Starting a small Tree trimming and pruning business.

[ericklofgren]

Hello! I'm new to the forum, and hope Im not repeat posting by asking this.

I work on a summer trail and fire crew. We have our wildland fire red cards as well as an S212 wildland fire chainsaw certification. We drop large dead Doug firs and other large pines trees during the summer as well as brushing and fuel mitigation.

My question is this. I would like to start a small side business just pruning small diameter trees and branches, preferably with a small saw or polesaw, hand saw etc... No climbing or serious rigging, just basic tree maintenance. I would like to scale up the business as I get more certifications and and take courses.

What is your advice to start with a small trimming business? What qualifications do I need? Any equipment ideas?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[ATH]

First...make sure you know what you are doing. Not implying that you don't! - just saying, if you really know what you are doing, it becomes very easy for customers to see that. Even when customers want their trees topped, we can almost always talk them out of that by explaining how trees grow and why proper pruning will better match their goals.

Ed Gilman has some great resources. His Illustrated Guide to Pruning is great. But he also put some great stuff online before he retired from UF. For example: https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/structural-pruning-flash.shtml

So that link leads me to #2...if you want to work from the ground, really learn structural pruning (young tree training). Often larger companies don't want that work because their equipment is not set up for that...it's hard to make payments on a crane and $150,000 chipper with that. But we've found good profitability. Sure, it's only $30-50 per tree sometimes (sometimes more....), but you can get a few dozen trees done in a day with very little equipment cost.

I'd also suggest learning about Japanese maple trees. These are often "specimen" trees that people are willing to invest in great care and many people don't do a good job with them.

Obviously, the feasibility of both of those will depend on local markets/clients and who else is established doing those. If there is already strong competition, that could be a tough nut to crack.

Work towards becoming an ISA Certified Arborist.

Equipment:
*Felco hand pruners. I like #13. #2 are the industry standard for hand pruners, IMHO. I just like the larger capacity of the #13, but they aren't too big to fit small spots. If you have small hands, you won't like the larger pruners.
*Silky Tsurugi (straight blade, medium teeth)
*good quality pole pruner: Marvin, Jameson, for example. (2) 6' fiberglass poles. 3rd starts to get flimsy up there. 8' would work too, but even in an 8' bed the head makes it too long.
*Pole saw: unfortunately, Silky saws are no longer imported. I really like my Hayate(s). I've used a few power pole saws and I'll take my Hayate any time. The Notch Nobasu is probably a pretty good alternative, but I've never used it. It does have the Hayate blade on it.

If you are just doing small stuff, you don't need a chipper. A small dump truck or a dump trailer (or even a flatbed trailer if you don't mind dragging the brush off) will work well.

 

[ericklofgren]

Thanks for such an in depth answer! I really appreciate it

 

[Bullseye T&L]

In my area, the job description you posted almost always goes to the customer's landscaper (if they have one), or the customer does it themselves. Granted, neither one does the best job, so a good pruning wizard would be a welcome sight to many customers once they see your work. But, in my area anyway, you'll likely have to talk the customer into booting their current landscaper (or themselves) from the role. Just be aware of this going in. I have done it though. I usually tell my customers if it's a tree, then leave it to me, and explain that trees are not shrubs. In the most professional way possible, I am not shy about pointing out bad pruning and the results of it. In some cases, depending on my role there, it may not be an option - if they let anybody besides me touch the tree, I might move on permanently. An example might be a front yard tree in a nice neighborhood that I've spent several years getting to look right, or in a neighborhood where customers know good tree work, and my name is associated with that tree. That's just me though. Even if you're not ISA certified, you should have enough knowledge to be able to convince a customer that they should leave the pruning to you. But seriously look into ISA certification.

The other side to this is that you'll have a ton of calls for simple canopy lift, small dead limb, tall crape myrtle, or "small" tree that turns out to be 40+ ft tall. The tree may have other work that needs to be done, but will be above your height limit. You will be in an awkward position saying that you're not set up to do all of it. Just prepare for this.

@ATH had some great advice. There are some places to focus on, so it can be doable, especially Japanese maples. But, I'd go ahead and at least learn how to climb DDRT and get ready to go up. My guess is, seeing your motivation, you're not going to sit back and leave a tree with a bunch of dead wood up there after doing a fantastic job down low. So go ahead and think about getting set up with a simple DDRT system.

Now you know why I went from Bullseye Tree, to Bullseye Tree and Landscape. By popular request, I now do shrubs too. It's hard to draw clear lines in this business sometimes.

 

[ATH]

Work with some of those "landscapers" (in quotes, because that can mean a LOT of things...). The ones that mow grass and shear hedges. Offer to do the trees without taking any other work from them. Often, they may know they don't know what they are supposed to do with trees, but don't want to send the customer looking somewhere else because that somewhere else may take all of the work. If they know you will only do the trees and still talk them up to the clients, many will be happy to pass of the tree work.

 

[Seachaser]

You need to get a weedeater, couple of mowers, blower, and other landscaping stuff. That’s where the steady work is around here. Unless you’re near the upscale subdivision. Or get into irrigation. Constant work. Good friend built a huge business starting that way. Then he got tied into FEMA. The real money.