How is winter looking for everybody?

fastbub

fastbub

New member
This is my first year I have been full time as my own business. Things were pretty good all year. We managed to up grade and add some equipment and have done so with cash so no payments.

Just wondering how busy everybody is shaping up to be for the winter. We still have several jobs scheduled and a couple of winter larger clearing projects but I have noticed a bit of a decline in call volume. Not sure if it is the holidays coming up or just the colder weather.

Want to hear from the veterans that have been through a few winters and know what to expect.
 
Bub, I'm going into my first full time winter as well. So far things are looking very good. The call volume has dropped off for the most part except a couple calls a week. That said I'm scheduling the second week in February now. It's not 5 days a week but I don't need that to survive. I'll ration out work to insure i bring in my weekly and monthly targets and get things ready to roll in the spring. And historically February and March are the pick up months for me anyhow. Good luck and keep us updated.
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
Bub, I'm going into my first full time winter as well. So far things are looking very good. The call volume has dropped off for the most part except a couple calls a week. That said I'm scheduling the second week in February now. It's not 5 days a week but I don't need that to survive. I'll ration out work to insure i bring in my weekly and monthly targets and get things ready to roll in the spring. And historically February and March are the pick up months for me anyhow. Good luck and keep us updated.
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Thanks for the reply. Are you planning on laying off your guys when it is slower or how are you dealing with that? I am kind of doing the same as you. I am still working through my backlog of work and am lining up bigger jobs in the winter. Some of them might be like two or three days for the week but that is enough to keep us on track.

This first year has been exciting and challenging. I didn't know it would be this hard or this awesome!
 
BTW Squirrel, where in SE PA are you. I used to do a lot of tree work in the Doylestown area heading all the way down to Chestnut Hill.
 
fastbub said:
BTW Squirrel, where in SE PA are you. I used to do a lot of tree work in the Doylestown area heading all the way down to Chestnut Hill.
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My business plan seems to be a bit different then yours. When I went off into full time I didn't hire a crew. I started out doing small stuff by myself and hired contractor help (ground crew or climber(s)) as I needed throughout the summer. So going into my first winter I won't have to lay anyone off if things slow up or the weather is bad. I wanted to make sure I could support my family before I committed to supporting someone else's!
Doylestown is about an hour and a half northeast of us. We are 15 min from Wilmington de.
I would have to agree with you, this year has been a lot of work but man had it been great. Been super happy with the support I received from my friends and family to make this work.
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
My business plan seems to be a bit different then yours. When I went off into full time I didn't hire a crew. I started out doing small stuff by myself and hired contractor help (ground crew or climber(s)) as I needed throughout the summer. So going into my first winter I won't have to lay anyone off if things slow up or the weather is bad. I wanted to make sure I could support my family before I committed to supporting someone else's!
Doylestown is about an hour and a half northeast of us. We are 15 min from Wilmington de.
I would have to agree with you, this year has been a lot of work but man had it been great. Been super happy with the support I received from my friends and family to make this work.
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Actually our business plan is about the same. I have one ground guy who has another part time job. He is my right hand man and I just recently put him on the payroll so we are legit. Before that he was a 1099. He won't be eligible for unemployment but he has another job too so he is fine. Just thinking about next winter possibly laying off if it is slow. I am just trying to do right by him since he is crucial to me supporting my family so I help support his. I pay him very well and he is of course covered by worker's comp.
 
monkeylove said:
Without family and friends life in general would suck. That comes from someone who doesn't really even like people that much, lol. Well at least most non hands-on people.
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Frank you are absolutely correct. I took the jump for my family, and they have been there for me. Even my friends that want to work with me in February! It's great!

fastbub said:
Actually our business plan is about the same. I have one ground guy who has another part time job. He is my right hand man and I just recently put him on the payroll so we are legit. Before that he was a 1099.
I am just trying to do right by him since he is crucial to me supporting my family so I help support his. I pay him very well and he is of course covered by worker's comp.
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That's the biggest thing, having been employed by a$$es, treating your employees as family and taking care of them like family is important. Thinking about their well being. Sounds like you have that down already though.
 
