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@dougie
Thanks for that clip. It is finding its way into quite a few email inboxes this morning.
Never thought of that. I have one place where I stack bales in the corner. But, I always keep them at least eight feet from the existing fences. Eight feet is longer than a hungry cow can stick her tongue through a decent barb wire fence. Any corners would fall directly a fence. Right?????????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????
There are places along state highways where the DOT accepts requests to bale hay in the R-O-W. Was near Wichita one day and saw a guy baling on the steep side slope of an overpass for a side road. Could tell he was in wrap mode. A couple seconds later the rear opened, the bale appeared and then made a rapid descent to the bottom where it stopped directly over a windrow. I laughed as I wondered if he would attempt to roll it off the windrow by hand.
@dougie
Highly variable, depending on type of product and long-term drying effects. 1000 lbs. would be typical for smaller bales. 1500-2000 on really good product and proper baling procedure. Now, some hay is effectively baled as silage and wrapped like a fancy roll of toilet paper to seal in the moisture. Those bales can go over 2500.
You’re what the Big Firms refer to as “One Lunger’s”
That’s fine. I’ve found my space and am comfortable with it. The only sad part is the Big Firms have absolutely no interest in 90 percent of what my clients need done. It’s not sufficiently profitable for them with their chosen business model. When the clients can’t find anyone to do what they need done, they will find ways to get by without our profession.
The big firms show up around here from time to time in the middle of town to do some government work.
Never seen any mud on any of their trucks.
They would get lost trying to find where I usually work.
I have toyed with the idea of solo / semi-retirement. I’m a little further down the road. 63 years old. Small shop (3 employees) everything is paid for. I do mostly residential and a few chose topo’s and a little construction staking, mostly for people I have known for a long time. Although my employees are pretty dependable, I don’t trust them to do much on their own, meaning I have to be there most of the time to keep things rolling. I think of a business as a large tank of water with an open top and a small valve at the bottom. The valve flow is your expenses and overhead and is open and running constantly. You pour your income into the top of the tank and this input is not a steady flow. So if you have a little down time or are waiting for projects to be completed, your valve will run your tank dry in a hurry. When running solo your valve flow would be substantially slower. I always feel like I have to hustle to keep it all going and feel a responsibility to keep my employees working.
It’s nice to have some younger hands to do the heavy lifting. When I go in the field I mostly just field marshal. Can’t remember the last time I carried or ran the gun. I like to be in the field to look for evidence and talk to any inquiring neighbors. Too many times my guys have failed to find corners or have said the wrong thing to an inquiring bystander.
Seems like I would be able to take on smaller jobs and work less solo, while decreasing my overhead and increasing my bottom line.
If I were a younger man in my market, I would definitely go solo. You can do a lot with modern equipment such as GPS and robotics. You can always find someone to help you part time if you need to.
Some, like Bruce Small in Tucson, do not let age slow them down. But, they tackle jobs that may be a bit less taxing on the aging body than others. Hacking through underbrush and stickers on a mountainous slope is not my cup of tea. Probably never was.
Oh, yeah, I’m a lot more careful now. No more steep rocky slopes, or any slopes for that matter. Fortunately my niche, ALTA surveys on large commercial sites, are flat, paved, and pedestrian friendly.
@bruce-small
Do you operate solo?
All by my lonesome. I figured out long ago that the way to make money was a solo operation, charging high and spending little, meaning no payroll (except what my wife pays us). I do all the research, field surveying, and drafting. Vicki runs the business end. It has worked out rather well.
@bruce-small
I’m tempted to try it. Overhead is killing me!
I have no idea what part of the world you’re in as your profile is silent on that but lets play around a bit.
You have already stated that; “Although my employees are pretty dependable, I don’t trust them to do much on their own, meaning I have to be there most of the time to keep things rolling.”
I can’t think of a reason for you not to go solo since you don’t trust them. Is your equipment robotic and gps? If you can’t trust them why do you still employ them?
What part of the world are you in? Let’s be realistic here, if you are in a heavily forested part of the world with a lot of underbrush that requires cutting it will be a lot of work. Your comment about “overhead is killing me” is intriguing and I have to ask are you the low price leader of your area or are your fee’s and rates where they need to be with the cost of business of today? Or are they the same fee’s you had 20 years ago?
How old are you?
@bruce-small
The differential between the competition that has a couple of crew members and an extra truck full of equipment with payroll and other benefits of overhead to bear as compared to me alone half the time and a helper the other half to do the heavy lifting and my overhead is much lower.
What it means is that I can go out and work 1/3 of what they do and still make the profit they do.
25yrs ago, I could go all day and all night if that is what was required. Today, I can only go 2 or 3 days a week in the field because I can’t hold up to 14hr days all week long in the field and turn out papers for the next morning day after day.
I had a healthy client list that was already asking for me and that alone is when I saw being solo was going to be the best for me.
Presently, a couple of days each week for about 6hrs field and perhaps an hour or so on the computer crunching numbers, drawing and online research at most.
Bruce, you’ve certainly earned that slow down on the field work. When I was solo, it was more like your original schedule, go go go…and it was totally worth it.
So I’d say to “lookinatchya” be prepared more for the crazy busy bust your ass kinda work than where Bruce is now.
Andy
Naa. I’m ready to do like Bruce. I’m at the point where I could probably retire, but feel I want to stay in the game some what. Would like a little more freedom to spend time with the grand kids, take some trips, enjoy more hunting and fishing.
I feel some responsibility to keep my people working, but it gets tiresome keeping everything rolling for them. Maybe I’m being a little selfish, but you have to look out for number one sometimes. Our days are numbered, no telling what tomorrow will bring.
Oh, I see! then hell yes, go for it. the good news is if you don’t like it or it’s just not working out, you can always get a job.
Also, have you thought about letting go of the day to day and really let your employees try to step up to the plate?? They might just surprise you, then you can eat your cake and have it too. Keep the biz rolling but have the free time without the heavy lifting. Just a thought, but I know how hard it is to really delegate to others. It wasn’t my strong suit either.
Andy
Yes, it is very difficult to delegate responsibilities to others after running everything my self for 25 years. 38 years total in the game. I have pretty good employees, just young and inexperienced.
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