how is the economic crises affecting you?

(WLL)

What have you done to adjust? Our work has slowed down, we do less bids, and get less work. We work harder for less, and never charge anything over a less-then fair rate. We have cut back to a 3 and 4 man crew and use only whats needed. We take extra care of our equipment and keep it running right. we have weeded out all the expendable workers. All that remains are 3 experienced good well paid workers. location and size play little part we charge for time and equipment and give a full work report on our bill so the customer knows what we did. lots of people round here are looking for a job. Thank GOD we are still working
WE WORK 2 dang long & HArD fer, t0o darn little, what about ya ll ? aside from tree work i landed a little side job doing rigging on a movie set in Philly. i start tomorrow and i got to leave my home at 5am it pays purdy well too, and i here its mostly a lot of standing around I'm sure ill find out for myself 2 mar good be a good thing

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Buckstree

I'm rocking now baby , every day last week, next week the same so far it doesn't seem like much of a recession now, but its tax time, if I can do 7,000 a week i'm good... anything over and above makes the next week a little shorter for us ....

(WLL)

thats great buck things have picked up for us as well but things are much slower then our previous years. thank goodness for our regulars and return customers cause its hard for us keep a long backlog right now

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Harder than theTH, and his pack of goons

Buckstree

it'll get better for all of us I just spend a ton on advertising every year so I get first shot at alot of work we have a large customer base as well , typically 30% repeat 50%referral and 20% new, buts thats last years est. who knows this year I think things in the next month will get alot better ... I'd like too buy a new chipper, maybe an altec 12 disc...

M.Green - SVTS

I work full time for a utility tree company.

On the weekends I run my business. My backlog is 3 weekends and it is staying consistent. Actually last week during my 9-5 I got a ton of requests for estimates. Hopefully this week is a lot of the same. It may be picking back up and I can give a notice and go all out again.

It's also nice to be able to have employees that are satisfied with there workload. Mine went with me to the utility company so the moral is good.

(WLL)

i do something along those lines, i also work at a couple differnt places. i fill out my days but i hear alot of crying from the bosses. things auta pick up round here for everyone

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newguy18

I'm usually fairly busy,i just got on with the forestry board and the state park service,if they need a climber within 5 counties of live oak,i get called in.When i am slow or on weekend,i do some wrench turning for side cash.

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vl2007

My business is up 5.3% from last year this time, but the phone calls are slow coming. I'm also down to one part time groundsman. Not as much work, but better margins. I think I'm getting work from overpriced big companys, (most have minium charges to show up at clients home). One example, client needed one tree cleaned of dead & damaged, but three tree services gave her minium est from 500.00-1000.00. Normally every year she would agree, and found more work to meet the minium charge, (mulching, plants, ect.). But this year she called me and i went in and cleaned the Gumbo Limbo for $350.00. Took me 1.5 hours and 33.00 in debris with one groud guy at 16.00 per hour.

treefeller

Not to bad over here, was slow over the xmas period but it is really starting to pick up.On slow days i tend to leaflet drop which helps

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HolmenTree

Spring is right around the corner here. I take the winters off, still have some left over work from last fall to finish and the phone has been ringing for the past month with new bookings. But it is slower then it was a few years back. After 9 full years of running my "own" business I no longer advertise, now its just word of mouth and the sign on the side of my trailer is all the advertising I need. I have turned alot of good jobs down in the last few years, can't have it all.
I just hope fuel prices stay to the level they are right now. Last years prices sure sucked.

(WLL)

The grip/rigger job was sweet. we set up the set so they can film night scenes in the day time. Ive called out of work for Monday and will return to the set and the stage in the morning. ill leave the house at 3:45am the two starring actors are the dude from 300 and Jamie Fox. the work was much less then climbing and the pay is great. if i can land a full time spot ill change jobs in a second, anything after 8hrs is time + 1/2, over 12 is double time. i have way to many great happy clients to just ditch so ill still do the fun work(tree thing) on the weekends. Now, if only i could remember the name of the movie

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Galbee

We are working 5 days 8 -10 hours a day and the boss recons he is 25% up on this time last year, but i think last years storm clearance is holding up the market at the moment so we will see how the rest of the year goes.

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windthrown

Economy is not what's affecting me here. Its the invasion and infestation of mexicans that will do any kind of tree work for cheap. I have been underbid on my last 5 bids, and I am thinking of selling my chipper and bailing on the tree butcher business here (I got my chipper and a bunch of saws from a guy that bailed out of tree service work last year, for the same reason). Liberals here are all bleading hearts for the poor mexicans. Maybe I will move to Arizona where they are getting really tough on immigration. Houses are really cheap there now too. Forget tree work in that kind of heat though.

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Ekka

Time to do something else then.

What they do here is run a chipping service for the door knocking Islanders, yeah, you go chip the Mexicans crap but dont rent them your gear without you there.

The writings on the wall everywhere for this, lack of regulation means industry full of wankers.

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HolmenTree

Here in Manitoba with unemployment starting to rise there is alot more part timers doing tree work, and they are leaving their butchering mark especially pruning.
The Manitoba government is trying to pass legislation that all tree services must have one ISA certified arborist on the job at all times.
At the moment all you need is a Manitoba Arborist License [issued by Manitoba Conservation] and have $2 million insurance. The license comes from studying and passing the full fledged ISA study and exam. Thats what I did 10 years ago and have taken many ArborMaster Canada Training since.[the credits go towards ISA]. But I am not a ISA certifed arborist. With this new legislation I'll have to fork out another $500 and restudy the old gold study guide book again, then drive 6 hours to the city and write the exam again.

(WLL)

the movie is LAW ABIDING CITIZEN The hours were l o n g, 19.5 was the longest day with nothing under 16 hours.

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Harder than theTH, and his pack of goons

HolmenTree

Yes film making takes alot of hours just for a couple of minutes of air time doesn't it.
In Oct. 1995 CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] did a short 15 minute documentary of myself. It was broadcasted on their TV programs "Coleman and Company" and sister program "Country Canada". They had a whole film crew,sound man light man, producer, director, other people who I had no clue what their position was. Their host was an American stand up comedian. We spent 12 hours in my backyard at my cabin and in the bush just for 15 minutes of airtime.
Four months later when it was aired on TV you could see me running my Stihl 020,044,066,090 and my homebuilt Yamaha bike hotsaw. During the commercial break Poulan was the sponsor. What was up with Stihl ? I never got an answer but I think they were still pissed at me for quiting on them 6 years earlier.
I still have the program on a VHS tape and its professional quality, if I knew how I would post it on this site.
Willard.

(WLL)

here is a lil taste of one of the many movie props. off my cell phone
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN STAGE PROP ((cell phone VID.3g2))

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Buckstree

What i hope your kidding with that , if you leave tree work where will you post, on movie rigging world?.... I thought you had mixed gas for blood , you are really losing street cred with this post hopefully its all a April fools joke, Oh by the way I left a sweet union ironworkers job to come back to trees IT's Not About The money.........