"so....hows bizness"

SkwerI

Treehouser
Joined
Sep 6, 2006
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19,276
Location
central Florida
I enjoyed this thread on the old site and figured I would revive it here. Credit to No Bivy John for the original thread posting.

Seems like every estimate I do folks ask this question. As if they a referring to how hungry I might be and therefore be cheaper. I matched a price the other day but it really sucked because the dudes that gave the other estiimate were not insured, and truthfully suck.

I think things will get worse before the get better. More people losing thier jobs may cause a flood of new "tree guys".

What say yall', things getting more competitive out there? We are slow but damned if if I will roll if things get really cheap
 
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Work has been sketchy almost all summer, but I've managed to stay busy 4-5 days per week most of the time. The last week has been a bit too quiet and I finished today's job by 9:30am with nothing else scheduled on the books. But by 4pm I had work scheduled for tomorrow and Friday as well as a nice little $1500 trimming job to do next week.

I'm still day to day but I've been fortunate with no extended dry spells.
 
Very nice, Skwerl.

I landed 2 medium jobs yesterday back to back. The first I wasn't the lowest bid but I was including stump grinding and broad stroke stump cleanup to help the old fella. The second job I was referred by 3 people, and there were no other bids.

So far, this year has been pretty kind to me. I'm hopeful that it continues through winter.
 
Nope, still not done either. I haven't a clue what's what with that; I was the low bid by 20% and the manager's preference. Buncha tire kickers!

Haven't heard back about the stump job either, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'm fine either way.

Put out a $6k and change bid, dude said he liked how I presented myself, I was the low bid by ~30% to the next lowest bidder and 1/3 the price of the high bidder. Said he was going to call the bank and get with me ASAP. Never heard from him either.


Such is the game we play.
 
I hate it when they want to call the bank. Either ya got it or ya don't.
 
It was supposed to be lumped together with some refinance/home improvement loan type thing I think. One of yesterday's bids, the lady is borrowing the money from the bank as she just had to replace her septic system that was ate up with roots.
 
I had an 8k bid out...the client went real cold once he realized how much it was all going to cost, I was just one part of the job, subbing the tree work!

I lost $1500 to landscapers with ladders and poulans last week

Probably got $1000 total for this week...too slow
 
Nothing fancy here. Phone slowed/stopped since school went back. I've got three days of work for myself, and one I gotta look at. Such is life.
 
This is our slower part of the year so I don't expect much... But the work is trickling in here and there. Just need to keep the bills paid until November/December and we will get busy again.
 
We have been doing ok, alot of small jobs. I just landed a two week job tonight, which is great and gives us some time to build up a work load.
 
We are just about flat even with last years numbers. I will take that because over the course of the last 2 years we are down, I hate to say it, 50%. Some of the downward turn is because of no storms, but mostly this economy. Hopefully the economy will turn around.
 
I'm on vacation for a week/ week and a half. Have a week and a half of jobs to go back to, and a bid or two to do. The wave of business came back up, then went back down. I hope to have some voicemails when I get back to Cellphone land. Its great to get away from it all for a bit.
 
Dead slow, but that is working out since I can't work anyways. Getting ready to make firewood deliveries for the fall.
 
Appallingly slow. slowest year we've ever had.
Not to worry though, I've been headhunted by a big outfit to go and set up a new business, and they are offering me silly money to do so.
 
Not sure what the news is over there, but from reports here, it doesn't seem that the US economy is turning around at all. Maybe they just tell us that so we don't feel too bad about ours?
 
I don't know about turning around. Maybe more like swirling as it goes down the crapper.
 
Got a call for two days clearing work last night.. Schedule is starting to look better Oct-Nov. Maybe this cold snap is having people thinking about trees and brush instead of grass:|:
 
I actually handed out a couple of cards to people that want me to bid some work. Going to the ortho had many benefits yesterday.
 
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