The boss is skipping town on everyone

8433jeff · Feb 15, 2013

greendohn said:
FTA, I have work for you in Indy!! Sorry if'n I have posted in the wrong thread,,

I have a 38"-44" stump which needs ground. It stands about 6 feet high. I have an atv lift we can mount your stump grinder on so you wouldn't have to climb. Leave your Partner, climber, company owner, your two or three other personalities and salesman in Cali.

I also forgot to trim my Asparagus plants last fall, could you please help?

Asparagus is serious business, it ain't some piddly ass tree, you know.

jh35 · Feb 15, 2013

lumberjack333 said:
I just get the 12ga. out with full choke and 00 buckshot. Great for limbing and topping....

Funny you mention that. The SIL of the farm owner where I used to work was not getting good reception on his satellite TV in the mid 90's. I told him to get me some 12ga buckshot and I could probably fix the problem.

The walnuts were getting heavy and bringing the branches down to interfere with the signal.

Two shots and it helped a little. Not a permanent fix but I told everybody jokingly that I was in the satellite repair business.:msp_biggrin:

lumberjack333 · Feb 15, 2013

jh35 said:
Funny you mention that. The SIL of the farm owner where I used to work was not getting good reception on his satellite TV in the mid 90's. I told him to get me some 12ga buckshot and I could probably fix the problem.

The walnuts were getting heavy and bringing the branches down to interfere with the signal.

Two shots and it helped a little. Not a permanent fix but I told everybody jokingly that I was in the satellite repair business.:msp_biggrin:

Not that I'd really do it on a professional job, but on a buddies farm somewhere... I wouldn't hesitate haha!

ForTheArborist · Feb 15, 2013

One door closes, and other doors open.

So bottom line is the boss's chit hits the fan, and we all drop him like some no-strings-attached, free tickets to the cyanide sauna. I then threw the company's reigns to the new climber/business guy to see what he's going to do with them, and I find out he's our new investor with marketing skills. The old boss did take our offer of 20% commission for the salesman position this morning, and we can use any of his tools and lic. # if needed for no charge at all. He's being very cooperative. I dished out several hundred dollars to him off of what he owed me, so I have to guess that I've bought all of his doubts about my scruples with that money.

One key element in all of this has been naturally first the ability to do the actual work safely and efficiently, but the real clincher has been just resisting any temptation to be corrosive characters. I believe that by just being non corrosive characters for hire as a unit we can get a lot of positive attention in this market. It seems like folks like paying the guys that are helping to build the community that they have committed much of their lives to building...not debasing it with their money. Based on all I've seen in my career the identifiable, credible behavior shows credible character over time which does raise the value of any services that we can extend. So that's kind of the corner stone of what we building.

What was really disappointing to find out was that the old boss was not doing his job by finding more work or picking up his checks to pay us. I knew he had been dropping the ball just based on his behavior last week, and it was making me very edgy. So during today's meeting with him I find out he hasn't done any sales work in the past month. He's just been receiving calls from repeat customers and referrals. That is incredible that he has his thing down so well he can just sit back, take calls, and make money. So no problem with that one.

The last problem to fix in all of this was matter of liability. It's kind of like a "who wants the dead dog" sort of scenario. Nobody does, because it's risk. Technically though insurance companies make big money off of liability deals all the time. The old boss bought the fact that he would not be liable for anything under any circumstances, but the real deal in it is that who ever takes the responsibility for liability into his own hands stands to profit the most. If this new guys uses some of his credit towards the company, buy's the policies out of his pocket, he gets the top end of profits.

Mean while I make my daily salary for continuing to hone my skills, I build my own credit, and this company is building its infrastructure.