Past it???

[Ben10]

Evening all, in my 20’s I got talked out of getting into the arb business and have regretted it ever since, but now I’m 45 with mortgage, wife, kids etc and have financial responsibilities. I can’t decide if at 45 I’m over the hill for starting as a newbie or a good way into the business (not necessarily climbing work, maybe something auxiliary like stump grinding?) Basically if you were me where would you start? Thanks for any replies guys😁👍

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

2 minutes ago, Ben10 said:

Evening all, in my 20’s I got talked out of getting into the arb business and have regretted it ever since, but now I’m 45 with mortgage, wife, kids etc and have financial responsibilities. I can’t decide if at 45 I’m over the hill for starting as a newbie or a good way into the business (not necessarily climbing work, maybe something auxiliary like stump grinding?) Basically if you were me where would you start? Thanks for any replies guys😁👍

How much money have you got?

 

If you have to work for someone else you won't stand a chance of clearing any decent money for several years at least (if ever.)

 

If you have the beans and the cash to set yourself up you can make the money.

 

There was a "senior arborist" job advertised on the AA Facebook page the other day, I scanned the comments just out of interest and the general consensus seemed to be it was a joke and you'd actually get paid more at Tesco.

[Mark Bolam]

Stump grinding could work, but you’d need a chunk of money to set up.

[devon TWiG]

Cherry picker would be a good investment , sub out to others and do other types of jobs with it as well .

[Dan Maynard]

There's starting to be a few mewps about now, arb aware mewp does seem a definite market sector.

 

I started climbing at 44 I think (it's all a blur nowadays). I would say you're not necessarily past it but does depend what shape you're in physically. Many men seem to have put on let's say a few pounds since 21 whereas I weighed the same since then by being reasonably active.

[Conor Wright]

I reckon there will be a glut of fairly new kit coming up soon as people tighten their belts and work slows down. Perfect time to invest in something to ease the labour, as said above mewp or grinder could be good starter machines.

It could be a shakey start as it's the early days of a recession but don't let that stop you, you'll be coming in fresh as a lot of people are looking to get out.

You only live once. Go for it. If it doesn't work out you can always get a job again, if you don't try you'll always ask yourself "what if?"

 

Just be honest with the family and tell them sometimes there will be long days, you'll come home poorer than you left in the morning, wet, aching, covered in sawchip and chipper dust, stinking of 2 stroke and too tired to communicate apart from a grunt to signal to the wife it's beer time.

There'll be bad days too but we don't talk about them.

[Dan Maynard]

14 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

You only live once. Go for it. If it doesn't work out you can always get a job again, if you don't try you'll always ask yourself "what if?"

This was me 6 years ago.

 

14 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

wet, aching, covered in sawchip and chipper dust, stinking of 2 stroke and too tired to communicate

This was me Thursday.

[eggsarascal]

Do you really want to get into manual graft at 45, it’s not old by any stretch, but I notice it these days.

[Clutchy]

If it was a bad idea in your 20's its a terrible one in your 40's

[Ben10]

Thanks for the responses….

Not sure I’ve got the kind of cash needed for cherry pickers etc, but what I have got is time. I thought about starting something alongside my other job. I do 5 on, 5 off so hopefully it would fit in. 
With stump grinding would you go for a tracked one and bigger jobs or something a lot smaller?