small towns vs. metro areas

[Treeinnovator]

from your experience or talking to friends/customers who lived elsewhere, what is a better (or more lucrative) market to be in... the smaller towns or metro cities?

 

[M.D. Vaden]

from your experience or talking to friends/customers who lived elsewhere, what is a better (or more lucrative) market to be in... the smaller towns or metro cities?

50 / 50

Probably depends on the town and what point in time.

3 years in Medford was not very good at all for us.

But I just visited my friend in Bloomington, Indiana, and business has been excellent for him since moving there over 10 years ago.

http://www.mdvaden.com/fowler_tree.shtml

It was cool to visit his worksites with him while there last week. An abundance of well maintained equipment, PPE, lot's of parking.

The environment is different. He enjoys working on that type of urban forest since they don't have to actually climb as much as when he was out here in Portland. The properties are bigger out there, and there are less fences.

I thought that Bloomington area was a very well maintained community.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Probably depends on the town and what point in time.

So true, an affluent bedroom or vacation community is so very much different from some of the semi-rural slum towns that industry has walked away from.

One of the problems I've seen with going into a storm area "blind" is not knowing where the affluent areas are. They do not need to be slate roofs and wrought iron fences, often they are average ranch communities. But if they are all tract cape cods, on postage stamp yards, all needing paint....

 

[arbor pro]

To me, it's not about 'small town or big city' but rather, how many & what type of trees are there to work on? The plains of the midwest is a different arboricultural environment than a forested coastal area. Where there are more trees, you will have more tree services. There will be more work but, you'll also have more competition. In the end, I think it's probably a wash under normal circumstances...

That is, until a big storm hits - then, I think the forested areas will produce more work for everyone working in those areas. The workload probably lasts longer.

Of course, I'm just a small-town midwesterner so, one of you big city coastal guys can feel free to dispute my observations. I'm curious to hear your side of it... opcorn:

 

[arbor pro]

After reading my previous post, I realized that the size of the town/city probably does come into play. In cities, you have better access to rental equipment so homeowners, if able, can rent a lift and stump grinder and do the work themselves. In small towns, the equipment isn't always availble to rent; however, extra hands (neighbors) are usually plentiful.

In the end, I think it all comes down to how you market your business and how much effort you want to put into it. You can be successful anywhere in this country if you just study your market and find a niche for your business that fits into that market. Of course, common sense goes a long ways. If your goal is to gross $1m a year, you probably won't want to set up business in a small midwestern community of 25,000 people with an average annual household income of $40k. Unless you're going to cut down every tree in town in that first year of business, $1m is going to be a long stretch in my stomping grounds...

 

[beowulf343]

What the fudge, I'm gone for over a month, i come back, and the third post i see is by treeminator?? When did he pop back up. And why isn't clearance kicking him back to where he belongs? Jeez, they let anybody in here. How's the home depot rope holding up?


Holy smokes, looking a little further and i see it's clearance that revived the home depot rope thread-what are you thinking, man?

 

[Treeinnovator]

What the fudge, I'm gone for over a month, i come back, and the third post i see is by treeminator?? When did he pop back up. And why isn't clearance kicking him back to where he belongs? Jeez, they let anybody in here. How's the home depot rope holding up?


Holy smokes, looking a little further and i see it's clearance that revived the home depot rope thread-what are you thinking, man?

Clearance is my biggest fan... lol

 

[Treeinnovator]

After reading my previous post, I realized that the size of the town/city probably does come into play. In cities, you have better access to rental equipment so homeowners, if able, can rent a lift and stump grinder and do the work themselves. In small towns, the equipment isn't always availble to rent; however, extra hands (neighbors) are usually plentiful.

In the end, I think it all comes down to how you market your business and how much effort you want to put into it. You can be successful anywhere in this country if you just study your market and find a niche for your business that fits into that market. Of course, common sense goes a long ways. If your goal is to gross $1m a year, you probably won't want to set up business in a small midwestern community of 25,000 people with an average annual household income of $40k. Unless you're going to cut down every tree in town in that first year of business, $1m is going to be a long stretch in my stomping grounds...

see now i think the exact opposite is true. in the rural areas where people live on multi-acre lots, they all have tractor mowers, ATVs, and chainsaws. most are skilled enough, handy enough, or bullheaded enough to take down their own trees if not too complicated. some may even choose to let the tree rot to the ground on the edge of the property than spend the money. the city folks who live on 1/4 acres lots don't have these tools and are too busy working in offices to get their hands dirty plus don't have the room in the yard for a dead tree.

however... and this is why i originally asked the question... i noticed an overwhelming number of you own very large and expensive equipment in the rural areas. is that because rural towns are more lucrative or is it that oit's the only way to handle large trees. in the miami metro area, you're cats ass if you are fortunate enough to own a forestry truck. i think alot of my area (miami, fl) has to deal with lower prices because of the large amount of immigrant labor and people with ladders and pick up trucks. our trees are baby trees compared to everyone else in the country (due to hurricanes and lots of palms).