worked slowed

[sharkfin12us]

yellow book sucks

I guess I feel better knowing it's going on everywhere. I thought paying out the wazoo for my first yellow page ad would make that phone really ring but I haven't received any calls from it yet. Still running my newspaper one and am getting a few here and there from it.

I was in 2 books couple years ago did jack for me my name is under S and i had DOLLAR BILL AD SIZE.And when winter rolls in they dont work with you they want their money.First Full page ad is way to go to just get your name in if you can afford it.I do word of mouth do good clean up and good job and word of mouth works better ive been doing my business since 2003

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Nobody wants to hear it but there are too many dogs after the same bone in this business. And giving out crazy cheap bids is not the answer. When things are going good everybody and his brother in law gets in the tree business. I have seen it over and again. Then when it tightens up the bad precedents start getting set. The neediness, the door knocking, the unsolicited bids, etc. It's a classic. Then when things do pick up a lot of the public has the attitude "Hey, these f#ckers are desperate and a dime a dozen." That's why I don't monkey around with my pricing. I leave it alone good times or bad.

The "crazy cheap bids" are confirming what I already know: The failing economy is starting to crush the complete Middle Class in the US. It seems that even if I were to run a "Any roof cleared for $100, no matter how many trees!" ad, I probably would get no takers, at this time. People are nervous about where the money is going, and so am I. You are certainly right about the cyclic nature of this biz, the boom/bust, if you will, but right now I would rather work for half of what I normally make, than sit on my :censored: at home, making nothing. I disagree that the public tries to stick it to us, in a conscious way. When money is coming in, and good news is in/on the air, I don't find that I have a hard time getting more money for gigs. Yeah, I can go broke, on principles, but I'll opt out of that route. I have family obligations, and they will always supersede the "poor but proud" schtick.

 

[Brush Hog]

Nobody wants to hear it but there are too many dogs after the same bone in this business. And giving out crazy cheap bids is not the answer. When things are going good everybody and his brother in law gets in the tree business. I have seen it over and again. Then when it tightens up the bad precedents start getting set. The neediness, the door knocking, the unsolicited bids, etc. It's a classic. Then when things do pick up a lot of the public has the attitude "Hey, these f#ckers are desperate and a dime a dozen." That's why I don't monkey around with my pricing. I leave it alone good times or bad.

I'm with you. I can't understand how you can lower your price and still make money. Maybe other companies have very inflated prices and can drop them a few hundred dollars and still make a profit. Me I bid it for my time/materials and profit. Market is pretty tuff around me so I need to bid them pretty tight.

 

[tree MDS]

Its been a real good year here in nothwest CT me, so far.. Lowering prices not the way to go. Being legit and charging fair is working fine for me. I just invested alot into the biz in the last two years and its working out so far, the thing that helps is having all the equipment, a licence and insurance, that way I feel more confident giving a real price because I got real bills and know what this $#!T cost to run. I ran real lean (truck and smaller chipper) for years, slowly built up an actual biz based on skill and satisfied customers, now I'm starting to get that bigger stuff and maybe people are thinking "hey that guys been around a long time, maybe we should give him a call"- I dunno, just hope it keeps up. I'll probably be dead in a few weeks, who knows. Another thing is around here there is alot of money, so maybe thats helping me too.

 

[mckeetree]

I'm with you. I can't understand how you can lower your price and still make money. Maybe other companies have very inflated prices and can drop them a few hundred dollars and still make a profit. Me I bid it for my time/materials and profit. Market is pretty tuff around me so I need to bid them pretty tight.

Right. I bid jobs time and materials. I have been in business 22 years now. These guys that make comments here about a normal bid would be $5,000 but they are bidding $1,500 or something because they are slow on a particular job are just talking out of their azz. There is not $3,500 clear profit in a $5,000 job so how would that crap ever work. Watch some bozo reply to this and say "Oh there is $3,500 profit in a $5,000 job the way I do it because I don't have overhead and do all my own climbing blah blah blah." Anybody that is really in this business knows better. And I am coming to the conclusion a lot of the folks in this forum are not really running a real tree service company but more kinda fooling around with a little tree work.

 

[OLD CHIPMONK]

First of all " don't sell yourselves short " ! You are all professionals , rooted in a dangerous occupation. Keep your bids at a fair market value ! Work with safety in mind & do the best clean-up possible. You will be rewarded with self-satisfaction , customer support & many referrals. Your net profit is increased vs. hours worked . I've been out there 45 yrs. now & this is not the first economic slow-down ! Give yourselves credit for surviving the day to day rigors of " The Tree Business ". Work less & make more profit . Just an " Old School " oppinion !

 

[treegal1]

tree work is dead after 4 hurricanes, we have an organic land care division set up that pays the bills..........

 

[ddhlakebound]

tree work is dead after 4 hurricanes, we have an organic land care division set up that pays the bills..........

Welcome to AS treegal1, what does your organic land care division do?

 

[treegal1]

large scale composting and worm farming to provide organic inputs for lawn, landscape customers, we brew compost tea, make and sell raw organic soil amendments and tools for the diy or lco that wants to get into organics.

 

[treegal1]

we also help folks get bio fuel programs set up and running. and have an algae to fuel program set up and almost producing the fuel it takes to keep going.

in addition to that we do soil testing and consulting, sustainability research.

 

[tree MDS]

tree work is dead after 4 hurricanes, we have an organic land care division set up that pays the bills..........

