looking for some info on starting a tree service

[dearl]

So I am wanting to Start my own businness. I have cut plenty tree as I sell firewood in the winter and grew up on the farm. I am trying to put together a business plan to get a loan but don't know were to start on estimating operating cost. I plan to buy bucket truck with chip box 2ton dump skidsteer chipper and stump grinder along with saws ropes other stuff. I live in an area of bout 30000 people or so any help would be great.

 

[flushcut]

I would guess that if you are buying new you need a loan of $350k. Do you have any experience in the tree biz other than being a firewood cutter which is absolutely nothing, not even remotely close to being the same?

 

[dearl]

Not buying new. Planing on good used except for the saws and other small stuff. Never worked as a pro but have experience cuting down trees. I never had a bucket truck or climbing gear if I needed to cut just a top limb I climbed up the tree an pulled my saw up with a rope

 

[VA-Sawyer]

As a Certified Flight Instructor with 20 years of experience, I can say you would stand a better chance of teaching yourself how to fly in a real plane, than learning this business on your own.
Rick

 

[dearl]

Yea learning to fly would be easier since a retard I went to school with is a pilot now. I aint looking for easy or over night. I am simply asking for so numbers to throw around on a plan. I know there's a lot to learn and safety is number one. I grew up on a farm I know you don't do things you don't have the know how to do that's why I am in the planing stage then I'll find a employee with the knowledge

 

[serial feller]

I am not a climber but I am self employed and cut down trees for a living. I also would never go into debt the way you are talking about or assume I am qualified to climb and/or cut from a bucket. Climbers are highly skilled and have been trained by other highly skilled and qualified people. If you attempt to go pro out of the clear blue sky, you are asking to get killed or damage something / someone you can't fix. Do you know how to cut a limb so that it will drop to the left without spinning and land flat in the location you wanted? I don't. Can you fall a tree between the house and the fence with only a couple of feet to spare and not hit a thing but the ground? Must of my work is in the woods but I do occasionally take trees where the house is "in range" or the power lines or any number of things you don't want to damage or kill. As a "tree service" you will see a lot of this. In your business plan figure in at least $2,000,000.00 in liability insurance coverage and a kicker for your commercial truck.

Now about the debt. With a population of 30K how much annual revenue do you expect to generate? Even buying used equipment you are about to be shocked at what the final bill is, and because it's used you will need to count on breakdowns. Even shopping smart you are going in the tank at least $100,000.00. What's the interest rate on a business loan? How many years? I bet your payment is over $1,500 per month and that's not counting insurance, fuel, replacement parts, oil changes, etc, etc, etc. After all of that you still have to eat and pay the bills.

Bottom line is I think you are over your head. I think you will hurt yourself or someone else. Go to work for a reputable company and learn the business, learn the trade, learn the skill. Give it a few years, then consider your own business.

 

[dearl]

I am not a climber but I am self employed and cut down trees for a living. I also would never go into debt the way you are talking about or assume I am qualified to climb and/or cut from a bucket. Climbers are highly skilled and have been trained by other highly skilled and qualified people. If you attempt to go pro out of the clear blue sky, you are asking to get killed or damage something / someone you can't fix. Do you know how to cut a limb so that it will drop to the left without spinning and land flat in the location you wanted? I don't. Can you fall a tree between the house and the fence with only a couple of feet to spare and not hit a thing but the ground? Must of my work is in the woods but I do occasionally take trees where the house is "in range" or the power lines or any number of things you don't want to damage or kill. As a "tree service" you will see a lot of this. In your business plan figure in at least $2,000,000.00 in liability insurance coverage and a kicker for your commercial truck.

Now about the debt. With a population of 30K how much annual revenue do you expect to generate? Even buying used equipment you are about to be shocked at what the final bill is, and because it's used you will need to count on breakdowns. Even shopping smart you are going in the tank at least $100,000.00. What's the interest rate on a business loan? How many years? I bet your payment is over $1,500 per month and that's not counting insurance, fuel, replacement parts, oil changes, etc, etc, etc. After all of that you still have to eat and pay the bills.

Bottom line is I think you are over your head. I think you will hurt yourself or someone else. Go to work for a reputable company and learn the business, learn the trade, learn the skill. Give it a few years, then consider your own business.

You must be looking. At different used prices I figure 40000 tops. And break downs I am a certified. mechanic so only parts will cost. The population is just of the bigger cities not the smaller ones. Never had training from a pro but have cut close to houses never hit one an have cut from the top of trees and am still here. Again I looking for close numbers my estiments show 400 a day on a 200day work year to break even

 

[thepheniox]

Serial feller is right go work for someone and learn the business. You will find that even used equipment costs a lot and then even more to keep it working. You need to account for your time.

