"so....hows bizness"

[Wagnaw]

Btw you never sent me a bill.

Sh*t.

 

[Old Monkey]

There is a bus stop on the way into the nicer side of town that has a cheapo looking pressboard ad on the back rest. I have been thinking about having a friend mill a piece of walnut to the dimensions of the back rest and either burning or chiseling my logo and ad on it. I don't think the space can be that expensive and everyone driving to the food co-op drives that way. If done right it could be tasteful. Right now I am to busy to do anything more than think about it though.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

The other thing I do is not mail out bills. When I pay my bills I go to the phone company, the electric company, etc. In my work truck with lots of cards... I can't tell you how many times I have got stopped where I am at in town and land a job. Just doing my regular shat.

Exposure is highly important.

 

[rumination]

Andrew, you've probably already done this but check all your local garden/nursery stores for bulletin boards. That's great exposure for people who already have plants on their minds. One of the high end garden stores here keeps a list of landscape/tree services that they make available to their customers. I just had to go in and ask to be put on the list.

 

[Ax-Man]

I never thought I would ever say this but I can officially say for this week we are out of paying jobs till the phone rings again and I make a sale. No one seems want to spend any money and I know it is out there.

I thought last year was bad but this is getting a little scary. Our area has been hit hard with the shutdown of a major employer being bought out and closed by another company to eliminate competion in the market place.

We did good through the dead of winter, early spring was good but the last few weeks my phone has not rung at all to speak of. By this time of the year we should be picking up and moving forward instead of backwards.

The weather hasn't cooperated at all. Too much rain, the farmers haven't even been out in the field yet to do anything. Constuction is at a standstill. My county in Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. Not good!!!

I guess I'll have to knuckle down and do more advertising which I hate to do. I have a competitor that is advertising he will beat any competitiors price by 20 %. He is a pain in the ass to begin with but if I have to lock horns with him over price I am going to make him eat that 20% so it isn't profitable for him to even do a job.

I am sure things will pick up as our books have always shown that we make 2/3rds of our gross income in the latter half of the year. If we don't have a strong last half year showing it is going to be a lean winter.

 

[stehansen]

I've been online since August, 08, and not a single bite. New paper ads and referrals has been where it's at so far, but it sucks not getting very many phone calls. I'd rather be turned down than not called at all.

Speaking of newspapers, who buys them anymore? I read the paper online.

 

[MasterBlaster]

It's weird how they've grown smaller...

 

[sotc]

I just pulled out of the paper, gonna try some radio ads with that money

 

[Jonseredbred]

I'd be interested in your results

 

[sotc]

I'll letcha know. Been waiting a month for them to put something together for me. Gonna commit to 3 months before I commit to the 12 months they want!

 

[Wagnaw]

NPR may be a good idea for advertising. There are local businesses that "support the following programs." I also bet NPR listeners are a little more likely to spend money on their trees than listeners of your local classic rock station.

I personally don't care for online news. I'd rather read the paper.

 

[sotc]

My old boss is using NPR, I'm going to hit the am station I listen to the most. This outfit has 5 radio stations that cover a wide variety of people and if I want to change I can

 

[Ax-Man]

Funny how some warmer weather and dry conditions make the phone ring.

Last week we hardly had any work till the end of the week and that wasn't much. This week so far has been good and got the go ahead on some previous estimates on some bigger jobs. I actually have a back log going into next week. WOW!!! I love it.

Well at least I can make another morgage payment at the end of the month and get a good chunk of money for the property taxes coming up in June.

Now if my boom truck hadn't broken down to the tune of another $ 1000.00 I would be doing better. Darn leveling cylinder broke the rod eye off the end of the cylinder and have to have a crane shop take the boom apart and do the welding. I don't have the time to mess with it otherwise I would take it apart and then send the cylinder out to be welded. Easy come, easy go. Just have to make it up somewhere down the line.

 

[Jonseredbred]

Dealing with people like this sucks.

Everyone seems so dumb and cheap this year.

I got a call from this homeowner a few weeks ago, Wanted to have us come look at some tree's for removal.

After I drove all the way there her remark was "I thought a tree service buys tree's".

I just found this on Craigslist, she is still trying to sell them

Wow, can I buy your rotted norway maples?? Give me a break.

http://rochester.craigslist.org/for/1180835241.html

 

[brendonv]

Hahahahaha.


My brother was telling me someone he gave a bid to for fence called back and asked if he can take 3,000$ off the price since the economy is bad.

 

[cory]

Similar to Axman's second to last post, it was a very lean winter but we kept busy for the most part, then things picked up in the early spring making it seem like we might be out of the woods, but now things have gotten slow again. It's pretty hard to believe it's slow in the middle of spring.

 

[brendonv]

Same here Cory.

 

[thattreeguy]

slow here, lucky to work for 4 of us 2 days a week and a few hours here and there in between,
it ought to be going after 4th of july so ...august?
Darn, we are thinking of moving into an office in july....
hope it gets better, need the $ to pull this off

 

[darkstar]

I feel bad for those of you who are slow.
We are the oppisite so if someone needed work there is way more than i can handle , all we need is another chip truck and possible sales help to run two crews 50 hours a week .

 

[stehansen]

It's real slow here. I don't have any work scheduled. I've been put on as a vendor for the Army Corps on some projects they may have upcoming when they get their "stimulus" money.

 

[sotc]

I signed up with the forest service in case of a fire, sometimes they pay stupid amounts of money to have wood chippers brush out the roads.

 

[thattreeguy]

I signed up with the forest service in case of a fire, sometimes they pay stupid amounts of money to have wood chippers brush out the roads.

did you have to do the 1 day class and bring the survival shelters, with wildland turnouts and nomex?

 

[sotc]

Nope, they tell me it's not front line work so not nessasary. Hopefully thats a fact!

 

[squisher]

Business is booming for me but it's that time of year here. Hopefully it continues right through until plow season.

 

[stehansen]

I was talking to my Wife's cousin today and his tree guy went from having a crew of 13 guys last summer to now he has 2 part time guys and he got a job as a welder.