Im new to the business, but never climbed before. Any advice?

[Leroy]

You missed the whole point of my comment Evo.
He stated that he didnt respect someone that hasnt done the job. Im stating that you can respect such a person even if they dont know as much as you do.

Like I said, it's not personal, that's just the way I came up. In a small service business, not an auto factory lol. In labor world, not computers. I've not seen a small tree biz start up with enough gusto to carry the weight of someone who doesn't know how to actually do the work. Well, they struggle, the couple I've seen. I'm sure you can find someone to do the work for you and maybe they'll respect you, there's a sucker born every minute!

Seriously though, if you have the means to take some time and get things going it should be easy enough. Join the tcia they offer a generic tree service in a box kinda service. If you're a member they'll give you all the forms you need to cover your ass if one of your employees dies on the job or smashes the clients house they'll make sure osha doesn't put you in jail.

Many people have niche businesses. Some only grind stumps, some only do bucket truck removals, some only spray pesticides, etc etc.

@CanaryBoss said he made a few mil in his tree biz. But every other old tree dude I know usually say something like the best way to make a million in tree business is to start with five.

 

[evo]

Sure. I will give you a couple of ideas that I have observed. First of all, customer service is horrid. Around my area tree guys are booked roughly 2-3 months in advance. Most dont work weekends and believe it or not a lot of them arent able to present proof of insurance.


How do I know this? I spent months gathering data on my competition. Months.

In addition to this how can I differentiate myself? Being presentable and clean cut, always answering my phone and always being on time is what I am focusing on. A lot of you may laugh at this but psychologists have proved that doing these things make a difference. Perception is everything whether we like it or not.

One last thing, and I am still gathering data in my area about this. I am trying to niche down and focus on tree work within certain parameters.

Some ideas are focusing on trees 50 feet and under, cutting the tree and not worrying about the stump, etc.

Some of you may say "But Jorgon, that is the stupidest shit I have ever heard. lol. Youre gonna fail bro. You have to be able to be all things to all clients you dumbass. Youre gonna tell a customer that you dont do stump grinding? lol."

Niching down allows me to focus on those customers, it allows me to only buy the machinery necessary to do those jobs, and allows me to cut down custs, streamline those jobs, and build processes around those jobs.

This is close to my model, and it has worked very well. What I don't see working is jumping into employees to do the work without capital.

I do think without the passion for trees your company will simply be nothing more than a service. This is not my model, I'm the person who is called for a second opinion, or the one who is called to find a way to save the tree.

 

[owScott]

My boss was a project manager that managed mathematicians and software engineers. He was someone that never went to college and sure as hell didnt know the first thing about coding.

He knew he couldnt do what these people could. He never told them how to do the job, all he knew was what he wanted the end product to look like.

Similarly, I would never tell a climber how to do his job. I would give him free reign and help and support him any way that I could so he could get the job done in a safe and efficient manner.

Here is the main sticking point for me, What if the climber is doing a bad job? How would you know? You could not tell him how to do his job because you don't have enough experience to know what is good or bad. How do you know what is safe or efficient? Giving free reign is a bad managing strategy? Are you going to hire a quality control guy to supervise the climbers? How do you know if he knows what he is doing? Because he says so. How are you going to bid this work without experience doing it? Hire someone to do estimates? What exactly is your role in this company? Visionary? You are vastly under estimating the importance of knowing the business. In order to be successful at selling something you must really know what your selling backwards and forwards. You knew you would get hammered here them turn around and call people sensitive and so on. You seem to be more sensitive and defensive as the thread goes on. What kind of advise where you hoping for? I wont dodge this, I am offended because I see way to many people like you trying to cash in on this industry doing crap work.

 

[Jorgon1022]

Here is the main sticking point for me, What if the climber is doing a bad job? How would you know? You could not tell him how to do his job because you don't have enough experience to know what is good or bad. How do you know what is safe or efficient? Giving free reign is a bad managing strategy? Are you going to hire a quality control guy to supervise the climbers? How do you know if he knows what he is doing? Because he says so. How are you going to bid this work without experience doing it? Hire someone to do estimates? What exactly is your role in this company? Visionary? You are vastly under estimating the importance of knowing the business. In order to be successful at selling something you must really know what your selling backwards and forwards. You knew you would get hammered here them turn around and call people sensitive and so on. You seem to be more sensitive and defensive as the thread goes on. What kind of advise where you hoping for? I wont dodge this, I am offended because I see way to many people like you trying to cash in on this industry doing crap work.

