Ty Korrigan

Back again... The simplest form of business is the 'micro entreprise' This is capped at 33k turnover. You are given a 50% allowance for expenses then pay 50% social charges on the 50% that is left. So for ever euro, you pay 25 cents to the state. This is not suitable for businesses with alot of expenses to offset. It is however, good for its simplicity and for a tree surgeon starting out a good option for the first few years if your equipment is already well old. In the first year you pay approx 2400euros, year 2 4800euros and year 3 7200euros with year 4 being the year they total up all your gross takings and 'regularise' your situation. You may end up paying more so always save 25% of your take in a savings account ready for the day. Your local M.S.A will advise you on any social charges payable upon land used for horses. Its not classed as agricultural for equine use. Also for micro entreprises no accountant is required although many ex-pats choose to use one, I found friends and just going to the local tax office and smiling the best route. Once you exceed the 33K turnover limit or register as a sole/partnership trader limited company you will require by law an accountant to formalise your books. Important, always charge the French going rate for your services. Too many ex-pats ignore this and charge too little to begin with then try to ramp up their prices later on losing ground in the beginning then losing clients later on. Ty

Morning, You sound like a man with a plan there. On the horse front, France has very no intricate system of green lanes and bridleways for horse riders. Off road routes (at least here in Brittany) are few. If your near the coast then la Plage is normally open for horses in the winter but often closed in summer (dogs also forbidden too) If you are going into horses then offering riding lessons to the French is a viable entreprise. There is a shortage of riding schools around (here around Rennes anyway) with the few local ones packed during the holiday season and weekends. BUSINESS WARNING! Once you start up in you chosen commerce you will be registered with the Mutual Society Agricole, the government body responsible for collecting the social charges, pension contributions and administering the health care for land based workers. Budget to have at least 10'000euros set aside in advance for your first 3 -4 years social charges which are payable whether you make a coin or not. Currently, this is the system for land based workers. Mr Sarkosy suggested that he may change things upon re-election but he is a weasel like all other politicians. Social charges represent a minimum of 50% of your profit and 60% if you are a limited company. SARL/EIRL If you have serious expenses and investment to offset such as horse feed, vet bills, diesel then a limited company is the ONLY option and you WILL be registered for v.a.t (t.v.a) No lower limit for this. Your accountant (a requirement) will cost you 1500-3000euros depending on how much you bother them. You cannot submit your own accounts as a limited company but you can get them in order your self beforehand. Don't start up a business straight away. Start to make your publicity, network and get a feel for the area. Again I cannot stress enough the importance of moving close to a city. Brittany and Normandy have high ex-pat populations but you will be hard pushed to make a coin solely from them and make a coin you must if you are to pay your social charges. The only route is to attract French clients and to do this you must be able to communicate with them. Right, enough of this storm crow talk, I'm not urinating on peoples dreams, I'm just offering the darker side of the French dream. Ty

