How is everyone doing with work?

treesandsurf

treesandsurf

Location
Hawaii
Has it slowed a lot for you with the economy? I was talking to a friend who just graduated and he has totally changed up his plans, is looking for a cushy state job and hoping to ride out the low economy before he starts his landscaping company. We got to talking about whether it was a good or bad thing to be starting a company in this type of economy, some times it may take several years to turn a profit anyway?

He was doing small jobs throughout school and was pretty busy, but about six months ago it totally dried up. Was wondering how others are doing?

jp
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We work in the metro-west Boston area. We just landed a few very large jobs. Which helped with Nov. and this Dec. I will say it is going to be interesting this Feb. and March to see if things do slow for us. But as of now we are booked solid for about six weeks.
 
WE are in Jersey, south ,just outside of Philly.WE are not as busy as we would like to be but we have not run out of work. We have about three weeks on the books . but a month ago it was week to week and a little dicey.
Thanks to our really big client list we were able to pull work from that.
I am taking a positive spin and using this time to lean out my operation,put systems in place, and re-tool for when things rebound. we will be ready to grow. Right now it's pay down debt time and get ready for the next up swing........which by the way could still be another year!
Great topic though and I am curious to see how it progresses
 
The work here is steady, the REAL problem is the weather! With the exception of a few days the high temperature here is -20C, and then we deal with the wind chill. We schedule the removals that can wait to the winter months, less impact on the site and less stressful for us. I do have a faithful client list and little competition.

Our economy in Saskatchewan isn't expected to downturn too terrible as the Province has been a sleeping giant with natural resources, and mining. The other thing that is helping us out is that our lending institutions are controlled more-so than the US. There isn't massive foreclosures and job losses like in the larger population centers where manufacturing is king.

I hope unsafe trees aren't going to be overlooked to save some coin, BUT I believe they may.
 
It's good to hear you guys are still staying busy. I'm sure the companies who do good work for loyal clients have less to worry about (but you never know!).

Getting your foot in the door may be a different story though.

jp
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hows hawaii. Michigan is, well michigan. My theory is that we were the first to drop so we will be the first to rebound. Detroit has been in a depression for 30 years. It has learned to survive in a climate that the rest of the country is soon going to learn about.
 
It seems the tourism industry is feeling it the most here, a lot of layoffs and small companies shutting their doors or filing bankruptcy.

The tree companies who have loyal clients that they work for year in and year out are still keeping busy.

jp
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In North Jersey things are slow and it's difficult to get a foot in the door. Much like others have said, companies with large client roles are keeping busy but not enough to hire. As for starting my own, I think slow economic periods are good because you need to really sell and grow carefully. No purchases without careful consideration for the real cost benefit.

This time of year is not great to begin with for getting people to think about there trees. Let's see what happens in January.


Merry Christmas all!
 
We were off a little bit but still busy, until the stock market suddenly tanked.. I've had about 3 calls since then....
 
December has always been a crazy month. Some years you have large companies trying to spend money to reach there budget or they won't get the same money the next year. We are in South Jersey and business is way down. I think 09 we be a lean year but we are in a good position to ride out this rough time. I think we will see an increase in guys without insurance.
 
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