This business is weird....

[Nailsbeats]

Here's a nice twist. Went and looked at a tree on a house yesterday right down the street from my shop. 40 ft maple uprooted and came down on the roof pinning the service drop against the house. She still had power. Easy job, I can pull the crane right up on it from the neighbors driveway. Probably have to polesaw the limb that's pinning the power line then hook the tree up. 1 pick - maybe 2 to be safe. I figured maybe 2 hrs max with clean up. I told the lady 700$ and she said "wow that is more then fair, my ins. co. is going to pay more so I wouldn't mind paying a little more". I said ok how about a 1000$? She said now that's fair when can you do it..

That's my project for today.
It's nice when customers talk you up instead of down for a change

Took a White Pine off a guy's trailer house roof, same deal. Top blew out, landed on his roof and poked some holes in it. He say's it's an insurance job, get over here right away and charge whatever you want. Dropped what I was doing and made good money before 9 am that day.

 

[tree MDS]

I have quite a bit of equipment to throw at a job these days, so I can price things fairly reasonable and still have a chance of doing pretty good when the dust settles. There is a point when it's just not worth it though, no matter how much you feel like killing some trees. Also, with the cheapo price shoppers (not that I can really blame them), I find a good bit of pleasure in leaving them with "well, just make sure they have the workers comp and all". Lol, I figure this is gives the preemptive shaft to quite a few of em...

 

[tree md]

I have quite a bit of equipment to throw at a job these days, so I can price things fairly reasonable and still have a chance of doing pretty good when the dust settles. There is a point when it's just not worth it though, no matter how much you feel like killing some trees. Also, with the cheapo price shoppers (not that I can really blame them), I find a good bit of pleasure in leaving them with "well, just make sure they have the workers comp and all". Lol, I figure this is gives the preemptive shaft to quite a few of em...

Yeah but what Kinda masonry skills you got???

 

[tree MDS]

Yeah but what Kinda masonry skills you got???

Lol. None, but you should see me stack firewood, the half guinea in me comes out real quick... I'll find myself shimming up the boxed ends with bark chips and ####... it's pretty bad!

 

[mckeetree]

Just hope you dont get it sounds under priced to me.

10-4 on that.

 

[mckeetree]

we couldn't go out for a 250.00$ job. anything small we say 550.00 is as low as we can go. or it isn't really worth turning the key.

Same here. We don't fool with anything under $600.00 or so anymore and haven't for years. What I will do is sub out the little stuff sometimes and make about half of what the job pays out of it .

 

[Ax-man]

I have been in this biz as long as some here or even longer . Nothing has changed. The big removals don't pay what you need to do them and there is ALWAYS someone who will do them cheaper. How can they?? I still haven't figured it out myself but they do it all the time.

I have found out that the trimming and the medium sized trees for removal is where you make your most profit on the dollar. The bigger the tree the less margin because of all the equipment and manpower required to do them. The market will only let you charge so much. Doing big removals is a way to go broke very slowly.

 

[ForTheArborist]

I have been in this biz as long as some here or even longer . Nothing has changed. The big removals don't pay what you need to do them and there is ALWAYS someone who will do them cheaper. How can they?? I still haven't figured it out myself but they do it all the time.

I have found out that the trimming and the medium sized trees for removal is where you make your most profit on the dollar. The bigger the tree the less margin because of all the equipment and manpower required to do them. The market will only let you charge so much. Doing big removals is a way to go broke very slowly.