You dont even know me in order to say that I am going to do crap work. I could spend my time answering all of your questions, but eventually it gets exhausting and it makes no difference. We are 9 pages in and the best advice I got was probably in the first 3 pages. Anything after that has been debating, arguing, and making attacks. So nah, I am not going to answer your questions.

 

[CanaryBoss]

Crap! I have been sucked into this stupid thread. Why did you have to mention me? I read the whole thing. It’s so redundant it’s ridiculous.

Listen man, you are screwing up majorly. STOP! Do it now before you get to wrapped around the axle. Call a reputable local company and sell them the jobs you won for a fee or a percentage.

Then, beg them to let you come work for pennies on the ground. Meanwhile, work yourself near to death estimating and selling jobs for them on your time off the crew. They will give you a salary or percentage for the jobs you acquire on your own that they can do. From time to time they will break their boot off in your butt for screwing a bid. That’s ok, you will learn your lesson when you go do the ground work as an employee.

Meanwhile you are building a customer base AND learning AND earning at least a little money. And yes, you are working 70 hours and you should because it’s not free to be the boss.

After a full year, then and only then, should you beg them again. This time it will be to start climbing.

After a few years, you will either be able to buy in as a valuable asset to the company you are already familiar with or you will go your own way under good term amicably because you are an upstanding gentleman and you want a friend in the business for life.

After that you will be a part of an established company or have the customer base to go full steam with Your own. No need to even carry insurance or own a tool (except climbing gear) until then. Save your money cause it costs a lot.

I know I’m going to catch some flack for this post. I’ll explain; your building a customer base. If you present yourself well, the established company will be glad to have you as a helper and salesman even if the customer is not technically the company’s customer long term. They will be glad to have the work and get the walk up business in neighborhoods. Also, if you present and sell yourself well the customer will remember you and your contact info down the road not the company you worked for. Your just a liaison...for now.

Everybody wins. You have income. You are learning. You are not dying or killing people. You are growing your business model and base with no investment and solid income.

I started my company in the winter of 2015. We are big and I have made money and I’m a manager mostly. There are way more successful and knowledgeable guys on the buzz than me but my piece of the market is real and I have a large enough company to pay me well as a manager-For what it’s worth.

Disclaimer; Guys like myself that made it big quick are few and far between and I have a huge advantage that you cannot buy; I was a contract climber at 18. I learned the good the bad and the ugly from a bunch of companies before I knew enough to make it work. I tried two times before I started this company and failed. Your naive if you think you can skip this step.

I gave you gold man. Don't waste it or your a fool.

 

[hseII]

You guys ever seen Jomoco's posts over at Arboristsite? Dude is a serious lunatic and a poet to boot. I used to get a kick out of reading his posts over there before I was banned for life.

For Life?

Why didn’t you say so’s?

I’d gotten the email sooner?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[islandarb]

Crap! I have been sucked into this stupid thread. Why did you have to mention me? I read the whole thing. It’s so redundant it’s ridiculous.

Listen man, you are screwing up majorly. STOP! Do it now before you get to wrapped around the axle. Call a reputable local company and sell them the jobs you won for a fee or a percentage.

Then, beg them to let you come work for pennies on the ground. Meanwhile, work yourself near to death estimating and selling jobs for them on your time off the crew. They will give you a salary or percentage for the jobs you acquire on your own that they can do. From time to time they will break their boot off in your butt for screwing a bid. That’s ok, you will learn your lesson when you go do the ground work as an employee.

Meanwhile you are building a customer base AND learning AND earning at least a little money. And yes, you are working 70 hours and you should because it’s not free to be the boss.

After a full year, then and only then, should you beg them again. This time it will be to start climbing.

After a few years, you will either be able to buy in as a valuable asset to the company you are already familiar with or you will go your own way under good term amicably because you are an upstanding gentleman and you want a friend in the business for life.

After that you will be a part of an established company or have the customer base to go full steam with Your own. No need to even carry insurance or own a tool (except climbing gear) until then. Save your money cause it costs a lot.

I know I’m going to catch some flack for this post. I’ll explain; your building a customer base. If you present yourself well, the established company will be glad to have you as a helper and salesman even if the customer is not technically the company’s customer long term. They will be glad to have the work and get the walk up business in neighborhoods. Also, if you present and sell yourself well the customer will remember you and your contact info down the road not the company you worked for. Your just a liaison...for now.

