Help With business plan

[David_chainsaw]

Hello every one please don't fly off the handle but i really want to open my own tree surgery business (have done for some time now) i know part of my start up costs would be to get all my tickets'tipper just need some help with some idea with what my out goings would be i know fuel insurance phone so on also im going to have to buy all my kit ie saws wedges things like that i have most of the what i call basics ie ppe and cheaper saws (timber-pro) and rent some sort of unit could start off at home and rent a chipper to start off with one of the hardest parts for me is getting the loan to start up as not going to lie when i was younger and dumb i got my self in fair bit of debt (under control now) and as you all know and can see my writing skills ain't very good any way any help input would much appreciated

 

David

[Richard 1234]

I'm going to say first that I know very little about arb work, but I do know that you need to be free of debt before you start a business. Because you are going to have to either have money in the bank to fund purchases/marketing etc etc etc or go into debt to buy them.

And you will not start making money overnight it's takes a long time.

So how do you pay the bills to start with?

That may sound harsh but debts being "under control now" does not sound a healthy starting point to me.

Just my thoughts though and I do hope you manage it just a voice of reason

[David_chainsaw]

Totally understand where you're coming from what I mean by under control now is there paid off apart from one last payment of £75 to be made at the end of the month

[easy-lift guy]

David, Do you have an annual budget or operating budget?. I believe most of your cost that you have mentioned could be considered fixed cost. Once you have a budget established as to how much you actually need to live off of to cover your work expenses/living expenses you will have a better picture of how much to charge to cover said expenses and earn a profit.

easy-lift guy

[Richard 1234]

Totally understand where you're coming from what I mean by under control now is there paid off apart from one last payment of £75 to be made at the end of the month

Ok that's good but it still doesn't buy kit etc.

I do gardening and to get to where I am now its cost me over£30000

Truck/trailer mowers etc etc etc the list goes on and on insurance etc etc

And it's taken five years to get here.

I did not take any money out for a year

The only reason I managed was 1 I had some money in the bank and 2 my wife has a good job.

And yes you could start for a lot less than that (and I did) but for tree work you've got to be looking at what £14000-15000 for truck chipper saws Tickets insurance and all the rest of it.

You need money to start a business because business eat money to start with.

Good luck with it

[mike1987]

Unless you really know what you are doing and have done it for a while then going self employed isn't for you if you haven't got your tickets yet it would suggest you havnt got the experience. how are you going to price a job? How are you going to estimate time? What are you going to do when things go wrong? Best bet would be go to college get tickets get subcontractors insurance and gain the experience that way i was fortunate enough to have been working in horticulture for some time before going to college and my wife had a fairly well paid job so self employment was not too big a risk for me now I'm going into year three and it's starting to pay off

None of this is a dig at you but I think you need a reality check

[Qvatrees]

Sounds to me your about a month behind me, I officially set up again (after 5 years out of arb playing tractors) about a month before Xmas.

 

There's two types of tree surgery business. There's the man and a pickup with a chipper who has a shortlist of climbers, groundies and just unqualified cheap help.

 

The second kind is where there is a boss and usually employed chaps and send them out as a team (often more than one team working at a time) and the boss, you, do all the quoting, paperwork etc etc etc

 

But let's work on the first type because unless your rich that's where you start, and even if your rich that might be where you wanna be anyway.

 

My advice would be to;

 

Get all of yourtickets before you start.

 

Decide how much you personally need to "take home" every month.

 

Workout all of your fixed costs for the whole year and divide by 12

 

Don't finance anything untill you can afford it.

 

Start with a older truck, if your good a new one is affordable fairly quickly

 

When you can justify finance buy the best you can afford and where clippers are concerned go new.

 

Advertise like hell. Without customers you don't have a business.

 

Get a accountant

 

If after 18 months your not getting the workin give up and climb for someone else!!!!

 

If after 18 you got loads of work but your skint, reasses business policy becaus it probably can work!!!

 

Hope this helps

[Hardyspicer]

i would say the best way to achieve what you want would be to get the ground tickets cs30 and 31 and chipper then try and get a job on the books for a firm and they might be able to do a deal to put you through the climbing tickets. once you've mastered the work on the ground and have got a good few years climbing under you belt you could start subbing yourself out climbing to other firms for a few days a week. once you get known in the arb industry then you might be able to go totally freelance and then you could start buying up kit and maybe employing someone maybe only part time for a start and build it up from there. you could say what ive just said sounds long and boring and there maybe a better solution but David you must understand that business dont start overnight and you must be prepared to put 110% effort into it. all the members on here who run there own show have built the business up over many years and have work bloody hard to get where they are now. although im only young and im not a business owner i believe experience is key and i think that for you to be starting up a business now would be being thrown in at the deep end and could land you in a lot of bother if you start borrowing money and financing kit.

[Qvatrees]

If it's start up money your short of, what about grants and specific start up loans. It's not all that difficult by the looks of it and I know a few guy on here have been successful with grants. I've not had to luckily but if things were difficult it would be an avenue I'd look at

[skyhuck]

David this thread was a little under a year ago

 

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/69804-willing-do-voluntary-work.html#post1061800

 

how much experience have you gained since then?