Gareth Dalzell
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Everything posted by Gareth Dalzell
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Sounds a bit suspect. I suppose he could have it included in his policy but not likely. They should have checked that it was included in the schedule. Following on from their logic, why would you have specialist insurance in the first place? I'm sure you couldn't believe what you were hearing.
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John Send me your email address and I'll email you ours [email protected]
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Not too bad 250 for the main site, then I got them to add the gallery page which cost 40 and the news page 20. Total £310. People keep telling me that you can do them yourself and you can buy templates etc but I'm not into all that. I'd rather pay someone to do it and I'll stick to the landscaping:thumbup: I used Ardnet Design they are at Ardnet Online Solutions - Web Design Belfast, and Website Hosting in Newtownards - Bangor, Northern Ireland I meet these guys about 10 years ago and I find them easy to deal with. (wow - I just previewed this post and it's got a hyperlink to Ardnet in red now - how'd I do that? - I just typed in their website address)
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I see what you mean - I rushed the website guy a bit at the last minute because I'd put a note of the footer of all our February invoices to say we were launching our new website on 17th March for St Patrick day and then wasn't able to get some of the pictures to him until the night before - whoops. I'll go over again this week now things have calmed down abit and check the photo's and text for mistakes as well. Thanks for taking the time to look over it. Cheers:001_smile:
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Nialer thanks for that. I'll send this on to the Website guy as it's all a bit beyond me - but I like the concept so I'll see if they can work on autoresponders. Cheers:thumbup:
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Thanks for that J D I,m determined to keep it updated this time; quarterly or maybe even monthly on the "Latest News Page" and put a link on customers invoices so they can see what we're up to. I have to keep reminding mayself that 90% of our business is from our existing customers and I need to keep communicating with them and informing them about what we do and can do for them and their associates.
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How did it go? Did they tie you up or did you get them with the saw first. Hope it went well - I think its vital that kids have real life contact with our industries. It's amazing just how a seed can be sown at a young age.
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Thanks for the comments. Yes the dreaded South Belfast tree huggers did make some comments, but when we told them we were trying to "preserve the tree for future generations" (a great quote to defuse emotions which I heard and use on a regular basis in situation like this:001_smile:) and explained that the heaviest limb was hanging over a house with some very emotional elderly ladies living in it, they saw sense. It always amuses me how quick they are to fight for tree retention in other peoples gardens and yet always start off conversations about a tree overhanging their house with the phrase "I like trees but..."
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After 8 years we finally got around to getting our website revamped. I,m big into pictures and always find other websites with lots of pictures on them far more interesting than lots of text - I must be really nosey! So we added a gallery, a latest news page (which this month has big oak limb removal by crane over some luxury houses in the posh side of Belfast) and lots more pictures everywhere I could get the web designer to put them in. Infact I think I managed to get about 150% more pictures into it than they originally had. Have look - Thanks
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Life will never be the same again - it's fantastic, unbeatable and it flies by so enjoy the moments. Many congratulations to you all:thumbup: On a more serious note - have you thought about his first saw yet:lol:
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Pixie Stump & Drift Wood Root
Gareth Dalzell replied to TommyTreecarver's topic in Chainsaw Carving Forum
Loving the big root one in particular. Amazing and as you approach the stumps totally surprising - I'd love to see peoples faces when they turn around and see them. -
Yew the hottest by far - it's like good quality coal, not a lot of flame but very,very hot burning and lasts well with the air choked down.
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I would say that you could find enough information already on this forum to bench mark our sector fairly accurately. we have price comparisons on jobs, red diesel costs ,wages and insurance (always very well discussed on forum), machine costs dumping rates, training costs etc etc etc. It was put to me at a benching marking meeting that we all do it to various degrees with out realising. Our facilitator from Price Waterhouse Coopers(paid for by our local BDA) just give it a name and draw it all together to make it more accurate. Its good to see if you are way out in any areas, that your not paying to much or wasting time in parts of your business. The previous posts have covered many aspects of this process. Its just a discussion subject - it's good to talk:001_smile:
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My understanding of a cartel is something different - with it a group you fix prices together. With bench marking you as a group monitor you costs and operating systems, and still as individuals decide your price I guess based on how much you need to make with adjustments. Its common in many business sectors. It's our local government run business development agency thats facilitates our one.
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What's up with your website?
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Exactly, it's not the one who gets it at the cheapest price that makes the money and that there's nothing wrong with promoting you companies plus points eg service and attitude, to increase or justify your price. With reference to all costs not being the same - in many sectors they carry out "bench marking" to compare there margins and costs against each other. It's a very interesting exercise. It's not all academic, it's very real. There are those who say "just do you own thing and get on with it" but I see nothing wrong with sharing information and experiences on costs and how our businesses work so that as a sector we can improve our operating systems and challenge the situations that the person who started the thread was talking about. Thats a lot of what a forum is about.
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I agree, but that's not "all things being equal" - that would mean you have a lower labour cost as you have a lesser labour input - if you nearest competitor could do it in the same time and through customer perception of being a more professional company (or some other means) but could get the job at a slightly hirer rate then he would be making a better margin. don't get me wrong I dont think this means they are a better company its just customer perception.
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Perhaps I made assumptions which weren't obvious anywhere other than in my head - apologies. Based on all things being equal (which I know people will say they aren't, but lets not get bogged down in the detail) ie overheads costs etc etc the company that gains a contract at a higher rate will make more profit (or substitute margin here). In the world of contract tendering we are all working on almost identical fixed and variable costs, once you've stripped it right down, the skill here is promoting better service/response/skill levels/results/output/standard to gain work not at the cheapest price where clearly you will be making a lesser profit, but at a better/higher price where there will be more profit. I don't think there's anything too radical in this approach to business:001_smile:
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Sorry, just checked, its through NFU Mutual, its classified as a Miscellaneous 4 wheel all terrain vehicle.
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That's the one - my first harness 1989. Used to thing it was funny wearing a parachute company made harness
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We have a Kawasaki Mule taxed and insured (for third party only) for the road. Our broker has it through Norwich Union on an agricultural policy I think (I'll check tomorrow in the office) Its on a group policy with our Massey Tractor and Kubota Tractor - when we bought the mule last year they added it. The fire theft and accidental damage is covered by our engineering policy along with our other plant and kit. Its classed on the tax book as light agricultural vehicle £00.00 tax per year
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Yes exactly the same over here. I can get great prices from English dealers but they can't send them over. I've spoken to a few of the dealers and from what they've said, if Stihl catch them sending stuff out of their area without a face to face initial contact, they get chewed and can forfeit the dealership. We did have one company that would send stuff over but they were wound-up last year unfortunately. It would actually pay me to take a van over, make up a good sized order and bring it home myself - it may happen yet.
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Last night from about 6pm to 6am this morning - about 4-6inch of snow. A day in the office playing catch-up. This photo was at lunchtime and it's melting really fast now
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The Landscape Architect specified it as the cheapest option (and no planning permission required) to hide the back view. They went in at 6-7m high specimens and there's about 20-25 of them - nice we job at around £650 each (remember it well!) We do quite a bit of specimen tree planting our biggest ever was 196No Quercus palustris 30-35cm in Belfast subbing to a Dutch company - we've been paid to prune them every year since they went in. That's the good thing about specimen tree planting - you don't have to wait so long before you get a call to prune them after you've planted them:lol:
