Guys running mulching units

[AlanB]

Our business, is actually more accurately the wifes business.

5 words or less, I came up with A Woman's Touch Lawncare

*** Hanna Bechard *** A Woman's Touch *** Clarksville ***

Works for us.

We would not get into / do the mulching / clearing.

But, they do rent / lease those things in some form or fashion, and if you can make money doing it, you should be able to make money renting the thing for a month or two to see if it will work. If you cannot afford to rent the thing, and it pay it's own way, then not sure if it will pay it's own way when you own it either.

One I always said to the salespeople when they told me how much money I would make using this or that equipment,,, I would say fine, I will take it and just pay you X percent of what I make using it.... Should be fine right.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

Good name, maybe I should have asked your advice on ad wording for us. We've gone with brush clearing, so far so good. I have quickly learned by running this business you be successful with this particular setup but the big dollars lye with R.O.W. stuff. I don't mean powerline stuff but new runs through the woods. Here its gas pipelines, things of that nature. The state and city stuff are hard to find, harder to bid, impossible to land. Way to many politices. But I'm learning quickly. I like your idea about salesman fix, I'll have to remember that. From talking with salesman and peolpe in the mulching field just north of Georgia they say the push is to price by the square foot. I know that sounded foreignit did to me too but they said all the big tractors have GPS in them and they get about 2-3 cents a square foot. Doesn't sound like much but when you factor in roughly 43,000 spuare foot in an acre it begins to add up. Is there a big demand in Tn. for this service? Here we have a summer long burn ban which helps us. Plus codes are changing about just striping land bare. Robbie

 

[AlanB]

I have not really researched if it would work here or not. There is nobody doing it in the local area that I am aware of.

My kneejerk reaction would be that plenty would want to have the service, but none, or very few would pay the money to have it done.

 

[Haoleguy]

Alan & Robbie - This past year I became a customer for a gentleman who does clearing with a Fecon-Gehl combo plus other stuff. He mulched my cleared brush and trees. Great guy. Charged me $100/hr and he worked his tail off including during the hottest summer days. My hat goes off to you guys. FYI I found him through the CT Forestry Services on the gov't website which rang a bell as a local friend of mine mentioned him 2 years back. When he came to my property to work other neighbloring properties took notice and he got 2-3 jobs by exposure. Cheers for the holidays!

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

AlanB, that's the real kicker. There are definitly people out there who would use this service it's just a matter of finding them. And believe you me I'm looking. We are learning quickly were to look and praise God thing are picking up nicely. I have another week of a 3 week project to finish and 3 smaller jobs pending completion of this one.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you being in the landscape business I would think you would run into people/current customers needing this service daily. Especially keeping your high dollar mowers out of the woods. The more land you open up the more they can pay you to mantain, right?
If not you already have a great advantage over me and others buy being in a business where you deal with bids and pricing. That to has been an area I've had to learn very quickly. I've only had one job I've lost from pricing but the guy was low balling me anyway and would not have been a "good" customer to deal with. A blessing know that I look back.

 

[AlanB]

Everyone has to sort out their own Niche where they are in the pricing scheme. We are in the middle of the landscaping stuff, their are certainly cheaper folks then us, and there are much more expensive folks, Hanna prides herself on doing a good quality job for a fair price.

With the mulching / shredding thing, I just don't picture a lot of competition to price against you. My two cents would be to come up with prices that you are making good money at, then stick too them.

If you get every job you bid, you are too cheap, and if you are not getting any work, you are probably too high. You have to strike that balance where you are comfortable operating at.

One thing that we have learned over the years (13 or so now... groan...) is that when you get that bad feeling about a customer, better to just stop right there, it does not get better, and usually get's worse.

