How long did it take you to be able to bid?

Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Treestuff
Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
A

argueta

ArboristSite Lurker
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
Texas
This is a questions I have been curious about, how long were you in the business to be able to give your business a profitable bid?
 
losing money

lose money on a few jobs and you'll figure it out dang fast....
even the best make costly mistakes:)
 
IMO any tree guy that says he's never bombed a bid either is lying or he's wasting his talents by only doing tree work.
 
Speaking of bombing bids

Last week my town got hit with straight line winds gusting into the 80's. While surveying the damage and looking for work we drove up on twin 60 foot pin oaks with the tops blown out of them. There was no technical work involved simply cut them up and move them out. I bid the job for $1050.00 and left, with the homeowner needing to think it over. A few days later I get a call from the guy. He tells me I can do the job but he wants to pay me an additional $200.00 to take down a much smaller pin oak in addition. Well, I drive back by the site and look at the tree from the truck (mistake). It was smaller but only by about 12 inches in diameter. I called the homeowner to confirm the location of the tree and found out that $1250.00 was all he was willing to pay. I was caught up on work and really needed the job so I took the guy's offer (mistake #2).
I rented a skid loader with a grapple and paid one of my hands to run it. When we showed up to do the work I walked around planning my attack. While sizing up the additional tree I found it to be hanging over the neighbor’s house, a fence, and several ornamental trees. I estimated the additional "small tree" at $800.00 but I was set in at $200.00. I cut up both downed trees in 4 hours. The additional tree took me and a ground guy 4 hours by itself. When I raked up the last pile of debris, I had put in 16 hours on site. Skid loader rental cost me $360.00 after filling it up with diesel. My two hands cost me $350.00. I ruined one bar and tore a door off of my utility bed. I hauled 9 loads of debris to my house and 2 to the city dump. Usually I get $50.00 per load as a dump and fuel fee which comes to $550.00 for hauling. The grand total was $1260.00 and that does not cover chain sharpening, saw gas, ect. To sum it up I basically took the guys trees out for free and simply got paid to haul off the material. After this nightmare of a job I am adopting the principle of never coming off of my original estimate. I am not a used car salesman and I do not build in overinflated prices to negotiate with homeowners. My dilemma is should I show this guy exactly what it cost me to do this job, to show him the hell of deal he just got? I only fear that I may piss off a customer just to make my self feel better.
 
pistol pete said:
Last week my town got hit with straight line winds gusting into the 80's. While surveying the damage and looking for work we drove up on twin 60 foot pin oaks with the tops blown out of them. There was no technical work involved simply cut them up and move them out. I bid the job for $1050.00 and left, with the homeowner needing to think it over. A few days later I get a call from the guy. He tells me I can do the job but he wants to pay me an additional $200.00 to take down a much smaller pin oak in addition. Well, I drive back by the site and look at the tree from the truck (mistake). It was smaller but only by about 12 inches in diameter. I called the homeowner to confirm the location of the tree and found out that $1250.00 was all he was willing to pay. I was caught up on work and really needed the job so I took the guy's offer (mistake #2).
I rented a skid loader with a grapple and paid one of my hands to run it. When we showed up to do the work I walked around planning my attack. While sizing up the additional tree I found it to be hanging over the neighbor’s house, a fence, and several ornamental trees. I estimated the additional "small tree" at $800.00 but I was set in at $200.00. I cut up both downed trees in 4 hours. The additional tree took me and a ground guy 4 hours by itself. When I raked up the last pile of debris, I had put in 16 hours on site. Skid loader rental cost me $360.00 after filling it up with diesel. My two hands cost me $350.00. I ruined one bar and tore a door off of my utility bed. I hauled 9 loads of debris to my house and 2 to the city dump. Usually I get $50.00 per load as a dump and fuel fee which comes to $550.00 for hauling. The grand total was $1260.00 and that does not cover chain sharpening, saw gas, ect. To sum it up I basically took the guys trees out for free and simply got paid to haul off the material. After this nightmare of a job I am adopting the principle of never coming off of my original estimate. I am not a used car salesman and I do not build in overinflated prices to negotiate with homeowners. My dilemma is should I show this guy exactly what it cost me to do this job, to show him the hell of deal he just got? I only fear that I may piss off a customer just to make my self feel better.
Click to expand...

I made that mistake years ago---standing in front yard (100 yards away ) and pricing trees-----NEVER again...now I look and I price, I don't take HO prices for anything...if they want to bargin then they can find someone else..I still make enough mistakes believe me...
 