Everybody wins. You have income. You are learning. You are not dying or killing people. You are growing your business model and base with no investment and solid income.

I started my company in the winter of 2015. We are big and I have made money and I’m a manager mostly. There are way more successful and knowledgeable guys on the buzz than me but my piece of the market is real and I have a large enough company to pay me well as a manager-For what it’s worth.

Disclaimer; Guys like myself that made it big quick are few and far between and I have a huge advantage that you cannot buy; I was a contract climber at 18. I learned the good the bad and the ugly from a bunch of companies before I knew enough to make it work. I tried two times before I started this company and failed. Your naive if you think you can skip this step.

I gave you gold man. Don't waste it or your a fool.

I absolutely endorse this. Spoken like a wise owl. All this was mentioned earlier but you put it so eloquently.

 

[Jehinten]

You dont even know me in order to say that I am going to do crap work.

A couple of people have made a comment similar this, I think it boils down to that they don't think that you as an individual plan on doing crap work. It's just the fact without the background and experience you wont know what is quality work and what is not.

Sure anybody can be prompt, not smash a house, and do a great job with a rake afterwards; but that doesn't mean that the tree was trimmed in a quality manner. There's several companies around here that think they do a stellar job, me personally I wouldn't ever want to leave a tree looking the way that they do. Sometimes (more often than not) when a customer wants a tree pruned you have to refuse to make the cuts that they want, because it'd be crap work in the end. You've got to explain to them why you won't do that and why your way is better aesthetically and for the tree's health.

 

[rico]

For Life?

Why didn’t you say so’s?

I’d gotten the email sooner?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I know its hard to believe but I can get a little carried away sometimes. Plus I've been told that I use a lot of profanity? Life without parole seemed a bit harsh, but I am willing to pay my debt to society. Next time you talk to Flashy, tell him old Rico kindly requests that he go eat a turd?

Don't worry about any copyright infringement or royalty laws hsell. You have my full authority, so feel free to post this at Arboristsite, and I would encourage you to do so!!!!

 

[Jorgon1022]

Crap! I have been sucked into this stupid thread. Why did you have to mention me? I read the whole thing. It’s so redundant it’s ridiculous.

Listen man, you are screwing up majorly. STOP! Do it now before you get to wrapped around the axle. Call a reputable local company and sell them the jobs you won for a fee or a percentage.

Then, beg them to let you come work for pennies on the ground. Meanwhile, work yourself near to death estimating and selling jobs for them on your time off the crew. They will give you a salary or percentage for the jobs you acquire on your own that they can do. From time to time they will break their boot off in your butt for screwing a bid. That’s ok, you will learn your lesson when you go do the ground work as an employee.

Meanwhile you are building a customer base AND learning AND earning at least a little money. And yes, you are working 70 hours and you should because it’s not free to be the boss.

After a full year, then and only then, should you beg them again. This time it will be to start climbing.

After a few years, you will either be able to buy in as a valuable asset to the company you are already familiar with or you will go your own way under good term amicably because you are an upstanding gentleman and you want a friend in the business for life.

After that you will be a part of an established company or have the customer base to go full steam with Your own. No need to even carry insurance or own a tool (except climbing gear) until then. Save your money cause it costs a lot.

I know I’m going to catch some flack for this post. I’ll explain; your building a customer base. If you present yourself well, the established company will be glad to have you as a helper and salesman even if the customer is not technically the company’s customer long term. They will be glad to have the work and get the walk up business in neighborhoods. Also, if you present and sell yourself well the customer will remember you and your contact info down the road not the company you worked for. Your just a liaison...for now.

Everybody wins. You have income. You are learning. You are not dying or killing people. You are growing your business model and base with no investment and solid income.

I started my company in the winter of 2015. We are big and I have made money and I’m a manager mostly. There are way more successful and knowledgeable guys on the buzz than me but my piece of the market is real and I have a large enough company to pay me well as a manager-For what it’s worth.

Disclaimer; Guys like myself that made it big quick are few and far between and I have a huge advantage that you cannot buy; I was a contract climber at 18. I learned the good the bad and the ugly from a bunch of companies before I knew enough to make it work. I tried two times before I started this company and failed. Your naive if you think you can skip this step.

I gave you gold man. Don't waste it or your a fool.

This is exactly the content and response I was looking for. No attacks, just sound advice and guidance on what to do.

