minimum business set up??

[skyhuck]

 

As many pikeys are actually fully qualified they have the money to do the courses and they are insured.

 

 

You sure??????????????????

[treemotion]

You sure??????????????????

 

I know but there are alot in my area and yes they do have qualifications and insurance.

 

There not stupid round here remember NPTC is money if you have enough you will pass one way or the other and these guys aint skint.

 

They roll about in proper flash motors.

[Log-ologist]

:wave:

 

So true most climbers dont want more people starting feel they will loose work which is true.

 

They started the same way but now they have the gear insurance tickets etc they want everyone else to or they get called a pikey or cowboy.

 

Me i dont mind some healthy competition.

 

There are 80 tree work companies in my local yellow pages now. When I started there where about 30. There is not a 250% increase in trees though.

 

The rates are lower as more people chase the work. Competition is not all good, I sub in work with a couple of newer starters who do good work. They have their uses as they are keen to pay for costly kit and top whack mortgages.

 

I cannot and would not prevent new starters, whatever their standard and skill. The crap ones never get anywhere and the good ones roll on producing good work. I'm all for good work.

[treemotion]

Thats my point only the good ones survive because people want you for your quality im in the building a decent round stage but i made many good customers who wont use no one but me.

 

So hard to advertise since so many people do it.

[bob]

the thing you need to start is a few mates and buy some beer for other tree bods an work with them or hire them in and they may even have some spare or old kit you could use and expand slowly from there

[Lee Winger]

You sure??????????????????

 

Some are even into tree healthcare...

[Steve Bullman]

name 2!

[Lee Winger]

ok sorry one..lol

 

Several have big London underground line clearance contracts though and they have NPTC tickets..

[Mr. Bish]

I set up last year.

 

Lost approx £20K in set up costs.

Truck - £5.5k

Chipper £8.5K

Insurance £2.1k

Advertising £300

saws and trimmers - £1.2k

trailer £600

Misc tools - £1k

wages to groundie will kick in from April £12k

Training for me and groundie - £2.8K

 

I still need a big blade saw - £800

Proper climbing tack - £1K

A chipping truck £4K

Pole trimmer - £400

so eventually total set up for me will be £25 to 26K

 

I did it on the cheap!

It takes a lot of small trees and hedges to claw that back. The big money seems to be in the bigger comercial jobs. I couldn't take any of those as I wasn't insured or qualified. Hopefully I can start getting some contract work this year when groundi and I finish our training.

 

The main problem I came up against were poor quoting from me. I was so desperate for some work and so bad at guessing the time involved that I was only actually earning £40 a day on one particularly bad quote. I have baught all my gear over the period of a year as it became essential.

Second big problem is lack of experience - I knew very little about trees (Still do really) and my only real climbing experience was on rocks.

 

Thankfully I have survived my first year without hurting myself or anyone else and as far as I can tell, the only trees I have killed are the ones that I was paid to kill :-)

 

Good luck dude. This forum has helped me massivly by drawing on the experience of some of the members. But it will only help if you listen to them.

[igottacabstar]

Taking into account how much money you have spent on gear I reckon your advertising budget should have been much more than £300 - considering that you are a new business.