One Good City???

[arboles]

Greetings, I live in The Memphis Tn area and we are about to starve to death down here. Were it not for the hurricanes in 2004 we would have went under already. My question is, what is a good city to relocate to for a decent living? I understand the competition thing but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bottlefed89]

That's weird, I bought a chipper in Memphis about a month ago, the guy went on and on about how busy they were, heck they just got new chippers. I'd say with the right drive there is work in most big cities.....

 

[arboles]

Do you remember the name of the company?

 

[bottlefed89]

I'll have to see if he put co. name on bill of sale, or just his name. I think his name was Jason White or Whit, he owned the company, and it seems like it had his last name in the co. name..

 

[Stumper]

Arboles, How long have you been there? Establishing a business takes time. Given the right circumstances and good marketing it may be possible to start up and go full bore at a business while charging reasonable prices and never look back but that isn't the norm. Most businesses fail within 2 years of startup for a reason-IT IS DIFFICULT GETTING ESTABLISHED. If you make it to the five year mark and have done good quality work, staying busy gets to be less and less of an issue. The new headaches involve questions about expansion, rate hikes or other ways to deal with the excess demand for your services.-Even for a well established biz, slow times are normal. If you are busy most of the year a slowdown can be a relief.

 

[Ekka]

Arboles, I know exactly what you're feeling. I had to move towns too as I nearly went bust. We were doing everything pretty good, our advertising was excellent quality but what happened over a period of 3 years was that the number of nubies (ads) tripled! But I did the math.

First of all you need to make sure you are doing the right marketing, if you are doing Yellow Pages (print and online), local papers, flyer drops etc. My marketing expense is approximately 12% of my turnover which is high but ok for us because we mainly do takedowns.

Then count how many competitor ads are in each category, get a ratio for number of ads per households. My search showed Memphis has about 250,000 households. So you get a number, the number of households per tree company that's actively advertising (toughest competitors).

Now your have to have a look at where you want to go, make sure there's trees though! Do the same math and if the ratio is better ... bingo, you'll get more calls per ad.

Don't forget to factor in the average income, your new accomodation expenses, and what the new advertising bill will be etc ... no good moving to a well wooded city full of pensioners!

These numbers should be easily found on the internet.

In my situation, where I was had more ads for only a 1/4 of the households and population than where I currently am now... And where I currently am has more trees and people earn more money. IT WAS A SMART MOVE.

BUT IF SOME-ONE IN THE BUSINESS ASKED ME I'D BULL???? AND SAY THE NEW PLACE WAS JUST AS BAD SO I WOULDN'T HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN! Don't believe everything people tell you, especially when it comes to money.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Many new buisness owners need second jobs to make it allon.

There's a joke "behind every good (enter the trade) is wife with a good job."

There is a big cost to moving an operation, and no surety that you will make it there.

Tell us more about the buisness, maybe we can help from our chairs.

 

[Koa Man]

What Stumper said is true. After about 5 years of quality work and good customer service, you should be able to stay busy most of the time. After 20 years in business, I am always booked 4 to 6 weeks out with NO advertising of any kind. I don't even put signs on my truck or equipment, and for the past 2 years, have only done work for repeat customers and if they refer someone to me.

 

[arboles]

There was a big wind storm here in the summer of 2003. Made about 50k in one week. That year ended with a fairly busy winter. The following spring was dead as fried chicken. The old timers said it was the worst season in their history. A lot of sun and mild temperatures haven't changed things in my camp this winter. I have a half page ad in the YP's that came out in December. Last year I had a quarter page ad. Been in business since 1998. A friend mailed out 20,000 coupons and didn't get a call. Is it the war or are the people here just not spending?

 

[Koa Man]

Hmmm, maybe it is the economy where you are. I still had steady work even during the slow time back at the start of Desert Storm when the Hawaii economy wasn't very good. Back then my bookings would vary between 1 to 7 days out, but I always had work, this is without door knocking. Right now Hawaii's economy is on fire with only 3% unemployment, and a median house price of $495,000. Where I live, in Kailua, median house price is $699,000. Most of my customers are upper middle class to wealthy. You could move to Hawaii, but lots of competition here too., most doing very shoddy work.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

What Stumper said is true. After about 5 years of quality work and good customer service, you should be able to stay busy most of the time. After 20 years in business, I am always booked 4 to 6 weeks out with NO advertising of any kind. I don't even put signs on my truck or equipment, and for the past 2 years, have only done work for repeat customers and if they refer someone to me.

