Starting a business(Hypothetically)

[dc59222]

Hey all, I have been trying to put together some numbers as to how much it would cost to start a small tree care business. The business would specialize in takedowns, hazard tree removal, pruning, etc... It would be nice to get some ballpark figures from everyone on both the basic necessities and the extras that would make jobs easier. I consider the basic equipment a chipper(9" at least) and chipper truck along with a stumpgrinder and trailer. The extras might include a bucket truck, log loader, skid steer and attachments, etc. Any ideas on new vs. used equipment? Thanks btw, I am not including rigging or climbing gear or any saws in this.

 

[frashdog]

You want to go part or full time?

I'm a part timer for now. Maybe in a few years when experience and name grows I'll think different. Only made sense, cause I have a great full time w/benefits night job.

I work with a 2001 F-350 PSD 4x4. Chipper is a brush bandit 90xp (65hp w/winch) 1996, factory reburbished in 2004, nice shape cost me $7,700. Truck is my daily driver. I live on 90+acres so dumping's no prob. Nor was justifing a chipper, or all the other new toys, I mean gear, to use at home when jobs are slow.

When looking at a chipper, I would look at your local dumping situation and how many people are going to be feeding it. Some dumps take only chips for free. If so, and/or you're gonna have a few people feeding it, I'd go with a strong 100hp+ 12" chipper (w/winch). If like me, people are always looking for wood to burn and/or dumping blocked wood is no problem, and it's usually me and one other some times go for a 9" (at least 65hp) or smaller 12" (at least 80hp). I noticed when looking for chippers was the weight goes up real quick the bigger you go. My 90 weighs a bit over 4000lbs, perfect w/4 yards of chips in the bed. Yea, 4 yards ain't much, but it does equal about 4-5 loads of brush and I'm not far to dump it. Also, I'd try and get a chipper with an auto feed system that stop feed when rpms drop. You do not have to pay attention to the chipper so much and if you're buying used and it does not have an auto feed you do not know how many times they previous owner may have bogged it down hard or even stopped it dead while feeding.

Good Luck

 

[treeseer]

If you're near Apex, it costs at least $1,000,000.00 to start. Competition is brutal and you will not last a year.

If you're in another part of NC, all you need's a pickup and a chainsaw and a strong back and a weak mind.

Seriously, you need qualifications, experience and local contacts to succeed without a lonnnng startup period.

 

[maxburton]

I started my company with $400. I bought climbing gear and a tiny husky (actually a poulan), put a down payment on liability, and worked alone out of my Ford Taurus until I had more capital. No employees, no trucks, no chippers. I bundled brush in four foot lengths. If that doesn't sound like fun, then you should wait till you have enough cash to really start up strong.

 

[TackleTree]

like any business starting out it is best to keep your overhead down until client base and demand increase. Too many people buy new and a lot and fail because money made is less than money spent. Keep it simple to start. If you can climb that is a good way to begin. Maybe being subbed out to get some money in your pocket. Small dump trailer with a 9" to 12" chipper should keep overhead low enough to profit. You can also go with a small dump truck but then you are paying more for insurance. ALso if you get a big enough dump trailer in the beginning,when you make more money, and buy a skid steer use the trailer to haul it. It will serve as a multi purpose trailer. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Mitchell]

You want to go part or full time?

I'm a part timer for now. Maybe in a few years when experience and name grows I'll think different. Only made sense, cause I have a great full time w/benefits night job.

I work with a 2001 F-350 PSD 4x4. Chipper is a brush bandit 90xp (65hp w/winch) 1996, factory reburbished in 2004, nice shape cost me $7,700. Truck is my daily driver. I live on 90+acres so dumping's no prob. Nor was justifing a chipper, or all the other new toys, I mean gear, to use at home when jobs are slow.

Good Luck

frash
If all goes well I will own a 99 brush bandit 90 shortly. I wan tto mount a winch on it and was wondering if you could describe or post a pick of how yours is mounted.

I to do my tree service part time in name only [ I put endless hours into it]. I started by hiring other tree servcie to chip remove dedris [no good = low profit + high liablity] that was an intial investment of Apx $2500 for saws and climbing gear.
Next was losing the explorer for a pickup truck to haul branches but double as family vehicle. That was $10000. This was not a great solution as a nice pickup gets destroyed quickly and not much brush can fit in the back anyways.
Better yet was an older 91 F350 crew cab which I put an enclosed box for chips and another box for tool storage over the cab. That was $3500. It is not a 4x4 so I will not invest to much money into this truck. I did buy a portable winch and good tires [BF goodrich AT] to compensate for no 4x4.

I still needed to rent chippers however; PITA doubly so as 6" vermeers was my mainstay rental. My least chipper rental month was $500 in the past months.
I have tried to trade climbing for chipper time with other tree service, not great as I get called when things are complicated [again high liabilty low profit scenerio.]
My chipper I just purchased should end up costing me 10 000, $6000 plus $2000 shipping and $1000 tax into canada. To much for a BB 90 with wisconsin but it is costing me not to have one right now and that deal seems to work. this is the first item I will go into dept for everything else has been paid for with cash.

