trying to run a business and keep sane

PCTREE

PCTREE

Treehouser
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
6,033
Location
Charlottesville VA
So Ive not been enjoying running a tree business for many years now. Back when I was the lead climber I loved tree work. Fast forward a few major accidents and I find myself not enjoying the day in day out drag of trying to keep everthing running. I recently lost my climber and hired a guy who claimed to have 2 years experience. I would say he has 2 months at tops. He actually has balls and does OK on crane work as long as he doesnt have to move sideways to get to his cut. He has no concept of how to traverse a tree canopy. Work has slowed down here and I find myself lowering my rates and bidding on jobs I wouldnt normally bid on just to keep the guys busy. The problem is then I have to baby sit them as they have no clue how to get anything done safely.

Thursday I decided after finding the second running bowline of the day miss tied , Fug it. Im loosing money every day trying to keep them busy and keeping me from working on Ropetek.
Im now toying with the idea of just bidding on the BIG gravey crane removals that Im equiped for and bring in contract climbers for each job. Obvious problem is how to staff the ground crew but right now I just have one guy who is mediocra at best...
 
I know your frustration first hand, only too well. Unfortunately, I don’t have any solutions, only stories that can compare.

I’ll share one from just this morning. I put an ad out on a couple of sites for a Tree Trimmer/Tree climber. I got a couple of responses. I asked one, are you a climber? His answer was I have years of experience in landscaping. That is a NO! No No No!
 
The most stressful time in my 37 years in business was when I had two crews and a full-time salesman and two office staff. I was always anxious to the point of panic attacks and insomnia. About 12 years ago, I downsized to just me and one guy. I do all the sales one or two days a week and we work three or four days a week; about 20 - 30 hours average. I also shrunk my service area to about a 10 mile radius from our shop and raised my prices significantly. I've become very selective about which jobs I'm willing to bid on and bid way high for those stressful jobs. If I get it, I know I'm making good coin. If not, no big deal. I'm in a much better place now. Very mellow.
 
Great post- not the situation but all the info in it.

Contract climbers sounds like a good approach although I suspect there will be a very wide range of ability there as well. And then there is the hassle of scheduling them etc which can make the scheduling of your jobs more difficult.

The ground crew Q, idk, don't have an answer for that.

One general idea I will bring to light is that I believe in general there are usually or always qualified people lurking in very close proximity to most any tree guy's home base. Some just passing examples in my hood- I bumped into this interesting young dude several times while walking my dogs in the woods, he was there with his crash pad to do bouldering there, he had a sweet, basic, white ford econoline van. We would say hi in passing. Then later I saw him in the woods doing a rad thing- he owns and rides a fat tire, off road unicycle :dude::dude:, does the trails and jumps etc. Long story short, small world it turns out to be, he lives about a mile from me and works for a local large landscape company who I often cut trees for. I asked a couple people there about him and they said he's awesome- strong as an ox, hard worker, good kid. He often takes time in the winter when things slow down to drive out to joshua tree and do some climbing. The scraper peeps said I could hire him if I wanted, despite him being a good employee, they basically have too many lol. So here's a good local kid, loves to climb rocks, hard worker, the basics don't get much better than that.

Another example- I was doing a tree job 1/4 mile from my house, got to talking to next door neighbor about the rowing scull in his yard, he said its his daughter's, she rowed in college. These days she works for Bartlet Tree for the past couple years or so, (travels approx 40 min one way to get there), is a climber and crew leader and he said she absolutely loves it, she got turned onto trees when Bartlett held a career day at her college in NC. So basically she would likely be a superb candidate to recruit.

So 2 potentially excellent employees who live within one mile of me, and they could work within 5 mile max of their homes (I would think that would be sweet for the long-commuting girl).

The takeaway is I believe they are definitely out there. All ya gotta do is find em lol!!!

Btw, Scott I didn't see anything about a 10 mile radius?
 
Mellow said:
The most stressful time in my 37 years in business was when I had two crews and a full-time salesman and two office staff. I was always anxious to the point of panic attacks and insomnia. About 12 years ago, I downsized to just me and one guy. I do all the sales one or two days a week and we work three or four days a week; about 20 - 30 hours average. I also shrunk my service area to about a 10 mile radius from our shop and raised my prices significantly. I've become very selective about which jobs I'm willing to bid on and bid way high for those stressful jobs. If I get it, I know I'm making good coin. If not, no big deal. I'm in a much better place now. Very mellow.
Click to expand...
 
