Rick2517

Position still available guys :-)

Not so sure about the age thing. I know you don't mean to affend the young uns by you're comment about sub 30s Andy but in our defence: I started the business at 24 and found that my age was my secret weapon. I go in to a quote with huge amounts of energy and respect for the client I bombard them with knowledge, interesting facts about there trees and the process involved with the work they require inc my honest opinion of the work. I have found that those first 5 seconds as someone said, are important, as at first they do think "wow this guys young, what does he know" but the most important time for me is the following 60 seconds where you fill them with confidents and change there opinion to "wow this kid is really switched on and knows his stuff" it's this ability to change the staritypicle veiw of "todays youth" that I believe wins us allot of our work and had led to a successful business. On a typicle day I would quote 7-10 jobs and would win 5-6 of them. The Company's been running for 5 years and were just setting up a third full time team in April. Also I always follow up with a curtsy call 7 days later. 30% of the time the customer has every intention of going ahead but is just to busy to find the time to call.

I am looking for potential employees of all levels of skill/qualifications for a small Bristol based arb company. Candidates must live in or very close to bristol/bath, be under 30, 100% fit motivated and willing to work very hard to build a career in tree surgery. Also I'm only looking for guys who have served in the forces, please don't take offence if you have not!! Contact me direct if interested Rich Smart trees ltd 07825046597

Thanks guys, I've spent the afternoon signing up to tender subscriptions so just need to wait for them to pop up and in the mean time get everything in order. Do you guys find that most comercial customers insist on being part of a trade organisation such as "AA" or are ther only interested in price and a goog H&s policy?

Thanks Paul, I had a guy on the arb approved intro day last week which was very helpfull so thank you for that, we have allot of work ahead of us to get everything upto scratch but we will get there sooner now we know adsactely what we need to do. Rich

Hi Guys, I am after a little advise from people who have managed to secure commercial contracts/customers. My company has been operating for 5 years now and I feel very comfortable within the domestic market in that finding the work and dealing with the customers is my strong points however this is becoming a very risky business model as we are constantly worrying about running out of work. Now I have 3 guys and myself on the books I need to secure some sort of contract to give us the security we need to grow. The firs step I feel is to go for Arb approval to give us something to back up our professional ways and this is something we are working towards having by the end of the year. The next step is to find the clients and start bidding/tendering for the work. This is where im struggling. Is there a simple solution to this i.e good tender websites, Or just ways that you have found effective to reaching the right people?? Any advise will be greatly appreciated guys Thanks allot in advance Rich

Ok, well thats good then because my small print (which can be seen by zooming in by x1000,000 on my posts) also says that any arbtalker that argues or disagrees with me in any way, shape or form will be subject to legal action

I Take it back looking at my reply earlier it did come across that I take the money before work is complete. sorry this was just a general answer to that mans question that yes I charge extra but that charge will go on top of the final bill and it is usually a £75 cal out fee to cover costs of re visiting site.

But I Never once said that I send them a separate page of terms and conditions"small print" nether did I say that I make the customer pay in full before work is complete, in actual fact I strictly refuse any payment before any work is complete. my post was just an example of what I put on the bottom of my quotations to cover my butt. It is not written in small print and it is only on there if I wish to include it because I feel like it needs to be. if it is included then it is physically explained to the customer why it has been added and they will either agree or disagree. im not in the game of trying to catch people out with miner "small print" misunderstandings. I just do what is necessary to cover my company, and it works!! Anyway the point of the original post was that you need terms and conditions to be understood and agreed to at the quotation stage and the examples I then went on to describe where purely just that (examples)

The terms are written on the quotation page for all to see and explained to all customers before they except. I do not believe it is possible to find all nesting birds before work starts, nether is it possible to predict weather they will be nesting later on after quote and before work starts. I can put what I wish in my terms and will continue to do so. Weather or not it will stand up in a court is another mater but so far it has protected me when needed so I will continue to do so

It very much depends on the situation, type of client and weather or not the business can absorb the cost (book in another job to fill the gap) but in short the answer is yes.. If I was to quote a large clearance job or a large hedge to fell, the customer insists it must be done now during nesting season and I have expressed my feelings on nesting birds and told him that it is our policy to cover our costs if work has to cease at short notice.

