Doing Tree Work On The Side 

Been running a start up for 4 months. We only do it on weekends and it’s just my buddy and I. I typically try to finish most jobs in a day but worked 12 hours yesterday and was up in the tree for 9 hours. It’s brutal on your body when you’re the only climber. I wish I would just contract climb and make my $400 a day because maintenance and managing everything sucks. I like to just show up and go home

A few things. First, nice job having the courage to do your own thing. Not many people do. I ran my own business for 16 years so that's where my advice comes from. First, pour oil with the bottle rotated 180 degrees. When you pour from the side you did you block the airflow into the bottle. You'll get a much smoother pour from the other side and it's easier to control. I never fill my oil reservoir. You'll run out of gas before you will oil so by not completely filling oil it avoids the overflow problem. 80-90% full will get you through the tank. Some of my bigger saws (400, 500i, 661) where I have the oiler turned up a bit I need that 90%. You learn what each saw consumes per tank pretty quickly. Secondly, run your business with cash. Avoid debt if at all possible. Best thing I ever did, hands down. My vendors told me I was one of very few who actually paid bills on time. Because I ran an all cash business, I actually had money. When I was in a pinch, they were always very gracious and willing to help because they knew they'd get paid quickly. Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender." Renting is inconvenient, trust me I know. I have T-shirts to prove it. So is trying to make payments when no jobs are coming in. When everything is paid for in cash, you lose the stress. Have 3-6 months of expenses saved up in a money market account for emergencies. New equipment isn't an emergency. Your son breaking his arm and now you have unexpected medical bills is. Again, life will be so much better. When people get desperate they tend to make poor decisions. Sitting on a pile of cash makes the desperation disappear. When I went self-employed full time, I had 2 years of living expenses saved up in a money market account. I didn't have to make money for 2 full years. I used about 6 months of it before I was financially self-sufficient. Having that cash set aside allowed me to exercise caution and have patience, and that was critical to being successful. The next thing is with your accounting system I strongly recommend you do job costing. This does a couple things. First, it helps you reconcile your estimate with your profit. You'll need to allocate time and expenses for each job. Some of it you will probably be able to set a fixed amount (i.e. equipment prep, maintenance, repairs, etc.) and some of it will vary by job (i.e. mileage, hours on site, etc.). The second advantage of job costing is making sure you're making enough money. People don't value their time enough when first starting out. Job costing shows you on each job what your net profit is. The final thing with job costing, when you know your net profit on the job, now you can appropriately set aside 25% of that net profit to pay taxes. One of the biggest reasons why businesses fail is cash flow problems. Including paying taxes. Your first hire should be an admin person IMHO. Hire someone to do all the tasks YOU don't need to do. Taking phone calls, scheduling, bookkeeping, paying bills, sending invoices, ordering supplies, chasing down customers who don't pay, etc. I waited too long to hire this person. If I had to do all over again, it's the first person I will hire, not the last. Even if it's 1-2 days per week. Tree work, it might be the second hire, a groundie may be better bang for the buck. However, it just makes all the admin stuff grow exponentially when you have more capability/capacity. In order to grow, you have to delegate. Good luck.

You can use a lighter to fix the fray on your lanyard and you can ecstatic the life of your file by tapping on the side of your bar instead of on your chain

So much space cheers

Save a laundry soap container for bar oil- works great! I rock climbed years ago but am learning how to climb trees now at 50 lol. Love chainsaws , axes, tree work, felling and firewood. Looking forward to your videos!

a tip for sending tops climb up a bit higher and take some limbs off the back side, make it easier for you to get it over

. Check out some bucking Billy ray saw sharpening tutorials. He’s smooth it. And explains everything he’s doing while he’s doing it🤘🏽

Lanyard is pretty mangled, maybe burn it the some kinda tape around it so it's easier to slide until you get a new one, would also recommend edelrid tree talon (not to sure if that's the name but the ones by edlerid obviously)

The lanyard is fine as long as the cable isn’t frayed

Good work . ❤. Bsafe.

Bro thanx ive been doin trees hedges close 20 years few places. N its tuff sometimes have climbed but ropes really. And fair bit of hedgin. Hope goes well bro.

“Work my own hours”. Yep, I’ve also heard it said “when you work for yourself, you can work any 18 hours in the day you want”. During peak season in the northeast, I’ll do jobs Monday-Saturday and estimates on Sunday. Life is good but I’m just as busy as when I was W-2 with OT.

Nice video I CUT PART TIME TO

Get a new lanyard, I would not use that at all

362 is honestly my favorite saw! Stay SAFE

Try art positioner. Great.

I think people put their cam on the dominant side

Sounds dum less power. But a 2511 or 151 is heaps good for limbin

10:46 & 12:45 I'm just learning, can anybody tell me if his lifeline with the zigzag is attached properly? Doesn't look to be a proper sinching/choking anchor on the spar/trunk, like one would do with an adjustable cambium/friction saver.

no helmet = not a professional. good work, but sorry you lost all credibility climbing solo with no PPE