Treegal, my company is actually NOFA accredited-it was my ex that went to classes for all that crap (no pun intended), tell me is there much money in it??? I'm guessing there is, I just wouldnt know how to develope the clientel for that type of thing to be honest. The compost tea thing looks real interesting though, tell me what sort of results have you seen with regards to tree feeding?

 

[treegal1]

Treegal, my company is actually NOFA accredited-it was my ex that went to classes for all that crap (no pun intended), tell me is there much money in it??? I'm guessing there is, I just wouldnt know how to develope the clientel for that type of thing to be honest. The compost tea thing looks real interesting though, tell me what sort of results have you seen with regards to tree feeding?

for tree folks its a natural, add a little crap to some tree chips sit on it for a while maybe feed some to some worms and don't ever buy fert again, kicks the snot out of most pests and pathogens and makes a tree real happy, you know that trees don't want fert or N they want a balance and microbes to help them along. profit, take _32 $ per ton waste and turn it into + 40 per yard, 80 per yard installed compost or feed it to worms and make 1200$ per ton stuff and use that, or brew it in a good brewer and make.... profane amounts of cash, your already there with the NOFA stuff, one spray test and a rig and its cash cow central, GO green and all that jazz, most real arborist are pretty well schooled on the why and how a plant works, just put it to work.$$$$$

to develop it is easy, existing client base???

 

[ms310]

Not In the business

Right. I bid jobs time and materials. I have been in business 22 years now. These guys that make comments here about a normal bid would be $5,000 but they are bidding $1,500 or something because they are slow on a particular job are just talking out of their azz. There is not $3,500 clear profit in a $5,000 job so how would that crap ever work. Watch some bozo reply to this and say "Oh there is $3,500 profit in a $5,000 job the way I do it because I don't have overhead and do all my own climbing blah blah blah." Anybody that is really in this business knows better. And I am coming to the conclusion a lot of the folks in this forum are not really running a real tree service company but more kinda fooling around with a little tree work.

I design, sell, and over see construction of new homes, i am not an arborist, but i do cut and sell alot of firewood to try to make ends meet threw these hard times. In 2005 i sold 33 houses from January to june and i dont think i have sold that many since. I will say that this week is the busiest i have been since june of 05 with houses. As of right now they are just qoutes, but it sure is nice to actually have people walk threw the door! There were times back in the spring were i wouldnt even get a call for 3 weeks. So i guess i need to ask is everyone but me an arborist on this site? Should i be banned because i am not?
About the firewood sales, i really expected people to take their stimulus checks and get firewood stocked up for this winter. I did not have one person do that. I did however sell alot of firewood, but i asked everyone of them and they all just paid out of there pocket not with the stimulus check.

 

[tree MDS]

for tree folks its a natural, add a little crap to some tree chips sit on it for a while maybe feed some to some worms and don't ever buy fert again, kicks the snot out of most pests and pathogens and makes a tree real happy, you know that trees don't want fert or N they want a balance and microbes to help them along. profit, take _32 $ per ton waste and turn it into + 40 per yard, 80 per yard installed compost or feed it to worms and make 1200$ per ton stuff and use that, or brew it in a good brewer and make.... profane amounts of cash, your already there with the NOFA stuff, one spray test and a rig and its cash cow central, GO green and all that jazz, most real arborist are pretty well schooled on the why and how a plant works, just put it to work.$$$$$

to develop it is easy, existing client base???

Wow, you got me thinking. What type of brewer would you recommend?? Last I checked they were like 3500$, I know I could probably make one but I'd rather just kill a tree or two instead, lol.

 

[treegal1]

we have our own design that's a real winner, we start a 100 gallons and have one 1550 gallon and one 550 gallon that we are currently keeping almost 6600K of lawn and landscape with. heck for 3500$ I will get you my brewer and bring it to you personally and give you the worm casts and foods to use it with, that's a lot of bones for a brewer!!!!

 

[jefflovstrom]

Hi guys , I am sorry reading all of these replies. Have you noticed that all the slow stuff is in the northeast or southeast areas? I am Operations Manager in San Diego,California and I cannot find enough guys to do all the work I have. It maybe that I do not do residential and the economy is not as bad as some would say. Honestly, We have alot of work and need is always on to hire good guys. Sorry to be a mood breaker.
Jeff Lovstrom

 

[tree MDS]

I think we're talking different languages jeff, this topic is residential for sure. There is allways utility work, ...but really, who wants it? Not a true arborist imho. Not that I'm disrespecting, because I'm not. The two are just so very different.

 

[jefflovstrom]

I think we're talking different languages jeff, this topic is residential for sure. There is allways utility work, ...but really, who wants it? Not a true arborist imho. Not that I'm disrespecting, because I'm not. The two are just so very different.

I am not doing utility work. I work at HOA stuff, Golf courses, Munincipalities and also other. Do not assume because I can work year round and not stress that I clear lines---never didit and won't.
Jeff

 

[tree MDS]

I am not doing utility work. I work at HOA stuff, Golf courses, Munincipalities and also other. Do not assume because I can work year round and not stress that I clear lines---never didit and won't.
Jeff

Oh, sorry man, HOA??

 

[jefflovstrom]

Oh, sorry man, HOA??

We contract 3 to 5 year tree maintenance plans with complete inventory and pruning schedules with recommendations with HOA : aka: Homeowners Associations