About two weeks ago I was worried that our back log might shrink and we would not be able to keep as busy this winter. This is my third winter. We are booked into the 3rd week of January. What has helped me is that I keep a pretty steady back log all summer long. So the calls that we received in August and September are jobs that get booked into December and January.
As I am writing this I have about a weeks worth of pressing jobs where the customer wants it done soon. Those will be scheduled when I have an opening. We have worked almost every Saturday this summer. And we still are going strong.
I hope this stays like this for the next 20 years:)
 
ROYCE said:
About two weeks ago I was worried that our back log might shrink and we would not be able to keep as busy this winter. This is my third winter. We are booked into the 3rd week of January. What has helped me is that I keep a pretty steady back log all summer long. So the calls that we received in August and September are jobs that get booked into December and January.
As I am writing this I have about a weeks worth of pressing jobs where the customer wants it done soon. Those will be scheduled when I have an opening. We have worked almost every Saturday this summer. And we still are going strong.
I hope this stays like this for the next 20 years:)
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I hope for you that it does and I hope for the same success myself.
 
fastbub said:
I hope for you that it does and I hope for the same success myself.
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Since I have started my business my biggest problem has been finding a way to get all this work done. Never have I had a problem with not having enough work. I looked at a job yesterday and last year I would of priced it at 375. Today I priced it at 975 and got it. We have had 60% revenue growth since last year.
You can do it. Just keep hustling. I am out almost every night networking. Conservation commissions, garden clubs, chamber of commerce events, local trade show, garden centers, home owner associations. Get a good presentation made about what your business is, what you do, why you do it so well, and then go sell it. People want to buy from someone who is passionate, professional, and expensive:)

SIDE NOTE: I have no kids!!
 
I'm going to keep all that in mind Royce. I'm only part time, probably forever (I'm to old to start a whole new career) but I did just submit all my LLC paperwork so hopefully over the winter I will become a real boy. Lol.
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
is it true you have been hiring? Or buying? I heard Joe was on your team now.
I'll be up for thanksgiving if you have time to get together. I would love to see your operation!
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I am doing both!! Yes, I offered Joe a position and he jumped on it. I am pretty excited to have him on board. He talks a lot about the A-Team with you. He's always telling me when we drive by trees you and him cut down. Sounds like you guys took all the big one's down and now we don't have any big trees left:)
Yeah, look me up when your in the area. Swing by the shop. I am sure Joe would like to see you as well.
 
ROYCE said:
I am doing both!! Yes, I offered Joe a position and he jumped on it. I am pretty excited to have him on board. He talks a lot about the A-Team with you. He's always telling me when we drive by trees you and him cut down. Sounds like you guys took all the big one's down and now we don't have any big trees left:)
Yeah, look me up when your in the area. Swing by the shop. I am sure Joe would like to see you as well.
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Ha. The things our 2 man crew were able to complete!! My body still remembers some of this trees. What he was alway good at was understating how much influence he had on my career. He taught me more about getting it done in those early days then anyone since. He is a huge asset! I'll see what I can do to catch up Friday!
 
The best advice I received was when the calls start to slow down is to start scheduling backwards. Go 30 days past your furthest scheduled job and schedule friday, thrusday, then go to week 3 and do the same (and so on). If you get hungry you can always call from that pool of work and say "I just had a cancellation, would you like to be fit in sooner?" Only needed to pull that card out once or twice, but it helps when budgeting overhead in the slow times. I'm more so in Royces shoes, where winter is a time to trim the backlog down a bit, but still doing the job from late summer time bids.
 
Winter pruning, Christmas lights up then down, sales calls and etc, training and lecturing/teaching staff, catch up on reading and research, eat and drink too much and get winter fat.
 
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