investment against return scale for wood processing

[Green wood]

where are you based habitat? always have logs available hard and soft, although only a small operation myself in Hertfordshire.

[Big J]

I wouldn't bother.

 

As has been already said, you can make money at the very small end and the very large scale end of the business. Inbetween is very difficult. The large scale end requires huge investment and a lot of faith in cold weather. The small scale end is back breaking and I would not recommend it.

 

Worth remembering an adage regarding firewood - "You're selling the unprofitable to the ungrateful".

 

Every customer has different preferences regarding their logs, different standards and a great many misconceptions. Add to that that almost no one wants to take anything other than bone dry firewood, you've got a complicated business proposition.

 

If you are looking for a part time occupation to add a little to turnover, why not consider a small sawmill? £5k will get you a small manual sawmill, and you can make more money for less effort. A sawmill is more useful than firewood anyway - constructional timber becomes extremely cheap to produce and interesting bits of garden trees can yield some nice boards which sell quite well assuming you find your market. Cabinet makers, joiners and hobbyists are much easier to deal with than firewood customers!

[bilke_user]

Are there many folks in your area selling wood? If so, how about finding out how they process their wood and if there would be a market there for you to tap into.

I worked out that there are a lot of lads doing firewood in my area and another wasn't going to make an instant hit. Instead I opted to buy a mobile processor and now hire it to a few of them and also to estates and farms in this area.

Twelve grand or so doesn't earn much in the bank but it can buy a decent mobile processor and you can make a reasonable amount with it over a year, in my case about 100 times more than the interest the bank were giving me on my initial investment, add this to a slow depreciation on the processor and overall the deal's a decent one.

 

If you think you can find 10 customers who would hire it from you for a week each then it pays for itself in next to no time........the secret is making sure you know who you are hiring it to and make sure you keep on top of, and keep a record of, all maintenance

[ash_smith123]

I wouldn't bother.

 

As has been already said, you can make money at the very small end and the very large scale end of the business. Inbetween is very difficult. The large scale end requires huge investment and a lot of faith in cold weather. The small scale end is back breaking and I would not recommend it.

 

Worth remembering an adage regarding firewood - "You're selling the unprofitable to the ungrateful".

 

Every customer has different preferences regarding their logs, different standards and a great many misconceptions. Add to that that almost no one wants to take anything other than bone dry firewood, you've got a complicated business proposition.

 

If you are looking for a part time occupation to add a little to turnover, why not consider a small sawmill? £5k will get you a small manual sawmill, and you can make more money for less effort. A sawmill is more useful than firewood anyway - constructional timber becomes extremely cheap to produce and interesting bits of garden trees can yield some nice boards which sell quite well assuming you find your market. Cabinet makers, joiners and hobbyists are much easier to deal with than firewood customers!

 

 

If he's already got a saw, splitter and van to delivery why wouldn't he bother?

Never put someone off having a go! If your happy with it being a sideline just charge decent money for it and sell whatever you can. Don't under price it. If your going to sell 50 cubic metres a winter there's no point selling it at £60 a cube and sell it all by October when you can charge £90 and sell it by March but make more money.

Whatever industry you go into you will always have troublesome customers. In 6 years I can count mine on 1 hand, used to work in the bike industry before this and I could count them on one hand per week...

If you've got most of the kit just give it a go! You've got nothing to loose

[Big J]

If he's already got a saw, splitter and van to delivery why wouldn't he bother?

Never put someone off having a go! If your happy with it being a sideline just charge decent money for it and sell whatever you can. Don't under price it. If your going to sell 50 cubic metres a winter there's no point selling it at £60 a cube and sell it all by October when you can charge £90 and sell it by March but make more money.

Whatever industry you go into you will always have troublesome customers. In 6 years I can count mine on 1 hand, used to work in the bike industry before this and I could count them on one hand per week...

If you've got most of the kit just give it a go! You've got nothing to loose

 

I missed the post about him already having the kit. In that case it makes a bit more sense.

 

I stand by my comment on the small sawmill, especially if there is going to be estate timber. A lot of useful wood to mill, and you can always firewood the rubbish.

[easy-lift guy]

I often wonder how much money is actually made, as in true net profit in the Fire wood business in the U.K.?. Seemingly with the OP presently having some of the major components in place and only seeking 200£'s weekly I really wonder how many hours a day it would take just to produce enough product to net 200£ per week?

Like with any business all overhead must be calculated and factored against many variables

such as existing competition, having a starting base of customers, production cost to produce a cord of wood or less, etc. I think it would cost a lot more than $300.00 per week

here in the states than it would be worth. 200£ roughly equaling $300.00 USD

easy-lift guy

[ash_smith123]

I done some calculations a few years ago on how much I would need to sell to go self employed and to earn roughly £25k a year.

If you were buying the wood in It kept coming to around 1000 cubic metres at an average of £100 per man. That's taking all business costs, rent, machine finance, fuel etc into consideration.

[inthewoods]

:thumbup:

 

If he's already got a saw, splitter and van to delivery why wouldn't he bother?

Never put someone off having a go! If your happy with it being a sideline just charge decent money for it and sell whatever you can. Don't under price it. If your going to sell 50 cubic metres a winter there's no point selling it at £60 a cube and sell it all by October when you can charge £90 and sell it by March but make more money.

Whatever industry you go into you will always have troublesome customers. In 6 years I can count mine on 1 hand, used to work in the bike industry before this and I could count them on one hand per week...

If you've got most of the kit just give it a go! You've got nothing to loose

[richardwale]

If he's already got a saw, splitter and van to delivery why wouldn't he bother?

Never put someone off having a go! If your happy with it being a sideline just charge decent money for it and sell whatever you can. Don't under price it. If your going to sell 50 cubic metres a winter there's no point selling it at £60 a cube and sell it all by October when you can charge £90 and sell it by March but make more money.

Whatever industry you go into you will always have troublesome customers. In 6 years I can count mine on 1 hand, used to work in the bike industry before this and I could count them on one hand per week...

If you've got most of the kit just give it a go! You've got nothing to loose

 

Couldn't agree more. Try it, be positive, if it don't work move on....

[Logsnstuff]

Couldn't agree more. Try it, be positive, if it don't work move on....

 

I'm positive there is no money in firewood, if you work cash in hand small scale you might make something. all the estates who thought it was good idea not to put their timber on the market and bought processors instead last year, that's 2 of them round here sold the processors and on the phone do you want to buy some timber. by all means have a go with the kit you have, if you try to undercut you generally get all the trouble making bargain hunting complainers everyone else is glad to see move on, do a good quality product at a decent price.