Finally made everything official today. Our company (The Branch Office) is now officially registered with the state and fully insured ($1,000,000 liability policy per claim, up to $2,000,000 per year). I have been pretty busy the last few weeks. Bought some more chainsaws, a dump truck (1978 Chevy C-50 with 12 foot long dual piston dump bed) and a Vermeer 935 diesel chipper. We did just over $10,000 worth of business in the past 5 months to test the waters, and decided to finally make everything official and go legit. We already have work lined up, and have several bids to do within the next few weeks! We basically specialize in all manners of tree care. We do landscaping and planting of trees, tree maintenance (climbing, trimming, pruning, cutting, and deadwood removal), and tree removal (felling and disposal). My business partner went to college for Horticulture, and has an incredible amount of knowledge on the topic. He has knowledge of damn near every tree we have seen, and is incredibly good at climbing. He has been training me for the last 4-5 months, and I have accumulated more than enough climbing gear to do any job (harnesses, SEVERAL climbing ropes, SEVERAL load lines, micro pulleys, prusik lanuards, figure 8's, pole saws, climbing spikes, and storage for each. We have thus far bought 5 chainsaws to get things rolling (Echo CS-300 climbing saw with 14" bar, Stihl 300T climbing saw with 16" bar, Stihl MS-290 with 18" bar, Stihl MS-391 with 20" bar, and a Stihl 066 trunk cutting saw with a 36" bar). We have more than enough equipment to keep a crew running as long as they can work. Right now, it's just my partner and I (one climbs, other is the groundsman) with random friends to help as groundsmen/limb draggers for big jobs. It's been a crazy venture. I have invested a pretty big sum of money into the business, and I hope it grows. It honestly looks like it will from how things have been going. Thus far we own all of our equipment, which honestly helps us out by keeping overhead low. We have no payments, and owe nothing to anyone else. Our hope is that this will let us keep our prices low (as it has thus far) and help keep us busy. Wish me luck! ~Will Courtier~
dude, this is good news! lots of successful tweakers off doing their own thing now. we all growed up! i saw those pics in the xmas thread and i was like.. hot damn, bigwill is biginvesting in bigbusiness!
Just be carefull. There are bold tree cutters, and old tree cutters. But there aren't any old bold tree cutters. Protect that license, bonding and insurance with all you have, once any one of those is lost, your business goes with it.
lulz Be careful, it's a dangerous business and a hard business, but a lot of fun. I'd love to see pictures of your work
It's still rolling. Just have enough time off and the ability to make some extra cash. Side jobs are actually recommended at my command! And we'll take some pics here soon, Fiddy. Need a reason to play with a bunch of new climbing gear we recently bought! ~Will Courtier~
hey, gratz on the venture. That's a great project. Now, I just hope your tools won't be stolen by crackheads. And also, take care It would be a bummer to learn that you ate your chainsaw via your ass during a bad fall.
Yeah, meth junkies have cost me a lot of money. I've even gotten two court awards for restitution and will not see a red penny from those worthless fucks.
Congratulations, running a small business can be very rewarding, and a huge pain in the ass. My best advice I have is when you start making money, invest it back in the company for the first few years. You have to let the company grow, you can't rob it blind.
It's been a whirlwind over the last few days... Got the advertising rolling, and did a pretty big job today (50' tall Red Oak tree in a 15'x15' yard, about 6' away from the house on one side and surrounded by fence on all other sides). Wound up taking down a few sections of fence, trimmed out a bunch of wood on the side we planned on felling the tree on (to keep it from bouncing back up into the home or the neighbor's home, just beyond the fence), and we felled it. Once on ground, we chipped up all brush (wound up with two truck full sized piles of wood chips, and another 5-6 cords of wood from the trunk and all branches over 6" in diameter). Was a pretty good day. Also bid another huge job (pecan tree that is split in several places up and down the trunk, and also completely covered in English Ivy making it a pain in the ass to climb). The tree has already split and had a few limbs fall through the porch of the nearby house, and still has some split limbs over the house as well as the neighbor's house. Could be a fun challenge! ~Will Courtier~
5-6 cords of wood!!???? You gotta be exaggerating, that would be too big a tree to fit in even a big yard. I took the wood from 3-3' wide/45' tall white wide oaks and ended up with only three cords.
The tree was just over 4' in diameter, and just over 50' tall. It was still alive and growing strong (had branches up against the home's siding and roof, allowing small animals access into the house's soffits! We had to use the 066 to cut down the trunk, as our other saws didn't have long enough bars to cut completely through the trunk. ~Will Courtier~
Here are a few pics of recent jobs we did. The climber is my business partner (I am still getting comfortable with my gear and learning many of the tricks of the trade). He loves limb walking..... Big white pine we took out. Was located maybe 10-15' from the house Better pic of the climber End result right before we pieced the remaining trunk down and flush cut it. This shit is incredibly addictive.... ~Will Courtier~
That's not a big white pine! Come to Seattle, I'll show you what a big white pine looks like! (but I won't climb it, they are so pitchy I'd never get in one for fun!) (also, insert penis joke here)
So, work has begun to pour in. It is actually pretty overwhelming! We have one two pretty major jobs lined up (will take full days of work, with some extra hired hands) and have another 3-4 people calling to have us bid some jobs. We just picked up a stump grinder (Vermeer 206, 3-wheeled self propelled with 16" cutting wheel and pivoting center for sweeping the stumps) this past Saturday. Got a unit that was bought by a city in New Jersey that never used it. Had 27 hours on it, and was just over 12 years old. Fires off instantly, runs great, and cuts like a dream. This shit is crazy... honestly didn't realize that it would take this much out of me (time bidding jobs and working, efforts to ensure we are 100% legitimate, maintaining all of our equipment, etc...). Got my work cut out for me! ~Will Courtier~
Just finished up our largest job thus far. Had to remove and dispose of a large Red Oak (14' in circumference, approximately 60' tall), two Pecan trees (one ~7' in circumference, another ~10' in circumference) and a walnut tree (about 5' in circumference). The Red Oak had overgrown the yard, and about 40% was hanging over the customer's house. The larger Pecan tree had about 50% hanging over the neighbor's house. We were hired to remove the trees, dispose of them, and grind the stumps. Here are some pics of the job. Our climber starting to cut on the larger Pecan tree Pic of the large Red Oak before we touched it Another pic of the Red Oak Our climber tackling the large limb hanging over the neighbor's house. The base of that limb was ~18" in diameter, requiring a come-a-long to pull away from the house to safely drop. Our climber beginning the task of setting lines on the large Red Oak Continuing preparations for dropping limbs from the large Red Oak Pics of the Red Oak, shortly before felling More pics of the Red Oak before felling Pic of the smaller Pecan tree, right before felling. Pic of the larger Pecan tree, ready to be felled Pic of our crew on the job, right after felling the large Oak tree My business partner sawing through the Red Oak trunk Pic of the side yard, after felling and grinding the stump of the smaller Pecan tree. Been pretty busy the last few weeks! ~Will Courtier~
Yea dude, safety glasses, Ear protection, chaps, hard hats, vests. I'm sure your supposed to tape off the area your working so people walking by don't get hit with a tree. OSHA is no joke man, maximum fine is $70,000.00. A lot of times competitors will call on you to, run the new guys out of town. Be careful, go get some OSHA training. http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/treecare/index.html