As I have become busier, I have spent Apx $10 000 on things [port a wraps ropes big shots etc]to make my job easier safer and faster. Not having this stuff means everything takes longer. That is ok if you have time, however it will cost you more money then the cost of the tools if you can not get to your next job.

 

[Timberhauler]

I started out with an old 76 model ford ton truck with a ten foot dump bed,a Stihl 034 and a 009.When I first started,there wasn't much competition and I had alot of good connections..I bought a chipper first,then a new dump truck,then a skid loader...The biggest thing is do good work and impress your clients and they will pass you on.I have clients I have been working for going on 15 years now...And please do us all a favor and make an effort to see how most of the established businesses in your area are pricing jobs and price compititively.You will not last five years trying to be the cheapest guy in town that steals everyone's work away.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

If you're near Apex, it costs at least $1,000,000.00 to start. Competition is brutal and you will not last a year.

If you're in another part of NC, all you need's a pickup and a chainsaw and a strong back and a weak mind.

Seriously, you need qualifications, experience and local contacts to succeed without a lonnnng startup period.

Would that be to accumulate most of the big items he mentioned and the facilities to store them?

 

[pbtree]

like any business starting out it is best to keep your overhead down until client base and demand increase. Too many people buy new and a lot and fail because money made is less than money spent. Keep it simple to start. If you can climb that is a good way to begin. Maybe being subbed out to get some money in your pocket. Small dump trailer with a 9" to 12" chipper should keep overhead low enough to profit. You can also go with a small dump truck but then you are paying more for insurance. ALso if you get a big enough dump trailer in the beginning,when you make more money, and buy a skid steer use the trailer to haul it. It will serve as a multi purpose trailer. Just my 2 cents.

Sound wisdom...

 

[outdoor images]

hey on starting a business i managed a tree service for about three years for a personal friend it started by helping with sales and turnd in to me running everything but the check book so about 4 months agao i started my own i told the guys i was leaving and that i would hire any body that wanted to come so on friday after paychecks wer handed out i called my new partner (mistake on partners)do it your self if possibal... anyway we wnt to the local mower shop and bought two 200t top handle climber saws a stihel 440 mag two sets of spikes and belt rope and all the clips and lainyards all top qwality mon at my first job the vermeer sales man showed up with a 1800xl chipper 19in we bought a dump trailer over the weekend and sighned for the chipper 48,000 $$$$$ trailer 7500$$$ saws and gear 3500$$$$ we had two trucks a 92 f250 and a2003 excurcion tus we bough a 97 f250 7500$$$ wed the vermeer sales man brought us a 352 stumpgrinder so mon all but one guy shows up for work now i had 7 employes over a hundred thousand dollers spent and no work but we did 13000 in our first week and have continued to do about 7500 to 10000 a week

 

[outdoor images]

so now we are in our forth month and we hired apayroll compny at 32% for workers comp everything is so darn expensive i dont have any savings yet we work week to week but so far we have managed to pay all the bills and payed all the guys i am taking a pay check already to but man sqweek is the word acording to my caculations i need to do 2100 a day to pay the bills

 

[Mitchell]

personal friend

hey on starting a business i managed a tree service for about three years for a personal friend it started by helping with sales and turned in to me running everything but the check book so about 4 months ago i started my own i told the guys i was leaving and that i would hire any body that wanted to come so on Friday after paychecks...

WOW, outdoor, I take it your not friends anymore? With out any work contracts that was quite an investment for yourself. I assume you financed everything. How did you generate your work so fast, door knocking or were you able to leave with your old employers contacts as well? Your definitely on a different business plan then myself keep us posted as to how you do in the coming months years.

 

[lees trees]

Hey all, I have been trying to put together some numbers as to how much it would cost to start a small tree care business. The business would specialize in takedowns, hazard tree removal, pruning, etc... It would be nice to get some ballpark figures from everyone on both the basic necessities and the extras that would make jobs easier. I consider the basic equipment a chipper(9" at least) and chipper truck along with a stumpgrinder and trailer. The extras might include a bucket truck, log loader, skid steer and attachments, etc. Any ideas on new vs. used equipment? Thanks btw, I am not including rigging or climbing gear or any saws in this.

do you have much expieriance?

 

[outdoor images]

WOW, outdoor, I take it your not friends anymore? With out any work contracts that was quite an investment for yourself. I assume you financed everything. How did you generate your work so fast, door knocking or were you able to leave with your old employers contacts as well? Your definitely on a different business plan then myself keep us posted as to how you do in the coming months years.

what businaes plan is thare other than hustle your a-- off basicly i knock on doors all day untill i finde something and then word of mouth takes off and bam your in busuness as long as you do what you say you will and actualy show up thats one benifit here in florida guys are lazy and if you try hard enough you can make it work and as for my friend i dint leave to make more money because anybody knows being in busuness for your self isnt what it cracked up to be he was gambaling away my future and was about to lose everything started getting a bad name and i thought i could do better on my own