imo you are in a minority big time koa ,i think you have so much work is because a) you obviously do a good job b) you are blessed with an all year summer c) you have a slightly richer customer base, it's not the same for all of us,i have been in the industry for 20 year's and i have been running my own business for 10 year's i know my market and i know how to advertise..but every year get's a bit harder not easier.the work we carry out is 'ultra high quality ' and it's carried out at a reasonable price ,but we still struggle to keep the work book full

imo the industry is saturated with low-ballers un-qualified and un-insured outfits,rates around here have not gone up in year's ,this year so far has got off to a very slow start..around here and a lot of other areas including part's of the USA nothing but the 'PRICE' count's not the quality of work or the experience a crew has etc i too have often wonderd if i would be better off in a differant more afluent area

 

[jamie]

its simple

lose the insurance, lose the signed kit, lose the climbing kit and keep one ladder, a hedge trimmer and saw and go go go

jamie

 

[Ekka]

Hey Arboles

I agree with Rollacosta. Now here's a low risk way to test out a new city.

I run a 1300 (toll free number), get something like that so you can use it anywhere ... it's better than a cell phone number.

Run a newspaper ad in the Trades Services directory of another city and see how many calls you get ... or do a flyer drop... give/sell the lead for the quote to another mob or just burn it ... your choice. But atleast you'll get to know if you're better off.

I used to live on the Gold Coast in Australia. Population 425,000 with about 100,000 houses (do not count flats/units/appartments & high density). It's the tourist mecca of Australia, over 4 million tourists a year! Now if only 1% of those people fell in love with the place and stayed that's another 40,000 bums looking for a job. There's no jobs so they mow lawns, cut trees, wash houses & dogs etc. It was hopeless. Each city has it's own demographics, check them out.

The touristy places will always be tougher. Look for stable family type cities that have propper jobs ... industry etc where people earnd money all year around.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Youve been in buisness for a while. What % of your income come from return clientel?

Do you have a list to call customers from 3 years ago to see if you can give them a free survey to see if they need any work?

If you did storm work a few years ago, taht was not just removals, could the trees be ready for crown restoration and thinning of sprouts?

Successfull busnesses are built on clientel, revolving accounts. Even if they have a 3-5 year cycle, you can make your base budget on these and then the call ins are just gravey.

Send your past clients cards that give them discounts for refferals...

From what I've seen YP adds are not the best marketing tool.

 

[Koa Man]

Youve been in buisness for a while. What % of your income come from return clientel?

That's a good question. A guy that used to climb for me moved to Virginia. he told me 85% of the jobs he goes out on are removals. That is taking away a lot of the potential repeat business. I just looked at all the jobs I did in December, January and the jobs I have already scheduled for the rest of the month and the first 3 weeks of February. 52 jobs total, 46 repeat, 6 referrals, 0 others. 52 jobs may not seem like a lot for most of you, but almost all my jobs are all day or multi-day affairs. I very seldom do a half day job.

 

[Arborbarber]

Arboles, I'm from the memphis area also.Imo the slow down here is caused by a number of things. Summerstorm 03 brought in a large number of hacks to the area and they haven't left yet.Most of these guys are just here for the quick money with no thought to the future.They are more into removals than maintenance and have no set guidelines when it comes to pricing.The other thing I think is causing this slowdown is that alot of our customers have moved to the outlying suburbs,once they get settled in they usually call.Same thing happened after Icestorm 94 although not as bad.If you can stick it out till spring I think you should pull through this.Don't give up on this area we have an abundance of tree's and need quality not quantity services in this area.

 

[arboles]

Thanks for the encouragment. I have an obligation to Bellsouth until December of 05. Hopefully things will return to normal soon.

 

[rb_in_va]

Koa,
Where in Va did he move?

 

[Koa Man]

rb_in_va,
He moved to Fairfax. I think that is the name of the city he gave me. It is very near to either Dulles or Washington National airport. He moved because his wife got a job as a flight attendant for UA and ended up getting based there. He said the company he works for has about 6 climbers, 18-20 groundmen, 2 cranes and an assortment of trucks and chippers. I miss having him. Great personality, no attitude, a very good climber, and you should see him move brush and logs after the climbing is done....you would pay top dollar for a groundman like that.

 

[Gopher]

business and moving...

Well, I moved from one side of Wisconsin to the other (about 230 miles). While I kept a consulting contract I have with an electric cooperative in the western part, I had to start from scratch three years ago.

Believe me, it was and still can be challenging to try and come up with a budget for my family of five (three young boys). I agree with KOA man though; repeat business. Of course, one has to have the customers to start with, but that takes time. The best thing is, though, that good clients want to be taken care of, not the old, "Wham Bam Thank You Mam" approach.

If you have integrity, drive and a decent work ethic, you should be able to survive economic fluctuations.