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Good evening all, new to site and first post If this is not in right section please move. As my title suggests I am one of those people looking for more information with regards to tree work and furthering my business. I will give a little back ground first which hopefully will assist with any answers / questions that may come from you more experienced people. I have been around gardening all my life with my father and both uncles all in the trade so to speak - I didn't take after them and went into the plod for 11 years, however times changed in the force and I wanted to be outside more often as I really did miss it and probably didn't give it enough time when I was younger. Fast forward...... I currently have a garden maintenance company with one full time employee, the business is doing well and we are growing after four years in May. We have just VAT and with most my domestic customers taking the hit. Over time we have conducted the odd tree job - nothing major as such - pollarding, fruit tree pruning and other conifer jobs, coupe of take downs and tops out of trees. The work has been great and a nice addition to the portfolio. However we are getting more and more requests and with out estimating, now this could because we are doing it a little cheaper than most (not intentional) or we are doing a good job. Either way I am not complaining. The issue I have is that I am although not scared of height and happy to climb am not trained in any way. Is it worth me spending the money of training etc to be a climber? or do the basic tickets as a ground person and employee a climber when I need them. My uncle ran his business in this way for many years as he could not even stand on a step ladder! Again is it worth buying a chipper and a small arm truck and using it this way and do a 50 50 split? There are numerous other questions to ask but I will get onto them as responses come in I guess. Thoughts / advice / discouragement all welcome R

Hello, I was hoping someone would be able to point me in the right direction, my partner has been working for someone for 4 years now and has all the relevant qualifications and tickets. He is hoping to try and do a bit of work for himself which he can hopefully build up into a business when he has enough custom, but he isn't very good at the business/paperwork side....... Which means I have to sort it out, I have no knowledge of business, and don't really know where to start. I have seen an accountant who has helped with some aspects but my main question is..... What kind of insurance do we need? What should it cover? Does it need to be specific? And is there a certain company to go with? I have looked at specialist insurance, small business insurance and also public liability, but I don't want to get the wrong one and end up in trouble/with a big bill, it all just seems a bit confusing and I want to make sure we have the right type of cover, I assume he will just be doing small jobs as it will only be him. Any help is appreciated thank you!!

Just wanting to get some business name ideas?

Hi all, Me and my friend are planning on starting a partnership (unlimited) next year. we both work in the horticultural sector but as employees only, no managerial experience. We are planning on working for both private home owners and the local authorities, purely grounds maintenance. can anyone tell us what licenses and/or qualifications we will need to work for these clients. eg waste carrier license ect Sorry if we sound stupid on here, we know what the work entails as we do it on a daily basis but we do not know the legal/ paper work side of it. thankyou for you time any help/advice is appreciated. based in oxfordshire

Hi, Just a quick one. As the title says I'm having trouble starting the saw, this hasn't happened in the past. Every time I pull the starer cord the de-comp valve pops out just under a third of the way through the pull then making it go really stiff and not pull any further. any advice? Thanks alot Jack