need opinions

[2ndgclimber]

I thought of an idea today to promote my buisness and do a good deed as well.Was thinking of running an ad in my local paper that for a $5 donation we would come to your house and chip up your christmas tree after the holidays.All the money would go to a local charity.I figured I could get great exposure,keep trees from being wrapped in plastic and dumped in a landfill and help out a charity.So what do you all think.any and all opinions would be appreciated,

 

[DDM]

Could get expensive on the fuel Side of it....

 

[Koa Man]

In Hawaii they have Christmas tree chipping for 2 weekends after Christmas. The organization that started this thing asked the different tree companies to donate their time. I participated a couple of years, but then told them forget it. Hard on my chipper, paid a groundman a day's pay, used up a lot of fuel and only got a "Thank you." No drinks or food provided, no recognition, nothing. The newspaper only wrote about how great an idea this person had to start this thing. The ones who actually were doing the chipping and all the work weren't even mentioned. The first year a news crew came out to take some video and although my truck and chipper were shown, they were careful to not film the company name on the truck. (I now do not have my company name on my trucks and equipment) Christmas trees are not easy to chip. A lot of chippers cannot handle them on a steady basis. We were chipping over 500 trees each day. The Promark 400 I had ate them up. The Morbark M17 choked on them (discharge chute clogged constantly)

 

[hobby climber]

Thats a darn good idea. Helping others & yourself as well. Just make sure that the charity gives you a reciept so you can write it off for taxes!!! A good deed without loosing money. Thats a win win situation as far as I could see. If you want to take your idea one step farther...Call your local news paper or news media and tell them what your doing ... FREE ADVERTISING. See if they would take pictures of you handing the cheque over to that charity and you thanking the people of your community etc. Boy o boy are you going to be tired after the hollidays! :angel: Koa man has a point. So, have the people go to YOU and keep track of your expenses for tax reasons. Maybe have someont else cll the news paper and not you. This way you become the news focal point. Just my two cents...thats all. Good luck with it.

 

[a_lopa]

guy i do them for gives a token to drop them back at his depots all round melbourne to easy.

 

[a_lopa]

Originally posted by TreeCo
I think there a lot of nails in christmas trees.

Dan

yep and alota other crap

 

[Stumper]

I did X-mas tree chipping in conjunction with a local nursery 1 year. We both got a newspaper mention. The next year the city volunteered to do the chipping and let the nursery serve as one staging area. I don't know that it got me any work directly but it was good PR.

(Koa is right-Christmas trees are a pain to chip)

 

[okietreedude1]

OUr city collects them and runs them through thier tub grinder.

City of Tulsa collects them and has a massive burn! I guess thats quite a spectacle.



I have chipped a few for customers that we've been working for but never a town wide thing.

 

[hobby climber]

ideas???

The idea is to get noticed and talked about right? An idea I thought of was to give some of my customers a gift certificate to get $5.00 knocked off the purchase of a Christmas tree at the local Christmas tree farm. That way over the holidays when family & friends are over telling you what a nice tree they have, that customer might give your company a good plug. Also send it to them in a Christmas card with two magnetic biz cards in it for the fridge. If nothing comes of it, its still a nice way of saying thanks. Another thing you can do is have printed in the card that a part of the money they gave you for the work done has been donated to a charity and thank them for making it happen by them hiring you. Now everyone knows that if they hire you to do a job, they get something out of it at the end of the year as well as have a warm fuzzy feeling because they had a part in helping out a Charity. Can ya feel the love! You now have a better write off with promotional advertising & Charity donations at tax time. Something to think about. HC