I also give verbal quotations 80% of the time, I have found that for the amount of times this backfires (not often) it's not worth the extra hassle in wrighting quotations for every customer (we can quote up to 10 jobs per day) However Being a good judge of character does help in these situations. I find that you usually get a feel for the typ of customer within the first 10 seconds of meeting them, if they come across in any way of being the "can you just type" or the "how much for cash, and can you do it yesterday" type then I will then insure that a writen quotation is signed by both parties. Also any commercial work is always put in wrighting. Also terms and conditions need to be clear: Pay within 30 days or extra charges of 5% per day will be applied. If job is cancelled withing 48 hours then a fee of 50% of the job price will be charged. If nesting birds are found then a rescheduled visit will be charged for. And so on...... If they don't pay I give them 3 chances 1: ring them on 30day point 2 ring them on 40 day point 3 send them snoty letter on 50 day point If still no payment you can then pay small claims court £25 to send a warning of court action letter if they do not pay. I have never had a customer not pay when using this system!! Hope this helps

Hi mate, I've just renewed my Insurence with trust for the fifth year. They have been very efficient up to now. This year I did get another comparison quote from arborisk and they were actually £100 cheaper but I still decided to stay loyal to trust as They gave me the correct advice when enquiring about indemnity Insurence whereas arborisk I feel advised slightly wrongly, not understanding my needs and maybe just trying to hard to undercut the compitition and not hard enough on giving me the policy I need! Hope this helps

You're right it's never going to be adsact math but its not far off and in this equation the end figure of £330 is £60 less then the x3 £130 for 1 team (if that makes sense ) It's unlikely that you will be in the fortunate position to be able to buy x3 chippers at once but I get what you're saying. However fuel will be x3 and this is my biggest expense Maintanance bills will be x3 Tools purchases will be x3 It highly likely that admin staff will also be required as this will need to be incorporated into overheads This means that more office equipment will be needed, not to mention getting an office in the first place and once you have an office and per infant members of staff in there this opens up issues with paying business rates and insuring H&s is up to scratch which may mean bringing in a third party for advice, the list goes on and on. My advise would be to stay small and keep it simple

So you could say you run 3 teams then, so if the average for 1 team truck and chipper is £130 pd why is it so hard to believe that running x3 teams will be x3 times more overheads bearing in mind extra marketing to keep the teams going, extra H&s as I would presume you are employing more then 5 blokes now, extra Maintanance, Insurence, yard space the list goes on and on and I've not even mentioned fuel!! Bearing in mind that x3 teams should equal x3 turnover!!!

Mine is £332.17 pd(noting wages but everything els is in there inc dep) This is calculated from accountants year end figures and I run the same kit/teams as Ben.... However profit figures are staying where they are:thumbup: All my kit is very well maintained and I don't scrimp on anything this makes a dent in my profit but we are and have been for 5 years now in a rapid growth phase so in year 6/7 the figures will start to level out (hopefully)

Well done mate looks like you did the right thing by having a man to man talk and the outcome was great. I'm sure he will respect you for it:thumbup:

That's you're view and I respect it. In my boat everyone mucks in and works together, some times it means working un paid overtime but if I can I will repay with early days but in the end the guys know if I've asked them to work overtime or take a day un paid because I can't afford to pay or asked them if they would mind taking some holiday to help me out then they would do it because they know I wouldn't ask unless I really needed there help. Equally when my guys come to me when times are good and askes for an early Finnish for whatever reason or time off for un planned things like funerals and emergencies I will do everything I can to grant it even tho as far as the contract is concerned I do not have to. This may be down to bad prep on my behalf or it mite just be down to the type of employer and the sort of guys he picks to work with but that's how my boat rolls and that's the attitude that stops it from sinking.

I agree with the replies already given, don't make the usual mistake of thinking you're bosses pockets are bottomless as he is earning a boat load of money all year round. The overheads are unbelievably high in this industry and most company's find it hard to cover them yet alone have money sat in the bank for snow days. It's up to you how you proceed but I would have a sit down with the boss and ask him to explain why he has made the choice that he has, if he sits you down and takes the time to explain that it just isn't viable to work through the snow as it will be to dangourous and for that reason there isn't any money to pay then I think he deserves some help and understanding from his men. Running a business is a team effort and sometimes everyone needs to take a hit. At the end of the day contracts are there for a reason and you're more then entitled to enforce them but if you wish to push things in that department you mite find another section of the contract being used against you in a way that doesn't end well!!

I think that's rather good going less then I thought it would be

Sounds like you are very fortunate to work within a company that can factor into there budged snow days and even more so one where everyone appreciates and respects the employer as this is a very hard thing to achieve so he must be a good bloke (or one that is on arb talk and reading this thread lol)

Sounds like a reasonable solution also. Not sure if all would agree tho! Some good and interesting views so far. It's good to hear suggestions from both employees and employers as sometimes I think the views are very different.

This seams like the logical choice. I will keep things going for as long as is sensible to do so but I think at the end of the day nobody is going to benefit by the company financially struggling on. More snow forecasted for today here:thumbdown:

Thanks mate, I knew there are upgrades on the market but with that discription I will ask the mechanic to quote and see what the cost vers benefit is. Il post and let you all know. Also it is def a 3.5t hicap

Thanks for the advice, I would rather discuss which laws I may or may not be breaking in other areas but public forums. I hope you respect where I'm coming from.