How much did you start with?

Playground_Hero

Playground_Hero

Location
British Columbia, Canada
I have a quick question regarding start up capital, oh and I am in Canada as well so it might be a bit different than the U.S.A. I have started a purposes of funding through the CYBF it’s the Canadian youth business foundation they will lend me up to $15,000 dollars with no principle payment for the first year, (my payment is like $90 per month on 15,000) anyway my question is how much did you guys start with when you started your business’s? I am shooting for $20,000 for start up, is this a reasonable number? My saws were quoted at $4900 ant the climbing gear I get for wholesale – 20% so ropes, harness’s, carabineers, I save like thousands! (I love pro deals) the rest (15,000) would be for a truck and gear I just was wondering if this was reasonable?

Cheers

~Playground Hero~
 
My father started with like $300. in the bank. It was like 30 years ago but it's relevant. Be reasonable figure you are gonna have fuel,maintenance, insurances and all the other crap that goes with it. Put some cash on a truck and keep a payment then you should have a little elbow room for those who wait to pay their bills.
 
$26, a 386 PC and dumpster-salvaged laser printer and lots of foot work. 14 years later Foot work is the thing I STILL have to do a lot of.

With your funding, remember, debt can bight your heinie when you least want it to.

Plan your purchases and buy only what you truly need.
As you gain momentum you can buy the other things.

Remember that machines can reduce your effort and improve your bottom line. Just don't bury yourself in debt.

Good climbing gear, good ropes, good brakes and pulleys and a means to cut and haul debris are all you truly need to get started. Everything else will help later.
 
Thank you for the input I have been a climber for three and a half years but figure its time to do my own thing you know? I have good business sense and think I can do well there is tones of work around town and I know a lot of people in the area including some lot developers it should be a good in for contracts the going rate here is like $300.00 an hr for a climber ground guy and truck/chipper. We are working right now to get funding for our business we have incorporated, and will be working on our own Oct 1st I hope!
 
That’s for 6 saws! So its not bad it knocked $1000 of the re tail cuz I need to get 6 of them, any way I think I will start small with a low overhead, keep my costs down and try and squeeze a buck or two out of the business when I can!
 
Started with $3,000. Of course, I was more landscape and medium size pruning.

My friend started with about $2000 worth of climbing gear and saws, a $2500 pickup, and about $1000 in advertising. Made that back in a month, and in less than a year, bought a used truck and chipper for what would be about $12000 today. This was back near 1990.

He was debt free on most of it, best I know.
 
Before you buy six saws, check out the three saws for everything thread...

http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.p...e=0&fpart=1

jp
grin.gif
 
I get what’s called a “Pro” deal on all Petzl, Black Diamond, Singing Rock, and any other thing you can think of what this means is cheep gear so say a petzl ascension sells for $60 right well I get it for cost ($30) - %20 so the ascender you pay $60 re tail for I pay like $24 it go’s for everything from hard wear to ropes (New England). So my climbing gear for brand new stuff to outfit two people we had worked out to $1200, and that’s for everything ropes harnesses beaners , (and rigging gear/rope’s) when I left the old company I worked for I had to give back all the gear as it belonged to the company therefore to start my own I need to re buy everything so having a “Pro” deal makes a huge difference!

The reason I need 6 saw’s is that we will have two crews plus here there is a verity of trees some huge some small! I don’t want to be packing a big saw on small trees, or a small saw on big trees changing out bars is a waste of time I think anyway and for the cost I cant be bothered I mean the saws will be paid for In the first couple of removals.

As I will still hold a job I will work the tree business part time till it can support full time work? So IF the company doesn’t make any money I am not worried I can still pay for everything my payment in the first year on $20,000 is like $194. per month I can afford that working part time at a gas station you know? So it shouldn’t be that hard to get this thing up and running I miss being in the trees and in the last week have turned down like $13,000 in business because the loan has not gone through yet to buy the truck and gear I need I am starting to get pissed oh yeah I am only 23 so my age might have something to do with that maybe it’s easier to get a loan in the states but up north in Canada I am having a difficult time.. I have great credit like 713 score I just don’t know what gives!

the stress will kill me i am sure! oh and yeah we will have insurance on the workers.
 
I started with cash purchases only. I bought a new item of gear as time went on. I only bought what I could afford. I didn't need/want a start-up loan. What I really invested in right off the bat was big advertising. I had to do that to gain clientele (a customer base).

If I were to start off with financing equipment with no clientele, I wouldn't have had the income to pay for the equipment. So, I waited for the customer base to grow. And in my short time in business (5 years) I have already seen/heard of guys starting up a tree service and shutting down. I am glad to say I will be around for my kids to take over the business.--"Knock on wood."
 