The concensus seems to be to do one of two things:

1. If I want to do the job first, its best that I go out and work for someone for a bit so that I can learn the basics of climbing, rigging, felling, etc.
2. If not climbing, go out there and find a good climber, pay them great money and focus on the business, selling jobs, etc.

I dont mind working 70 hours. Im working close to 60 right now trying to work my full time job plus my business. I am single so dont have responsibilities so I can focus weekends on all of this.

Thank you man. I appreciate this advice.

 

[owScott]

You dont even know me in order to say that I am going to do crap work. I could spend my time answering all of your questions, but eventually it gets exhausting and it makes no difference. We are 9 pages in and the best advice I got was probably in the first 3 pages. Anything after that has been debating, arguing, and making attacks. So nah, I am not going to answer your questions.

 

[Ent]

This is exactly the content and response I was looking for. No attacks, just sound advice and guidance on what to do.

The concensus seems to be to do one of two things:

1. If I want to do the job first, its best that I go out and work for someone for a bit so that I can learn the basics of climbing, rigging, felling, etc.
2. If not climbing, go out there and find a good climber, pay them great money and focus on the business, selling jobs, etc.

I dont mind working 70 hours. Im working close to 60 right now trying to work my full time job plus my business. I am single so dont have responsibilities so I can focus weekends on all of this.

Thank you man. I appreciate this advice.

#1 only. I don't think #2 was the consensus. That's just what you keep telling yourself. The consensus is that you don't know the trade well enough to sell the work. Get a job as a groundie and quit trying to short cut the process. You keep mentioning 5 year plan as well. What is your goal in 5 years?

 

[southsoundtree]

So people who are established don't have time to answer their phones (I make a point NOT to answer my phone, unless its an existing client or my neighborhood phone prefix), and people are waiting 2-3 months for crap work, and you think you change the culture? Get all the cream?

Put in a crap $15/ hour climber or high dollar (good shot of being crap) climber (Boise is not the epicenter of arboriculture, and my GUESS is that most trees are bucket-truck trees, meaning you don't need a climber. Then there are cottonwoods, not telephone poles like conifers (the easiest thing to climb, I do it all day long, wishing for something more interesting).

A guy I hired for Idaho worked for some old-school guy, been at it forever, tattered climbing line probably for tying-in after free-climber big cottonwoods. No lanyard, just a leg-lock...I sh*t you knot.


All the guys that do the 50' and under trees are the beer money tree guys. People go for more than price once you have whoppers over houses, not the 40' pole to fell in the front yard that their uncle can do. My first whole tree fell was with a MS 066, not knowing what I was doing, under the direction of my dad (physically incapable, so I was doing it) with my uncle on the pull rope, spinning tires on the car, lifting the back end off the ground. 30" plus elm, over the house.





My guess is that there may be a firewood market locally, but possibly not in town, so you have to haul try to give away/ sell from the roadside.



I had a guy work for me for a couple days, used to be a programmer, needed to be walked through how to delimb a fir that stood well off the ground, with the trunk horizontal, after felling. Not long after that, he became a consulting arborist.

Virtually every time I'm cutting a tree, I'm autopsy-ing it. 'Quincy' and sh*t!




Ambition Grade A
Realistic understanding of day to day treework without editing and soundtracks, not Grade A.




Truth be told, one the skilled stuff is done, there is a lot of raking and grunt. The grunt is to be done by iron, not flesh. Money waster to ask guys to do a machine's work.

If you're a really good feller, you can make money on drop-and-leave stuff. Getting paid to do 5 minutes of highly skilled work, and walk away. I know very, very few highly skilled fellers. Very few, and I live in the PNW. 'Round here, most guys just firewood down big trees...Last tree I firewooded down was either forever ago, or an extremely tight drop-zone, corralled in to prevent bouncing into obstacles).

Back to this ace-employee...How are you going to get the decent climber who can get some work done, part time, if the other guys (who are booked for months without insurance, or customer service) aren't snatching them up.

Holy moly, if you want to watch smoke be blown, ask a treeworker about their skillset.
I just had a guy who had "5 years on production crews" working like a newb, couldn't file a chain, limb stuff up worth sh*t, drive a manual, have a car, etc, etc.

 

[owScott]

You dont even know me in order to say that I am going to do crap work. I could spend my time answering all of your questions, but eventually it gets exhausting and it makes no difference. We are 9 pages in and the best advice I got was probably in the first 3 pages. Anything after that has been debating, arguing, and making attacks. So nah, I am not going to answer your questions.

