Xman said:
I think it's great you guys are helping and I'd like to also, but I sure would like to see that you make more than what your regular days gross is in your hometowns.
If I leave my home area and my bread and butter customers, drive two days to the south (we are in Maryland) and deal with all the headaches, I'd better be making much more than what I do now. Hey, I run a business and it wouldn't be smart to venture down there if I don't make good money at it.
Hey Xman, welcome to the site and thanks for contributing.
Your concerns align with almost all of us commercial guys going down there. I think you've put the questions better than most.
Like any astute businessman, you're looking at the opportunity as an invesment; If i am to absorb the opportunity costs of leaving my home business and invest the money, time, equipment and manpower, am I going to acheive a return on investment greater than that of what I'm doing currently?
That IS the $64,000 question. Unfortunately, like any investment, there are risks. No good investment is without risks. Right now you're doing your homework, or as it's known in the investment community,
due diligence. You assimilate all the information you can, make a decision, make a plan, work the plan and see if the outcome matches your expectations. Do better than your expectations, good decision, good plan. Do worse, you kick yourself, come back home and dig out of the hole you created.
That's the invesment model. Since we as humans can't predict the future, and often have little or no control over the variables, the unknowns, the weather, the economic conditions, local economies, people's spending behaviors, and your employee's attitudes in the zone of the unknown, an invesment can often boil down to your intuition and pure gut instinct. If you have little to risk, then you have little to lose and you can go for it knowing, at worst, you're not going to cripple yourself.
From just the little I know of your situation, I don't think you have any business going down there without a FEMA contract. The size of your company and the level of gear you posess tell me you have a thriving business at home. Staying home is low risk, high reward. Going down is high risk, potentially high reward but no guarantees whatsoever. There is no assurance you will come out ahead, none. Promises can not be made that way. Simply said, we just don't have the answers to the questions you pose.
Things down there are dynamic. The way it is this week is different than how it will be next week. Information now will be outdated days from now. One neighborhood will be vastly different from the next and to know where the best places to go and where are the deepest pockets?, well, wouldn't it be nice to have that information. We'd all be rushing for the same spots.
The closest you could get would be to know someone living on the inside, someone 'in there' to give you first-hand information and guidance. Then, once down there, having a sales guy out ahead of your work crew lining up jobs. For the tree companies that are down there, if they find a sweetheart area, I wouldn't expect them to be inviting everyone else in. From a business / investment standpoint that would be shooting yourself in your own foot.
Our place here is to support as best we can our arborist community and the cleanup effort. We offer information and logistics, but not promises and guarantees. I do wish you the very best.
rubber track skidsteers) each with implemax grapples(two 4810's and one 4520) and many stump grinders (rayco 1672, RG120, super50 4X4) and bandit chippers (254, 1490 and 1890).
