Tree business without a climber?

[kipper]

I almost wrecked the truck coming home today. Turned in to my neighborhood and the third house on the corner had a 24 foot step ladder about halfway up a red oak and a hispanic hanging off of it cutting a 1 in diameter limb off. No rope anywhere in sight.

 

[xander9727]

I almost wrecked the truck coming home today. Turned in to my neighborhood and the third house on the corner had a 24 foot step ladder about halfway up a red oak and a hispanic hanging off of it cutting a 1 in diameter limb off. No rope anywhere in sight.

Los ropas? Que no necesita ropas!

 

[ropensaddle]

I almost wrecked the truck coming home today. Turned in to my neighborhood and the third house on the corner had a 24 foot step ladder about halfway up a red oak and a hispanic hanging off of it cutting a 1 in diameter limb off. No rope anywhere in sight.

That is nothing I have got to figure out how to get my video loaded the illegals I am talking about were not tied in at the top and whacking limbs with a machete one slip 55 foot to death.

 

[kipper]

In all seriousness I would make sure you are covered for heights over 25'. Your underwriter may think trimming is ornamentals and pruning is mature trees. Either way I would read the fine print to make sure you are well covered. I usually have these things reviewed because I am not an insurance expert and I don't have the time to become one.

You can do as many businesses as you want. If you've read Good to Great by Jim Collins you know that it is not what you can be good at that matters. What can you be the best at in the world (or at least your local area). If you concentrated 100% of your resources on landscaping, tree work, lawn care, etc., you would most likely be more profitable. There is a point where repetition produces efficiency. The more you do something the more efficient you become at it. This doesn't mean you can't make money in trees, building decks, cleaning windows, etc but it does mean most companies are most profitable when they are very vertically integrated.

Lawn care/landscaping takes different equipment and skills than tree work. There are some parallels but I'm sure I can clear an acre of trees more efficiently than you can. I'll bet you can take care of an acre of landscape/turf more efficiently than I can. It comes down to equipment and experience. I'll make more money on most tree jobs than a landscape company and vice versa for landscape jobs.

I agree 100% with this. I am often asked why work the day job? The answer is I am good at it, it pays well and there have been more than a few times I was happy to be sitting down at my desk on a Monday morning. It sometimes feels like I go to my day job to rest.

 

[Rftreeman]

What's your beef with climbers?

this post made me want Cheeto's

Stick to whacking weeds, much safer, treework is best left to the treemen - not lawn jockeys doing it partime.

BTW: I hope little Timmy and his push mower steal all your work.

It isn't impossible to do but and be good at it and know what you're doing....I do except for when litte Timmy follows me around with his push mower, weed eater, ladder, poulan chainsaw and some yellow twine he bought at wal-mart cutting my throat......lol

BTW, a "real treeman" can climb his own trees.

Or, if he is just too damn lazy he can hire a climber.

Would love to, just one problem with that. My wallet gets much fatter with tree money than grass money !!!

Mines split pretty even........yes I do both.........I'm having an identity crisis ...tree whacker......lawn jockey......tree whacker...........lawn jockey....oh forget it, I can't make up my mind........lol........does this mean I'm multitasking?

are you saying that you are a landloving lawn jockey? Those guys ain't to bright dude. Maybe you want to make that clear.

???????????? again, I'm having an identity crisis........

Don't they have a lawn mowing chat room you guys could join?

You guys could take and post pics of lines you make in the grass, weedeating tips, blade sharping and steep hills you brave guys have to mow.

yes, it's called lawnsite.com and they talk junk about tree guys just like tree guys talk junk about lawn jockeys.

 

[tree MDS]

I do love the land, Lawn Jockey is someone's opinion...

What should be clear is that if the man want's to do business without a climber than he should be supported and not degraded by the "Professionals".
He will learn quick enough if he can make money and provide a quality service.

Whizzz... fwap, fwap, fwap....whizzz... fwap, fwap, fwap...

The other annoying thing is when I'm 60' up trying to communicate with the ground guys and theres some lawn jockey running a blower next door for what seems like hours....whaaa...whaaahhh...whaaahh.

Grrr...its like I just want to scream "DRAG YER A$$! YOU FN LAWN JOCKEYS!!"

Anyone else feel like that ever or is it just me??

 

[Raymond]

Whizzz... fwap, fwap, fwap....whizzz... fwap, fwap, fwap...

The other annoying thing is when I'm 60' up trying to communicate with the ground guys and theres some lawn jockey running a blower next door for what seems like hours....whaaa...whaaahhh...whaaahh.

Grrr...its like I just want to scream "DRAG YER A$$! YOU FN LAWN JOCKEYS!!"