pistol pete said:
Last week my town got hit with straight line winds gusting into the 80's. While surveying the damage and looking for work we drove up on twin 60 foot pin oaks with the tops blown out of them. There was no technical work involved simply cut them up and move them out. I bid the job for $1050.00 and left, with the homeowner needing to think it over. A few days later I get a call from the guy. He tells me I can do the job but he wants to pay me an additional $200.00 to take down a much smaller pin oak in addition. Well, I drive back by the site and look at the tree from the truck (mistake). It was smaller but only by about 12 inches in diameter. I called the homeowner to confirm the location of the tree and found out that $1250.00 was all he was willing to pay. I was caught up on work and really needed the job so I took the guy's offer (mistake #2).
I rented a skid loader with a grapple and paid one of my hands to run it. When we showed up to do the work I walked around planning my attack. While sizing up the additional tree I found it to be hanging over the neighbor’s house, a fence, and several ornamental trees. I estimated the additional "small tree" at $800.00 but I was set in at $200.00. I cut up both downed trees in 4 hours. The additional tree took me and a ground guy 4 hours by itself. When I raked up the last pile of debris, I had put in 16 hours on site. Skid loader rental cost me $360.00 after filling it up with diesel. My two hands cost me $350.00. I ruined one bar and tore a door off of my utility bed. I hauled 9 loads of debris to my house and 2 to the city dump. Usually I get $50.00 per load as a dump and fuel fee which comes to $550.00 for hauling. The grand total was $1260.00 and that does not cover chain sharpening, saw gas, ect. To sum it up I basically took the guys trees out for free and simply got paid to haul off the material. After this nightmare of a job I am adopting the principle of never coming off of my original estimate. I am not a used car salesman and I do not build in overinflated prices to negotiate with homeowners. My dilemma is should I show this guy exactly what it cost me to do this job, to show him the hell of deal he just got? I only fear that I may piss off a customer just to make my self feel better.
Click to expand...
Thats really something. Thats what im afraid of, sometimes it seems like one is charging quite a bit, but after all the expenses labor, tools, fuel, ect... it really adds up. At what rate do you tree people try to get an hour? I was thinking $200 an hour is about right for a 5 crew man.
 
hourly

I (try) to figure $150 per hour for up to 3 men and and equip. (saws, bucket and dump)to do the job. anything more and the price goes up.
 
some days are diamonds ! and then some days are stones!! IM JUST HAPPY TO BE ABLE TO BREAK EVEN SOMETIMES AND PAY THE HELP TO BE ABLE TO OPERATE ANOTHER DAY .... lifes lessons we do learn with experiance????? lol
 
making money

hey chucker
I had a bad run a while back at pricing till even my brother told me he was going to start doing it.....trees always bigger after you get started.
 
I'm still new to bidding to be profitable but I aim to get $150 per hour for 3 guys. I figure how many loads of debris will be there and factor $100 per load into the estimate as well. If I have to use my stumper I'll tack on an extra $100 per hour for that. So if we're putting in an 8 hour day with 4 loads of debris and 1 hour stump time my bid would be roughly $1700 dollars. 12 for labor, 4 for trucks/trailers, 1 for stumper. Of course at this point, we have other sources of income and all we make goes straight into the bank for more equipment. Once I have bigger and better equipment and can move material faster I'll have to change my whole bidding process. I assume that is one of the reasons you never quite figure out how to bid a job.
 
Blakesmaster said:
I'm still new to bidding to be profitable but I aim to get $150 per hour for 3 guys. I figure how many loads of debris will be there and factor $100 per load into the estimate as well. If I have to use my stumper I'll tack on an extra $100 per hour for that. So if we're putting in an 8 hour day with 4 loads of debris and 1 hour stump time my bid would be roughly $1700 dollars. 12 for labor, 4 for trucks/trailers, 1 for stumper. Of course at this point, we have other sources of income and all we make goes straight into the bank for more equipment. Once I have bigger and better equipment and can move material faster I'll have to change my whole bidding process. I assume that is one of the reasons you never quite figure out how to bid a job.
Click to expand...

your right ---things constantly change, making it hard to profit sometimes. don't forget the economy, competition, and sometimes just bad luck..
customers don't seem to like it when you charge them say $1000 and your gone in 2 hrs.
 
chip's-tree said:
your right ---things constantly change, making it hard to profit sometimes. don't forget the economy, competition, and sometimes just bad luck..
customers don't seem to like it when you charge them say $1000 and your gone in 2 hrs.
Click to expand...

Did a $1,500 job in about 5 hrs... Customer thought we would be there 2 days. But when we got to the last part there was about 2' piece of steel 72"+ stump. Sheared the 3 bolts that secure the wheel on the grinder, dualed 9 teeth up, and can't get the shear pin out to replace the bolts... So the 5 hrs there... got another what 5 hours working on the equipment. Also got a trailer wall to reinforce because we couldn't cut the but log up enough to pull it on the dump trailer. So after the down time because of that stump and expanses we averaged $100/hr. I don't give them a time line just a time when I'm going to show up. "I'll be done by the time you get home so I can get paid" with a smile is usually what I say.
 
I have seen the market fluctuate a bunch it seems price is lower when cost are higher competition areas stink imo. I am very lucky to get half what you guys are bidding but I don't lose much anymore unless times are too slow. I have equipment to get r done so if I bid it tight I can bust my rump and come out but actually this business stinks when you look at the whole picture. New start-ups and illegals bidding so cheap, many of who have no overhead will give you faster gray receding hairlines but either you love it or you don't!
 

Similar threads

J
Ideas on how to sell a Tree Care business?
Replies
7
Views
2K
ClimberBusinessman
C
M
Bidding from images.
Replies
7
Views
596
Sidecarflip
S
C
What Would You Bid These Two Trees At?
Replies
12
Views
2K
mikewhite85
mikewhite85
R
Vermeer BC700XL throttle issue!
Replies
3
Views
586
mcdc6
M
E
Starting a small Tree trimming and pruning business.
Replies
2
Views
1K
ericklofgren
E

Latest posts

Back
Top