If you had your time again?

[Arborist]

I was wondering after reading various threads on hear about the pros and cons of having a tree surgery business, weather knowing what you know now would you do the same again or have done a completely different job.

 

I like tree surgery but i think i could have made very good money at kitchen + bathroom fitting and it would have been a dam sites easier and i wouldn't wake up feeling like a cripple in the morning,

 

What do you guys think?

[Mac McLennan]

Have you lost your marbles.......Kitchen Fitting.....Do you really think that you could do it long enough to make any money. Just imagine the first time you drive past a tree firm doing a dismantle.............

[Arborist]

I know a kitchen and bathroom fitter and he works on his own and fits high end stuff and makes very good money and doesn't have half of the out lay on equipment I have and most in portantly his work is appriciated and the people he does the work for are willing to pay the price for the work not like tree surgery where people want it done for F£&k all!

 

Like edenarb said in another thread (an extra half hr at the end of the day tidying up will be appreciated more by the customer than the complexity of what you have been doing all day.)

 

I also know a consevertry fitter who again has relivtely low out lay and earns very good money but the tradesman I know who earns the most Is a mastic man he is self employed his out lay is car, ladder, mastic gun, knife and he supplies the mastic and makes more on that than he buys it for. most of his work is on building sites and him and his wife earn a minimun of £1000 a day.

 

Tree surgery is a good job, dont get me wrong but i dont think its going to make people rich.

[Mac McLennan]

All of what you say is spot on. There are many Jobs I do where I don't particularly like the attitude of the people I'm working for.

 

I just think the pros outweigh the cons.

 

But, I have only been doing this for nine years now and may not be the best person to judge.

 

Some of these guys on here have been doing it yonks (maybe you have) and so I could sorta understand.

[treediver]

I think we all do this job for the love of it. There are far more easy "Totally Mind Numbing Boring" ways to make money, easier, faster, without no where near as much initial outlay and everything else we all know and moan about. BUT the thought of spending most of my life stuck indoors waiting for the 'weekend to come' etc.. is a grim thought.

If I wasnt in tree work i'd it would be some other outdoor mayhem.

[Arborist]

You are right treediver but latley all im getting is thats expensive or people want work done for nothing even though they can see the truck chipper labour etc and then you tell them how much insurance costs.

 

When I first started I did some work for a guy who moned and wanted the price down, he went out and spent £500 on a bottle of wine for a dinner he was having but moaned about paying me £150 a day for doing a load of fencing.

 

Allthougt we love the job its still a buisness and we have to make money, its a hard dangerous job and i dont think were appriciated enuf.

[Old Monkey]

Tree climbing keeps you fit. Installing Kitchen's and bathrooms would hurt my back instead of stretching it out.

[High Scale]

I did kitchen and bathroom fitting for a while after a enforced lay off from the trees due to injury, while it was a good skills learning exercise it was also dull and tedious and listening to the radio all day is enough to make you think of doing harm to oneself.

[Andy Collins]

The Grass is always greener the other side of the fence!! I've done all kinds of work in the past, plastering in the 80's, in the loadsamoney boom time, warehouse work (tedium personified) been a chef (stress city) my only regret is that I didnt make this a full-time profession from when I left school! its not about the money so much, more about the quality of life. you can spend your whole thinking what if? Just get on and enjoy yourself. :wave:

[TheTreeWiseMen]

I always fancied being an international arms dealer.....