It is not something that comes up with our customer base. I would think it would be folks with new developments, but in this area, that is primarly done by a Dozer. You know, where you knock down all the trees and name streets after them

I just asked Hanna and nobody has asked her about that type of work that she can remember. We do get some bush hog calls, but usually they are just that, tractor and Bush hog type work.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

That is very interesting nobody has showed the need or interest in having that done, I'll have to remember that. I just thought landscapers around here were just reluctant to use our services. Thanks for the insight.
Same around here with companies being more and less. You just have to do good work and fair pricing and let that speak for itself. I like your bid theory! I am learning quickly how to bid by the job these days, for when you tell someone making an hourly wage { 20.00 an hour] you charge 125.00 per hour it has the tendency to put them off. But if you tell them 500.00 they can justify that better. I know I could.
That is one mistake I made in researching and starting our business was not pricing how much dozers were getting. Around here 90-100 $ per hour for a 953. This was a surprise to me, This is one reason I charge alittle less than others here in Georgia. An amount I can make some money at and I feel the customer is getting there money's worth.
My wife was glad when that particular "client" didn't call back. Her first impressions are usually dead on and he rang all the warning bells.
Good information, Thanks again. I hope you have continued success with your business. Robbie

 

[burnetma]

Robbie,

Pricing is an interesting subject and one well covered in MBA courses. Unfortunately, I do not have my MBA, but I do have friends that have and are extremely adebt at pricing strategies. From my limited knowledge of the subject, the value equation is highly dependent on the type of project. Obviously for digging a large pond, a CTL will not be competitive against a D6 dozer. However, for some land clearing projects, nothing can touch the combination of a CTL and mulcher, as you already know. Think about, if a contractor has to build 5 homes on 5 +/- acres of over-grown pasture. Then your value is much higher because he will need a dozer, chipper and men with chainsaws to clear the same land that you can clear. Furthermore, once the dozer is done, he is going to have to rake the entire 5 acres and replant grass seed. A CTL will not disturb the soil and can be used more readily to preserve desired trees. I think you agree. That is just some of what I find exciting about this equipment.

By the way, have you looked at the various tree shears and saws on the market? Pretty interesting. Leave the chainsaw in the truck and still handle 15" trees. With the shear you can go below ground leaving no/little stump to grind!

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

I agree with you 100% about our equip verses a dozer. Just around here there are no pastures, all woods. I can clear what I can but they will still have to bring in a dozer for stumps, dig basements, etc. Here they would rather replant trees than deal with them in the way during construction. How does this fit in up north?
I have seen tree shears and they are cool. But again around here timber is in high demand and anything over 10" they will log. Plus I have recently had a very, very close encounter with the last 5' of a 60' hardwood tree during a gyrotrac demo to the tune of a mild concusion and 14 stitches. So I'm not real fond of big trees rhese days. I'll have to post the whole story in the saftey threads when I get the time. Robbie

 

[burnetma]

Robbie,

I read about your gyrotrac demo experience. You are fortunate to be alive.

Well new construction around these parts is rather limited and when it does happen, the majority of it is modular homes on blocks or slab. The good news is I am located equal distance to three larger cities that are experience decent growth. Towards these larger cities, there is more stick construction and I have to feel out that business to see what their needs are. Either case, much of the construction occurs on ex-farmland that is either still open or has been allowed to grow up for the last 5-15 years. The construction contractors may sell the lots and custom build homes or may build homes and then try to sell what they have built. If they are trying to make the lot presentable for sale, it would benefit them greatly to remove scrub brush and do so while keeping the heavy equipment on current construction sites. If they are going to pre-build, then the equipment is there already, so it is a question of whether they want to have the dozer clearing land or grading. Again, just my thoughts and I haven't tried to sway a contractor away for his normal mode of operation yet.

My plan is to capture any hardwoods greater than 4-5" for firewood or saw logs. There is some market here for the softwoods, but it is much more limited. Bigger than 10" will probably go for saw logs or pulp wood. Still working on how to market that. Probably a cooperative relationship with either a logger or a local sawmill. I do not think you can get a logger in this area to look at a woodlot smaller than 20 acres, but if you have the logs at a forwarding station, he might get interested. Firewood is an easy sell here.

FYI, I used to do my own logging on my first property and LOVE to spend time with a chainsaw. So this is a natural fit for me.

Mark