Hiring

Have you considered an occasional laborer around the house? Way more effective to do an hour of tree work, and pay for a chunk of a day of a laborer.

If you're doing housework to help with the baby... Tree work pays better than you sweeping and laundering, etc, while mom is busy with the baby or trying to get sleep.

Like mechanic'ing. IF there is tree work to do, hire a mechanic. If there is not, do it yourself, or go marketing more.

Doing your own indoor and outdoor house-work brings no future biz.
I once $200 bucks cash for a cat rescue which I bid at $125 or $150, and could have made them a tree customer, but didn't want the commute for fruit trees.
 
Maybe you'll have a big, spurring removal job for a favorite customer who also need air-spade work...I might be able to swing it for a two-day job. Get some experience with the air-spade, do some work that's not your favorite, and show you some BMG tricks I've figured out over the years.

Are you collecting/ milling figured wood? You're in the right neck of the woods, and maple is taking a big hit from climate-change, from the sounds of it...temperature-related around urban areas. You're somewhat removed from that being on the island.

I've started keeping most decent maple crotches. Aiming for a bandsaw mill this year.
 
southsoundtree said:
Maybe you'll have a big, spurring removal job for a favorite customer who also need air-spade work...I might be able to swing it for a two-day job. Get some experience with the air-spade, do some work that's not your favorite, and show you some BMG tricks I've figured out over the years.

Are you collecting/ milling figured wood? You're in the right neck of the woods, and maple is taking a big hit from climate-change, from the sounds of it...temperature-related around urban areas. You're somewhat removed from that being on the island.

I've started keeping most decent maple crotches. Aiming for a bandsaw mill this year.
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I will certainly keep it in mind. If the right jobs come together I will certainly hit you up.

So far I’ve turned down a shit load of removals. A hedge row of chubby short hybrid poplars, HO removed one and poisoned the stump. The rest are dying.

I don’t have much for airspade work in the summer unless it’s more emergency style work.

I could always do the same for you, come down your way with the airspade, mini, and what ever else I have. While I don’t climb much for removals I make one bad ass removal groundie. Throw what ever rigging at me and consider it done.

Round here everyone and their brother has a bandsaw mill, I do have quite the stack of bigleaf.

Off to go meet up with a crane crew from the other side to remove 6-8 previously topped cedars.. 2-3 days for them with a short stick.
 
TimBr said:
@MTCInc; If you've been looking for two years, maybe you'd be better off finding good raw material, and building one of your own from scratch. Possibly look for "A" students in the local high schools that want summer work that pays really well, or some other similar group. If you train them yourself from the ground up, they will most likely climb in a way and work in a way that allows you to feel comfortable. Nobody ever wants to pay the price of training someone, everyone wants a finished climber for whom someone else already paid that price. I think there is no free lunch. You need to find folks that are interested in having a future, and then train them yourself. Forgive me if this seems harsh, I don't mean it to be.

Tim
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I totally agree, and it come with a big bonus that you will get to train them how you would like it done! Also, there is something to be said about working together to the point that you know what the other one is thinking and will do next.
 
I'm thinking about the best route to go as my company grows. I have 1 working partner and two employees right now, but I have the call volume and ability to sell to employ more people. I also am working on getting more equipment, but its slow going for me. I don't want to take on too much debt. Finding help that keeps showing up and working hard has always been a challenge. Furthermore, I don't want to be out doing bids all the time. I would rather be on the job site. Should I try to hire a sales person?
 
If you were to hire a salesperson, I think it’d have to be one who knows trees. Thinking retired climber or someone that can look at a tree and accurately estimate how long it will take. That’d be a sweet gig for the right person.

Was a good arrangement at a past employer of mine. They had an older guy, ex climber and ex business owner that would do sales/ estimates as well as almost all the stump grinding. Was enough to keep him busy full time, while not making him do any of the harder labor that he just wasn’t capable of doing anymore. He was in his 70s when I knew him, and you could tell he was the type that wanted to work until the day he dies.

If you can find a person like that who is also honest, it could really make life easier I think.
 
Bango Skank said:
If you were to hire a salesperson, I think it’d have to be one who knows trees. Thinking retired climber or someone that can look at a tree and accurately estimate how long it will take. That’d be a sweet gig for the right person.

Was a good arrangement at a past employer of mine. They had an older guy, ex climber and ex business owner that would do sales/ estimates as well as almost all the stump grinding. Was enough to keep him busy full time, while not making him do any of the harder labor that he just wasn’t capable of doing anymore. He was in his 70s when I knew him, and you could tell he was the type that wanted to work until the day he dies.

If you can find a person like that who is also honest, it could really make life easier I think.
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A retired climber is what I was thinking of.
 
