Bringing on a plant health care specialist / consulting arborist part-time / as needed

climbingmonkey24

climbingmonkey24

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
United States
Wondering if anyone here has any experience bringing on a plant health care specialist / certified arborist for a consulting or as needed basis to perform tree assessments and maybe some actual field work (pruning, health care, etc).

If so, generally how do you pay them for instances where they may just be performing a consult but not doing any actual field work? And do you pay them differently than you do for assessment / consulting if they are going to be working in the field?

Some things I initially thought of…Percentage of the sale? Flat rate for their time up to a certain number of hours? Hourly rate?

And then assuming they don’t have their own insurance or are their own operation, I would think you’d just consider them a part-time employee and match the hours / rate to whatever the actual agreed upon compensation is.

As I have only ever brought on contract climbers, I was just curious how others might handle such a thing as it’s something I have considered.

Thanks.
 
We are fortunate to have one of the most knowledgeable consulting arborists in the country located nearby, we call him occasionally and pay him his hourly rate. He goes out and looks at trees, sends us a bill, we write a check. We also sometimes refer him to a customer directly, in which case he calls them or they call him, he sends them a bill and they write a check.
 
DSMc said:
Develop a relationship with the people you are contemplating using and if you find them appropriate to your end goals, use them as referrals. You and your costumers will gain all the benefits such a relationship fosters without all the financial headaches and liabilities.
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Maybe slightly off topic from the initial post as I was talking more about an individual as opposed to a company (although sometimes they are one in the same), but I’ve wondered before about developing relations with some of the “competition”. Like if there’s someone I feel confident in referring certain things out to, do I do it quietly or should I actually reach out to them and introduce myself, explain what I and my company does, and why I may refer them out, etc.

Case in point, there’s a local company in the area who is well equipped to handle just about any removal project you could think of. We do some removals / crane work but are primarily tailored more towards trimming, hedges, shrubs, etc. So on occasion there’s jobs I’ve looked at that I don’t want to take on, so I’ve given this company’s name out if I think it might be better suited towards a different operation.

But thus far I’ve never actually interacted with them personally with the exception of driving past them or seeing them drive by. Would there be any benefit to trying to make a connection with someone who is technically your competitor (in some respects) as there is some overlap in work we both do.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
Maybe slightly off topic from the initial post as I was talking more about an individual as opposed to a company (although sometimes they are one in the same), but I’ve wondered before about developing relations with some of the “competition”. Like if there’s someone I feel confident in referring certain things out to, do I do it quietly or should I actually reach out to them and introduce myself, explain what I and my company does, and why I may refer them out, etc.

Case in point, there’s a local company in the area who is well equipped to handle just about any removal project you could think of. We do some removals / crane work but are primarily tailored more towards trimming, hedges, shrubs, etc. So on occasion there’s jobs I’ve looked at that I don’t want to take on, so I’ve given this company’s name out if I think it might be better suited towards a different operation.

But thus far I’ve never actually interacted with them personally with the exception of driving past them or seeing them drive by. Would there be any benefit to trying to make a connection with someone who is technically your competitor (in some respects) as there is some overlap in work we both do.
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I see no problem with that. I know several of my competitors, one has become a friend of mine. We compare notes sometimes. I’ve been talking to him recently about ways to make his operation more efficient, and his operation is larger than mine. We were trading wood chip drop sites just the other week.
 
I like the idea of being able to work / help each other out at times. I have a friend who has his own operation in the area (though he only does it part-time alongside a regular job) and we do a lot of work together.

Do you think sending a competitor an email introducing yourself and your company is a good way to establish an initial connection?

Basically stating who we are and what our specialties are, and what kinds of projects we sometimes send their way (which up to this point they wouldn’t know who it’s coming from).
 
I second the sentiments of developing relationships with folks first.

Hiring is expensive, so taking a chance on a part time consultant/PHC guy would be hard to justify without a clear long term path. That person will be expensive, and if they go in the field work comp rates will still be high. In MN, if someone participates in general tree care (including plant health care) they have general tree care work comp rates. Sales/consulting rates are much cheaper, hence the big companies clearly separate the techs from the reps.

I am constantly looking for competitors to chat with. A local firewood guy recently got his ISA cert and is switching more to tree work. We've been chatting a lot. You never know when you'll need help and it's good to have friends, business or otherwise.

I get kickbacks for referrals at times, and we get a lot of referrals from our competitors. I get hired by other companies as a consultant often. Sometimes they give us jobs, sometimes I write up reports. They 1099 it as a sub for those situations. It makes the most sense.