Anyone else feel like that ever or is it just me??

I like when they show up at our job or the neighbors, when we're working.
They drop the gate and go to work acting like they don't even see us.
We go out of our way to see that no brush is holding them up.
Even though we were there first. Make eye contact and give them
a little buddy nod, with no responce.
They think they're all that but we are damn it! :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[ropensaddle]

I like when they show up at our job or the neighbors, when we're working.
They drop the gate and go to work acting like they don't even see us.
We go out of our way to see that no brush is holding them up.
Even though we were there first. Make eye contact and give them
a little buddy nod, with no responce.
They think they're all that but we are damn it! :hmm3grin2orange:

Can you scream headddddddddddddddddddddddddddache fun to see their faces light up lol!

 

[Raymond]

Can you scream headddddddddddddddddddddddddddache fun to see their faces light up lol!

It can be fun doing that to the mailman (or woman) too. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[treemandan]

this post made me want Cheeto's


It isn't impossible to do but and be good at it and know what you're doing....I do except for when litte Timmy follows me around with his push mower, weed eater, ladder, poulan chainsaw and some yellow twine he bought at wal-mart cutting my throat......lol

Or, if he is just too damn lazy he can hire a climber.

Mines split pretty even........yes I do both.........I'm having an identity crisis ...tree whacker......lawn jockey......tree whacker...........lawn jockey....oh forget it, I can't make up my mind........lol........does this mean I'm multitasking?

???????????? again, I'm having an identity crisis........

yes, it's called lawnsite.com and they talk junk about tree guys just like tree guys talk junk about lawn jockeys.

Lawnsite? Talkin chit? That is a party I would like to crash. Ahh, I guess its just best to leave their khaki wearing ***** alone.

 

[tree MDS]

Lawnsite? Talkin chit? That is a party I would like to crash. Ahh, I guess its just best to leave their khaki wearing ***** alone.

I should think I would be able to get banned pretty quickly, lol.

 

[tree MDS]

In all seriousness

I honestly dont know if I would be able to survive if I couldn't climb. If I could it definitely wouldn't anything near full time, that's for sure.

Just the thought of all those jobs I wouldn't be able to do (or I would have to pay someone to do for me) makes me think "wow, thank lord I learned the right way".

I wonder these bucket queens feel when the potential customer walks them farther and farther into the back yard?? lol

 

[TreEmergencyB]

lawn jockeys..... i love when they show up next door or across the street with 2 zero turn riders 2 walk behinds and 3 guys with weed eaters to do small town sized yard 40' x 80' or somthing like that 15K in mowers for a $30 yard. i wonder how they get them nice trucks?...

 

[ddhlakebound]

And ddhalkebound? You could have summarized BUT I guess that is that.

Inconceivable!

 

[xander9727]

The same way we do.......buy them.

Now keeping up on the payments is tough with $30 jobs.

 

[treemandan]

Inconceivable!

You could have just said " I'm rubber, your glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you".

 

[TreEmergencyB]

The same way we do.......buy them.

Now keeping up on the payments is tough with $30 jobs.

:agree2:

 

[Rftreeman]

lawn jockeys..... i love when they show up next door or across the street with 2 zero turn riders 2 walk behinds and 3 guys with weed eaters to do small town sized yard 40' x 80' or somthing like that 15K in mowers for a $30 yard. i wonder how they get them nice trucks?...

they might do 50 yards a day 5 days a week, you do the math.

The same way we do.......buy them.

Now keeping up on the payments is tough with $30 jobs.

it's volume that makes the money.



I don't understand the conflict between these two professions, they both are good money making professions and when you do them both as I do you get all the tree work fromk your lawn clustomers and get lawn work from the tree customers, now what's wrong with that.

fwiw: I started tree work 21 years ago (6 years for my self) and lawn care 3 years ago and I make just as much money cutting gras as I do with trees.

 

[ropensaddle]

I honestly dont know if I would be able to survive if I couldn't climb. If I could it definitely wouldn't anything near full time, that's for sure.

Just the thought of all those jobs I wouldn't be able to do (or I would have to pay someone to do for me) makes me think "wow, thank lord I learned the right way".

I wonder these bucket queens feel when the potential customer walks them farther and farther into the back yard?? lol

So mds ya calling me a queen ?

 

[Blakesmaster]

I wonder these bucket queens feel when the potential customer walks them farther and farther into the back yard?? lol

I don't know 'bout you mds, but I get all sorts a shivers up and down my spine the farther back into the yard we go. It may be a ##### to get the debris out but my competitors list just went from about 30 to 4.