I’ve been looking for two years as well. I tried young people, but they just disgust me. One threw pig iron through my chipper.
 
“Idiocracy” has seriously reached documentary status.

I’m sitting here watching our fourth or fifth flash flood this year, and half our population denies climate change and ocean warming because their brain chemistry has literally been recalibrated to function on instant gratification and seeking reality-insulating fantasy. Do some reading on the effects on brain plasticity from cortisol release due to perceived stressors, specifically on the hypothalamus. It is possible to scare a person stupid.
People in our society are being groomed to stop thinking critically. It’s good business for big business, religion, and politics (both sides!). It sucks as a pool to draw workers from.
We all just need to quit the tree biz and start a mega church.
 
RBJtree said:
I'm thinking about the best route to go as my company grows. I have 1 working partner and two employees right now, but I have the call volume and ability to sell to employ more people. I also am working on getting more equipment, but its slow going for me. I don't want to take on too much debt. Finding help that keeps showing up and working hard has always been a challenge. Furthermore, I don't want to be out doing bids all the time. I would rather be on the job site. Should I try to hire a sales person?
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Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to say no to the work coming in...Just pick and choose the jobs that are the most profitable for you. A small company may not be able to have all of the big equipment a larger company has, but can be just as profitable. Its not a good ideal to scale your business until you have dependable, long-term employees.
 
GET IRON! Everything will go way faster.

Hiring employees is not debt, its an expense. At the end of paying your loan, you should have a machine that is still capable of working without WC, court-dates, baby-mama drama, being sick, etc.

Maybe you don't need more guys. I took down a bunch of trees, like 20, hardly breaking a sweat. The mini-loader hydraulic oil was hot, and the engine. Never complained, never asked for a break or to go home early or gets tired, or...
 
southsoundtree said:
GET IRON! Everything will go way faster.

Hiring employees is not debt, its an expense. At the end of paying your loan, you should have a machine that is still capable of working without WC, court-dates, baby-mama drama, being sick, etc.

Maybe you don't need more guys. I took down a bunch of trees, like 20, hardly breaking a sweat. The mini-loader hydraulic oil was hot, and the engine. Never complained, never asked for a break or to go home early or gets tired, or...
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Equipment is the new "employee". Cost out a good employee for a year. Equipment costs less. You still need someone to run it, but one guy on a machine is worth 3 or more without when it comes to moving material.
 
I took a gamble and believe I won. Hired a guy who was/is healing a rotator cuff surgery. We did a honeymoon period of a day or two a week to feel each other out, and so he can heal up. Been steady for the past month now and I am impressed.
He can do more with a lame shoulder, than anyone I’ve had. Hiring experienced help is worth its weight in gold!
Iron can do a lot, but needs operators. It takes skill to prune/remove, which is just a fraction of the job but the most critical.
 
kiteflyingeek said:
Not sure what it's like in your area but I've had pretty good success with homeschoolers. They can't work full time & you only have a year or 2 before they go to college but it's what I've done so far.

--andrew
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My understanding is that federal law prevents minors from working in the Tree Service industry.
 
neums said:
You may consider posting a flyer in the local climbing gym if your area has one. Also if there are any local branches of Conservation Corps then that could be a shot; we've had a good amount of decent hires from similar organizations.
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All great suggestions.. However, my situation is unique living in a wealthy retirement community of burnt out yippes ON A ISLAND. So very limited labor pool can either afford to live here, or executive types who commute to boeing.
 
Yeah I'm somewhat in the same boat as you evo I think. Tricked my brother into working for me three years ago and that was huge. He makes and sells hard cider legally as well. 3-4 days a week.

Other guy that works for me works for me works 2-3 days, his mom owns a restaurant and he manages the bar. Works 6 nights a week. He also has a Lucas mill and makes high end furniture.

Other guy works for two other tree companies in town, does his own work, and works for an excavation company. He knows what to do and he is careful. Can back up a trailer as good or better than me. He's 21, and is hot shit in my opinion. He's going to crush it compared to others in his generation. I offered him more than any of the other guys so I can get him two days a week.

Other guy works for me is a sub with his own insurance that costs $400 a day and I can only get him a few days a week here and there because he subs out to a different guy in Maine, and works on his own western MA and VT a lot. Often he just doesn't want to do anything, in which case he doesn't work.

This is the best set up I've had in 5 years in business. Everybody is semi entrepreneur/self-employed using me to fill in when they aren't busy and cause they like the work. Everybody works hard, wants to learn more, and enjoys it. All motivated and no shit bags. I have to take them when I can so I'll be by myself one day then me and three other guys the next. Makes scheduling a "shooting from the hip" ordeal, but I'm pretty good at sorting it all out.

Hard to expand into anything bigger with this set up, but it's about as low stress as I've ever been.
 
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