Need Startup Advice

[mburnsny]

Hi all,

I'm in need of some sound advice from people who have been in this situation before. Any help, direction, thoughts or advice are very welcome...

So a little about me to start...I've been in the business for about 12 years, certified for about 6 now. I started my career on the ground (in Texas), worked up to climber, then foreman, technician, and now sales (currently in upstate NY). I've always worked for someone else, and have enjoyed my time so far. However...

Lately, over the last year or so, I've really been thinking about opening up my own company. I have a great idea of where I want that company to go, what I want it to become, what I want it to represent and provide. I understand all of the work, the sacrifices, the pain, the joy...all of it, I've seen before and I understand what making this commitment means. My problems arise when thinking of the initial startup.

How did you guys who have done this same thing, start from nothing, get your start? Did you start out with a pickup and trailer, with the anticipation that when you built up enough you'd sell and switch to something more 'adequate', or did you get a used truck and chipper on loan? Pros/cons to each that I may be missing?

Did you at any point take out a business loan (for marketing, software, etc), and if so/not, can you give me a few real world reasons that are either pro or con? Remember, I would be starting from $0.00. I have no problem taking out a loan or working my ass off to make money before I spend it...I want to make sure that the choices I make here in the beginning are sound, and put me in the best possible position in the future.

Employees...when I start out, I'm going to be working hard to keep things going during the year. Once December hits, the phones go dead, whether you're a big national company or a smaller company. What can I do/what do I do with my employee(s) that will be on at that time? Do I just lay them off? Are there labor laws protecting employees from seasonal 'shifts'/fluctuation in their employer specific to NY that anyone is familiar with?

**I know and understand that not all can and will be answered since some things I've asked pertain to NY in specific and most of you probably aren't going to be familiar with labor laws, tax laws, etc that are specific to NY, but any advice you can give me and feel comfortable providing will help me out, so don't hold back!

Sorry for the long winded questions...I can clarify if I need to. Really just need some advice. I'm killing myself thinking about all this all the time.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

First off, if you use the search function, you will find all kinds of info.

Maybe you want to consider starting out part time, and see how it goes. Buy some deceant used equipment that you arent gonna have to wrench on everytime you use it.

If you wanna get a loan, do so before you quit your full time job. After you quit, you will find it hard to find a bank to give you money. It took me 5 years to get a line of credit from my bank, and that was before the economy took a dump.

Another thing to consider is health insurance. I got my own health insurance, now that i got married and had a kid, it went from $154 a month to over $600 a month.

The winter is the time that you do major equipment repairs and take a break. With a seasonal job like this, you have to make all your money for the year in 10 months.

 

[Pelorus]

It took me around 10 years of doing this part time before I had enough contacts, and rigging, and confidence to quit a full-time job. By that time I had acquired an old bucket truck and chipper, and was working crazy hours - all day at a sawmill, then evenings and weekends doing tree work. It was still a big decision back then to quit a steady paycheque, but now I'm starting to think more and more about an exit strategy.