How much do you put into the business?

[Andy Collins]

Well I've gone from umpteen hours a day to just umpteen hours a week now, far more relaxed and comfortable. When I was in hospital some of the staff were moaning about doing 3x 14 hr shifts a week. I said to one of them try being self employed and doing that all week and half of Sunday too. Probably why I ended up there I suppose. Fact is though, I still think and plan tree jobs every where I go, look at jobs thinking of ways to do them, even when in hospital I was looking out of the windows observing dead wooding jobs and thinking of how to do a tricky access job. Sad isn't it?

[difflock]

As a non abrocultrist?, but at 52 years of age of being an observer of human nature, bytimes.

Unfortunately in ALL trades there are those who have got the inherent "knack" and regardless of training or insurance WILL do well.

There are also those who despite being passionate about what they do, are not good at it. Some of them realize this , most dont.

I could name 2 plumbers of good repute who despite being handy wit the blow torch are crap, simply because they lack "cognative function", quite genuinely I am a better plumber, and I aint a plumber, but I plumbed a 4000 sq foot house incl underfloor in 1996 without mishap or leaks to date.

Ditto yer man in the HGV who said he could not get in a particular gap, I as a non HGV driver told him different, when the next driver turned up he assessd the gap on the way past and swung her in in reverse.

i am sure we all know of crap mechanics??

Getting the picture?

I could go on

I am not superman, i do make mistakes and get things wrong

When I do I know why?

That is unfortunately the difference

Cheers

Marcus

[swinny]

I put a lot of time into my business, even when just subbie climbing to sort the week/days out, when doing my own jobs sorting everything out, staff, prepping equiptment and checks... Then there's service's, repairs, invoicing and quoting, time spent on phone, time spent on here, time spent processing logs!

 

I'm a believer in what you put in you get out! and feel i could do more, sometimes i do admit to myself i need a day off, like today i had the day off, but was still doing repairs!

 

My girlfriends not happy with me though.....

[chrisgilltreesurgery]

We start at 8am, finish at about 5, lads go home then I either start with paper work or pricing jobs or fixing kit or getting things ready for the next day.

My weekends are spent pricing work and if im lucky i sometimes get most of Sunday with the family.

I would say that 80% of my money goes back into the business.

 

We all moan about it but if we didnt have it what would we do...?

 

I do it coz i love it

[Scott Walker]

I think those who run a good tree company look at it not just as a job but a way of life I put everything back into my business

And thats what makes me happy seeing my business grow and my customers happy. And knowing what ive achieved.

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[button1803]

good attitude that Scott!

[gensetsteve]

Putting the hours in when young and building your business is good. I am in no way knocking hard work. But my youngest son was born very poorly 7 years ago and spent nearly 2 months in the special baby unit. My business was 13 years old and luckily due to good mates and loyal work mates both son and business pulled through ok. The business was robust enough to survive without me doing 80 hrs a week. Family is more important than money or business. A business is a vehicle for making money or at the very least a living and can be replaced. If you look after people ie girlfriend, wife, kids employees they will look after you and your business.

[Scott Walker]

Agree with the above. It goes hand in hand you look after your business and it should look after you.

 

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[Scott Walker]

Ps glad your son and business were fine:thumbup:

 

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[Jesse]

Ok, just wondering how much "unpaid work" you guys all do.

I have found in the past that a lot of people think that turning up on the job, getting work done in six or eight hours is all there is to it!

The reality of it is for me, i frequently spend weekends and many nights servicing and repairing gear, for instance i spent three full days last xmas working on my chipper.

Another thing is hidden costs such as insurance, mantenance, fuel, storage etc.

But i guess what i am asking is, how do you explain to these people that there is more to it than meets the eye, or is it not worth bothering!

 

I'm the same as you, but I don't bother explaining about all the other work above that of day to day tree work, I tend to enjoy tinkering with the chipper and grinder it keeps me out of the house:thumbup: