Firewood business

[blunt]

Hi everyone. I'm pretty new 'round here and I'm also really new to cutting firewood. But I have the opportunity to get into a firewood business ... give up the daily grid of an IT job ... which involves 3 hours of travel a day. I'm also a musician and partime guitar teacher to some local kids (currently 7 students).

My wife is freaking out hahaha but its not something I'm going to leap into. The business itself would cost me approx $35k New Zealand dollars to buy. I have not looked at the books etc ... just pondering the idea ... but I've been looking at a way out of IT for quite a while now and its hard to make $85k a year as a musician. But if the firewood business could be a viable partner I might give it some serious thought. I know there are local guys doing it ... and my small town of 1500 people is only a little over an hour to NZ's capital city where the city folk pay good $$$ for dry delivered forewood.

Does anyone on here do it as a fulltime living etc? What sort of output is possible? I know theres a zillion variables but some thoughts would be much appreciated.

thanks - Shayne

 

[ericjeeper]

I for one think you are nuts

It is hard work. Big investment for little easy return. But hey that is just me.My kid can make ok Money at it. But it is not the kind of money I want to settle for.
At least around here we still have guys selling a face for 35 bucks..

 

[sloth9669]

small

Start small work up this way if you dont like it you can bail out early and cheap. As for full time thats alot of wood to make 85k....id treat it as a side job and nothing more untill you know u can pull in the money you need. Best of luck

 

[Billy_Bob]

What do you get for your 35K?

Things to think about...
(I don't need to know the answers, just things for you to consider...)

Were do you get the wood? How much does the wood cost? Is there an unlimited supply? Distance to travel to get the wood?

How much can you sell the wood for? Distance you need to travel to deliver the wood? How many customers in this area?

So far as myself, I would only do this if I had a firewood processor, a front end loader, a dump truck, a scale, and could legally sell by weight.

The firewood processor takes logs in one end and spits out split firewood on the other end. So I could then load the wood into the dump truck, weigh it, and go dump it in the customer's yard. If they wanted it stacked, then they could pay extra by the hour for someone to stack it.

Then the only other prohibitive thing is cost of transportation. It seems to me if you transport wood too far, there comes a point where the cost of the wood to the customer would be more than heating with electric or gas or too expensive.

So what is the cost of heating with electric or gas vs wood in your area? Would you be able to sell wood around this price?

I know with myself, if the wood is too far away, it is silly to go get it as I will pay a fortune in gasoline to drive my truck there...

 

[blunt]

The business has a 3 tonne truck for deliveries etc, a fork lift, commercial splitter, large chainsaw and also equipment for building trellises and outdoor timber furniture. I'm estimating around $30k worth of equipment. The site for the business is very handily located to 2 large saw mills and this is where there wood is currently sourced. A 3 tonne truck with approx 5m3 of dry weathered pine sells for between 350-500 depending on season and demand.

The business would be a sideline because I have earning potential as a musician ... I'm just considering combining the 2 jobs.

Thanks a lot for the comments so far.

 

[Patrick62]

It is hard work. Big investment for little easy return. But hey that is just me.My kid can make ok Money at it. But it is not the kind of money I want to settle for.
At least around here we still have guys selling a face for 35 bucks..

I will second that opinion. Reading the entire situation makes it sound better. There is a reason it is being sold at this price. Think about it.
Around here everything is just fine until something breaks.

-Pat

 

[blunt]

Nothing wrong with being suspicious and I am intending on looking at the books and investigating the wood source etc but I'm trying to remain positive. I get the feeling its being sold because the owner doesn't have the time to put into the business. Its currently being run as a part-time venture.

I am very keen on this the more I think about it. I realise it would be hard work but thats what I am looking for. I'm in good shape and am very fit and strong.

 

[wahoowad]

Offer gourmet firewood to businesses and wealthy ignoramouses :monkey:

 

[Mr. Firewood]

last winter I cut wood for a local steakhouse, they wanted it 24" long all red oak delivered and stacked out back, took them 2 cords of my primo stuff for myself and the manager gave me 10 $100 bills and a $50 gift card for getting it there the same day, they already have their order in for 6 cords for this wint:hmm3grin2orange: er

 

[blunt]

last winter I cut wood for a local steakhouse, they wanted it 24" long all red oak delivered and stacked out back, took them 2 cords of my primo stuff for myself and the manager gave me 10 $100 bills and a $50 gift card for getting it there the same day, they already have their order in for 6 cords for this wint:hmm3grin2orange: er

what a great feeling!

 

[Schultzz]

Firewood Musician

I have done both. I have a degree in Music Therapy, have a private practice, and have a performance career, and just sold my firewood business. Know that the firewood business has inherent dangers which you could suffer and thus lose your ability to play your insrument properly. My advice to you is this. Stick with your music. If you want to earn extra money, get some extra gigs. Teach students, or get a job that doesn't need dangerous equipment. Sure I still use a chain saw and still split wood by hand because once in a while I enjoy it. It's good exercise. But if you think it's easy money, it isn't. Murphy follows you everywhere. Many people get in the firewood business because that's all they can do. You're not in that category. But alas, I had to find out for myself and perhaps you are the same. Sure I made money, but I lost money too. You will do much better if you stick to your craft and hone your skills instead of your chainsaw.

 

[tree md]

I have done both. I have a degree in Music Therapy, have a private practice, and have a performance career, and just sold my firewood business. Know that the firewood business has inherent dangers which you could suffer and thus lose your ability to play your insrument properly. My advice to you is this. Stick with your music. If you want to earn extra money, get some extra gigs. Teach students, or get a job that doesn't need dangerous equipment. Sure I still use a chain saw and still split wood by hand because once in a while I enjoy it. It's good exercise. But if you think it's easy money, it isn't. Murphy follows you everywhere. Many people get in the firewood business because that's all they can do. You're not in that category. But alas, I had to find out for myself and perhaps you are the same. Sure I made money, but I lost money too. You will do much better if you stick to your craft and hone your skills instead of your chainsaw.

The same could be said of your ropes.... and saws!!!! :chainsawguy:

 

[blunt]

I have done both. I have a degree in Music Therapy, have a private practice, and have a performance career, and just sold my firewood business. Know that the firewood business has inherent dangers which you could suffer and thus lose your ability to play your insrument properly. My advice to you is this. Stick with your music. If you want to earn extra money, get some extra gigs. Teach students, or get a job that doesn't need dangerous equipment. Sure I still use a chain saw and still split wood by hand because once in a while I enjoy it. It's good exercise. But if you think it's easy money, it isn't. Murphy follows you everywhere. Many people get in the firewood business because that's all they can do. You're not in that category. But alas, I had to find out for myself and perhaps you are the same. Sure I made money, but I lost money too. You will do much better if you stick to your craft and hone your skills instead of your chainsaw.

Thats a very profound post Schultzz thanks for taking the time to reply.

Today I walked out of my IT job (I work for IBM) due to client issues and I am defintely on a knfe edge. Even sent my boss a resignation email knowing he will do his best to keep me.

Music is my passion but it damn hard to make a decent living out of it here in New Zealand. Hard to find good paying gigs ... although this would become easier without a fulltime job to contend with as well.

The teaching thing looms large for me. Pretty much untapped in the sorrounding area. I'm not a trained teacher but seem to have an ability to get the learnings across well.

I'm going to exhaust my current wood resource, bring it all in and dry it over the summer to sell for next winter.

 

[AngelofDarkness]

I am thinking about getting into it. I have land to store about 20 cords on pallets in the sun and a pretty hefty supply of firewood ( I know a bunch of tree guys). I have a few saws that will handle most firewood duties with ease. The biggest thing is that I am laid off for about 4 months every winter, and only about half of that time is there too much snow or too cold of weather to be able to work outside. That means I can collect unemployment while I cut, stack and split in Feb-Mar and then sell the wood in October-November. I think I will start with small stuff, maybe only about 10 cords this winter. The biggest problem is firewood is cheap here, a dry seasoned cord of oak delivered only goes for about $130. Maybe stacking for an extra $50 will boost profit margins.

 

[blunt]

Generally get between $150 - $200 New Zealand dollars for a cord of dry weathered pine. Blue Gum and a native hardwood called Manuka are worth at least 50% more. Some winters it gets really wet and wood can be hard to get because farm access gets difficult. Then the price creeps up

 

[Brushwacker]

I've been selling firewood most of 25 years. I was having a hard time finding a good job so my Dad suggested cutting the firewood out of a few acres he was clearing for farm ground. The long and short of it is it was most of my income for a couple years and then become my spare time job to now. I dealt with some big retailers over the years and most of them come and go over about a 4 to 8 year period. I know 1 guy who does hundreds of cords a year for about 30 years, now mostly retail. He got into farming some to eventually but I think most of his income has been firewood. The successful wood dealers I seen worked very hard. I probably average near 25 to 30 full cords a year and make less then Macdonalds wages, but I maintain some nice woods with decent roads and manage it for better timber hopefully.( we had a damaging fire go through before)

 

[blunt]

Thanks for your thoughts brushwacker.

One of my guitar students tonight asked if I was still going to be teaching next year. I told her yes and then proceeded to explain my new found passion for Firewood and Chainsaws and she just about fell off her chair.

She thought I was weird :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What is the seasonal cycle for wood? Here it starts in fall and goes til around March. There will be some small blips in demand around holidays as people want bonfire wood, but it is mostly cut and dry work during that time.

Do you have room to work without buying the other business?

Are there any other sources of wood? The pine ROI sucks.

Dose the sale come with a client list, eg established income, or will you have to build it back up yourself?

Will there be a non compete clause with the sale, or will he keep his best clients for beer money?

 

[bookerdog]

I sell firewood as a part time job. It is alot of work and customer relations drive me up the wall sometimes. I do it though because I love to run chainsaws I guess its my hobby. We also have 180 acre's of woodland and the maple's and other tree's need to be cleaned out so the young red fir's get going well for timber in the future. I sell about 40 cords a year at 175.00 a cord del. The only thing I can say is if you don't enjoy something about selling firewood don't do it. There is easyer ways to make a living.

 

[blunt]

Good post mate. I agree ... and like you I'm starting out partime. looking to sell around 40 cord next winter around the same price as you.

I resigned from my IT job yesterday but its not to buy the firewood business. Current IT market is very bouyant so getting another job (with more $$) wont be a problem.