starting a firewood business?

[Odog]

So where are you in South west Idaho? I'm over here West of Twin Falls, the timber is about 2 hours north or south of me. People have been getting about $175 to $200 for a good solid cord delivered. You can get a permit to cut firewood for $12.50 a cord from the forest circus. It usually costs me around $100 to go up and get 2 cords, that's permit and fuel, not counting my time. You can find a lot of dry Doug fir and lodge pole both North and south of me pretty easily. I occasionally sell a few cords, but if I were to make a full time business out of it I would have to figure a way to get the wood out in larger quantities than just 2 cords at a whack.

 

[Higs2013]

175 to 200 a cord! Where I'm at a seasoned cord from someone you can trust is going for 350! Kiln dried is over 400 a cord!

 

[zogger]

175 to 200 a cord! Where I'm at a seasoned cord from someone you can trust is going for 350! Kiln dried is over 400 a cord!

Roughly 150-200 a cord here, but it's hard to tell, most advertised listings are for some various pickup "loads". I wish local demand was higher, we have just tons of good wood around these parts. Or shipping was cheaper and legal...one or the other.

 

[muddstopper]

I see a few things wrong with some thinkings about running a business. Things like I have a saw already, or I have a tractor, or I already own a truck. Just because you already have the equipment, doesnt mean its free. You could have someone give you a saw, truck, tractor,ect and if you dont charge enough to cover replacement cost of that equipment, you will soon be going out of business. Saws wear out, trucks wear out, all equipment wears out. In a business, sooner or later you are going to have to replace some or all of the equipment, and if you havent figured into your pricing some amount to replace those items, you will go out of business. If you dont go out of business, you will certainly see a decrease in your standard of living when you have to replace those worn out items. Your time is just a big of an expense as your equipment cost. You have to add something to your price to pay for your time. If you dont charge for your equipment as well as your time, you dont have a business, you have a charity.

 

[sb47]

If your looking for hard labor for almost nothing, you've picked a good way to do it.
Tinker with it on a small basis for a few years before you go crazy with it.
I can tell you, if you get to big your going to have to report your profits and the extra work it takes to be legit will make you work even harder for even less money.
Wood is heavy and takes a lot of fuel to transport.
Local wood that is free is about the only you can make it work.
Fuel and time hauling.
Money for saw supply's
Saw and split time.
Stacking and seasoning time
Advertising and promo money and time
Delivery time and insurance and fuel
Splitter fuel and oil's
Getting rid of the wast created from processing the wood

Fuels, oil's, filters, plugs, chains, bars, files, wedges, saw, splitter, trailer, racks for stacking, the list is much longer then you may realize.

 

[sb47]

Also, with so many low baller's out there wood prices will never go up from where they are now.
Wood is one of those things that never keeps up with inflation.

 

[muddstopper]

One thing I have noticed is that lowballers come and lowballers go. They will jump in at the first of the season and try to capture market share by undercutting prices. They aint making any money, but most dont know it. Fire wood is just like gas, you burn it up. When its gone, you look for more. Trying to match lowballer pricing just depletes your inventory. Set a price you can make money at and stick to it. When the lowballers and flybynighters, have sold all their wood, you are now in an excellent position to sell your wood at a price you can make money on.

 

[sb47]

One thing I have noticed is that lowballers come and lowballers go. They will jump in at the first of the season and try to capture market share by undercutting prices. They aint making any money, but most dont know it. Fire wood is just like gas, you burn it up. When its gone, you look for more. Trying to match lowballer pricing just depletes your inventory. Set a price you can make money at and stick to it. When the lowballers and flybynighters, have sold all their wood, you are now in an excellent position to sell your wood at a price you can make money on.

My point is, lowballers will take a portion of your business every year and is hard to predict how many will pop up.

 

[muddstopper]

I agree, lowballers pop up every year, cant do anything about it. Most of them only have a limited amount of wood to sell and limited access to more. They get off work and every evening they rush out to cut a load and try to sell it right then. The weather gets bad and they cant cut wood one day, daylight savings time kicks in and it dark when they get off work, or they just get tired of trying to keep up. A true business will harvest wood all year and have a good supply on hand . Customer needs a load, the business owner loads up the truck and delivers, they dont have to try to scrounge and work there butts off just to have something to sell. Since the wood has been cut and stacked, even if only for a few months, its still better quality wood than the lowballer, that cuts and sells the same day, is providing. If you have better wood and you can supply that wood when its needed, you can ask a better price and get it. If you can keep your prices constant, you will will build a customer base that comes back year after year. It dont take but one or two times of buying green wood from a lowballer before even a dumb customer can figure out he's not getting the deal he thinks he is. Of course some people never learn, but you dont need them as your customer anyways. If you try to chase the lowballers prices,you will never keep up, be able to raise prices, or make any money.

 

[jrider]

Not much upsets people more than buying wood that was claimed as seasoned. They go to light a fire and they get smoke and sizzling wood that won't hold good flames. This is often the case with the low ballers out there. If you are able to build up a steady customer base who is willing to pay fairly for quality, seasoned wood, the low ballers won't eat into YOUR market share at all. After time, you should have a hard time keeping up with demand as word spreads.
Also with social media such as facebook, there shouldn't be a need to spend much if any on advertising. Around these parts, many towns have "local facebook pages". People post on there asking for wood. You respond, make the deal and deliver on your end. In many cases they post something positive or recommend you the next time someone asks the same question. Last year, it exploded on me and one weekend alone I sold around a dozen more cords just from 1 delivery.

 

[muddstopper]

All of our local facebook yard sale sites have people selling wood and folks looking to buy wood. I dont sell wood, but If I did, I would certainly be taking advantage of the free advertisement one of those sites offer.

 

[FLRA_Dave]

I sell wood part time. I don't sell any seasoned wood (well, except for a pizza place that I made a deal with). I bring the logs home and they sit in a stack until someone orders a load, then I cut/split/load onto the truck/trailer.

I source all of my logs ($15-$30/cord). My wife will help on occasion. I'm not making much more than operating / equipment costs, but I'm determined to make it work, while I still can.

Here is a thread of what started it all. It's a slippery slope!

http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...aring-could-use-some-advice-direction.231447/

Don't go crazy all at once! I haven't been in this game long, but the experience is invaluable, so take it take it slow and get a feel for what you need to make it happen.

 

[blades]

I don't as a rule sell firewood, a bit here and there or maybe a swap, less than 2 full cords over the past 4 years. Mainly because I was trying to get several years ahead in the drying game. I am now at the point where I can sell, good dry mixed hardwoods, but I can wait until the the low ballers run out and /or people are looking for stuff that will honestly burn and deliver heat in the process. Just really hard for me to let go of all that sweat equity. Not to mention that anything can go south and I dislike paying the local wallet squeezer.