Your niche?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tophopper
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I find it odd that most of my competitors throw a stupid high price on work then whittle it down to nothing. Example. 1800$ quote job was done for 800$. Lady was thrilled that we ground the stump for 100$. As the hack told her it would be 250$ or more.
All in all it was a 600$ tree including stump.
 
Craig, Craig, Craig, I wanna see you when your 53!!!! I am still 170 lbs. :-)
 
I made my reputation on the industry as a climber, like top says all the nasty bs. I worked for a company that was known for producing great climbers.

Now I like to think I'm a great boss and administrator. Resolving conflicts and mobilizing large amounts of equipment and people.
 
I would consider myself a big tree specialist. I'm able to really get out to the tips in large trees and produce nice pruning. I feel like I'm able to safely push the limits in the very tops of trees as well. I also have a big interest in felling and rigging and usually get all the technical stuff.
 
My niche is pruning and shaping . I am from a nursery background and have the eye for detail. When I look at a tree for pruning I have a mental image in my mind as to how I would like it to look and prune and trim away till I achieve that image. Everything has to look so,so with me.

With this economic slowdown it is the one thing that has kept us going. People see value in having their trees trimmed by somone who isn't going to butcher them and are more seletive in who they hire to do the work. Ther isn' so much of this price bidding or shopping around for the low price for trimming and pruning work.

In the removal market it is the opposite. People just don't see value in getting a tree cut down and hire the cheapest guy they can find. It is just a dang exxpense to most people that they don't have anything to show for the money spent.

We do our share of removals but we are for the most part overpriced in a bid situation. I don't understand it either. I can get paid better and don't have to work as hard doing pruning and trimming work than I can doing removals. Seems like you have to work at half rate if you want to be competitive with some other guy. We aren't slow either and many people comment on our expertise at rigging. My two guys with the proper set-up and with the equipment we have can get more done than some of these other clowns having four guys on the ground cutting and getting in each others way.

Nothing ever seems to change in this business because that is the way it has been ever since I started in the business.
 
Ax-Man said:
My niche is pruning and shaping . I am from a nursery background and have the eye for detail. When I look at a tree for pruning I have a mental image in my mind as to how I would like it to look and prune and trim away till I achieve that image. Everything has to look so,so with me.

With this economic slowdown it is the one thing that has kept us going. People see value in having their trees trimmed by somone who isn't going to butcher them and are more seletive in who they hire to do the work. Ther isn' so much of this price bidding or shopping around for the low price for trimming and pruning work.

In the removal market it is the opposite. People just don't see value in getting a tree cut down and hire the cheapest guy they can find. It is just a dang exxpense to most people that they don't have anything to show for the money spent.

We do our share of removals but we are for the most part overpriced in a bid situation. I don't understand it either. I can get paid better and don't have to work as hard doing pruning and trimming work than I can doing removals. Seems like you have to work at half rate if you want to be competitive with some other guy. We aren't slow either and many people comment on our expertise at rigging. My two guys with the proper set-up and with the equipment we have can get more done than some of these other clowns having four guys on the ground cutting and getting in each others way.

Nothing ever seems to change in this business because that is the way it has been ever since I started in the business.
Click to expand...


exactly right Larry, I agree 100%, now I have to fins a way to convince the rich older crowd here to hire me :)
 
Pretty good at getting a tree on the ground with minimal damage.

One thing I seem to get a lot of is hedge removal and grinding, in preparation for a new hedge or fence.
I like that, easy work, good money.
 
For treework I'm a generalist. I figure I'm *one of the top tree guys in my peer group. For surveying, my specialty is construction layout. I can go out in the field with nothing but a set of prints, and complete long term jobs with zero support. A lot of guys don't like doing it, and in recent years, a lot of guys can't. The trend seems to be making monkeys that just do what they're told. Stuff gets computed in the office, they go out in the field and do what the machine tells them to do. If something else is needed, that gets done another day after being computed in the office.

*My peer group is suburban homeowners and construction workers :^P Some of the construction guys probably know how to do some stuff, but some of the stumps I've seen left in the woods are scary. If they had to do it all day without heavy equipment, someone would end up seriously hurt or killed.
 
tophopper said:
I get all the uglies no-one else will do or cannot do,
Click to expand...

Indeed, nice bump. But omg, if I had a nickel for every time some utterly delusional, self obsessed tree man said the above, well I'd be ahead by $5.

My niche is working within a 4 mile radius, and doing clean, drama-free work. I think Swing dude mighta coined that that work-quality phrase.
 
Today, I must say that we are one of the premier falling crews on the Island.

That is actually me being bashful.

They managed to have the harvesters kill off all the young fallers and the old ones ( My age) are retiring now.

That is how/why we managed to add 4 private forest districts to our client list in the last 4 years.

So we are as far as I know the only outfit left on the island with the capacity of getting a lot of wood on the ground, fast.

My calender is full from August and year out with falling jobs.
 
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My niche is fine pruning and restoration, reclamation.
Just got a property that hasn't seen secateurs, a handsaw or a chainsaw in years...broken collapsed branches, old topping, dead trees, tangled canopies, overgrown...love it.
Oh yeah, and storm damage work, love that too.
 
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