Tree work seasonal or not in Northeast

[Brush Hog]

Do all of you who do this full time in the Northeast experience a slow down in the winter months ? I do landscaping and studying to get my arborist license so I can bag this plowing crap. I'll probably make the switch to the trees alone once I get my license. Also do you think you are married to the weather/season or not ? Also how many of you take a summer vacation or do you just wait until a slow time ? I don't mind going full bore in the summer but I would like to have some down time/vacation with family at some point in the year. Let me have it the good, bad and ugly
Pete

 

[lxt]

pete,

things do get slow in the winter atleast for me, from the 2nd week in DEC to about end of march to the beginning of april then bam!! I get hammered up untill SEPT/OCT with a slow spot(in bidding only) around the holidays. Im usually 2 weeks behind sometimes three, alot of my customers are repeats with some commercial contracts. all in all I make enough to slide through winter by escrowing through out the summer.

however my wife works and makes a decent wage so that helps alot too. This year though my wife had surgery which hampered her ability to help $$$$$ wise so I took a line clearance job through the winter until my busy season picks back up. you must be aware of situations down the road & plan for them, wifes doin fine now & back to work so Ill soon be back to my business full time. hope this helped!!!

LXT...................................

 

[BostonBull]

We are a smal-medium co. We stay busy right through winter. We arent doing record amounts of work but we keep all the crews busy with 30+ hours/week. This is due largely in part to our ability to bid jobs that most others would turn away due to our cranes, and our aggressive/motivated/highly educated sales staff.

On the vacation question. our guys gt 2 weeks vacation a year. We are forced to take one week paid. This week is the week of the 4th July. All employees have this off and the co. shuts down except for the mechanic maybe a day or two.

Alot of smaller co's around here either place non priority jobs on the winter schedule with deposits, do jobs that require the ground to be frozen, or just bankroll money through the busy times of year and shut down for January/February.

Good Luck!

 

[hornett22]

i would think it would be seasonal here.

this is my first year so i didn't know what to expect.we have work but it isn't like the spring through autumn months.i'm just glad to have some work just to keep me in practice.the winter jobs are slower paced so it gives me time to try out what i study.

i supplement my earnings as a mechanic more this time of year.

 

[Xtra]

I'm like LXT and agree with what he said.
My wife is a speech therapist in a school system so I have great benefits thru her and luckily she's near the top of her pay scale.

We slow down the 2nd week of Dec until mid-feb. Usually it's 3 day/week during the slow periods (I like to take off the week between X-mas & New Years). This year things are different with the warmer weather we were busy full time 5 days/week until the 2nd week of January, then things just stopped.

Feb is usually slow because most people are paying off X-mas credit card bills and waiting for income tax refunds. I warn my guys around September to start saving for the winter doldrums. Also when things slow down you run the risk of losing your crew to other inside jobs.

Usually by the 1st or 2nd week of March we are back to full time and then in a few weeks we're straight into the 60+ hr weeks until October.

Snow plowing has been a real bust for me this year. Every storm missed me and we instead had rain.


FYI: most tree companies go out of business within 3 years due lack of clients and bad financial decisions (ie: not saving money for equipment breakdowns and/or buying worn out machines).

 

[diltree]

We lay off our crews during the winter months, although we will work a day here or a day there. If we wanted too we could line up jobs for the winter by offering a discount to the "lowest price shopper" demographic if they schedule jobs for the winter. We also bid a few municipal contracts every year that could be done during the winter, but we have been high bidder lately. Honestly I enjoy taking the winter off, it offers a break, and in march/April I'm ready to go for the year.

 

[Brush Hog]

Yeah my wife's in the medical field so luckily I'm not the only one supporting us. I'm just trying to figure out what direction I want to go. Getting tired of dealing with lowballers in the lawn mowing/snowplowing department and replace it with tree work. I know every trade has their share of them but I also think that having your arborist license separates you from just some guy with a ladder, saw and a pick up truck. Correct me if I'm wrong. I also think it'll be a nice additional service to provide. A lot of people like to have one guy take care of multiple tasks at their properties or give up the landscape thing and just do tree work. Thanks for all your input
Pete

 

[spongygumz]

Winter work

Alot of times,especially in the summer months when I'm swamped,I will find customers that don't mind waiting a few months.Here's how I do it: A customer calls me out for a removal.What I will do is remove tha hazardous branches,limbs at the time,then come back when I start to eat beans(or the snow is flying,whitchever term you prefer) and finish the job.Sometimes I discount the work,sometimes I don't.Believe it or not,most people are very understandable to the plight of seasonal work.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

it depends

When I was in Commercial tree care I preferred to be laid off for a few weeks. I am not condoning the practice but alot of companies will "lay off" their employees and let them work when weather permits and "bank" the hours. Then when they return to work full time they recieve "overtime" in their checks untill their banked hours run out.

With the mild winter we've had most tree co's were able to keep people going, problem is now they have gone through their backlogs of work:bang:

 

[beowulf343]

Fortunately the company I'm with is very well established so we have work year around. When the snow piles up some of the bucket crews will get a couple days off but us climbing crews always have a backlog of work.