Love tree work. Not the tree business.

[Boomslang]

Downsizing just feels dumb because I just spent the last year growing and putting systems in place specifically to handle growth and to increase our market share. If anyone else looked at my business, the last thing that they would do is suggest downsizing right now.

In a lot of ways I think that downsizing to one crew and going back to using contract help that I don’t have to keep busy all the time is the answer. But we have built enough of a market presence and reputation that even with running two crews our backlog got out of control a few times last year. I’ve thought about refining our service area or increasing prices when that happens but it just doesn’t feel good to do that.

These are some conflicting thoughts, which is understandable given the magnitude of the decisions. Are you saying downsizing would be good for you, but not for the business?

 

[Brando CalPankian]

@Tom Dunlap that reminded me of Ecclesiastes:
"I have seen what is best for people here on earth. They should eat and drink and enjoy their work, because the life God has given them on earth is short. God gives some people the ability to enjoy the wealth and property he gives them, as well as the ability to accept their state in life and enjoy their work. They do not worry about how short life is, because God keeps them busy with what they love to do."

I've been blessed to love what I do. I think I see that in tree people more than most!

I've also been given the ability to enjoy the wealth we have. By no means am we cracking the upper half of "middle class". But we have all we need and are content with that. What would be more enjoyable?

My apprentice has the bug. He loves the work now. He comes in and learns and hangs out on his time off. It's so much more fun to have some folks who love the work with you. When God created man and woman, and placed them in the Garden, their purpose was to care for the Garden. To tend to the plants and care for the place they were in. The work, God said, was good. Work can be good. And it's important to focus on how to make and keep it good. Why else would we do it?

 

[Njdelaney]

Maybe if you got someone who could take on your role 1/4 of the time, you could go on more vacations, see friends, contract climb on projects you want to do, etc. Just shifting the balance of what you're doing/want to do would make a big difference I bet.

 

[southsoundtree]

I started my response early in the thread on my phone and have been editing it. Might be a bit jumbly.

..................


It's understandable to long for adventurous days in younger years with less responsibility over mundane details and ultimate responsibility for a tree manuever pulled off with finesse and timing.





What can you outsource to others?

A p/t personal assistant that frees up time for running a biz (shopping, cleaning, cooking, laundry, errands)? Way easier to find/ replace than a business manager.


Do you have solid admin support that matches the biz size? Does a lot of excess fall on you?


Are you turning any wrenches or is that fully outsourced?







Bidding is a lot of difficult forecasting and crystal ball reading, IME. It's stressful to me.


So often with view work or canopy cleaning there's "just a little more".
You, like me, have big trees with lots more unknownable factors than an area with 60' trees in city spacing.
I've been moving toward an hourly basic rate for myself/ equipment truck/ overhead, and adding per employee based on their skill set, with or without a small or medium chipper for blowing onsite or hauling a trailer load of material.

I know I'm not doing things I'm not paid for. They can see that we're working efficiently, and they aren't getting 'milked'.



There are always things I see that homeowners don't, like recognizing a hidden view, training branches for screening or a living arch (amazing what a few green zip-ties can do), propping an old orchard tree or training to fit the space, 20-30-40 minutes for their ignored Japanese maple right at the entrance to their home to 'Pop'. They end up super happy in the end.



I imagine you have good customers who might be happy for that kind of arrangement annually or semi-annually. Once trust and feeling they're getting solid value are built, a bunch of customers don't want to be involved in making every decision.



I like going to a regular customer's property, getting a list of their priorities, offering my input, being told to do as I see fit, doing my high-quality or best work and knowing I'm getting paid what I need. One more branch is always easy... never getting asked for something for nothing.


I save time / ability to be generating revenue by not going to bid every job.

It's possible that I leave some money on the table.
I always end up well 'in the black' on hourly pruning jobs, as best I can tell.



My wording, which becomes more and more true over time is, "I bill $xxx/ per hour for me with an equipment truck, with or without a chipper for blow directly in the ground/ into their trailer. Another climber is $xxx/ hour. A less experienced ground-only worker is $xx/ hour".

In my estimation, people hearing this is the rate people pay makes it easier for them to pay me $xxx. It's the going rate that other customers' are happy with.






Customer pleasing is important.
I have become less concerned about this over the years. Our work pleases all reasonable people.

If what we offer isn't to their liking, l know that I'm not forcing anyone into anything, they can have someone else do their work. I'll be working at full-price on a quality job nearby. Way too many trees to get every job.

 

[southsoundtree]

If it was even just sorta hard, lots of people would be entrepreneurs.

 

[cory]

Great thread tho I suspect definitely not the first of it's kind here at the Buzz.

@crazy jimmy said many moons ago- Having a business is like having a pet dragon... it always needs to be fed....

 

[Daniel]

Ryan... crazy that you're 49... I still think of you as a kid... Wish I had some words of wisdom for you. Hope it all works out. I've been grinding stumps for a good tree guy. Runs a tight ship and he's a great climber, and has a great work ethic. He's been trying to get a second crew going so he can focus on more administration than job performance. Just saw him the other day. I could see the stress in his face... Told him if he's not putting 50K in the bank every year, it's not worth all the trouble.

 

[oceans]

Just had another good friend pass away two weeks ago. She was my best friend’s wife (he passed away 21 months ago). So now I’m tasked with helping to go through their belongings and get rid of or sell everything. Certainly is making me think about what I’m doing and why

Finding myself quite disillusioned with trying to run a tree service. Just feeling like I’m on the endless treadmill of bids and customer pleasing to keep the crew busy and make payroll. Missing the days of contract climbing. Show up and blow people’s minds, hero status, pack up, go home.

My body and brain love the work. I’m 49 and have been in the game 30 years now.

I regularly think of three options:

1. Downsize to a barebones team. (Kinda dumb).

2. Sell the company. (Dumb)

3. Wait it out for two more years and then sell. (Smarter).

Advice?

.

As a very young kid, my parents were pillars in my community. My father pioneered a large commercial fishery from the infrastructure to the market itself. He employed a lot of people and make a lot of money. The problem was that he really didn’t want to be a fisherman, or even run a business for that matter. He really just wanted to learn, explore and invent. Long story short…By my senior year in high school, my family lost everything.

That lesson burned in hard and ain’t comin’ out. I proved it to myself by dipping my toes into the water of business growth. If all we have is about 100 rides around the Sun, there is no amount of money worth doing needless things. It’s also fair to ponder the notion that much of what we call progress is a myth.

That said, you need to fill your life with as much pursuit of happiness as you can muster, but also learn to find that happiness in certain veins by altering your perspective.

My path is a bit similar in that I’m now 27 years into the tree world at 51 years old. Self employed for 90% of that, and almost entirely self-employed prior. In all my experience, I’ve come to appreciate collaboration efforts with other passionate people the most. Rather than hiring, I’ve helped over a handful of friends build their own businesses. This gives us all the freedom to build up the right team for whatever job comes down anyones’ path. We all offer different skillsets and equipment.

Like you, I love the work. Like my dad, I love a number of other things. What I also inagine is that pursuing any of those other “likes” as unique endeavors wouldn’t really bear fruit. The fruit, IMO, is when you get to synthesize all the things you like into a practical and productive life style. Tree work does this for me in spades, and I have found a lot of joy in creating the small kit that I have.

I also joke with my clients, saying that I’m retired. Fact is that I woild keep doing what I’m doing if I didn’t have to. So what’s the difference? Kids are fed. Bills are paid. Sun comes up, Sun goes down, do it again. I’m good.