This guy has a great website

[Levi]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eciArkBTeBM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For some reason I cannot embed today, but here's a link, in case you're interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eciArkBTeBM

 

[Chris E]

Levi I reckon take it off as well, there's (illogical) prejudice amongst clients, some assume you are a hack or too small for decent trees if you don't own a chipper- its out there.

 

[Levi]

True, Chris. It's interesting, I'd rather not work for someone who thinks you need to have a big chipper roaring in their yard all day to be legit, but that's probably not entirely realistic. It's a boutique tree service or... something like that.

 

[Chris E]

I think smaller setups can benefit from appearing bigger than they are, casting a wider net so to speak.

 

[Levi]

It's possible, we need clones or something like that.

 

[cory]

DP is Virginia's treeco.

Oops, that's what I thought. Are they 'large and well equipped?". I do know they have that new, large, sweet black chipper!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Yea, there's an aerial pic of them with all their equipment... it's in the rotator, somewhere - I can't find it.

 

[cory]

Cory, what is it that makes you like that site so much? I think it's nice and clean, just curious what you see in it? Can you link yours? I think you've seen it already, but this is ours- http://www.smallaxetreecare.com/

I like theirs cuz it just seems well written, very functional, humble and intelligent. And seeing the apparent size and extent of their biz based on their equipment and employees is very impressive to me.

Levi, your site is very nice. I like your logo too. Good on you for getting into phc- that seems like a big time win/win to me.

I didn't read every word but would agree, no need to specify re no chipper. Most people wouldn't particularly care one way or another imo. That is sort of the opposite of all the many knuckle head treemen who trumpet their equipment line up. What most custys care about imo is can you do a good, safe, reasonably priced job for them. Most won't give a hoot about the equipment lineup. If they did, they'd probably be treemen too.

I don't want to link my site, it kinda sucks, right now at least. We were upgrading to a new company for better optimization and they really fugged it up, deleted a lot of copy without permission nor discussion and replaced it with lame copy and stock pictures of trees and climbers. It was rather mind blowing. I didn't have a record of the written content of the previous iteration of my site so had to start over and in a hurry. The result is marginal. Now I'm super busy and the phone is hot too so the website is on the back burner.

 

[Levi]

Good points on the Butte site, humble is very important in my opinion. Some folks say "we're the best!"

Thanks for the compliment, great point about the equipment. Who cares? As long as you cover the bases you listed. Although buckets are a big deal to some customers, people often assume that we use a lift and occasionally seem put off by the idea that we are going to climb the tree. Anyways, that's a bit off topic.

Bummer deal about your site! I had nearly the exact same deal awhile back. The folks I hired made the site downright embarrassing. Then, I had to pay them to get it taken down. Oops! No matter in your case, if your phone is ringing.

 

[cory]

All great points, Levi.

Crazy that the same site snafu happened to you!

 

[Levi]

I know! I felt pretty stupid for engaging with that business at the time. No big deal in the long run, C'Est la Vie!

 

[cory]

It makes you wonder plenty about the competency of people out there in the cyberspace. Well obviously that is too broad of a description, so I guess I'm referring to the peeps who claim to be website experts.

 

[Levi]

A lot seem to be mostly bs, scammers. At least the ones who solicit. I fell for a crappy sales pitch on the phone.

 

[cory]

For shame!!!!!!

 

[Levi]

I know!

 

[squisher]

In regards to claiming to be The Best. I always opted for, Second to None. Lol. Modest ya know

 

[MasterBlaster]

I don't even answer unrecognizable numbers.

 

[Chris E]

problem is, these days you get scammed by companies of whom you are already a client. At renewal time they slug you for extras (big $) on the sly, happened to me twice now.

 

[cory]

Yeah I think you are right.

 

[cory]

In regards to claiming to be The Best. I always opted for, Second to None. Lol. Modest ya know

I don't usually mention this in 'public' but I like to think/hope the 80/20 rule applies to my biz- Im in the top 20% of the tree services doing GTW out there in terms of quality and hopefully profit/man.

I gotta be average or above, at least

 

[SeanKroll]

True, Chris. It's interesting, I'd rather not work for someone who thinks you need to have a big chipper roaring in their yard all day to be legit, but that's probably not entirely realistic. It's a boutique tree service or... something like that.

I'd rather work for a well-paying customer who is ignorant about tree care/ removal...prove their preconceived notions wrong, educate them, earn their trust, collect the check.

You can get a bucket, crane, chipper etc any time you want, as can anybody with money, don't even need a driver's license.

When people ask about a bucket and this and that, I tell them I can do anyting they ask if I can do, and lots of proper things they haven't asked for, as well. I can get equipment in to destroy their yard as good as anyone, but do they want me to rut they wet, wet lawn so that I can charge them a lot of money to bring in a bucket truck for easy climbing work?

I also tell them around here a bucket truck is a good start to the first limbs sometimes, sometimes not even.



If someone shows up to a bid for housecleaning, and their rig is filthy, I'm not impressed. It doesn't have to be new or fancy, but I'm hiring a cleaning service. My impression at the first contact is a dirty cleaning company. The person who will do the cleaning might be a Level 100 Certified Cleaner who will do wonders, but...


I agree with Chris.
People equate equipment with success and knowledge. Doesn't matter if they've stolen/ cheated/ arborphobized people to get the bucket truck.

 

[squisher]

But where a bucket truck can reach and access, nothing will touch it for production IMO.

So ideally you have both. A bucket and the ability to climb.

 

[stig]

Absolutely.

I get the: " Are you bringing a bucket" question often.
Not having one and not doing enough arbo work to justify getting one ( They are pretty useless in logging) I usually tell them that bucket trucks are for the wimps that can't climb.
So far that response has worked pretty well.

 

[cory]

So ideally you have both. A bucket and the ability to climb.

+1



Btw, interesting that the owners of both websites featured in this thread own cranes.

 

[MasterBlaster]

But where a bucket truck can reach and access, nothing will touch it for production IMO.

I've slayed hundreds of trees using a bucket to get as high as I could go, then get out and finish it climbing.

A treeco can get along w/o a bucket or a dump trailer, for sure. But the better ones have them, and more.