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DC's Firewood

ArboristSite Lurker
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
11
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0
Location
Ashe Co., NC
Hello Everyone i am new to the site and just started a Firewood supply company this summer. I would like for some of you seasoned veterans of this industry give me some pointers on how to grow and keep customers happy.

Thank Ya
"DC"

DC's Firewood
 
Deal in "real" measurements. Don't play around with regional measurements. Don't short your customers. Deliver what and when. If you say tomorrow night at 6pm, be there. If you say seasoned, make sure it is, and not cut out of a pile of old logs last week. If they are expecting quality hardwood, then deliver that, don't cut the load with punky crap or softwood. No active infestation gets delivered to anyone. Treat you customers the way you would want to be treated if you were spending your hard earned money. Happy customers are repeat customers.

Charge accordingly and don't undervalue your time. If you are not clearing at least 25-30 an hour doing firewood then you are wasting your time on back breaking work. Use hydraulics and automation to your advantage. Handle the wood as few times as possible.

You should be processing wood now for next seasons deliveries.

Get the money before you dump the load.

Good Luck.
 
That's good advice from Husky. There's too many Losers out there trying to make a quick buck by selling anything they get their hands on and callling it
firewood. :blob2:
 
How does one get access to enough firewood to make a business from it? Deals with tree services for dumping rights? I knew a guy once that did that. He had a good piece of cleared land and told the tree guys that they could dump their trash logs as long as they dropped the good hardwood with it. I think it was a "hardwood here, trash over there" kind of thing.

Ian
 
Some guys get trash from tree services, most big operations get them from their own logging and landclearing businesses or some buy them in from other operations. I know a guy who does 4000 cord of bundled firewood a year. Buys it all from loggers and landclearers.
 
Thats for the good info guys. I get all my wood from the woods that we clear every year to set christmas trees on. When that runs out i will get it from the loggers as sawmill rejects.


DC
 
I am thinking of getting into the firewood business to supliment my income from my lawn care business. I'm trying to figure out how you make any real money if you have to buy the wood of someone else. Seems like the profit margin is pretty low to begin with. I'm having trouble seeing where the money is. I see oak in the paper for $75.00 a pickup load delivered. Just to gross $25.00/hour you only have 3 hours to get that from standing tree to the customer. I would deliver in much larger quantities, but it still seems like there is a lot of room for error that would just slash your per hour depending on how many times you have to move the wood etc. I know it can be done. How many cords can one man cut split and stack in a 10 hour day?
 
lsylvain said:
I am thinking of getting into the firewood business to supliment my income from my lawn care business. I'm trying to figure out how you make any real money if you have to buy the wood of someone else. Seems like the profit margin is pretty low to begin with. I'm having trouble seeing where the money is. I see oak in the paper for $75.00 a pickup load delivered. Just to gross $25.00/hour you only have 3 hours to get that from standing tree to the customer. I would deliver in much larger quantities, but it still seems like there is a lot of room for error that would just slash your per hour depending on how many times you have to move the wood etc. I know it can be done. How many cords can one man cut split and stack in a 10 hour day?

You can't make it if you buy the wood, either start trimming trees you're self, or talk to tree companies, most are happy to have a place to dump the wood off and not have to pay to get rid of it. Most of this is junk wood, but put it in a "mixed" cord, or face cord and sell it to the people that just want a pretty fire for cheap. The hardwoods you either will have to cut or pay to have that brought in. You will make you're money on the mixed wood, I will tell you that right now, but you need the variety for the customer base.
Andy
 
Here is how it works for me

I cut mostly beetle killed pine. Mostly on private land. Haul it and drop it in piles. When I sell some I split it directly into the truck, and stack it. This way I am measuring the load, exactly. I don't mind selling 10% over what I claim it is. I will not short a load. Considering the labor involved, and the costs of running the equipment the profit margin is slim. If a truck breaks down then all that profit dis-appears into repairs. :bang:

The satisfaction is when the phone rings on a snowy day when someone was out of wood. When they see the truck pull in, the large :D makes it worth it.

-Pat
 
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