I've gotten to the point I just yell "****" in my head when I see a big removal job because without even realizing it I know the person doesn't have the cash for it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk

 

[beastmaster]

I was self employed for several years 10 years or so ago. I used trailers and a flatbed truck. No chipper. Advertised in the local papers. I was making a killing on residential jobs, mostly single tree trims. Some days I would do 5 small jobs.
Then I hooked up with a "Guy" and he was getting me commercial work and I started doing city contracts. That was the beginning of my nightmare. I would take bigger and bigger jobs. It got the point my assets were spread out to much, My workers were making more then me, I made a bad bidding error on a large shopping center and that put the last nail in my coffin.
If I had just stayed doing my small jobs, having fun, and enjoying the work, I know the last 10 years of ups and downs would of been a lot different . like the song says,"it's alright to be iddy bitty,"(Alan Jackson)

 

[sgreanbeans]

Big monsters can be great, if you can get the cash, but that's the problem! I will get HO's who want me to do the job, but cant afford it, so they go with bubba, then call me after bubba messes up, with the money I asked for in the beginning. Interesting! I tell them no, wont clean up after anybody (unless it needs to be made safe). They get all bent out shape! Sorry, my rep is on the line, peeps down the street may think I am the joker who messed up, should have hired me in the first place!

 

[mckeetree]

then call me after bubba messes up, with the money I asked for in the beginning. Interesting! I tell them no, wont clean up after anybody

We have had that happen on several occasions and I tell those people to lose my damn number. About 15 years ago we had this old guy that kept on calling on and on and on. I finally told him we would finish the job but the price is going to be what my original quote was and I really bid the job a little low even though the idiot that tried to do it was about a fifth of my price. He agrees but when we get on the job he starts in with "Now part of this is already done and I want you to knock that off" crap. I told the guys just fold up the truck, load up the stuff and let's go. We left and that was the last time I even pretended to finish up after some moron.

 

[Nailsbeats]

I've had to clean up after home owners that got in over their head with their 16" blade, lol, but never another service.

I get my share of good size jobs in this town I'm dealing with now and have for years, but lost one last fall to a joker, and that's part of the reason for my thread title.

I just finished a couple big Silver Maples for a client and he sent me over to this other old couples place to big a monster Silver they had in their front yard. I told the guy 2K (the highest I've ever put on a single tree), maybe less if it went really well, to take it down and clean it up, I was planning on bringing a crane and not bombing the yard, sidewalk, road, large Silver next to it, neighboring newly planted trees, and of course the house. It would have been a perfect 1 set on the street with the crane.

He calls and said another guy got it for considereably less, and the other guys brother was going to take the wood. I'm sure the guy was not insured or really in business, cause I know of him through the grape vine, actually have done treework for his brother if that's any indicator of this guys skills.

So I go by a month later as I'm working in the area and this guy has the remaining 5' dia. 30' spar cut almost all the way through at the base with 2 plastic wedges beat in, no notch or any relief. There was also a 25' top that he must have pulled back, upside down, wedged on top the spar. All the main leads had 6' long rips left on the spar, all the wood and everything else was gone. I know the tree stood like that for 2 weeks, if it's down now I don't know.

This was 5' from the neighborhood sidewalk where kids go to and from school daily and the street where people park. The hazzard they left didn't sit well with me, but it wasn't my deal.

It looked as though they deserted, but I figured as much would happen. I just had to laugh and think hey man, you got what you payed for.

 

[tree MDS]

To be honest nails, 2k with a crane sounds awful cheap for what you're describing above.

And give it a while, you won't be laughing at the hacks anymore.. you will just hate!!

And the reason the business is weird, is because you're dealing with competing against a bunch of ####ing retards (and or drug addicts) half the time, IMO. Makes perfect sense when ya think about it actually...

 

[Nailsbeats]

To be honest nails, 2k with a crane sounds awful cheap for what you're describing above.

And give it a while, you won't be laughing at the hacks anymore.. you will just hate!!

And the reason the business is weird, is because you're dealing with competing against a bunch of ####ing retards (and or drug addicts) half the time, IMO. Makes perfect sense when ya think about it actually...

That potential crane job had a really short dump site haul like 2 miles round trip. I would have made it happen.

It all does make perfect sense.
Repeat work is not a problem, it's the first time bid's that you just know the owner is going down a slippery slope when you gave them a fair price and could provide the clean, safe, efficient, work they should get. They just go with cheap up front and usually get burned later on it.

