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Outstanding work Tommy.

This might only be me but when I get up in the morning and its raining I don't feel as 'positive' as when the sun is streaming in through the windows.

Before and after shots. Customers are probably not interested in your vehicle fleet. Look at it from their point of view. Any customer looking at any website is thinking "So what?" and "What's in for me?" Personally I'd lose the raindrop effect. It doesn't send out positive vibes.

You probably can, the stereo is awesome!

We dabble in commercial work but domestic work has so many advantages. There are some little hi-viz strips on the back to warn drivers.

Cheers, Big 'Ammer. The stump was cut lower to the ground. We're not that lazy! Thanks. Yes, I love my truck. Go to Cromwell Trucks. Ask for Jamie. Someone on here, I think he's called RT400?, designed it for them. I added a few extra touches like super trim body for driveway access and higher sides for zero chip clean-up. When the chipper needs trading in I'll get that in black too.

Thanks fellas. Nobody was nicking the rope! (that beech job was actually in Liverpool). For interest the birch was £280 incl vat. The beech was £3000 incl vat. Fell and remove. Stump done by someone else. Trunk was milled. Roots were so decayed the grinding apparantly only took about 10 mins. Merripy.

beech fell pics:

birch reduction:

Shawshank Redemption it is. Got any more trees in movies? Like the tree that John Rambo jumps onto from a cliff while getting shot at in First Blood. Here's an eastern hemlock stealing the scene in Deer Hunter

recognise this oak tree from a movie?

arbclimber, I pm'd you. JonLad, I just seen some of your pruning pics in another thread. You should be charging top dollar for that work.

I read in a TCIA mag that sons working with their dads, on saturdays, was the most common scenario for tree work-related fatalities. Its good to get them working young but we should keep that in mind.

Do you think there is any possibility they might have thought another firm would do a better job and were willing to pay more for it, but out of politeness or some other reason said they went for a cheaper price? I'm not talking about double the price, just not cheap. But would that be enough to get you telling your friends about them?

nottstrees, there's no secrets. This is only what I have read in books and tried out. And only my opinion - not gospel. Its a bit tricky to condense it all into an arbtalk post but I'll try: Advertising for small businesses, including yell etc. is a waste of time and money, unless its lead generation advertising. Being the cheapest not only means you get less money, you also lose work because of it. Customers will use you again if you do a half decent job, but if you want them talking to their friends about you they need to be seriously impressed. Indifference can lose you work. A customer pays you good money to prune their trees; they make you a brew, move their car, recommend you - and what do they get? Not even an email or a note to say thanks. You never call and you never write.

I don't want to annoy anyone, and I hesitate to post this, but I'm honestly not getting any of this from customers. This year we're getting jobs at prices higher than ever before and we're frequently dearer than other quotes. Very nearly everyone pays up without chasing. Two years ago with a recession on the horizon I thought I'd better up my game and start learning how to market the business properly. I've read about 30 books, some of them more than twice. I've spent about 2K on home-study courses and conferences. I've tested it out and some is a waste of time but some of it really works. My point is forget the recession and get good at marketing and sales. Apart from a website we do no advertising at all. The tree work is where the fun is during the day, but the money is in finding good customers in an endless stream. And it can be done. It might seem impossible but with a bit of thought and effort your work life could be a whole lot more rewarding. I'm a very slow learner so most of you on here would easily pick it up. If you don't know where to start try reading Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith. I hope it helps you.

Too right. A year's worth of customers that are recommending you continuously can replace all advertising costs. Ashawandco, does your client have the email addresses of all those customers?

A bit of healthy competition has certainly seen some drastic price reductions from my previous insurance firm. The ripping-chains are back in the toolbox.

Health and safety policy. Statement of general policy is: To provide adequate control of the health and safety risks arising from our work activities. To consult with our employees on matters affecting their health and safety. To provide and maintain safe plant and equipment. To ensure safe handling and use of substances. To provide information, instruction and supervision for employees. To ensure all employees are competent to do their tasks, and to give them adequate training. To prevent accidents and cases of work related ill health. To maintain safe and healthy working conditions. To review and revise this policy as necessary at regular intervals. Signed and dated. Review date in 6 months.

Good website, Gareth. Having all those pictures is really good. You have some very locally prestigious clients. Have you looked into email autoresponders? They will sky-rocket your referral rates. Writing the email sequence takes quite a bit of thought but once you've set it up you can just plug a new customer in and forget about it. They continue to get an email, say every 28 days, giving them tips, advice, interesting jobs you've done etc.

Maybe stick 'em all in your trailer and drive the mog around some nearby fields at top speed. The loser of 'guess the age of the tree competition' could get a super wedgie on the end of the palfinger.

timtree81, yes, pictures of jobs done are great, but I could only see two pictures of completed jobs and they're both of tree planting. Wouldn't you want to see some reduction end results if you were a customer looking for some tree pruning? Pictures of kit may be interesting for us lot to look at but we're not customers. Would you really want to see a decorator's collection of brushes and ladders?

You could well be right there, alex_m. However, do you not think if you are trying to persuade a customer that you are the very best they can get - to the point where cost starts dropping right off their list of priorities, you can never really have too much proof. If a list of testimonials is too long, you can stop reading. If its too short, its too short. To be honest, those customer comments are only the ones from 2009. I thought any more might be overkill. All I can tell you is that website pulls in a lot of work.

Nice looking website. I reckon some of the phrases used should be a little more basic and easy to understand for customers that aren't tree-nerds. Having no testimonials on a website makes me think either there are very few happy customers, or there are but the business is not really bothered if they are or not. Although I'm sure that's not the case here. Maybe more pictures of how the customer will benefit from calling you, like nice looking trees and blue skies, and less of your kit? A passion for tree work is clearly evident. I like it.

Personally, I think the fields of our green and pleasant land could do without any more discarded trucks covered in adverts.