Evening, I thought I'd just post some advice for any-one who may be thinking about moving to France for a better life with the idea of starting up an arb business. Others already here, please feel free to post your own experiences and advice for a more complete picture. Why come here anyway? Well... to live the dream of course and get away from the drudgery of Crisis Britain. Many see the advantages in selling up a wee semi in suburbia for a sprawling rural longhouse with an acre or 2. Low crime rate, cheap wine, every day a holiday, renovation, sun and freedom. Well, whatever floats your boat! France has its disadvantages too. High rural unemployment, the long rural winter too, lack of decent bacon (I'm being silly here) But the worst thing is the feeling of isolation that slowly creeps up on couples after a couple of years. Eventually (after the 3rd dull winter) the realisation dawns that they are living in a self imposed exile with funds running low and the renovation stalling as a result. Man finds little work because he has NO transferable skills (formally an assembly worker for a jap car firm or a pen pusher in the city...city of Norwich that is) and that on the black as he has not grasped even enough French to work at the local abattoir (the usual resort for hard up Brits) The missus, fed up with the local hairdressers making her look like a lesbian and the lack of shops she can relate too throws a wobbly and returns to her mothers in Bexhill. So, to survive here in France you need transferable skills with which to earn a coin or its pig sticking at the local knackery for you. Tree work, now theres a coin to be had there. You don't need to justify your certificates or even prove yourself to set up in business. You don't even need to jump through any hoops with the right advice to guide you. Insurances are cheap, kit expensive, and taxes high (social charges) around 50-60% depending your trading status. Warning! There is no future in chasing purely expats, you will need to market yourself to the local Frenchies. It would be better for your business if you moved to an area of high population rather than seeking an isolated rural retreat from which to launch your new French life. Learn enough French to be able to answer the phone and talk to clients. You'll do this best just by total immersion sur place rather than wasting hours on evening courses at the local polytechnic. I would advise those who wish to pursue the French dream NOT to sell up in the U.K but to come here and rent a place first. You may need an escape route more than you wish to believe. Most ex-pats return to the U.K within 3 years, less wealthy than when they arrived in France having blown thousands on wine, unfinished hovel renovation and keeping entertained through that dull rural winter. Now don't think other ex-pat firms will employ you, most just cannot afford to as an employee costs 2.5 times his salary again in social charges and admin costs etc. The best route is for you to get a job with a large French concern (assuming you can speak French of course) Go via the agencies, there are agencies who specialise in land based industries and agencies are the biggest employers here after the state. Right enough for now. Ty

Ah! Electronic ignition! Get them to change your glow plugs to improve cold starting whilst your at it. All the best Ty

Hello, We are adding a wee phrase to our qoutes "sans vice cache" Or some such spelling. It basically means "without hidden issues" So when we find a WW2 mine below a stump or each tree has grown around a metal pole used to stake it 20years before...we can charge for any extra time/effort. Yes a fixed price... to a point.

Oops, should be in the pictures forum, blame my flu...sorry. Ty

Now I have a question for the experts here... What is that strange growth we found beneath the bark on several of the branch stubs? Last image, look at the bark bottom left. It looks like a Martian root from War of the Worlds... Ty

So, It involved a 400km/5hr round trip to take down a dead Monkey Puzzle. I had asked the owner to send images and to test the condition of the bark. I was told...solid. As the owner had failed to find a local arb to take it down despite being very well integrated so I guessed there was 'issues' surrounding it. Sure enough, on arrival I first inspected the condition of the trunk and found a spongey mush of compost beneath a brittle skin...nuts. I just hoped my gaffs where long enough for the job! It was a horrible ascent indeed! I would normally have shot up there like a weasel in a porn stars trousers but every movement had to be carefully done to ensure the gaffs penetrated the bark and into the solid wood below. The wood was like iron to boot! In the end, I dropped the branches and chogged down just 2 lumps before felling. I left the branch stubs long in order to have something to rest upon. The tree moved no more than normal BUT I still had Auld Rab watching the roots for movement. My first Auracaria and despite it having lost 99% of its leaves I still got well pricked! When Auld Rab felled it the stem fractured into 3 pieces and the bark leapt off in a black shower! The whole job took 1h30min plus 30min to pack up before an excellent lunch provided by our hosts who run a well reputed B+B in the centre of town.

Ah...60hours on average. The ex-pats clients always involve a 1hour MINIMUM drive but the French ones are all within 15-20min. Thats hard on Seb as he has kids and it may get hard for me in the future. The goal is to get more local clients to reduce the travel. Mondays job is almost 3 hours away! Well, the travel is reflected in the price so its not so bad just a bit boring. Ty

It all went 'Pete Tong' with our angry Frenchman... Convinced he had been robbed and by us too, last night my associate was lucky not to be beaten to a pulp despite insisting no wood had gone missing. I am too shaken to work today and shocked that a man we have known for years has such a nasty turn of temper. There must be other factors to cause such a reaction, friend to foe in one fell stroke... He would have eaten Beadle for breakfast! Ty

