Contracts

[lsylvain]

Question, does anyone on here do contracts for firewood with their customers?

I'm thinking something like you would have a set amount of wood that the customer would have on hand. so for example you have a customer that only wants 1 cord at a time and you just go by regularly and restock their pile instead of them calling you everytime they want more. They in return would have a set monthly payment plus a bill for overages. Like a phone bill, the set payment amount would be for the next months deliveries and the overage portion would be for the current months useage. This I would think would keep them from going somewhere else for their wood so you would be sure to have all of their business for the winter.

You could also do like the oil compaies and offer discounted rates if they lock in their rate in June. So in June you would know that you already have 200 cords sold and know if you don't have enough you better get cutting.

Anythoughts?

 

[laynes69]

Sounds alot like a big headache to me. If you have alot of customers, that would or could be confusing. Plus there wood consumption would vary by the weather. I dunno, if it was me I wouldnt want a contract for firewood. Then again im in the middle of nowhere and I dont want to have to worry about another contract with something.

 

[daemon2525]

It's beginning to sound a lot like lawnsite around here.
I think that firewood is more of a commodity than a service.

 

[Husky137]

No contracts.Firewood is such a hot commodity that someone will always buy it, especially at the height of the heating season when everyone else is sold out of seasoned wood. If you offer a quality product you won't have any trouble selling all of your inventory whether it is "spoken" for or not. I never have enough wood to meet demand and I do zero advertising.

Oh, and you better have all your wood for the fall cut and split before June.

 

[lsylvain]

I used to run a conveniance store and we had contracts with all the vendors. For example Coke, Pepsi, and Bud came twice a week. We didn't have to call Coke every week and tell them that we need X cases of this and X cases of that. They just showed up on Tues and Friday looked in the stock room and filled it with what we needed in their alloted space and gave us a bill.

My thinking was that it would save you in travel time. Instead of Mr. Jones calling you for a load you take it to him and Mrs. Smith next door sees your truck and it reminds her to tell Mr. Smith to call you, so he calls the next day and you have to go all the way back out again. If you had the smiths on contract while you are at the Jones' you stock the Smiths up so you don't have to come back. I guess you could just call them on a regular basis and check in.

I guess my theory is I would rather sell more wood to less people.

 

[lsylvain]

You just kind of contradicted yourself Husky. In the first paragraph you said you run out of wood every year and in the second you said that you better have all your wood cut before June. So you should listen to your own advice. jk I know what you are saying.

But what I am saying is if I know in June that I'm not going to have enough wood I can start hunting down more. I may not be able to get much that will be ready for winter, but I will know that I will need more for the following winter and start cutting early. How much more wood could you sell if you didn't run out? Maybe you could sell twice as much?

Or maybe think of it this way. You said that you get a lot of business in the height of the season when everyone runs out of wood. So what if I'm there with a ton of wood and then when you run out and all your people have to come to me. I keep in contact with all of them throughout the year and get them to be my customers now. Then I have a pretty good idea of how much I will sell and make sure that I have enough product on hand to keep them happy all winter and not give them a reason to go to sombody else.

 

[Husky137]

No contradiction, because by June I'm cutting for the following firewood season or for the increasing number of green firewood customers.

I didn't used to do green because I felt like I was "losing" money by not getting the same price as if it was seasoned. I have to say though, there is nothing better than splitting right onto the conveyor and into the truck and dumping it in their yard to be stored.