What do you work out of?

[Nickrosis]

Home? Rent a place? Own a shop? Have a building separate from your house?

We've had the office-at-home, shop-ten-minutes-away thing going on for about 20 years now, but we're almost done on our new building. Looking forward to that!

 

[DDM]

Hmmmm More like office out of the truck...... Hmmmmm So I guess i have multiple location since I have several trucks.

 

[Dadatwins]

Office out of the truck now, tools in the garage at the house. Did the trucks at one lot, dump site at another lot and office in the house, but now have downsized and like it better.

 

[a_lopa]

home,im trying to keep small but its starting to outgrow how i thought i would be,im cagey on going big you can do ten times as much for little extra,and there aint enough good workers IMO.

 

[tophopper]

I work from my home, being in the city I am forced to rent yard space for my equipment. Someday i hope to find a nice hobby farm fairly close to the metro with ample room for equipment and heaping piles of logs and chips. And a huge shop would be nice too

 

[Stumper]

Home and Trucks.

 

[Nickrosis]

I'm thinking a limo would be a good office-on-wheels setup. I'd have to pull a Dumb and Dumber move switching from driver to passenger, though.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Home office, with workshed down the driveway. Greenhouse under construction, nursery etc. on 8 acres. laptop in van and truck. I'd get if I had things here and there, but then I'm small and it all fits here.

 

[ORclimber]

Mostly the chip truck. Home office for accounting, files, and books. Rented shop for other equipment that won't fit in the driveway.

my office most of today.

 

[TreeJunkie]

I currently work out of my office in my town house, and use my attic as storage/work area/ splicing station. Unfortunately no garage. But i use my brothers shop about 15 minutes away. I store large items there as well as my trailer.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

i often work out of my yacht which is moored in the south of france..or out of the hunting lodge in switzerland...only now and again do i venture far from my luxury surroundings..thats only to collect CA$H...........

 

[Nickrosis]

Very nice, Rolla.

We hope to pay for our new building with the savings from consolidation and efficiency. And beyond that, I believe safety and regulatory compliance will be vastly improved as well. One final thought, and I'll stop going back to edit this post, is that having a building will make it easier to sell the business if we ever had to or chose to and will make it easier to buy companies down the road, IMO.

 

[arboromega]

on that note nick i can say you are well correct. two particular friends of mine own a business (non-tree related) and they bought their building. high real estate values now price their land and building as worth more than the company.

 

[Nickrosis]

Just to add to that....most of the time, the real estate is owned by a separate company for liability reasons. There's at least one national tree company that is more profitable in its real estate division than it is in its tree division.

 

[jimmyq]

very cool Nick.

 

[Nickrosis]

We're coming out of the woods! We pave this week. I'm excited. Once it's done (two weeks is the plan), I'll get an interactive tour set up on our website for everyone.

Hope this slideshow works for everyone - the PDF is 700KB. Ain't nuttin but a peanut!

 

[Tree Machine]

You rock, Nicrosis.

I work off of a postage stamp, probably the smallest commercial tree company in existence. Very low overhead with little possibility of 'growing' the company. No space to expand on the small, city property. Backyard operation, everything right here. Very comfortable, profitable setup, but all the eggs are in one basket. Best suited as a startup, I just never grew out of it.

 

[Nickrosis]

Are the plans for an IPO still in the works?

In my b-school, and Xander and I were talking about this, the courses are geared for huge multinational corporations....and many of the students are working for them now - S.C. Johnson Wax, SAB Miller Brewing, Briggs & Stratton, etc. - but I have to translate all of that onto a micro-scale for our company!

I am the HR department. And the marketing. And parts of all the other ones. I'll be a small-business man the rest of my life.