What area of your business do you lose the most $$$

[Darin]

This is more of a software question.
Is there one thing that you think you would make more money if you had a certain app or management system available?
If so, how much money do you think you are losing because of it?
More of a curiosity at this point. Just brainstorming a few ideas.

 

[ATH]

Since you asked:

I have been thinking of writing a simple/quick pesticide record system that would merge names & addresses of clients from another spreadsheet (and I'd also probably put scheduled treatments on that spreadsheet, so it already knows which pesticides I am using).

Not that I am "losing" money, but on simple applications, I feel like I spend more time filling out the record than doing the work...would be nice to be out of there with just a couple of clicks. If it was designed to work with the GPS and import the address (ask for confirmation), then pull everything off of my spreadsheet based on that, it would be cool (if you are asking).

 

[Darin]

Time is money...so in a sense you are "losing" money if it could help speed up a process.

 

[Livennine01]

Time is money...so in a sense you are "losing" money if it could help speed up a process.

You can easily handle something like that with Access. You just set up a couple queries and then "bam" you got a simple database. It is probably the simplest thing out. Also, if you don't know how to use it or work with it, save some money and talk to a local highschool school teacher or go to a college and post someting in the IT Division. Pay $1-200 and have someone do it for you. You can get something like that done cheap, while you are out quoting! Hope that helps!

 

[jefflovstrom]

I would first say, Dump sites.
Fuel is a major overhead in California also.
Getting rid of palm is a massive cost here.
Worker's comp. at 50%
I could go on.
Jeff

 

[Darin]

I would first say, Dump sites.
Fuel is a major overhead in California also.
Getting rid of palm is a massive cost here.
Worker's comp. at 50%
I could go on.
Jeff

Yeah, all those are big...but you can't change those. I probably am speaking from more of an efficiency stand point.

 

[SquirrelMan]

Yeah, all those are big...but you can't change those. I probably am speaking from more of an efficiency stand point.

I'm pretty good about it but drive time kills most of the bigger companies I know of. A hour or two a day burning labor and fuel adds up quick!

 

[Darin]

I'm pretty good about it but drive time kills most of the bigger companies I know of. A hour or two a day burning labor and fuel adds up quick!

Yes...You can't change that either.

 

[SquirrelMan]

Yes...You can't change that either.

Maybe. If you wrote a advanced program overlaying google maps with your starting point, job locations and dump sites. You could potentially save a little. For example when you have a job on a side of town you dont normally work on, there could be a dump closer by that you did not think to use but the program recognizes and maps out your day.

 

[Darin]

Maybe. If you wrote a advanced program overlaying google maps with your starting point, job locations and dump sites. You could potentially save a little. For example when you have a job on a side of town you dont normally work on, there could be a dump closer by that you did not think to use but the program recognizes and maps out your day.

ahh, totally stand corrected. I agree. I like that idea.

 

[imagineero]

If I understand where you're going with this Darin, I'd say there's three opportunities for making some money off software.

The first one is in an interactive database for people who will take mulch. Saves driving time. Tree companies would possibly pay a subscriber fee and there's also advertisigin opportunity for equipment suppliers, and also landscapers. You need to advertise it widely to build up a good base of people willing to receive mulch.

The second is in some kind of work finding/referral scheme, possibly tied in with some sort of online estimated quoting system. There's a couple threads like that going already. If you had customers enter their details, and gave them an estimate which they accepted... then you could refer a very good quality lead to tree companies. That's worth something.

The third is in a killer do-all app which has never been written for this industry though there are somewhat similar apps written for other industries. There would be a lot of development cost, but you'd make a lot off it too. It would include basic stuff that is already covered in some other small business packages - quoting, expense tracking, simplification of taxes and payroll, hours etc.... but would be much more specific to our industry. The quoting section for example would allow you to assign photos to the quote to make things real easy, and maps with markup. The technology is all there already, someone just needs the software to make it work. The software would give you prompts to followup with pruning/treatment at set dates and becomes a very powerful marketing tool. You could easily add in notes on a job to tell you when to call a customer back, and have their whole history in front of you. For a simple breakdown of how I'm doing this on paper take a look at my post here;

http://www.arboristsite.com/arborist-101/189278-2.htm

I can't tell you enough how successful this 'three folder' method is, it wins me work time and time again and is a great fallback in quiet times. The potential for software there is huge. You'd have to sell the software on a subscription basis though, because the potential for sales is so low.

Shaun

 

[Darin]

thanks...I will have to read up on the 3 folder method. Darin

 

[durkie]

Wood chip software

Hey yall -- just wanted to show you what we've been working on for dump site software. Below is a screen shot of the desktop version of our software. We also have a mobile version that you can pull up from your phone and it will locate you and find the people closest to you that want chips.

People that want chips can sign up through us once, manage the request all on their own, and reach multiple tree companies at a time, rather than the old way of calling up loads of companies and getting on loads of lists. You don't have to deal with any of it -- all you see the people nearest to you that want chips (along with phone number, where they want them dumped, how many dumps they want, and directions).

