I'm gettin' tired of this!!
- Thread starter Timberhauler
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Blinky
ArboristSite Operative
That's pretty funny. Some people really are clueless. I can see it on a tshirt or the side of a truck... 'Will work for wood'.
B-Edwards
Addicted to ArboristSite
I hear ya on the jacklegs, I have started making sure every job i bid on that they know if someone doesn't have insurance that they( the homeowner) are responsible if something gets torn up or someone hurt. I also go into detail about the clean-up and any damage to lawn that we will fix. I always leave with saying just make sure they bid on what I bid on, if they can destroy stuff cheap so can I. Around here right now I have masons grass cutters and everyone else trying to do tree work and they also want me to get them out of the hole they made trying to do something they weren't capable of to start with . It pisses me off when they think its so easy and then want help after they undercut me to get the job . The only price I ever talk about to other tree peps is what I charge an hour we don't decide what I will charge I do, but I want them to know so the cheap homeowner doesn't say he said he would do it for this when this isn't true. Good luck the work will come sit back play with the kids and laugh at the clowns. Apply the word clown wherever you like .
Perhaps he spent what little he could afford to invest in his business on his Most Important equipment, like lines and saddles, and INSURANCE! at least the guy is trying to support himself. He could be trying to live off your wages in the form of Government social programs. Just because the guy doesn't have a Morbark Typhoon or a Stump grinder big enough for it's own zip code, he is Laughable? Too bad. Someday I might like to start a climbing business but being the only income earner in my household(so my wife can stay home to raise our daughter) I probably will have to start small too. Guess I will just have to settle for being Ridiculed as well.
In my state you are in violation of state law if you bid tree work without an arborist license. If you don't have insurance MOST homeowner policies WON'T cover the damage done, it will either be the tree worker or homeowner. That is something that a Licensed and Insured Arborist here in Maine has for ammo against severe underbidding by guys who have no coverage.
beowulf343
Addicted to ArboristSite
Holy smokes!! Tha ridiculous man!! Glad i'm not in ohio-our bucket crews went to three days a week for a couple weeks this winter but us climbers have had a backlog of work all winter. Kind of wished it had slowed down a bit during the below zero days.
Skimming through this thread, i thought i noticed something interesting. All the guys who are complaining about lowball hackers seem to be from down south. I'll admit, there are alot of tree companies in the area i work. In fact i can think of seven different companies off the top of my head within a half hour from my house. But they are all fairly well established-the newest one has been around for about 5 years now. There is quit a bit of bidding action between the companies, but they all have similar profit needs-the bids are usually within a couple hundred dollars of each other from what i've seen. Usually depends on who needs the work the worst. (And it helps that there is a ton of tree work around here.) But the lowball companies don't seem to surface much around here. We have more problems with the homeowners deciding the cost is too much and deciding to do the job themselves. (Boy, can that get interesting!) But i've worked all over western and central new york and this seems to be the case-tons of tree companies, but not any lowball, hackers with just a truck and a poulan. This is just what i've seen-am i wrong or right? Thoughts?
Treeman587
ArboristSite Operative
Hurricanes. A storm comes in, They see tree guys making a ton of money for a few months and think that is how it is all the time.
beowulf343
Addicted to ArboristSite
Thanks-that makes sense.
oldirty
Addicted to ArboristSite
hey industry i never said the cat was laughable. just the equip that is running down the road.
if he is any good you know he'll be upgrading. no way you cant simple as that.
if it walks like like a duck.......
oldirty
if he is any good you know he'll be upgrading. no way you cant simple as that.
if it walks like like a duck.......
oldirty
Ed Roland
Addicted to ArboristSite
It was a no brainer 4 me. I climbed for the big "B" many for years. Moved to Columbia, South Carolina, a location they dont service, so I started out on my own. Im lucky that there are few, skilled, ISA Cert. arborist here. I get to perform high end premium work and never advertise as all my projects are word of mouth. So, Kevnap, get a hort/forestry degree, get certified, obtain your dump truck and DECENT chipper. There will be more work than you can handle and best of all its $rewarding$ to perform scientific based work when the 'other' fellas are trying to prune from an extension ladder.
Timberhauler
Addicted to ArboristSite
I've done a job or two in Columbia
lees trees
ArboristSite Operative
hourly rate
works for my little business and we charge travel also been doing it for 18 years, and make money on every job. treeing since 76 and sure came along way. we've seen them come and go.
works for my little business and we charge travel also been doing it for 18 years, and make money on every job. treeing since 76 and sure came along way. we've seen them come and go.
begleytree
H. sapiens moderatus
Holy smokes!! Tha ridiculous man!! Glad i'm not in ohio-our bucket crews went to three days a week for a couple weeks this winter but us climbers have had a backlog of work all winter. Kind of wished it had slowed down a bit during the below zero days.
