People...

Brando CalPankian

Brando CalPankian

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Pine City, MN
It's been a month...

My best apprentice went on leave. No idea if he's returning, his mom is terminally ill.

My climber got burned out right when we were about to go full time. He started being rude to customers, had to check him. Has since been flakey and has informed me he needs a brake (single 20's dude with no responsibilities)... Spent 6 months bending over backwards to train him and pay above average for this area.

The climber's apprentice is flakey.

My apprentice THANK GOD is ready to go full time. She's green but works hard. And thankfully I have a tractor now.

Lately I've gotten a bunch of tire kickers and tree haters, which isn't my demographic in a heavy PHC and pruning focus. Our last sponsorship event while fun, was a waste of a weekend and resulted in very few referrals.

I'm super overwhelmed with everything. Haha. I'm trying to get away from my day job so I can quit the 120 hours a week thing. Such is business ownership. I just don't understand what else I can offer these guys.

How do I break into more landscape pruning? Landscape PHC and gardening, boutique pruning, etc.

How do you guys find time to take a brake from this without losing your mind about the fact that any moment not dedicated to it is a moment not making money to grow?

Sorry for venting. I can only talk to my wife about it so much.
 
Brando CalPankian said:
It's been a month...

My best apprentice went on leave. No idea if he's returning, his mom is terminally ill.

My climber got burned out right when we were about to go full time. He started being rude to customers, had to check him. Has since been flakey and has informed me he needs a brake (single 20's dude with no responsibilities)... Spent 6 months bending over backwards to train him and pay above average for this area.

The climber's apprentice is flakey.

My apprentice THANK GOD is ready to go full time. She's green but works hard. And thankfully I have a tractor now.

Lately I've gotten a bunch of tire kickers and tree haters, which isn't my demographic in a heavy PHC and pruning focus. Our last sponsorship event while fun, was a waste of a weekend and resulted in very few referrals.

I'm super overwhelmed with everything. Haha. I'm trying to get away from my day job so I can quit the 120 hours a week thing. Such is business ownership. I just don't understand what else I can offer these guys.

How do I break into more landscape pruning? Landscape PHC and gardening, boutique pruning, etc.

How do you guys find time to take a brake from this without losing your mind about the fact that any moment not dedicated to it is a moment not making money to grow?

Sorry for venting. I can only talk to my wife about it so much.
Click to expand...
I really feel this hard, especially every moment spent not making notable progress. The thing is, the journey is the destination. I have been making progress at a snails pace, and that wears on my wife, who has been exceedingly patient and understanding of my nonsense. We have been living in a tent for five years as of last month, but we share a vision of what we can build. We are here for more than just ourselves; we are here to raise up this beautiful corner of our world, and leave it better than we found it. Stay the course, but don't break yourself. Grow organically. If you do the good work, people will hear about it.
 
Brando CalPankian said:
It's been a month...

My best apprentice went on leave. No idea if he's returning, his mom is terminally ill.

My climber got burned out right when we were about to go full time. He started being rude to customers, had to check him. Has since been flakey and has informed me he needs a brake (single 20's dude with no responsibilities)... Spent 6 months bending over backwards to train him and pay above average for this area.

The climber's apprentice is flakey.

My apprentice THANK GOD is ready to go full time. She's green but works hard. And thankfully I have a tractor now.

Lately I've gotten a bunch of tire kickers and tree haters, which isn't my demographic in a heavy PHC and pruning focus. Our last sponsorship event while fun, was a waste of a weekend and resulted in very few referrals.

I'm super overwhelmed with everything. Haha. I'm trying to get away from my day job so I can quit the 120 hours a week thing. Such is business ownership. I just don't understand what else I can offer these guys.

How do I break into more landscape pruning? Landscape PHC and gardening, boutique pruning, etc.

How do you guys find time to take a brake from this without losing your mind about the fact that any moment not dedicated to it is a moment not making money to grow?

Sorry for venting. I can only talk to my wife about it so much.
Click to expand...
You know, this post reminds me a lot of Tony Soprano (although I am positive you are a much nicer person). I’m watching it for the first time and the mob reminds me a lot of the tree family, especially in regards to recruiting and retaining young talent. No one wants to put in the same kind of investment, they all want to be a star contract climber making tons of money after just half a year of training. It’s tough.

There’s a general malaise in society today as far as what we can even hope to do with our careers and I think that has something to do with it. What are we building up to do? Is the American dream still out there for the average person? What is the point of toiling away if we are just heading for some kind of huge disruptive change in our environment or economy? How do you prepare for that?

How can you convince someone to hold a rake when all this is looming over our heads?
 
Stumpsprouts said:
You know, this post reminds me a lot of Tony Soprano (although I am positive you are a much nicer person). I’m watching it for the first time and the mob reminds me a lot of the tree family, especially in regards to recruiting and retaining young talent. No one wants to put in the same kind of investment, they all want to be a star contract climber making tons of money after just half a year of training. It’s tough.

There’s a general malaise in society today as far as what we can even hope to do with our careers and I think that has something to do with it. What are we building up to do? Is the American dream still out there for the average person? What is the point of toiling away if we are just heading for some kind of huge disruptive change in our environment or economy? How do you prepare for that?

How can you convince someone to hold a rake when all this is looming over our heads?
Click to expand...
Seriously. For millenia, it seems like the driving force of humanity was the desire to make a better world for our children. At this point, if I can leave enough in place that my daughter can have a fighting chance at surviving to a natural death of old age, I will be satisfied that I did enough. Is that vain and self centered? Absolutely, but I don't have the resources to help everyone yet.
 
