selling tree planting

macrocarpa

macrocarpa

Branched out member
Location
Midwest
I downsized my tree service last year and now am focussing on primarly good pruning jobs, PHC, consultation and tree planting.

It has been hard for me to make a lot of tree planting sales. I average only 10 planting jobs/year. I buy/offer 2in caliper trees and sell them for $300-$350 total cost (tree, installed, staked, mulched). I have seen nurseries with a price tag of $250-$400 for the tree only.

Anyone out there sell a lot of planting jobs? Have any advertising or selling advise? Not only do I find it very rewarding, but it could be fairly proffitable in bulk.

This may be way out there but it would be awesome to offer carvings out of tree stumps, anyone do this very often? One of the logging instructors at my forestry school did this on the side and said he charged $1000-$2000 for a big job.
 
I fell in love with climbing trees, not digging holes in the ground.
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I don't plant trees, but I have the land to grow my own and get into planting. It's just a matter of time that I'll do that. I've even thought of replacing a tree for every tree removal I do to earn green points.
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I wouldn't give away large caliper trees, I'd give away seedlings or whips.
 
I planted 6 trees today, for a client we did removals and pruning for yesterday. I had figured it in the overall bid; took a little longer than estimated but it was fun so what the hey. The client dug the holes and I filled them.

I fell in love with climbing early on, but that's kind of hohum now and i'm deeper in love with trees so planting them is just as fulfilling as pruning. the similarity is the joy in seeing them develop in response to my care; that's where the real payoff is.

In a way, manipulating roots and anchoring them to the earth is more deeply, no pun, satisfying than training the branches to meet the sky.

the best part was transplanting a "clump" crepemyrtle which was really 3 separate plants, so I pulled them apart and planted them separately. the clients really liked that 3-for-1 deal.
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It has been hard for me to make a lot of tree planting sales. I average only 10 planting jobs/year. I buy/offer 2in caliper trees and sell them for $300-$350 total cost (tree, installed, staked, mulched). I have seen nurseries with a price tag of $250-$400 for the tree only.


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It could be even harder here in Oregon.

There is a minor dilemna that resulted from most tree services getting stuck under the contractors board instead of the landscape board some years ago.

In Oregon, one must have a landscape contractors license to advertise planting, and I'm pretty sure, transplanting too. Even if a Certified Arborist. That is an organizational mess.

The original push for licensing was rammed through, with dull ears. I think a lot of financing came for Pruett Tree Service, for lobbyist or expense. The chairman of the contractors board was also a customer of that company if I recall correctly. There was an Oregon Arborist Association that pushed that licensing. It had very few companies, but several of the larger ones.

We do have an exemption for about $500 worth of planting, total labor and material cost per site, per year. But it can't be advertised, either.

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Macro: I started with planting. Planted close to a thousand trees, but quickly learned there was little money in it compared to effort and time. It was easy to sell trees out here because there aren't any growing naturally on the high plains. But that was also a curse; there's a reason nothing grows here. So I'd plant trees and most people would drown them in the first few months in our heavy clay, alkaline soils. Of course you'd have to warranty them, so that sucked. You wouldn't have that problem because trees grow up in the cracks of sidewalks out there.

People also called me constanly if there was one tiny brown leaf, chew marks on a leaf, broken twig, etc. One spring a lady called me on a tree I planted in the fall, saying every other tree in her yard has flowered or leafed out except this oak. I told her be patient, but she insisted she was throwing a graduation party and didn't want a dead tree in the yard. I cut it down and replaced it w/ a spring snow crab. Regret it to this day. I liked planting but too many headaches.
 
I've done a little, but have a hard time seeing the cost/payoff being high enough, at least until I start a nursery at my house. I think higher end plants like japanese maples will be higher dollar plants.

I can see some of the headaches mentioned above.

If you sell plantings, I'd suggest to be sure to explain the do's and don't's of planting, and the longterm ramifications. This will help them to see that it is more than digging a hole, dropping tree into hole, pound some stakes in the ground, and tie it up.
 
I'm mostly interested planting because it is a rewarding change from climbing and the way I have it set up, it is profitable. The average 2in caliper shade tree costs me $100-$120. I can haul 5 trees at a time on my trailer. So lets say I charge $300 to install each tree (which is very reasonable), thats $1500/day -$360 cost of tree and lets say -$150 for gas, mulch, arbor tie and stakes. That $990 profit in 1 day, 2 guys can plant 5 trees this size easily/day. Even if these 2 guys split that money 50/50, $495/day to me is damn good money for not having to climb or start a chainsaw.

I just need to figure out the marketing game. There is a nursery in town here that charges $733 for a tree this size installed.

Also, I do not put a guarantee on the trees, I don't trust people to do the right thing that much.
 
I messed up, 5 trees would be $600 not $360, whoops. With that considered I may bump the cost of planting up to $350/tree.

Tree guy doing math, bad combo.
 
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thats $1500/day -$360 cost of tree and lets say -$150 for gas, mulch, arbor tie and stakes. That $990 profit in 1 day, 2 guys can plant 5 trees this size easily/day. Even if these 2 guys split that money 50/50, $495/day to me is damn good money for not having to climb or start a chainsaw.

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I'm pretty sure you don't get to the profit number until after you have paid your employees and all other associated taxes. It may seem like a good model but after you factor in all the other cost your profit is not that great.

After years in the retail nursery business, owning my own company and working for another company the last five years I played around with a lot of different "models" for tree planting.

The best one for me is to charge your client retail for the tree (that's what they have to pay if they go to the retail nursery). This covers (or should in theory) your time going to pick it up. Charge them a delivery fee. The nursery does if they deliver. Charge for your time planting the tree. Charge extra for a guarantee that involves you revisiting the tree several times for the first year to make sure everything is good. Now all of the bases are covered and you stand a chance on actually making a profit for all of your efforts.

That's what's working for us. The extra guarantee gives the client the option to save some money and if the tree dies we're not stuck replacing it for free because they opted out of the guarantee.
 
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I messed up, 5 trees would be $600 not $360, whoops. With that considered I may bump the cost of planting up to $350/tree.

Tree guy doing math, bad combo.

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Maybe that's why I'm always broke!
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For my private customers, I just tell them that I am expensive, but you get what you pay for. I will select the best nursery stock, best species, consult and choose the best location for the plant/plant for the location and needs/wants of the client, and use the BMP's to plant.

Many people decide to plant their own, and I still try to help them with selection and planting methods, but usually folks want a slightly larger tree to start, so I get most of my prospects once they consult with me.

Minimum for one tree selected, picked up from nursery and planted is $150, average is about $250 (plus the cost of the plant). I start discounting when there are multiple plantings.

-Tom
 
Just wondering are you also offering any specail incentives for the trees you plant to the customers. Around here you have dude and dude planting trees for the landscape comps. and they can dig a hole and place a tree but what about the inbetweens. I feel that you are going the right way and haveing the whole tree service background work should come along quickly. Up at the campus there are a select few of us who perfer to do the planting jobs most of the time we drool like a dog when the big instant landscape trees are going in. We spent 2 days in the rain slipping, sliding, swearing, and getting really muddy. At the end we all were smiling. I wish you the best of luck doing this, trow another tree service a call and do their plantings after a removal.
 
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