I'm in a small midwest town of 30K people, not a city or big area. time off in the cold and snow imo is not a bad thing. anyone smart plans for the downtime and saves. makes for a nice vacation when you don't wanna be out in it anyway. I usually schedule work in winter around the weather, and feel sorry for the poor guys out in the -10 wind chill climbing some tree.
yeah, last /this winter was slower than usual, but I wasn't complaining!
and I keep my expenses low as possible too, so that helps.
if I had more work I'd need more equipment (and the expense that goes with it) and Id have to work in the real nasty weather to pay for it. I've worked hard to find a balance of work, expenses, good money and family time.
I'm at the point that I'm as big as I want to be. I usually take off a day or so a week in spring/summer to go fishing too. usually load up the boat and take the crew with. we act like we went to work all day. plus company camping trips where we shut down thrus evening and load out fri morning until sunday afternoon. usually hunt a day or 2 a week in the fall early winter. too much work burns a guy out. After a 12 year marriage that eventually ended due to me working too much and 2 kids I don't even know (to this day), I learned that there's more to life than living to work for a living. at one time I was a 30 year old fit and trim guy on high blood pressure meds. no longer.
they say youth is wasted on the young and lifes too short. I have decided (and learned) to enjoy it while I am young enough to do the things I want to do and I spend a lot of time with my kids. at one time I calculated I spent 12 hours a week with my family not counting sleep, but counting times when they should be home but were not and were doing their other activities. and for those 12 hours I was so wound up trying to slow down for the evening that no one could stand to be around me even if I was home.
so I changed my outlook, I work to make money to pay the bills and live my life. ask a person who they are and most times you get their job title. well, a treeman is no longer who I am. I am first and foremost a father and husband, who happens to cut trees to support his family and have money to do things with them.
I don't like cheese, so I go out of the rat race.
-Ralph
begleytree
H. sapiens moderatus
oh no, I sure don't have it all figured out! I have made good strides towards my goals of being who I want to be, where I want to be, but theres always room for improvement!
we spend so much time planting roses, I wonder if any of us actually stop to smell them? you get what I mean even if we dont really plant roses very often!
ever know people who look foreward to their vacation and hate going back to work after it ends? I ask why live like that? why not live a vacation and work when we want to?
imo, the way this world and our lives are, is not the way it was intended to be.
-Ralph
Ed Roland
Addicted to ArboristSite
I hear you, luckily, as climbing arborist, we can charge a premium for our 'high end' work. That allows the enlightened to 'choose' to make less but have more family time. I had a slow start last year but had a nice 'run' during the HOT season. My phone started 2 blow up about this time last year. wup.. hey. hold on i got a call...
Why does my lack of larger equipment mean I might not know what I am doing? To answer your questions I use two saddles. I have been using a Versatile for a while and just recently got a Glide 2. Just in case you are wondering they were both new. My main ropes are a 200' hank of NewEngland Safety Blue (hi-vis) and a 150' hank of Poison Ivy (hi-vis) for climbing. I have several rigging lines ranging from 9/16 stable braid down to 3 strand.
Are you implying that I need at least a 6" chipper and self propelled stump grinder to know how to climb or rig? I don't have more expensive equipment because I just don't need it now. I can't compete with the larger companies for the bigger jobs and I know it. That is not where I choose to compete at this point. The chipper takes care of the smallest annoying stuff that I don't want on the trailer. The stump grinder allows me to remove most stumps for customers so I don't have to worry about subbing anything out.
If I also said I was a free-lance climber would you make the same comments about my saddle and ropes?
And no I don't need to move sheds out of the way to take trees down. Why do you feel the need to attack me? Your comment is like me asking if you have ever used a bucket truck, and then accusing you of not being able to climb because you use one.
My original intent when posting several pages ago, was to offer a different point of view. Someone mentioned how if someone underbid by half, they had to be a hack. Let me give this example: I look at a job and think it will take 4 hours for my 2 man crew. Another person thinks 6 for their crew. I shoot for $50/man hr, they shoot for $75/man hr. My bid would be 50 * 4 * 2 = $400. Their bid would be 75 * 2 * 6 = $900. Now lets say the job really took 2 people 5 hrs. I try not under estimate, but sometimes it happens. We both were off by 1 hr. Was my bid really that far off?
In any case, I don't want to propagate an argument. I definintely concede I still have a lot to learn and that I currently have a non-standard approach. If things go a certain way, I might end up buying more equipment and wondering why I ever purchased what I have now.
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oldirty
Addicted to ArboristSite
that was my point.
those are "homer" tools (homer=home owner)
by nature ,my friend , i come off as sarcastic potentially even arrogant.
look up the word buzzard in the dictionary. 3rd def.
that's me.
oldirty buzzard
lol
although with mr begley waxing poetic, he gets one thinking.
and i did mean it when i said good luck. honestly. i may be unpleasant or otherwise avaricious but i dont wish ill will upon no man.
beyond them days.
oldirty
Sunrise Guy
Addicted to ArboristSite
Ah, so you do wish ill upon some men? Gotta watch those double negatives, LOL!
oldirty
Addicted to ArboristSite
lol sunrise
the resume says "some college"
the school of hard knocks that i go to now doesnt have an english department.
lol
no sweat industry
odb
the resume says "some college"
the school of hard knocks that i go to now doesnt have an english department.
lol
no sweat industry
odb
