Young lad trying to get in the game

[eggsarascal]

Oh and don't forget that you don't get paid when you are sick or on holiday. I had eight days off work recently with a painful infection (laid in bed for most of that time). This week Mrs Egg and I are having a weeks holiday (these things are a rarity). So in the last month or so I have had just short of three weeks off work. No work no pay!

[Phil71]

It might be worth doing what I did... worked for a company for 5 years getting experience and tickets, then as a subby for a couple of years to see how other people work and making contacts. Bought a van and chipper and started building up my own work while still subbing to bring in steady money. Got a website, and this year have only be working for myself.

You'll need to know reliable groundies, but you can climb and run the business at the start (hard work and long hours, though).

You'll need somewhere to get rid of chip, rakings and logs. And in my opinion, if you ttry and charge £600 for 2 men for a day, you wont get the work until you are established and have built up a reputation.

 

Good luck, give it a go, if you are good at what you do and good with people you'll do alright.

[joshscott]

Keep your head down and work hard, ask question, be keen to learn, don't be a know it all and you will go far.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Hi Louis,

 

my advice would be this:

Register yourself as self employed with HMRC

Get insured to carry out tree work. With a tiny turnover this should be affordable.

Get your climbing and rigging kit lolered.

Have you got a truck and chipper? If not, get a pick-up and a 10ft tipping trailer.

Find a freelance climber that is top notch and with experience of how an efficient crew should be operating. Make sure he's got all his own saws and fuel. He'll teach you loads you might not even be aware of. Pay him £150 a day and always pay promptly. Take pictures of every reduction he does for you and put them on your website.

Phone customers back straight away. Always turn up for quotes and jobs on time. Always. Ignore what everyone else is charging and get £600 a day for your 2-man team. Make a booklet version of your website (ours is 16 pages) and hand this out to everyone you quote for and put a handful out through their neighbours'. Give 3 more to each customer if they're happy to recommend you.

Don't pay anything on advertising other than Google pay per click. Learn about pay per click CTR, CPC and ad extensions.

Improve your website over and over.

Join something like Checkatrade or Trustpilot and start collecting reviews. Once you've got thirty, advertise this fact clearly on your website.

Get a proper blower and tidy up every job as if the Queen was about to visit. Every bit of garden, not just where you were working.

Only go for domestic type work. Forget about council contracts, railway work waterways etc. Never work for construction firms.

Collect payment as soon as job done. Let the customer know when you quote that this is how it's done. Good luck!!

 

Great advice that is, an do heed the freelance climber advice, if your running things, run things, let others do the bits you cant, and if your starting a new business with little experience believe me you need to uphold really good standards to last in this game in this economy.