 

[Iustinian]

I agree

Tree service attracts some pretty strange and shady characters. Its even better now that there's less building construction going on, with many of those guys thinking they can slide ride into this business since their's took a ####. And I hate on em lol. On the ridiculously low-bidders, good luck, and don't forget to ask for a copy of his insurance certificate.

 

[Isna]

Depends on the size of your business. We have 35 employees, people working in the office, a big workshop, 7 trucks, tractor and all sorts of machinery. Any job under 1000$ is not worth it for us. On the other hand, for big jobs, i can take my whole crew (7+me) or even more (2 weeks ago, I had 350 trees to cut quick, took 12 people with me). That way, big jobs are easier to handle for us... You can keep the 250$ jobs...

 

[tree MDS]

Tree service attracts some pretty strange and shady characters. Its even better now that there's less building construction going on, with many of those guys thinking they can slide ride into this business since their's took a ####. And I hate on em lol. On the ridiculously low-bidders, good luck, and don't forget to ask for a copy of his insurance certificate.

Yep. And add to that the ever increasing number of cheap x line clearance buckets readily available, and there you have it... or at least a large portion of the problem! Whatever though, them ####s can't hang when the real #### goes down!

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

Crazy Bids

This was handed out at Topeka, KS arborist cert meeting. Parks Service Dept. December 16, 2011. City of Overland Park, Kansas. Bid Tabulation. Tree Pruning - Street Maintenance

Department Estimate - $48,500.00

Arbor Masters Tree and Landscape - $6,625.00
Hendrickson Tree Care Company - $11,750.00
K.C. Arborist, INc - $12,199.01
Kansas City Tree Care - $19,750.00
Van Booven Lawn & Landscaping - $23,475.00
Country Club Tree Service Inc - $23,625.00
Davey Tree & Lawn Care Experts - $40,560.00

Comments: This bid is for Tree Pruning and Street Maintenance. Staff recommends the bid be awarded to Arbor Masters Tree & Landscaping as indicated above.
Hows that for a range of bids!

 

[mckeetree]

This was handed out at Topeka, KS arborist cert meeting. Parks Service Dept. December 16, 2011. City of Overland Park, Kansas. Bid Tabulation. Tree Pruning - Street Maintenance

Department Estimate - $48,500.00

Arbor Masters Tree and Landscape - $6,625.00
Hendrickson Tree Care Company - $11,750.00
K.C. Arborist, INc - $12,199.01
Kansas City Tree Care - $19,750.00
Van Booven Lawn & Landscaping - $23,475.00
Country Club Tree Service Inc - $23,625.00
Davey Tree & Lawn Care Experts - $40,560.00

Comments: This bid is for Tree Pruning and Street Maintenance. Staff recommends the bid be awarded to Arbor Masters Tree & Landscaping as indicated above.
Hows that for a range of bids!

I've seen it. Last year we bid a golf course job that included trimming and removals. We came in at $26,000.00. Probably the most respected tree service in the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex bid $28,500.00 according to one of their employees. Another company that I consider to be morons inc. bid $11,000.00. Some outfit called Ricardo's Services got it for $1,975.00. No, that's not a typo...one-thousand-nine-hundred-seventy-five and no/100 dollars.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I've seen it. Last year we bid a golf course job that included trimming and removals. We came in at $26,000.00. Probably the most respected tree service in the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex bid $28,500.00 according to one of their employees. Another company that I consider to be morons inc. bid $11,000.00. Some outfit called Ricardo's Services got it for $1,975.00. No, that's not a typo...one-thousand-nine-hundred-seventy-five and no/100 dollars.

Yep, same thing here, city winter contract for Rock island, city had 140,000 on the budget, local guy bid it and won it at 46,000. I didn't bid, as I knew it was pointless, they got it! I heard they wish they didn't, for some reason, I haven't seen his trucks lately!