Starting a business at 21?

[judastreefairy]

23 hours ago, Rich Rule said:

Good luck.

 

I am trying not to be too critical here but learn how to form a sentence, use capital letters and punctuation.

 

It may be trivial but the first impressions stand out.  That was my first impression.

 

If you send an offer out to a potential client, at least spell check it and use correct punctuation.  There are plenty of tools out there to help.

 

Don’t just take pride in your practical work.  Take pride in offering your services in a professional, presentable manner.

 

Good luck.

Never never never!!! Underestimate the amount of shite that comes off a conife, it’s the tree that just keeps on giving, no VAT’s a winner all day 20% already👍

[Treeman123]

Good age to start, not everyone wants to go traveling, I started at 20 and being young I had the energy to work 24/7 with no other commitments. I have a successful business now just not much energy left 🤣

[Mark Bolam]

4 hours ago, Botty Cough said:

It suggests you don't trust the customer asking for payment straight away along with that you are skint and desperate.

So trusting customers to pay is the basis of a good relationship with them ,then they return...

We’ll have to disagree mate, I thought you were a Toon lad?

 

I set my terms.

If people think I’m skint and desperate (and I’ve been both) that’s their problem, not mine.

 

You do 14 days mate like I used to.

If it works better for you don’t change it.

 

There’s a lot of years worth of experience on here telling you it’s a bad idea though.

[Botty Cough]

8 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

We’ll have to disagree mate, I thought you were a Toon lad?

 

I set my terms.

If people think I’m skint and desperate (and I’ve been both) that’s their problem, not mine.

 

You do 14 days mate like I used to.

If it works better for you don’t change it.

 

There’s a lot of years worth of experience on here telling you it’s a bad idea though.

Used to do a month up until things like phones and bank transfers, never had many problems.

I can count on one hand the non payers and I just returned their trees to them.

Now we have bank transfers etc I give people 2 weeks.

Nearly all pay straight away but it's about presentation of the business for me.

Yes we can come and work for you anytime without the need to be paid straight away.

It goes a long way...

Edited February 24 by Botty Cough

[Barney]

I stopped with the payment after 7 days etc a couple of years ago. They've probably had 4 - 6 weeks to prepare for your arrival, no reason why they shouldn't pay on the day. 

 

I now say payment on receipt of invoice and chase after a week. Sometimes the invoice goes in as I'm leaving a job, sometimes it's a few days later depending on my time.

 

To the original poster, you could buy a 2nd hand trailer and something like a greenmech cs100 to get started all under 10k. Be punctual and reliable and even if your tree pruning isn't perfect, as long as you do a great job clearing up, customers will love that. You will be too cheap which will bring in lots of work, then you can start charging more when you get stupidly busy!

[Barney]

On 22/02/2024 at 16:41, Botty Cough said:

I give people 2 weeks. ...

You have to take the rough with the smooth.

I have also returned removed trees to non paying customers driveways which when done late in the day seems to cause problems blocking in parked vehicles when wood chip and logs are tipped .....

I don't get this... So you complete the job, tip the logs and woodchip at your yard. After 2 weeks they haven't paid so presumably you have a loader of some sort to reload the pile of chip which is probably buried under 2 weeks worth of fresh chip and logs then drive back to site to tip on driveway? I'd rather cut my losses 😂

[woody paul]

2 hours ago, Barney said:

I don't get this... So you complete the job, tip the logs and woodchip at your yard. After 2 weeks they haven't paid so presumably you have a loader of some sort to reload the pile of chip which is probably buried under 2 weeks worth of fresh chip and logs then drive back to site to tip on driveway? I'd rather cut my losses 😂

Makes no sense at all, just go and knock on door gets result I have found. 

[Botty Cough]

16 minutes ago, woody paul said:

Makes no sense at all, just go and knock on door gets result I have found. 

Makes perfect sense.

Not paid to remove tree... Then return it to the rightful owner 👍

[Rory hynes]

Thanks for all the advice lads !

 

I’ve came to the conclusion that starting a business this early isn’t wise !

 

I’ve decided to take a leap of faith and travel to Australia in 2 months time.   Thought I’d give myself the chance to see abit of the world whilst I’m young !

 

cheers !

[Mark Bolam]

Wise choice young man.

Enjoy Oz, it’s fantastic.