Are logs a sideline or a full time business ?

[john burgess]

I do not answer the phone straightaway the house phone is on a answer machine because I'm not there I cannot answer. The yard I work out of there is no mobile reception so consequently I have to ring everyone back so in theory I should have a bad business. Last year I turned down a approximately 200 log orders because I was too busy I only sell logs and that's all do. the business is extremely good

[gensetsteve]

If your logs are good you need to try too hard. And you dont need to answer every phone call especially this time of the year. If you have been recommended they will leave a message or call back. Most people understand how small businesses work and dont really want to pay for someone to sit by the phone.

[Dave Martin]

Dave when you run your corporations did you control your staff by trying to identify their faults and then obsessing over them.

 

Steve I have never had a Corporation merely a Limited Company .. pm sent

[philg]

Here you go

 

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

 

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

 

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

 

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

 

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

 

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

 

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

 

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

 

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

 

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

 

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

 

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

 

"Millions?...Then what?"

 

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

 

That is brilliant. In the last couple of years i;ve personally seen a good few guys have their highly paid lifestyle fall away from them:lol: Me: i'm on the bottom rung of the ladder and i'm pretty happy there:biggrin:

[mendiplogs]

well dave youve inflammed alot of interest here:001_tt2:, we do logs as a full time business our forestry feeds into the firewood and tree work is our sideline.

keep on logging dave:thumbup: - all the best joy

 

(ps i try and answer the phone as quick as possible or ring back asap)

 

HI all anyone out today doing logs i no i was must be owell thanks jon

[Paul Jenks]

Zoo was cool. Cotswold Wildlife Park. Great day out for the family.

A stagnant business is one that is not growing or developing. Many people go into business thinking that if they run a business for a number of years they will have something they can sell at the end of their time. Be that 5,10, 20 or so years.

This is generally only the case where the person who comes along with a suitable suitcase full of pound notes can see a reasonable ROI. (Return on Investment). Again, generally, for someone to invest a large amount of cash in a business they don't expect to work their nadgers off to get the ROI. This would be because anyone buying a business would expect there to be systems in place to make the revenue streams come in without too much work. I.E. marketing, CRM, SLA, contracts, work processes and a proven track record of delivering profits.(FYI it's why franchises work so well).

Someone either self-employed or as a director with a small business or company that is reliant on their being there for the day-to-day running has a job not a legacy.

Therefore anyone setting up or running a business they wish to sell should look to designing themselves out of the day to day running of a business such that anyone could step in and run it.

A developing, therefore not stagnant, business is always increasing profits either by increasing market share(more customers) or increasing revenue(selling more to existing customers).

So instead of trying to spread myself too thin by looking at doing logs, landscaping or fencing I've focussed on tree work and growth.

Logs can be a sideline or a full time business or a distraction.

[Stephen Blair]

That's 1 of the best posts I have ever read.

[skyhuck]

Zoo was cool. Cotswold Wildlife Park. Great day out for the family.

A stagnant business is one that is not growing or developing. Many people go into business thinking that if they run a business for a number of years they will have something they can sell at the end of their time. Be that 5,10, 20 or so years.

This is generally only the case where the person who comes along with a suitable suitcase full of pound notes can see a reasonable ROI. (Return on Investment). Again, generally, for someone to invest a large amount of cash in a business they don't expect to work their nadgers off to get the ROI. This would be because anyone buying a business would expect there to be systems in place to make the revenue streams come in without too much work. I.E. marketing, CRM, SLA, contracts, work processes and a proven track record of delivering profits.(FYI it's why franchises work so well).

Someone either self-employed or as a director with a small business or company that is reliant on their being there for the day-to-day running has a job not a legacy.

Therefore anyone setting up or running a business they wish to sell should look to designing themselves out of the day to day running of a business such that anyone could step in and run it.

A developing, therefore not stagnant, business is always increasing profits either by increasing market share(more customers) or increasing revenue(selling more to existing customers).

So instead of trying to spread myself too thin by looking at doing logs, landscaping or fencing I've focussed on tree work and growth.

Logs can be a sideline or a full time business or a distraction.

 

What your describing is the classic business model that produces a business that can be scaled up to almost any size and as you say is very sale able.

 

IMO, tree work is one of the worst businesses to try and build using that model.

 

For that kind of business you ideally want unskilled people carrying out most of the work, its best if each persons duty's can be written on one side of A4. That way you can easily replace or replicate each person in the organisation.

 

We can't really do that, you find a good climber, lean what he can do and how long it takes them, then they leave and you start again. Same when you try to build a new team, your looking to find another good climber and then you need to find out how they work and what jobs suit them best.

 

I have known a couple of very good tree firms that were sold, both have since gone bust, most of our businesses are dependent very much on us as the driving force behind them, be that managerial or on the tools.

 

If I were just interested in building a business that I could one day sell or just build to a size where it would provide me an income without me needing to be there all the time, I'd be looking at things other than tree work.

 

One thing that seems strange about your post is that fire wood production is an easier business to build than tree work, so why don't you create a separate log business, following your low input model?

Edited August 30, 2011 by skyhuck

[gensetsteve]

To answer the original question it depends how much you send out a year. If you get a bit of arb waste in cut it up and send out 50 loads its a hobby. If you buy in 150 tonnes of cord and send 225 loads its a side line. If you buy in 700 tonnes and send 1000 loads its full time, but if you are doing that you will know if it pays.

[Paul Jenks]

I'm glad you think like that Skyhuck. It's the differences that make this forum interesting.

The ease of scaleability of any business is a function of how simple it is to describe what is expected from each member of staff. That's one of the reasons why McDonalds is so successful.

I've always liked a challenge, and you're right, a log business would be demonstrably easier to scale. However, I have been working on the scale modelling for the last 10 or so years and seriously for the last 2.

It's complex and difficult and rewarding. I employ intelligent people, most of whom have a professional qualification of one sort or another, (not necessarily in tree work). It does mean that I can, usually, rely on them to carry out the tasks assigned to them without breaking too much and in a timely manner. It also means that I can access their thinking for ideas to make the company better. They get quite bored doing logs and I don't work well with people who don't understand what polysyllabic means let alone spell it.

 

Company looks after staff.

Staff look after clients.

Clients look after company.

Happy Days

 

Ps. Thanks Steve, (assuming that was directed at me. If not, I'll just finish my herbal tea and go to bed)