These are very legit questions, you have hung in here for 9 pages why stop now.You don't need to answer my questions because I know the answers. You sound very sensitive. You think that people are attacking you here, this is a warm up. Wait until you start dealing with climbers and customers in the real world. You have done plenty of attacking and name calling here. Crap work is what people do who don't know what they are doing, you came here saying you don't know what you are doing as far as he work goes. So I don't need to know you to know the outcome. Why if after page 3 the advise stopped you continue to engage? You asked for advise and opinion, many people here have decades of experience you have none. And you just blow it off as arguing and attacks.

 

[Mowerr]

Im glad someone understands what im trying to do lol. Its literally about building processes and having a business run like a well oiled machine.

Thats my vision for my company.

Your crew will not have any respect for u unless they see you doing the hard shitty work with them. Like raking and shoveling clean up.
Trust me if those guys don't respect you, lots of things will go wrong.
I support ya but be prepared to work a lot. Be prepared to be on all of your jobs for a while before u get to ride around handling the business end of things...especially if your not trying to pay top dollar.

 

[southsoundtree]

http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/threa...california-25-to-35-per-hr.39144/#post-605461

To give you an idea of the industry, for your information.


Go read all the Articles on the TreeBuzz home page. Three pages of them.

 

[CanaryBoss]

This is exactly the content and response I was looking for. No attacks, just sound advice and guidance on what to do.

The concensus seems to be to do one of two things:

1. If I want to do the job first, its best that I go out and work for someone for a bit so that I can learn the basics of climbing, rigging, felling, etc.
2. If not climbing, go out there and find a good climber, pay them great money and focus on the business, selling jobs, etc.

I dont mind working 70 hours. Im working close to 60 right now trying to work my full time job plus my business. I am single so dont have responsibilities so I can focus weekends on all of this.

Thank you man. I appreciate this advice.

Your welcome. But you didn’t quite get it. You CANNOT do it the right way easily without working for another company. You don’t have to get stuck there though. Reread my post and really let it sink in cause it is your best option period.

 

[Mowerr]

Crap! I have been sucked into this stupid thread. Why did you have to mention me? I read the whole thing. It’s so redundant it’s ridiculous.

Listen man, you are screwing up majorly. STOP! Do it now before you get to wrapped around the axle. Call a reputable local company and sell them the jobs you won for a fee or a percentage.

Then, beg them to let you come work for pennies on the ground. Meanwhile, work yourself near to death estimating and selling jobs for them on your time off the crew. They will give you a salary or percentage for the jobs you acquire on your own that they can do. From time to time they will break their boot off in your butt for screwing a bid. That’s ok, you will learn your lesson when you go do the ground work as an employee.

Meanwhile you are building a customer base AND learning AND earning at least a little money. And yes, you are working 70 hours and you should because it’s not free to be the boss.

After a full year, then and only then, should you beg them again. This time it will be to start climbing.

After a few years, you will either be able to buy in as a valuable asset to the company you are already familiar with or you will go your own way under good term amicably because you are an upstanding gentleman and you want a friend in the business for life.

After that you will be a part of an established company or have the customer base to go full steam with Your own. No need to even carry insurance or own a tool (except climbing gear) until then. Save your money cause it costs a lot.

I know I’m going to catch some flack for this post. I’ll explain; your building a customer base. If you present yourself well, the established company will be glad to have you as a helper and salesman even if the customer is not technically the company’s customer long term. They will be glad to have the work and get the walk up business in neighborhoods. Also, if you present and sell yourself well the customer will remember you and your contact info down the road not the company you worked for. Your just a liaison...for now.

Everybody wins. You have income. You are learning. You are not dying or killing people. You are growing your business model and base with no investment and solid income.

I started my company in the winter of 2015. We are big and I have made money and I’m a manager mostly. There are way more successful and knowledgeable guys on the buzz than me but my piece of the market is real and I have a large enough company to pay me well as a manager-For what it’s worth.

Disclaimer; Guys like myself that made it big quick are few and far between and I have a huge advantage that you cannot buy; I was a contract climber at 18. I learned the good the bad and the ugly from a bunch of companies before I knew enough to make it work. I tried two times before I started this company and failed. Your naive if you think you can skip this step.

I gave you gold man. Don't waste it or your a fool.