Hey, selling firewood is not the right of kings... I mean any-one can start an enterprise if they wish regardless of the competition, after all, thats the free market. Plus you never know where life may take you, give it a go, you may never look back. Ty

Hello, Frankly, we have done amazingly well with just a wee CS100 18h gravity fed. Now the time is fast approaching for an investment in a larger road tow. For in feed size the Bandit xp75 is an option for us here, its 7" x 12" 45hp BUT weighs 1340kg. This is obviously a cost implication when towing distances as many of our clients are a 125mile round trip. So more weight, bigger towing vehicle. However, a machine of this size will do eat anything we give it and fast. Our other option is to go for a lighter 6" such as the Quadchip at 750kg. This would allow us to continue using a small kangoo type van for distances. My concern is that too large a machine will never be fully optimised. A smaller machine would probably serve better for most of the work we undertake. Plus the cost of towing etc... Cheers Ty

I would like to instigate a poll to find out the size of chipper most commonly used in the trade. However... I'm not sure how to word my key question. Should it be hp? Or feed size? OR...both. Cheers Ty CS100 4" 18hp 'all maxed out'

Played a joke on our local firewood seller. Put a sign on his wood pile saying free firewood, help yourself (in French of course) We laid the sign down so it could not be seen unless in the yard and moved some wood around to make it look like he had visitors. The joke was not appreciated and he is convinced tonnes of wood has disappeared! We now have one angry Frenchman on our hands... Ty

So they work for Pete then... I use a Lider trailer that 'tilts' to allow small plant to drive up or be pushed with a run up in the case of our CS100. Also this trailer is good for lots of things but is not compact like the dedicated version. If you talk nice to Pete I'm sure he'll cut you a deal... Ty

U.K for kit, French prices are just...silly. Postage from Honey Bros' is £25 so easy to make a saving on prices here. Ty

Yes, I'd rather thought that the 200 stumps would take me about 7days to grind out at least. I reckon 15min per stump on average at 15euros per stump. I don't get enough large jobs like this to warrant a bigger machine and I pick up excellent money doing domestic jobs. Customer had a budget of 1000euros Any-one any idea how much my client will need to cough up for these 200 stumps? You can give me your sterling prices as example. I will try to help them with their project as much as possible and find them a solution. Cheers Ty

Hello, I own a Bandit HB20 which is great for domestic work and earns good money. However, I have a client who wishes to have 200 picea abies ground out. All various sizes, all planted as a plantation 25years ago. I have done 80 stumps before now taking me 24hours of grinding time over 4 days, the rest being grubbing time, teeth turning, fueling etc. Question is, over my HB20 just how much faster would a larger (say 35hp diesel) machine be? Cheers Ty

WHAHAY!!! Still waiting for sign writing though. New pick up, new tipper from Atlas, new chipper on the cards. Ty

Well now... I hope this works, the first time I've ever tried to attach an image. Ty

I've got a small bin full of alcohol. You can buy 5litres of it for €10 here. Its meths without the colouring. I soak kit overnight, clothes and ropes etc prior to washing. I give my arms a scrub with a sponge soaked in the stuff too. 50c wash also does it for resin. Ty

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!

How about trees requesting trunk augmentations? Injections of lignin to boost size of stem hur hur hur. That really would be tree surgery eh?

Urgh! Where is the torque going to come from? The fly wheel is so small. I imagine that it is tempting but I think such a small machine would be a waste of cash. Well, thats my shilling worth. Ty

I've felt far safer amongst people in the developing nations than I ever have around certain facets of white Europeans and I include members of the BNP, travelling community and British youth culture. In fact the most dangerous I have encountered are white male Australians from the Northern Territory. In this case I was rescued by a group of Aboriginal youths and taken back to their camp. Such a statement Lee is born of a lack of worldly inexperience Travel would improve your understanding and broaden your attitude towards your fellow men. Ty