Attachments

  • 95923-Picture459.webp
    95923-Picture459.webp
    204.8 KB · Views: 138
Jammin, I'm right there with you. Some have come and most have gone. A couple are perennial and keep coming back though we never know for how long.

I also did as you, slow and steady, cash purchases as I went along. Of course I had the advantage of having a second job (which I gave to my wife
grin.gif
) to pay the home bills until things got going well enough with the trees.

Still, there are alot of things I would have done differently including buying a chipper sooner along with a chip truck. Those came in stages.

I also would have spent tons more on advertising. A well run Ad program pays for itself immediately.

We finally got that concept down pat this year. W have been spending a little over $1100 per month on two local town newspapers and are on track to have better than 30% sales growth for the year.

On top of that we have been working in essentially just those two towns. Less driving, jobs in the same neighborhood, lower overhead adn more sales.

Lesson of the day? Properly done, you cannot go wrong with consistent, and persistent advertising. That would be my first major cash outlay on any business.

I know there are other discussions about advertising, but let me toss out this thought.

Imagine, that you have enough calls coming in such that you:
<ul type="square"> [*]Can' possibly do them all [*]You find that the tire kickers start becoming a thing of the past [*]Your average bid price goes up [*]Your Closure rate on sales calls goes up [*]Your customers have already decided to hire you when they call so it is just a matter of getting the paperwork to them [*]Your customers are actually happy that you called back [*]Your customers wait until they hear back from you, no matter how many other bids they have obtained [/list]

These are all things that have started happening to us since we have done concentrated, continuous advertising. Smartest thing we've done in years.

Almost all the jobs we bid now in our advertising area are running at a 50% or better closure rate and at a premium bid. Other areas where we don't actively advertise (they call via YP or WOM) our success is much lower.

So it goes, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE,ADVERTISE and when you think you don't need to, ADVERTISE all over again.

Do you think Davey, Bartlet and Nelso really need weekly ads and monthly ads in all the trade journals? Of course they do.

The key to successful markeing is to advertise even more when you don't need it. Name recognition and branding are crucial to our long term success!

Our ads are not just to entice the person with the tree problem to call us. The ads are to constantly remind those without a tree need that we are here, so when they do have a need they remember us!

Too many people flip the YP, get a list of companies and start calling.

Imagine that your customers would make only one call...to You! That is what pro-active advertising will do for you.

Just my 2 cents, but it seems that 2 cents has now grown into 25 cents
laugh.gif
 
Well I figured I would need at least two t 200’s in case one breaks down or the someone drops it out of a tree, but I do agree with Rick the trick is to have your advertisement gain you work therefore a lot of our budget will be put into “branding” our company, I do work a full time job right now that pays the house bills and will slowly work into the tree business because the job I work now allows me freedom in the amount of time I work when I pick up tree jobs I can bid/do the job right away.

So with that said, I don’t need the business to make any money at all really I can support it with my full time job until it dose. Dose this make sense? Its not like I want to work for someone else forever just till I get this thing going.

Part of the reason we will have the ability to have two crews is because I have a partner in the business who is also a climber, we both can work on separate jobs if we have the business to sustain it if not we will work together on jobs the great thing is we have all the freedom to do this.

Maybe six saws is to much? 2 T200’s , 46xp for topping, 56xp, 75xp, 85xp but the old company I worked for had these saws and we used all of them depending on what type of job we were doing. There is a lot of “big” wood in the area I live and the bigger saws are needed for felling whale the little saws are needed for toping, liming, and ground work.

Thankfully there is a place like the buzz to gain info and insight into the workings of the industry the reason I am asking is because I hope I can learn from other peoples mistakes. Any input would be great. Although I did work for someone else to gain the knowledge of how to climb, I never learned the business end of how to run it, I can run a business and have done so before.

I guess I want to avoid sinking before I can swim but thank you again as always everyone here on the buzz seems to have a great way of accepting people and helping each other out!
 
I started with almost nothing: a few hundred dollars to my name, a toyota, belt, rope, pole saw, a Stihl 009! But i tried to put any profit back into equip &amp; insurance. I skimped everything elsefor a few years. No extravagant purchases, no wasted spending on anything. I did alot of sub contract climbing, then slowly started taking on more work. Then as all of you know, "the more you make the more you spend" and the next thing you know, I've got truck payments and all kinds of bills and tasks I never had before! My only advice to people is don't get in over your head. Playground Hero that sounds like a great program! You probably don't need 5k in saws to start IMO. Agood used trk&amp; chpr. &amp; some gear, etc. Save some of that for cushion. It can hard to get your name out there. To me it's just the general business bills, taxes,ins, etc that get ya'. My crane payment is nothing compared to the monthly business bills that come up!
 
