I work jobs hourly, contract sum, by the acre (gps) or by the linear foot if ditch work. In full honesty to my customers, it's cheaper for them and fair to both of us to work hourly by the hourmeter to the 1/10th of the hour at my rates. I try to select the machine that is the most cost efficient for their job. Each machine has a different rate and different minimum call out costs. Distance also factors into job cost.
Size, species, density, terrain and finish quality are the 5 factors to price any job. After 22 years of mulching experience, there is NO magic formula that is 75%+ accurate to price a job - there is too much variance. I would rather bid a job too high and lose the job than to bid a job too low and take a beating. I can always charge a customer less once the job is done rather than charging more after the fact.
UNLESS YOU ARE a mechanic, welder, hydraulics technician, tool fabricator, machinist, engineer, balancing technician and skilled operator with a workaholic tendency, you should run away from this type of business. If you plan to hire out repairs, you will go broke, quickly. While my machines are more efficient, robust and better built than ever, lots of things still go wrong. Every one of my machines has needed repairs due to factory engineering mistakes. Some of these were pretty major. Ever see a machine start to split in half? How do you fix that? Can you safely weld fuel and hydraulic tanks to make these repairs? How do you stop that axle from twisting off the frame? This crap is endless.
And then there is the daily gamble of operating: This past weekend it was a 10" diameter x 6" thick solid steel flywheel pulley that got into a cutterhead. Still waiting on parts and ready for a day's welding to put it back together. Can you stomach a $5k-$30k+ hit at any time with your bank account? If not, this business can break you, fast. The amount of tooling and parts to stay productive could boggle your mind. Do you own a large lathe? Do you have a vertical mill? What about torches, plasma cutters, welders and other fab equipment? Do you know how to thoroughly flush a hydraulic system after trashing a motor or pump? Do you understand why it is so imperative to do this, correctly, or risk an immediate re-occurrence of the failure?
If you really want to get into the business, best of luck to you. When the day goes right, for me, it's worth all of the aggravation. Every location is different as is every market. You will always be competing against Slash&Burn techniques and other mulching businesses. The market will dictate what you need to charge to stay in business.
During a recent visit to Maine, I realized how much different that the tree density is up there. Yes, most of the wood is soft but the number of hidden boulders would make for a very difficult work environment. The trees are thicker than the hair on a dog's back. And how much work is available in a year due to weather? You might be able to make a good living or you might go bankrupt, quickly. Lots of things to factor into this kind of work if you are a start-up business.
I plan to get out of my business sometime in the next 5 years. I will sell my assets with full training of my knowledge and all of my inventory. I would like to continue working in some way as long as I can, especially to get a new owner trained for all of the crap that happens in this business. I enjoy what I do and I'm hard headed enough not to quit. The money is good but I'm sure I could make more doing other things if the money was my priority in life. Time stops for no man and it will force me to retire at some future date. Someone will have an opportunity to continue a well established business.