We've got quite a few tree companies using our service on a daily basis to find places to dump their chips. It is a subscription service (currently $30/month or $300/year), and several of our customers have signed up for the whole year.

We also recently added a feature for companies planning their jobs several days out -- you can email people about deliveries in advance, and they can respond back at their leisure. When you're actually working the job several days later, everyone that responded to the email shows up highlighted in your list of chip dump sites and you can head straight there and deliver without having to call and make arrangements.

We'll be at the ISA conference this weekend in Toronto if anyone would like to meet up and play with it, or I'm happy to talk further here on the forum as well.

Thanks!
Craig

View attachment 307239

 

[Darin]

Hey yall -- just wanted to show you what we've been working on for dump site software. Below is a screen shot of the desktop version of our software. We also have a mobile version that you can pull up from your phone and it will locate you and find the people closest to you that want chips.

People that want chips can sign up through us once, manage the request all on their own, and reach multiple tree companies at a time, rather than the old way of calling up loads of companies and getting on loads of lists. You don't have to deal with any of it -- all you see the people nearest to you that want chips (along with phone number, where they want them dumped, how many dumps they want, and directions).

We've got quite a few tree companies using our service on a daily basis to find places to dump their chips. It is a subscription service (currently $30/month or $300/year), and several of our customers have signed up for the whole year.

We also recently added a feature for companies planning their jobs several days out -- you can email people about deliveries in advance, and they can respond back at their leisure. When you're actually working the job several days later, everyone that responded to the email shows up highlighted in your list of chip dump sites and you can head straight there and deliver without having to call and make arrangements.

We'll be at the ISA conference this weekend in Toronto if anyone would like to meet up and play with it, or I'm happy to talk further here on the forum as well.

Thanks!
Craig

View attachment 307239

Sweet....sounds like what somebody wanted above. Very cool!

 

[Lil Red]

Hey yall -- just wanted to show you what we've been working on for dump site software. Below is a screen shot of the desktop version of our software. We also have a mobile version that you can pull up from your phone and it will locate you and find the people closest to you that want chips.

People that want chips can sign up through us once, manage the request all on their own, and reach multiple tree companies at a time, rather than the old way of calling up loads of companies and getting on loads of lists. You don't have to deal with any of it -- all you see the people nearest to you that want chips (along with phone number, where they want them dumped, how many dumps they want, and directions).

We've got quite a few tree companies using our service on a daily basis to find places to dump their chips. It is a subscription service (currently $30/month or $300/year), and several of our customers have signed up for the whole year.

We also recently added a feature for companies planning their jobs several days out -- you can email people about deliveries in advance, and they can respond back at their leisure. When you're actually working the job several days later, everyone that responded to the email shows up highlighted in your list of chip dump sites and you can head straight there and deliver without having to call and make arrangements.

We'll be at the ISA conference this weekend in Toronto if anyone would like to meet up and play with it, or I'm happy to talk further here on the forum as well.

Thanks!
Craig

View attachment 307239

What is your receiving chip customer base like here in Oregon?

 

[durkie]

What is your receiving chip customer base like here in Oregon?

A decent amount, but not huge right now -- part of that is from us not wanting to sign up too many people for chips without having someone on the other end to make the delivery.

We'll gladly give you our service for free and you can use it all you want while we get more chip requests in your area -- I'll send you a PM with account details if you want to log in and try it.

And we can import your current list of dump sites, so you can work with all of the places you're used to dumping and then new dump sites just automatically show up on your list.

I've also attached a view of our mobile app (iphone and android) -- some companies prefer to let the crew handle the delivery on their own from their phones, while others want the delivery setup to go through the office.

View attachment 307317

 

[Darin]

A decent amount, but not huge right now -- part of that is from us not wanting to sign up too many people for chips without having someone on the other end to make the delivery.

We'll gladly give you our service for free and you can use it all you want while we get more chip requests in your area -- I'll send you a PM with account details if you want to log in and try it.

And we can import your current list of dump sites, so you can work with all of the places you're used to dumping and then new dump sites just automatically show up on your list.

I've also attached a view of our mobile app (iphone and android) -- some companies prefer to let the crew handle the delivery on their own from their phones, while others want the delivery setup to go through the office.

View attachment 307317

Do you have a list of areas you need help in?

 

[durkie]

Do you have a list of areas you need help in?

Sure, and honestly it's everywhere. Even in Atlanta, our busiest city where we're doing the highest number of chip deliveries, there are hotspots that get way more tree work (and chip deliveries) than other places, and we get people requesting chips further and further outside of the city.

So definitely we need help wherever you are. :biggrin: And we want to help you too! We'll give a free month of service to anyone on here that's interested. Just send me a PM with your contact info, company name and website and we can get you set up no sweat.

Craig

 

[Darin]

What is the link to the app? I will put a few addresses where we need chips.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Sounds like it is good for someone that needs to dump a load once a week or so. There is another app similar to this and people want it,, but it is a pita.
For me,, I need to dump 3 to 4 trucks a day.
Jeff