If you have the volume for consistent full time work then recruiting a skilled person would be worth it. Hard to find, but possible. For a part timer, seek out the folks that do it and do it well and strike up a relationship. Call or email around until you jive with someone.

My 2©
 
Networking is good, but not necessary. The tree workers where I live tend to glom up together, not really my style but it seems to work for them.

Referrals can be weird. I referred so many people when I had the biz going, maybe close to half of the leads or more. We were mostly trying to specialize in pruning so referred almost everything else. I ended up getting salty at most of the people I referred eventually. Usually from hearing feedback from homeowners about stupid shit they recommended or did to the trees but I can be a misanthrope at times and have strong opinions about tree care.

Make sure your ideals align if you are referring people is my advice.

The best referral relationship I had was with Jerry the stump grinder. That guy was so on point and reliable, no bs just in and out, professional. A rarity!
 
levi r said:
Networking is good, but not necessary. The tree workers where I live tend to glom up together, not really my style but it seems to work for them.

Referrals can be weird. I referred so many people when I had the biz going, maybe close to half of the leads or more. We were mostly trying to specialize in pruning so referred almost everything else. I ended up getting salty at most of the people I referred eventually. Usually from hearing feedback from homeowners about stupid shit they recommended or did to the trees but I can be a misanthrope at times and have strong opinions about tree care.

Make sure your ideals align if you are referring people is my advice.

The best referral relationship I had was with Jerry the stump grinder. That guy was so on point and reliable, no bs just in and out, professional. A rarity!
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You make good points. Defs be careful about who you refer to. I mostly farm out removals where folks are looking for the lowest bidder. I'm not that guy. I wouldn't blindly send folks to other companies.

Do you mean the workers in your area are all "buddy buddy"? Are they contractors or owners and the like?
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
... Do you think sending a competitor an email introducing yourself and your company is a good way to establish an initial connection?...
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No, but I'm definitely not an e technology fan. You need to make personal contact when an opportunity presents itself, like during a lunch break or getting gas. It shouldn't take much time or small talk to determine if you want more. If so make it happen. If not, smile and wish them a good day.

If their not someone you feel comfortable with there is no point in involving them with your clients.
 
I have good relationships with a few competitors. We talk. Refer work back and forth. One in particular refers risk assessments to me. There is usually either mitigation or removal that goes back to them...the client starts asking "how much will that cost?" or "can you help with that?" and I'm very intentional to say "have XYZ back...they are really good and will treat you fair" (which I know they will, that's key!)

Refer stumps (I only do a few small removals) to another company. Eveone says "they were so great to work with thanks for that!".

One of those 2 does PHC, the other doesn't so I get some of that referred to me.

When one of my regular clients wants a bigger removal it's usually those 2 names I pass along. There's another guy in town that I've had a good relationship with, but he's rubbed other people the wrong way so a little hesitancy that he may tick off the client I just sent his way...but I wonder if the people he's angered are abrasive with him first because I've had no problems at all.
 
A lot of good points here. I have definitely aired on the side of caution when it comes to referring someone else out. There’s pretty much only 2-3 companies in the area I will ever refer out. One or two for certain removal projects or anything that I might decide I don’t want to get into for some reason, and one for risk assessments / phc / health evaluations. I still make a point to tell my clients that “I can’t speak with certainty about how they do things, but from knowing them from the area they seem like they’d be worth a call and a good fit for your project.”

@DSMc I get what you’re saying. I suppose there’s also the consideration that someone you reach out to in the area is technically your competitor, and not everyone might have the best of intentions of “making relations” I suppose…
 
How would you go about “collaborating” or developing “relations” if the opportunity hasn’t really presented itself to interact with that individual or company though. I mean you could wait years hoping for the opportunity to maybe establish a connection, but couldn’t it be more productive to get proactive and create the opportunity…?

I guess that was my line of thinking in regards to actually reaching out to who you may want to try and create a professional relationship with. Putting yourself out there, etc.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
How would you go about “collaborating” or developing “relations” if the opportunity hasn’t really presented itself to interact with that individual or company though. I mean you could wait years hoping for the opportunity to maybe establish a connection, but couldn’t it be more productive to get proactive and create the opportunity…?

I guess that was my line of thinking in regards to actually reaching out to who you may want to try and create a professional relationship with. Putting yourself out there, etc.
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I legit call or email other companies in the area. I read through their websites and check reviews/services/reputability and give them a shout. I'm in a small town, so slowly branched out that way. I've met other arborists at events, and have made some "work friends" on here from the cities. I've had others reach out to us as well.
 
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