Are logs a sideline or a full time business ?

[likeitorlumpit]

Ha ha, I used to think the same, then 20,000posts later on here trying to give everyone advice I realised overtime I could just practise what I preach.

now I pick and choose my jobs depending on mood, weather and if I can be bothered lol.

 

Do you ever feel in danger of loosing the shiny toys as they need replacing?

[Stephen Blair]

Nope, I just polish them and keep them shiny

[Crazy Cutter]

'Are logs a sideline or a full time business ?'

 

In answer to the original question, I'd imagine to make a living solely out of firewood sales, you would want to be selling a LOT of logs, at a good profit (taking all costs into account) over the winter period to allow for a reasonable wage for 52 weeks a year.

 

Full time business for me. i fell for firewood and usually sell loads every month of the year.

[chilli]

Stephen, I'm with you. There comes a time when, if you have the opportunity, it is good to do what you enjoy most & not dash around , disappearing up your own backside trying to make another bob.

I was 30+ years in an office; suit, clean white shirt, different tie every day. Briefcase with sandwiches, umbrella & newspaper. Got out & went gardening. Never advertised anywhere. All work by word of mouth. Progressed into landscaping, both hard & soft; lot of maintenance work & then sold a few logs from the wood I'd collected.

Now, 12 years on, my body wont cope with slabbing or high hedges like it used to but, I can go logging without my feet leaving the ground & in any weather.

At my level, Gensetsteve says it's a sideline. Well, I pay the bills, cover my costs, earn a wage & make a profit from my three 'sidelines'....landscaping, maintenance work (grass & hedges) & logging.

I think it was my comment in the landscaping forum that prompted Dave's original post in this thread. But, I have to disagree with him. I don't accept that a business has to grow to be considered successful. I firmly believe that there is an optimum size to any business & the defining factors will not all be financial but human/emotional as well. I'm sure Stevie blair is successful in what he does, as I am, but neither of us are striving to expand.

Remember over the next couple of years that I said to keep an eye on Tesco. Very successful business, huge expansion over the years. How many jobs have they shed in the past couple of months? What are they doing with their Japanese operation? What are they doing with their USA operation? Still successful but not ever growing.

[Dave Martin]

Stephen, I'm with you. There comes a time when, if you have the opportunity, it is good to do what you enjoy most & not dash around , disappearing up your own backside trying to make another bob.

I was 30+ years in an office; suit, clean white shirt, different tie every day. Briefcase with sandwiches, umbrella & newspaper. Got out & went gardening. Never advertised anywhere. All work by word of mouth. Progressed into landscaping, both hard & soft; lot of maintenance work & then sold a few logs from the wood I'd collected.

Now, 12 years on, my body wont cope with slabbing or high hedges like it used to but, I can go logging without my feet leaving the ground & in any weather.

At my level, Gensetsteve says it's a sideline. Well, I pay the bills, cover my costs, earn a wage & make a profit from my three 'sidelines'....landscaping, maintenance work (grass & hedges) & logging.

I think it was my comment in the landscaping forum that prompted Dave's original post in this thread. But, I have to disagree with him. I don't accept that a business has to grow to be considered successful. I firmly believe that there is an optimum size to any business & the defining factors will not all be financial but human/emotional as well. I'm sure Stevie blair is successful in what he does, as I am, but neither of us are striving to expand.

Remember over the next couple of years that I said to keep an eye on Tesco. Very successful business, huge expansion over the years. How many jobs have they shed in the past couple of months? What are they doing with their Japanese operation? What are they doing with their USA operation? Still successful but not ever growing.

 

Hi Chilli, good on you for the change of lifestyle. I think its probably time to point out that what I say on here is not always necessarily my strict viewpoint but often its worth chucking a comment into the air to see what comes down, basically often playing devils advocate (yes Steve go and ask your wife again ). Everyone`s input to the thread has been excellent

[Hogs Breath]

A sideline of sorts for me, everything that comes from the wood goes back into wood.

The money to live on from production hoticulture,planting and felling.

[Yeti]

for those of us who can fell extract and produce our own timber cord then yeah its easily a full time business,for those builders landscapers and other assorted folk who buy in cord then all it is is a sideline.

[samtheman365]

Well i buy in cordwood and its full time for me, Ive only been doing it 18 months and im making a living from it.

[Yeti]

your full time income is dictated by cord prices,if the market price goes higher on cord will people pay the extra on the logs? if you can get decent price cord then your okey.

if one day cord becomes scarce then how long term will the full time job in logs be?

wasn't any disrespect meant,i was aiming more down the line of folk with there own woodland tend to make more back from it and we aint controlled by the ever increasing cord price war.

[Stephen Blair]

I was working for a customer, now friend yesterday who has got to be a millionaire a few times over. I was logging up a big sycamore in an overgrown rhody and bramble infested neglected garden. He was never any less than 6 feet away constantly trying to help and get stuck in. When we finished up we had a seat and looked at the chopped up tree and i asked how his' selling of his business is going ' and he should come and get a job with me.

He said he would love to as he spends his week in London in an office. I sadly had to tell him about a guy he knew who is hanging on by a thread with cancer who 18 months ago was living his life just like the rest of us, this guy also is very succesful and worth a lot of money.

I told him Hucks little story about the fisherman, which he had a good laugh about, but not in a funny way, more of a ' tell me about it ' kind of way.

I love the fact gas prices have gone through the roof. tbh is was the ££ signs that first got me back into firewood and out of the town and back into the woods and countryside. Its where i grew up working with my dad and his friends and farmers all getting stuck in, dad cut, friends laboured, farmers brought the tractors and all the kids messed about and kept the fire topped up. The mums would appear with food and it was a huge social gathering that ended up into the late nights running wild:thumbup:

When i was younger my dad did most things barter and it was great. When i got to about 19 i realised i could just work harder and longer and go and buy stuff, which is great for bank balances and nice pictures of cars in the driveway BUT what it doesnt give you and i know tree surgery didnt bring me was friendship and social atcivities.

Tree surgery is a work your socks off, spend all day chasing your tail and fall into bed and crawl out in the morning type job.

Firewood is mans instinctual past time, i sold a load of wood to a guy last night who had been excited about it for a day. He is a single guy with a Lotus who has moved into a house with a stove. I guarantee by next month he will have traded in his go kart for an L200 ha ha.

This is why i can not simply reply to the original question as ' a sideline'!!