Ok. I found the thread, thanks for the glowing comments guys.
Regarding chippers: call Vegetation Management Services in KCK, buy a Bandit chipper. New or used, it will still be better than a Vermeer.
No, you won't find us too much on the Kansas side. Everybody and his cousin is marketing to the "rich" side of KC, and the competition is fierce. There are too many schoolboys over in Overland Park that mow lawns for themselves, so the prices are too low. I go anywhere the customer is willing to pay a fair price for reliable service.
Much of my work is for corporation and government agencies, anyway.
In my experience, schoolboys that have been doing their own lawns for 3 years do not make good long term employees. Particularly 18-year-olds that "know all the in's & outs of the business" and are accustomed to answering only to themselves. Let's face it, you have a goal, and you are pursuing it. I think that is a fine plan, but I suggest that you abandon your plans for forcibly branching out into tree work. It isn't the big money you think it is.
When one of your customers has a small job that you can handle, feel free to take care of it. Spend some time learning about pruning, and get some good pruning tools. If it grows into more work...Good!
1. You simply shouldn't try to do aerial tree trimming by yourself, particularly with your limited experience. You can get in enough trouble with your feet on the ground. Most of the more successful lawn services in town love to sell landscape pruning, without ever climbing a tree. They send out their fleet of mexicans armed with a Stihl power pruner, and they do pretty good business. Sadly, their pruning usually leaves a bit to be desired.
2. Paying for chippers and specialty trucks to haul them is a full time job. Insurance to cover this kind of operation CANNOT be purchased for "part time" work, so you need high enough revenue to cover the expenses. This is not consistent with your goals of going to school.
3. It is a common thought that tree work is big money, and lawn mowing is just drone work without getting the big bucks. Haven't you noticed all the ratty little trucks running around OPK with the name of some tree service stuck or hand painted to the side of the pickup? There is just as much competition for tree work as there is for lawn work, with this singular difference: you have to sell each and every tree job. The lawn work is regular, and keeps coming back year after year.
4. Those tree customers you work so hard to acquire will expect you to drop what you are doing and take care of them the day after they call. If that means showing up for that fallen branch during December finals when you simply can't go...too bad, they will call me, and then I will have their loyalty. Tree customers generally have higher expectations for quick service, especially if they have an emergency.
I hope this has been helpful. You sound like a pretty ambitious young fellow, and I wish you well.
While pricing $40,000 chippers?
