Microblog Memes

Equipment is more than you think. Trucks with cherry pickers or spider lifts are a couple hundred grand each, plus they need to be maintained and replaced. And you probably need more than one. So now you're deep into 6-figure debt, and that means big monthly payments. That's before you even get to the costs to store the equipment safely, leasing an office, skilled workers, etc. And yes insurance and bonding, which, you can cause some major damage to multiple structures at once, so that's not cheap at all. How about marketing? Do some billboards or commercials? Tens of thousands more.

I've worked in commercial construction (which absolutely is a cash generating machine) and tree trimming services are like a mini version of that - you need a lot of upfront cash to make it happen and get a stable cash flow going before it's solid and profitable.

Equipment and wages, but also all the time you have to put into your business that isn't billable.

Time spent on the phone, scheduling people, time spent doing estimates for jobs, time spent doing business accounting, time spent on truck maintenance, time spent disposing of materials that you've hauled away.

You can pay someone to do almost all of that, and charge for estimates if you'd like, but paying for an accountant or a secretary turns a time cost into a money cost, so you're either losing your hours or doing extra jobs to pay for your accountant. Since finding enough work can be a challenge, it's easier to put in your time, but spending, say, 8 hours a week on accounting is still 8 hours you weren't paid that week.

Taking your truck in for maintenance also means you're paying a mechanic, who has to price similarly to you for all the same reasons, so if you're measuring in time spent per day, you'll find setting aside time to do maintenance yourself is probably worth nearly as much as what you'll make actually working.

Charging for estimates would be great, except that's a privilege you get when you have enough work that you can decline jobs. If you don't have that much work, eating the 10$ of gas (probably 30+ now, but 10$ then) is better than having a customer decline to call because he's paying for you to do maybe nothing, in his mind.

Some weeks I worked 5 days, some 2-3 days. I was college age and either was fine for me at the time. The arborist was putting in 40-50 hours of work on that slow week, 60-70 on the full one.

A larger organization is gonna break all those time costs into additional employees that manage the day to day, an accountant, a mechanic, a secretary, and that's a great way to visualize all the costs that you can't bill for that someone who is working on their own or as a single-crew business is still paying for, just in time they don't get reimbursed for instead.

Yes. Fuel Veichle payments. Veichle maitnace Veichle anual safety and emissions, due to being comercial use Veichle insurance. Equipment costs Mulchers Cranes Chainsaws wich at that level, become consumables. Harnesses, ropes climbing, and riging gear that needs to be replaced frequently. Mainance on said equipment. Oil changes, blades etc Property lease and insurance to store the equipment and tools and act as central location for the business. Saftey training and certificates, working at heights, whimis etc. More insurance. Wages and wsib. Taxes, then more taxes on the taxes. If your company has over x amount of employees you have an extra health tax you have to pay just because you have more employees. I don't know the full reasoning for it. Permits and planing, to operate in some towns and cities. Disposal fees. Only so much of it can be passed down to the customer too. Plus many more misc , Christmas bonus, lunches and coffey for your employees, water and electrolytic drinks. Incidentals etc.