That dosn't sound good at all.

If you had a top notch all round fluent climber,who could take over from you one day. How would you feel about continuing?
 
Wish I was ten years younger and not as many commitments as I have now. I loved the time I spent in C’ville (things have likely changed a bit since 1974-1976), and could see spending some time there. Still, maybe I’d have a week I could help out, while Karen is out West visiting friends.
 
PCTREE said:
So Ive not been enjoying running a tree business for many years now. Back when I was the lead climber I loved tree work. Fast forward a few major accidents and I find myself not enjoying the day in day out drag of trying to keep everthing running. I recently lost my climber and hired a guy who claimed to have 2 years experience. I would say he has 2 months at tops. He actually has balls and does OK on crane work as long as he doesnt have to move sideways to get to his cut. He has no concept of how to traverse a tree canopy. Work has slowed down here and I find myself lowering my rates and bidding on jobs I wouldnt normally bid on just to keep the guys busy. The problem is then I have to baby sit them as they have no clue how to get anything done safely.

Thursday I decided after finding the second running bowline of the day miss tied , Fug it. Im loosing money every day trying to keep them busy and keeping me from working on Ropetek.
Im now toying with the idea of just bidding on the BIG gravey crane removals that Im equiped for and bring in contract climbers for each job. Obvious problem is how to staff the ground crew but right now I just have one guy who is mediocra at best...
Click to expand...
I definitely feel for you, the last few years of running a tree company were extremely stressful. Trying to get employees that actually had experience was almost impossible. It seemed the only actual experience was easy removals, pruning skills didn't exist, plant healthcare, forget that! Finally, after needing both hips to be replaced, I retired, and I don't miss it at all. Still today, friends in the green industry are still struggling for employees, one had to cancel half of his snow contracts. Nothing worse than having plenty of work but no way to do it.
 
I could eliminate most employees with one question...." do you have a driver's license"?

keep your head up paul. Could you survive on ropetek? Contract climbers seem to be the way to go. I would try and be clear that the job will entail ground work. Then you could have a rake tech doing the bull shit while the other with experience managed chipper or loader possibly.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #16
treebogan said:
That dosn't sound good at all.

If you had a top notch all round fluent climber,who could take over from you one day. How would you feel about continuing?
Click to expand...
My preference at this point is to get out but if I found a good climber it would make it doable to continue. During the season we pull in $5-10K per day with a 4 man crew. So my intent is to just focus on the great jobs and let the rest go. By not having full time employees I wouldnt feel trapped by the job and could take off whenever I want.

John Im sure I could live well off of Ropetek until someone comes out with a better product then I would be out of luck.
 
For that kind of daily gross #, I would think the right people could be found. Sure, when you're trying to do it on a shoestring, getting and keeping good people is much tougher.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20
Sean I appreciate that but the commute seems a little rough. We are currently working on fixing up an old cabin on our property. When that is complete maybe it would make it more viable
 
How much is a hotel room for a month there? 1k to 2k? How many hours/ days a week would you guys be banging? I spent over 3 years running the road living out of a suitcase, and will likely be doing it again at some point. It seems like a lot of money, but it's not when you are making that much more. At less fortunate times I've lived in a tent at a campground for about a month working on the road, was far cheaper than the alternatives, and i had a blast drinking and cooking with the neighbors. I even kinda ended up dating one :lol:
 
My bud and I went to Houston in 1977 on a shoe string. I had a slide in truck camper and he had a Econoline. We camped on the site of a house we built from scratch in Katy Texas. Out in the boonies on the wrong side of the tracks. Got to know the locals and got invited to Sunday dinner. I think it took almost a month to rough, roof and side it. He had an 9 year old and a 1 year old. We had a 2 year old. Good times. I still check the house out on street view. Looks good. Not bad for a couple of young punks.
 
I think including accomadation would be a huge incentive to the right person.

It will also attract dead beats so watch out for that.

My company had to pay accom and all bills for over a decade. I just wouldnt have attracted anyone over here otherwise.
 
Having a cabin or travel trailer would help with short-term, competent folks to come kill hazard trees with you in spurts.

Charlottesville is a plane ride or two from most of the US, maybe 3.

You can turn over a travel-trailer easily once the cabin is functional.
 
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