If you haven't done so already, consider writing up a detailed business plan. Maybe you have, since you are applying for a loan and most banks require a business plan. Sit down and draw everything up and make it as clear and detailed as possible.

Write up a projected cash flow budget, and buy or borrow some small business books from local library. Research first, measure twice and cut once as they say. Take everyone's advice and don't get in over your head, six saws sounds like way too much. The guy I work for now has been in business for thirty years in Honolulu and owns only four saws, of which he's had two of them for over five years. Take it easy and good luck.

jp
grin.gif
 
Some viewpoints from someone who was as naive as you a few years ago despite having way more industry experience.

[ QUOTE ]
I don’t need the business to make any money at all really I can support it with my full time job until it dose.

[/ QUOTE ]

Move out here I'll contract you to work for me.

[ QUOTE ]
Dose this make sense?

[/ QUOTE ]

No.

[ QUOTE ]
.....to gain the knowledge of how to climb, I never learned the business end of how to run it

[/ QUOTE ]

Good Climber then, could have learned to be a good arborist less painfully, with less demand on your personal life if you stayed for a few more years.

[ QUOTE ]
I can run a business and have done so before.

[/ QUOTE ]

Successfully with the above noted laissez fair attitude?

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I want to avoid sinking before I can swim

[/ QUOTE ]

Sinking is not making money.



You can doit, lots of guys have made successful businesses with NO industry experience. It will just require a far steeper learning curve. I'm not criticizing from a disagreeing viewpoint, I'm pointing out viewpoints I shared in common and realize now were very naive for me to have.

Stupid stuff like "Company I work for makes 1300 a day...... thats all I need to live...... therefore I'll only need to work a day a week to survive"

Fuel alone accounts for 10% of my gross.

Get as much experience as you can from a few different employers, and try not to let the Alpha male/female in you force you out on your own too early.
 
I guess you got your answer although your question kinda reminds me of people who call to ask "how much to cut a tree down?" and don't understand why you have to see it before you can give a price. To me it sounds like you just want to flap your gums about being a cool business guy but then I am quite a prick to begin with. Besides the question you ask only pertains to you and your situation. Like if I asked how much beer people need to drink before they get drunk.
I get a kick out of these mathematicians. I think you know exactly how much you need, have, or want and if you really just wanted to know how people got their start you wouldn't have given us all the groovy stats.
With your experience mostly all you can do is repeat what others have told you or you have read. It will take a little bit longer til sap runs in your veins. Maybe then you will realize that since you were such a good mathematician and bussinessman you should have bought an ice cream store.think you are tough now? Run a tree service for a while, its not the numbers that get you.

Sorry to be such a prick but the rash of jackasses who wanna make the big bucks in tree work seems to be spreading up to the crack in my [censored]. All these Jackasses have either tons of money from relatives dying or huge debt and don't know to much about tree work.( other than get someone else to do it) But they love to talk about money! I fact I met one this week.He wanted to know why I didn't just drop a hard leaning,2 leader silver maple which had a 5 foot dia. And with very low long limbs pointing towards the lean. The lean was towards a fresh pile of bulldozer crap with mud and rocks. If you can answer that question either I didn't explain it well enough or you are stupid. When he found out I am sort of freelance he asked me how much I charged. I asked him what he charged per man hour for a climber ( since I could tell he had it all figured out) and when he told me 65.00 I told him I would give him a break and only charge him 75.00. A lot of people don't like me but there are some who just adore me.

Anyway here is my answer to your question: All of it.

Well, all the best with your endevours.
 
What is a playground hero? A showoff? That is what it sounds like with your gapping about you PRO deals that you get it for half of what we pay and turning down work worth Jed Clampetts oil well and who knows what.
Think about this- we are PROS and have been a long time don't you think by now we would find our own "PRO" deals? But thanks for explaining it to me and I guess you must certainly be a pro if your are getting the deals.

And when I was 23 I would die before I would hand over any work. There are many ways to get a job done, if you give it up for little reasons like you mentioned you can't be prepared for the haul. Now when I turn down a job its called OVERBIDDING and that is different.

Hey I have to stop picking on you, I feel like I am venting all over you. I will probably be thrown out of here for it as well. Just to let the guys in charge know that if they do throw me out I am going to want my money back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom