Sick of random people starting companies.

[Affordabletree]

Now I know that I have just started out too, but when I got started I made sure that I invested in some equipment and looked somewhat legit. I was working on my chipper and a guy that I hired once to help me stopped by my house and told me that he was starting his own company now. He has only ever been a piss poor groundsman and thinks that tree work is quick and easy money because the boss makes $3000 off of a day and a half job. The thing that bugs me is the fact that since the storms hit, the area I live in went from four established companies and one start up as me. To 3 established companies and 9 total start ups including my self. Out of the 9 I am the only one with a wood chipper and a chip truck. One guy has a bucket truck and no chipper. I just don't quite understand how someone can at the drop of a dime say let me grab my chainsaw, a six pack, a joint and my truck and start a tree service and try to use the liability insurance on their auto insurance as there GL insurance. I understand that I too am a start up company but I like to think of my self as being ahead of most start ups seeing that I do have a chipper, a chip truck, a stump grinder and soon to be a larger chip truck. I have a 2 million general liability insurance policy and I now have workmans comp on my self as I have not found reliable help and do a lot of the work by my self. I know this is a stupid sounding paragraph of BS but it was just grinding my gears for a while now.

 

[woodchuck357]

I am mostly retired and now work with just a pickup and a trailer, but almost never without a helper or two. It's just not safe or efficient.
I started working on my own with little equipment, slowly adding tools as money came in and was reinvested. I treated my people well, both with pay and training them to work safely and to do more than the customer expects.
Over the years many left to start their own show, I now pass on to some of them leads for jobs that require more tools than I currently possess. Some even bought much of my stuff when I retired. There is room for different sized and different capacity companies. When they go out of business you will perhaps be able to buy their toys at a greatly reduced price.

 

[Sagetown]

The majority of those start-ups will disappear when the going gets rough.

 

[NCTREE]

Your in the same boat they are so suck it up! If your around in 5 years then you can complain about everyone else. It's the american dream and everyone is trying to get a slice of the pie.

 

[Pelorus]

Took me many years and lots of suffering to get to where I am today.....which is still nowhere, lol.
Notice more and more landscape companies advertising tree removal on their menu nowadays. Inevitable.

 

[lone wolf]

As soon as a storm comes along and they see an opportunity to make money anyone with a pickup and saw is a so called tree service. Once you have been established for many years you should have your own customer base.

 

[ozzy42]

I don't begrudge the start ups a such as some.You don't know them ,their situation,their work,etc,yet.Maybe the guy with the bucket truck but no chipped thinks the same thing about you. To each their own. So long as they're doing nothing illegal,I give them much more credit then the bums who do nothing to improve their situation in life.

 

[tree MDS]

Lol. A piece of the pie. Tastes more like a **** sandwich to me, but what do I know. Seems like more of a test of mental endurance than anything to me lately.... telling myself this "pie" is still tasty, that is. Mmm...

 

[Affordabletree]

You say nothing illegal, well not having insurance insnt really illegal but frowned upon and none of the start ups have a legit insurance policy. GL isnt really all that expensive. I am paying $1200 a year for 2million

 

[pro94lt]

My only problem with these guys is long before I got in it serious I did somewhat of a market study for the population of my target area. In my opinion it was under served at the time now I don't think I would have taken the plunge. Just because you can start a chainsaw doesn't mean you can run a business and that is definitely the hardest part of being successful long term. I've seen many of these come and go and don't ever think you can build a business by being the cheapest. .. If you can't get work at the current market rates sit at home or get a 8-5 job... I just bid a job at 3k one of these guys and his old lady rented a lift for 1500 and took 3 10 hour days to get the tree down he ended up also hiring a huge excavator to snap the tree off away from the house because he couldn't figure out how to get it down. I'm gonna say since about 2009 all of the USA is flooded with tree guys as well as stump guys driving 30 min burning 20 dollars of gas to grind a stump for 50.

 

[lone wolf]

My only problem with these guys is long before I got in it serious I did somewhat of a market study for the population of my target area. In my opinion it was under served at the time now I don't think I would have taken the plunge. Just because you can start a chainsaw doesn't mean you can run a business and that is definitely the hardest part of being successful long term. I've seen many of these come and go and don't ever think you can build a business by being the cheapest. .. If you can't get work at the current market rates sit at home or get a 8-5 job... I just bid a job at 3k one of these guys and his old lady rented a lift for 1500 and took 3 10 hour days to get the tree down he ended up also hiring a huge excavator to snap the tree off away from the house because he couldn't figure out how to get it down. I'm gonna say since about 2009 all of the USA is flooded with tree guys as well as stump guys driving 30 min burning 20 dollars of gas to grind a stump for 50.

Hard up stupid people! I hate them!

 

[lone wolf]

You say nothing illegal, well not having insurance insnt really illegal but frowned upon and none of the start ups have a legit insurance policy. GL isnt really all that expensive. I am paying $1200 a year for 2million

That is a fair deal you got there.

 

[Toddppm]

To 3 established companies and 9 total start ups including my self.

That's it? and you're complaining? Unless you live in the middle of nowhere and only a couple thousand population you should be able to stand out with little effort. In my area there are thousands, yes thousands of landscape/tree services.

 

[Zale]

Don't worry about the other guys. You can only control yourself. How are you going to differentiate yourself from the competition?

 

[EcoTreeCo]

I never understood being upset with competition. If you do good work, you will be fine. Every company has to start somewhere.


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[mckeetree]

Just be glad you don't have to contend with illegal aliens trying to start tree services like we have to here. Thanks B.O.

 

[Affordabletree]

I get angry with competition due to the fact that I am able to land one job a month and the other start ups are able to get 6-7 days a week of work. I mean when I do get the jobs that I do, I make very good money at it and enjoy every minute of it. I guess that I might have to start lowering my pricing a little bit.

 

[lone wolf]

I get angry with competition due to the fact that I am able to land one job a month and the other start ups are able to get 6-7 days a week of work. I mean when I do get the jobs that I do, I make very good money at it and enjoy every minute of it. I guess that I might have to start lowering my pricing a little bit.

Yup that is why people get annoyed. Work twice as hard for less !

 

[RDAA]

In my area a well to do bus company/ rental property owner bought the local hacks equipment, a 40' genie boom a chuck and duck, a tele-handler and a ****** old dump truck. Its for his sons slum lord business properties. Well they are taking down a pretty good sized tree with clean up for 500 bucks. Making me look like a criminal asking 800-1000. The question "how do they do it?" their rich daddy buys all of the equipment, pays for all the maintenance and fuel. Then they get to go make some beer money and take food off my table. Good thing they do a horrible job. I told the lady about them, but she is all about the almighty bottom dollar. I guarantee they will **** her yard all up and bring in all that equipment and three guys and work at it all day to gross 500 bucks. I doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

 

[Pelorus]

It takes determination and persistence to operate a non profit tree service for a couple of decades. (Speaking from personal experience).