From free to making money??

[NEKS Tree Svc]

So many years later. Thank you all for the advice. I'm proud to be a professional, insured, and BBB accredited tree service.

 

[trains]

So now with some time under your belt, what would be your advice to your young self a few pages back ?

And thanks for the follow up.

 

[NEKS Tree Svc]

So now with some time under your belt, what would be your advice to your young self a few pages back ?

And thanks for the follow up.

I would tell myself to do exactly what I did, but advertise and hire the 2nd ground person sooner.

I started with fallen trees, and widow makers. I began pruning and spikeless climbing fruit trees. Now I can take down any tree. I have done crane work, I have a forestry bucket now for road and easy access trees.

 

[mbrick]

Wow, really nice to see the update to your posts from 7 years ago.

Can you explain a bit more about the journey you took to where you are today?

 

[NEKS Tree Svc]

Wow, really nice to see the update to your posts from 7 years ago.

Can you explain a bit more about the journey you took to where you are today?

I started small, after falling trees in the timber for firewood. I couldn't find anyone to teach me to climb, so I taught myself. I studied videos. I didnt really watch the video for the title. I watched how people got from limb to limb, how they moved around etc.

The tallest, safest, anchor is something I wish someone told me sooner.

 

[Bobby Lite]

Wow NEKS! Just read this thread and what an inspirational story. Congratulations on your success, and I admire your determination.

I consider myself in a similar situation that you were at one point currently, however I have no aspirations of starting a tree business. I have another full time job that is completely unrelated to trees, however I am a fairly serious woodworker on the side and took the plunge on tree climbing as a possible means to acquire more wood to work on (being able to offer someone the ability to prune etc. in exchange for the wood), and a semi-obsessive drive to maintain my property and everything on it myself. Furthermore, I try to ensure all "hobbies" (activities that are not my full time job) which require expensive equipment at some point pay for themselves, and hopefully at some point generate a little extra cash.

Long story short, as it did with woodworking, shortly after friends, co-workers and family found out about me working on my own trees, I gradually started to get requests. While fulfilling some of those requests, neighbors/friends of the people I've done work for have inquired about potentially getting me to do some work for them and the question that comes up constantly is whether I'm insured (for tree work). Obviously, I'm not and I haven't even looked into it because I don't have a company and have only done work for favors and/or other things.

Let me be clear about a few things: I don't plan on making this into a long term business, I don't plan on advertising (don't want to undercut, no pun intended, professional arborists in the area), and I would never take on a request that I didn't think I could do, or was potentially dangerous to myself or anyone's property. I would however like to help folks out that are in my immediate circle (and perhaps just outside) that may feel a little squirrely about hiring someone they don't know for a job that probably should be done that may not really need to be done. My assumption, perhaps naively, was that people would overlook the standard business practices (insurance being one of them) in exchange for a much lower price that comes with the lack of overhead.

With that being said, I'm curious how you (early on) and others dealt with (or deal with) doing work uninsured on other people's property. Obviously this hasn't been a huge issue for me doing work for only folks I know fairly well, but I've been getting a lot of interest from neighbors recently and am not sure how to deal with it, other than doing it for free. My general rule of thumb is to do things for free or a massively discounted price for people in my immediate social circle, and then charging something more realistic to referrals or people who ask. That's one thing with turning a bowl or building a cabinet, but I don't have to tell anyone here that tree work is a bit more dangerous and physically difficult to do.

 

[MrTreeGuy]

So was it as hard as people made it out to be?

I mean, we all have it ingrained in us to cut trees. I suspect it cant be that hard.

 

[chipper1]

I started small, after falling trees in the timber for firewood. I couldn't find anyone to teach me to climb, so I taught myself. I studied videos. I didnt really watch the video for the title. I watched how people got from limb to limb, how they moved around etc.

The tallest, safest, anchor is something I wish someone told me sooner.

Congrats for getting where you are even with all the critics, I've felt with it all my life. Not sure why more people don't just say "you can do whatever you set your mind to, but there is a cost for everything we do", that's how I look at things. I teach my kids there's nothing you can't do only things you don't know how to do yet!
Not sure what it is, but no-one wanted to teach me to climb either, so just as you I had to figure it out on my own. I'd still like to have someone with more experience to climb with and help me advance quicker(double meaning there and both would work. I went right to buying everything for SRT since all the old school guys on the Buzz were even switching over, but I can use ddrt with a self advancing Blakes if needed or for work positioning.
Since I primarily work by myself I do what I can to stay on the ground, even so the ability to set a line high in a tree is a crucial one, the big shot does a great job for that.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

I was in sort of the same situation.

I wanted to climb, but pretty much everybody told me it wasn't possible to do.

I don't want to make a career out of it, I have a great career that I really enjoy for a day job, but I've been working trees on weekends since I was 8, running a saw at 10ish, falling at 16. The next step was climbing. Tried to get information online and it was either people with no experience saying I was nuts or people with experience telling me I couldn't do it.

I read books, watched videos, bought a rope and climbed low and slow in my back yard with a bowline on a bight and a blakes hitch. Then I bought a saddle and a carabiner and climbed using both an anchor knot or clove hitch and a blakes hitch, then a self tending blakes, then a VT with a micro pulley, then a hitch climber pulley, etc etc etc. I've climbed on every single friction hitch I could find online at this point. I spent weeks never getting above about 10 feet off the ground. Spending afternoons setting lines in my silver maple in the back yard. Throwing throw bags, getting them stuck, realizing I need a second throw line, climbing up to get the first one...getting my climbing line stuck and figuring out my own way to get it back. Making mistakes when it didn't matter.

Then I bought rigging gear...

I still practice on the weekends because I don't climb every single day so I need to practice to stay proficient. It's something I enjoy though, so it's fun for me.


So, it can absolutely be done and be done safely. I take my time when I'm doing removals. It's still dangerous, there's no getting around that. However, I make sure I'm comfortable with what I'm doing, plan out my moves, and make sure I'm going home to my kids that night. All while having a blast up there in the canopy.


Glad you stuck with it and made it work!

 

[desertsaw]

Cool....all those years went by....you achieved your dream....all the critics??? where are they???....It doesn't even matter....Moral = follow your dream....make it happen...Ignore the shade throwers....I admire you man!....

 

[Mjosoba]

G

So many years later. Thank you all for the advice. I'm proud to be a professional, insured, and BBB accredited tree service.

Glad to hear this. I’m down in Wichita, and have been working with my buddy for about a year. I love the work, told my wife it’s the first time I’ve enjoyed my job. But I’m 35 and have enough experience in other industries that it just isn’t going to work out. I went from foreman to low man while I’ve been learning. I can run jobs myself now, but I just can’t turn my back on the easy money that my experience brings in other areas. I can get a job without being picky for around $50k, but here I’m making less than $25k. Wish I’d started younger in this field.

 

[TreeDoctorsoftheWorld]

couldn't agree more!

 

[dgr]

Haha. Great read. Promise you won't turn into one of the salty twats on here.

 

[NEKS Tree Svc]

I started small, after falling trees in the timber for firewood. I couldn't find anyone to teach me to climb, so I taught myself. I studied videos. I didnt really watch the video for the title. I watched how people got from limb to limb, how they moved around etc.

The tallest, safest, anchor is something I wish someone told me sooner.

 

[mbrick]

Looking good from here!

 

[scut207]

Good read! Well done!