Like fabolous once said "...there's a cost to be the boss and it ain't gettin no cheaper. The waters to your neck, it only gets deeper. Its all downhill and it only gets steeper."

 

[owScott]

This is exactly the content and response I was looking for. No attacks, just sound advice and guidance on what to do.

The concensus seems to be to do one of two things:

1. If I want to do the job first, its best that I go out and work for someone for a bit so that I can learn the basics of climbing, rigging, felling, etc.
2. If not climbing, go out there and find a good climber, pay them great money and focus on the business, selling jobs, etc.

I dont mind working 70 hours. Im working close to 60 right now trying to work my full time job plus my business. I am single so dont have responsibilities so I can focus weekends on all of this.

Thank you man. I appreciate this advice.

How do you think work gets sold? Just show up and give them some random price. No you look at the tree and estimate time and what it takes to get the job done. How are you going to do that if you have no experience even doing the work? There is no book formula for this. Don't you get that? All this business process talk is useless without knowing what you are looking at. Can you please explain how you will get around that cold hard fact.

 

[climbhightree]

This is exactly the content and response I was looking for. No attacks, just sound advice and guidance on what to do.

The concensus seems to be to do one of two things:

1. If I want to do the job first, its best that I go out and work for someone for a bit so that I can learn the basics of climbing, rigging, felling, etc.
2. If not climbing, go out there and find a good climber, pay them great money and focus on the business, selling jobs, etc.

I dont mind working 70 hours. Im working close to 60 right now trying to work my full time job plus my business. I am single so dont have responsibilities so I can focus weekends on all of this.

Thank you man. I appreciate this advice.

Sigh, I guess I'll weigh in here...been following this thread.

Some background on me: I have an associate degree in forestry (graduated in 1998). So I had a the book knowledge, and thought I knew how to do this job. I learned pretty quickly I didn't know shit. The book knowledge is great (would luv to hire a grad like I was), but is just a foundation. Right after graduating I started working for a certified arborist, and quickly learned that this field is more about experience, and then applying that book knowledge to it. I worked for my former boss for 4 years, before he offered to sell me the tree trimming/removal part of the business...that was 16 years ago. I've always had a good client base, and made decent money (but never much in the bank after taxes etc). 6 years ago I got married, and my wife took over the phone calls etc, which really ramped up our work load. We don't answer the phone, but all calls get returned within 24 hours. Probably for at least the last 3 years we have been booked out 6 months in advance (all year around), and for at least the last year our message says no new clients....though if they leave a message we will respond and do a proposal etc.

I'm a 2 man operation...so I'm on every jobsite. Obviously I have the work load to add more crews, but that means 2 things. 1). Finding good workers...which is really hard to impossible. 2). Most times when the boss isn't on site, quality goes down (unless you have really really good employees.

I feel that most times in this field you have 2 options. Either doing a good high quality job (for both the tree and the client), or getting rich at the cost to your clients, employees, and the tree's your working on.

I know guys that have been in this field their whole lives, but still don't know the proper way to trim a tree. I've had a employee for 5 years (that grew up in the field) that I couldn't fully trust out on his own...both to do it right and safety of himself and the customer's property). He thinks he knows it all, and would claim to be a top bad ass climber. He isn't.

Bottom line for me is.
Book knowledge doesn't really teach you how to trim/remove a tree correctly, it just gives you a foundation. There are a infinite amount of variables that have to be taken in (tree species, objectives, growth pattern, tree age, tree health, etc). A lifetime of being in this field doesn't really teach you how to trim a tree correctly, if you were never trained correctly (and continue to learn on a daily basis). The the main hang up for me, for your quest, is you don't know what good work is. What is your base for qualifying a tree is trimmed/removed correctly (especially trimming)? How will you know if your climber is worth his money?

If your response to these 2 questions is that the client is happy and your making money, that does not mean your doing it right. It just means money is your driving factor, and not trimming a tree correctly (to promote its health etc). That is why a lot of people on here are probably upset. Trees are our passion, money is secondary. I strive to make a customer happy and meet their goals for a tree (first thing I ask at a proposal appointment), but if those goals are outside what is best for the tree I walk away...in a non removal situation.

If you are doing it for the money, buy a company that is already established with clients and employees. And pray that they are doing it right and won't sink you. Maybe buy into the Monster Inc franchise.
Or start working from the bottom for a certified arborist company and learn all the ins and out of this field. But you may want to plan on more than 5 years till you start making good money.