 

[beastmaster]

No disrespect, but if you went to a reputable tree company and told them your experience, you might get hired as a groundsman or if lucky a trainee. So how can you honestly offer your service to the gullible public as a tree professional? You plan to do on the job training learning while you make mistakes on their trees, destroying their property? That doesn't even seem honest to me. You'll be misrepisenting your self from the start. Look who's calling who a retard. Beastmaster

 

[dearl]

Ok I got yall all figured out you either work for someone an aint got the balls to go it on your own or own your own business and don't run a good enough business that ur threatened by someone in another state that being said on my lack of experience I'll just hire someone like you with the knowledge

 

[serial feller]

Listen here you mental midget, It aint about who does or doesn't have the balls. Pay attention. This is about destroying property that doesn't belong to you and some inexperienced bozo dropping a tree into a nursery and killing the sleeping kid inside.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

You need to reread my post... I said it would be worse than learning to fly on your own. As in without the instructor! As for the idea of hiring someone with the needed skills to work for you, expect him to cost about $250 to $300 per day.

Certified mechanic.... certified at what exactly ? Even 15 or 20 years experience at a car dealership won't teach you what you will need to be able to safely fix your equipment.

I think I'll start a brain surgery clinic next month. I have applied first aid cream and band-aids in the past so that should make me qualified for doing brain surgery. Anyone know how much I will need to borrow to get this new business off the ground ?

Rick

 

[serial feller]

How are you going to determine if your skilled employee actually is qualified?

 

[dearl]

See now we're getting some were I'll compare the income levels were your from to here to see what the 250 to 300 would be here we are in a lower income area. I am certified in heavy duty truck farm equipment hydraulics and things of that matter I was lead tech shop manager for 3 years if you read I aint old enough to have 10 or 20 years experience. I wouldn't take a job were I would in danger people until I had the knowledge I have son myself so sure wouldn't drop a tree in a nursery as far as telling weather a person had the knowledge I need call their refferances I would say if he wasn't any good they wouldn't tell me he was

 

[dearl]

An I didn't ask how much I needed to borrow asked for operating cost estimate

 

[dearl]

If he worked there and they thought he was good why they get rid of him

 

[VA-Sawyer]

I need to add a powerful microscope to my equipment list for the brain clinic in case I get a customer that thinks he can start a tree business without having the needed skills.
Rick

 

[dearl]

I would call more than one reference. The micro scope would be good by but a flaneless stereotaxy system would give better images

 

[troythetreeman]

im all for you going out on your own and earning a living
this is America
but im telling you man, to sink that kind of investment into this without the basic 101 at the very least isnt going to work
your only shot is to find a guy who can not only do any job, he can bid and sell it too
and nobody, who isnt close to you personally is going to be that guy for you, i would _never_ work for someone i didnt know, who wasnt established and knows less about this business then i do
not unless the idea of my kid going hungry and ending up homeless didnt bother me
no offense man
you want info on equipment prices, start scoping web sites that sell it
then be aware how much DOT is going to cost, repairs, ....
you want info on the best saws, read a few of these forums
no one here is trying to pop your bubble man but there isnt a one of us who just decided one day, i know how to run a chainsaw, im going to invest 100K and go do residential tree work
that you think you can just do this like its easy is belittling and offensive
these guys are right man, work for someone else for a while
that or start smaller, buy some basic tools, go out and find jobs you know you can do, when you get one thats over your head, hire a good climber, if he doesnt have his own tools, he probably isnt good, make sure he is good, if he smashes a house or hurts himself or someone else, its on you
i do work for a guy very much like that on the weekends, he mostly landscapes, if it needs to be climbed, he calls me, i get 50$ per hour cash and were both calling it a saturday well spent
he may own the company, but when im in the yard i call all the shots
if you hire a guy worth his salt, all he needs to know is what the end result is supposed to be, from there he is going to tell you what he needs you to do, not ask you how to do it
i have run my own tree business, it was 80+ hour weeks and all of the stress and headaches....
i made good money, more then i make now, but i didnt have a life...
now i climb trees and i go home, i like it
we have a bucket truck, it gets used once a month, if that, most tree jobs you cant get it to anyhow, and most of the ones you can, i personally, feel safer, and can do it faster, just climbing it
maybe 5% of the jobs we do the bucket is the best tool for the job

 

[serial feller]

Listen to Troy. He's forgotten about more residential jobs than most people will ever experience. Sorry about the name calling, but dropping trees, especially residential work is serious business and should not be taken lightly. Anyone who has been cutting trees for any length of time has seen some scary stuff. Things you never expect to happen do. Trees will behave and move in unpredictable ways. It is experience that minimizes that risk and enables a person to predict what was once unpredictable. Build on the experience of those who have it. Residential work is not the place to learn or make potentially deadly mistakes. No one wants to burst your bubble, but enthusiasm alone will not be successful.