That's been my philosophy thus far. I start them out, green, at $30 an hour and we've got paid vacation and HSA. Working on full benefits. I buy all the gear and provide training and certifications, plus the modified apprenticeship through TCIA. I've taken the servant stance since I started this because I want to make the company I never worked for.

My wife says I have a poor people choosing mechanism. Lol. She had doubts about my climber and his apprentice. Maybe she needs to be more in on the choosing of hires, I just want to give. Haha.

The worst part is when they say they want to do xyz, then show they don't.
 
Matias said:
I really feel this hard, especially every moment spent not making notable progress. The thing is, the journey is the destination. I have been making progress at a snails pace, and that wears on my wife, who has been exceedingly patient and understanding of my nonsense. We have been living in a tent for five years as of last month, but we share a vision of what we can build. We are here for more than just ourselves; we are here to raise up this beautiful corner of our world, and leave it better than we found it. Stay the course, but don't break yourself. Grow organically. If you do the good work, people will hear about it.
Click to expand...
My wife too. We lived in RVs for the 5 years prior to moving to Minnesota. She's patient and just wished she could work with me more. Having kiddos makes that really hard.
 
levi r said:
I hear ya. I give pretty much everyone the benefit of the doubt and then some and get screwed constantly. I just don't know how to filter people, doesn't seem right to me lol
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Me too, haha. I feel like we're better together but not a lot of folks think that way. I guess if our company pears down a bit we could travel easier, which would be nice. Though I really need a 3 man crew with how I've got things set up
 
Brando CalPankian said:
I'm super overwhelmed with everything. Haha. I'm trying to get away from my day job so I can quit the 120 hours a week thing. Such is business ownership. … [ ] …
How do you guys find time to take a brake from this without losing your mind about the fact that any moment not dedicated to it is a moment not making money to grow?
Click to expand...
Man let me know when you do. I went solo ‘15 and the stress never ends, but waxes and wanes. Every one’s going through different toils, but ambient stress/anxiety has been fucking heightened for a while now, and running an outfit through this goo is hard. Occasional reminders that most of the stuff stressed on are really not a big deal can help, in the larger scheme of things they don’t matter as much as it feels.

Brando CalPankian said:
That's been my philosophy thus far. I start them out, green, at $30 an hour and we've got paid vacation and HSA. Working on full benefits. I buy all the gear and provide training and certifications, plus the modified apprenticeship through TCIA. I've taken the servant stance since I started this because I want to make the company I never worked for.
Click to expand...
This sounds awesome and I don’t know what else you can do on-top of this. Really hope someone comes in and clicks, and stays on long term. You’re poised to grow and many like being part of that process and having a sense of, or piece of ownership
 
I have been on the recieving end of an unwarranted, permanent pay cut, and it was motivation to make other arrangements. I would give the guy a break, but make it clear that it puts extra strain on you suddenly, and that it would have to have a TEMPORARY pay cut associated with it. I have had that happen to me that way too, and I didn't quit that gig, and got back to full wage within a few months.
 
Stumpsprouts said:
You know, this post reminds me a lot of Tony Soprano (although I am positive you are a much nicer person). I’m watching it for the first time and the mob reminds me a lot of the tree family, especially in regards to recruiting and retaining young talent. No one wants to put in the same kind of investment, they all want to be a star contract climber making tons of money after just half a year of training. It’s tough.

There’s a general malaise in society today as far as what we can even hope to do with our careers and I think that has something to do with it. What are we building up to do? Is the American dream still out there for the average person? What is the point of toiling away if we are just heading for some kind of huge disruptive change in our environment or economy? How do you prepare for that?

How can you convince someone to hold a rake when all this is looming over our heads?
Click to expand...
Curious if/how that works with 1/2 year experience trying to be a “contract” climber. I feel like the skills and experience of seeing many many many complex situations (needed to be a legit contract climber) could never be attained in that short amount of time.
 
The climber's day job is for Asplundh. He's only been climbing a year and sucked when he got to me. But I worked with him. He hasn't made me money, but he got better (enough to be the "best" in his sphere of influence at his day job). He still has to get walked through simple procedures.
Idk. Honestly hiring new people might be easier. Start again fresh
 
Chris Schultz said:
Curious if/how that works with 1/2 year experience trying to be a “contract” climber. I feel like the skills and experience of seeing many many many complex situations (needed to be a legit contract climber) could never be attained in that short amount of time.
Click to expand...
It doesn’t. But fools rush in, ya know, and can stay lucky for a while.
 
Well. The climber quit today. Made up a big story then at the end of it said it was really because he started screwing my apprentice. She may get fired since I'd specifically asked her about it and she lied to my face. This is as I'm leaving my day job and she just quit hers to work here. The other apprentice is MIA, no idea where he went. Rains it pours.

Y'all may be right about paying less at first. I can't buy loyalty. I can't train it or give enough to earn it. I've got 3 months of backlog, some of which will suck to do with someone green.

Came back from contract climbing and the ol lady cut her bangs. Bad day for that. Haha.

How on earth do I get out of this pickle? I've got so much work scheduled and need at least two people to do it. Fml
 
Brando CalPankian said:
Well. The climber quit today. Made up a big story then at the end of it said it was really because he started screwing my apprentice. She may get fired since I'd specifically asked her about it and she lied to my face. This is as I'm leaving my day job and she just quit hers to work here.
Click to expand...

I don't think making employment decisions influenced by someone's sexual activity is a great idea (If that's what you meant by screwing)
 
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