their church or school....

If you are running a crew of any size, you need a sales puke/coordinator. Backlogging 2-3 days is good, but longer then that is unreliable.

There is more urgency in getting stuff off roofs; contract for hazard mitigation and a return to finish less hazardous work at a later date.

Higher end customers are often willing to pay for chipping, and it is easier on the crew then staking 10 ft high. I've chipped brush and stacked logs on some jobs, though often it is not worth dragging a chipper all the way in on huge storms.

Which brings me to the supply/demand curve of storm work. Small storms it is not worth the time to travel to. It needs to encompass several counties. A good indicator is how many people are without utility service.