Hello everyone,
I am after some insight on other peoples experience regarding how they have progressed within the industry.
A little about myself. I am coming up to 13 years as a tree surgeon, working at least 10 of those years as a lead climber. Somewhat varied work ranging from pruning council/street trees within central London for many years, to working as a self employed lead climber/team leader around west London/Buckinghamshire area, completing large scale jobs/projects. The last few years have been a mixture of self employed climbing for various companies a few days a week, with the other days working for my business with my truck, chipper and tools.
Recently I have started to question if this is something i want to continue. For a couple of reasons;
1. I am really starting to feel the toll on my body. I'm only 32 but am aware if i keep working the way I do, I wont be able to physically keep doing the job in a few years to come.
2. Potentially looking to move more into central London , so would not look forward to figuring out the logistics of running a tree surgery firm considering how stressful i already find it on the outskirts in what i consider a more spacious/work friendly area.
3. I have recently started to feel like the work i currently do doesn't leave me fulfilled. I.e. working as a self employed climber seemed that companies would only get me in for large scale takedowns (on trees that most of the time i was personally conflicted as to the reasons they would be coming down) or pile on the amount of work needed to be completed in a day. Basically i've felt like a bit a wrecking ball, just coming in and smashing out work with no pride for my work.
Does anyone have experience with moving away from climbing full time that also doesn't follow down the path of starting a tree surgery business?
I am happy to go back and study, maybe just a little bit lost where to start and what the end goal would be. I have been self employed for a while now and I'm not sure if it suits me to be honest. For myself i feel like the only benefit is that I don't have restrictions for how much holiday i can take. Realistically i am trying to put things in place before we move to central London. In an ideal world i think i would love to climb 2/3 days per week and spend the other days in a less physical capacity within the industry. I know this isn't an ideal world.
Again i just seem overwhelmed and lost as this type of work is all i've known. Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated. or if you have any more questions or need more info from me
Thanks
