Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I started out with a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger, and a 13 HP handlebar unit. Removing bushes and small stumps was my bread and butter. And because the expenses were so much smaller, you could offer a $50 stump that would be counter productive for someone with a bigger machine. Even today someone could still make descent money with that kind of setup by catering to that niche (small stump) market.
Fantastic advice as always. Unfortunately cost of living and cost of fuel drives prices of everything else and as you said, $50 stumps are basically non existent. Can’t wait to see a video on the new truck. Keep up the good work!
A great laid back Saturday business advice session. I agree with you and mike, the real costs of doing business, insurance, workshop, tool repair and maintenance are squeezing initial project costs upward. Small jobs still the best profit.
Adam, great video as usual. I swap big stumps for smaller work w/a competitor w/large equipment. Works for him and works for me, I leave the larger stumps for larger equipment as big stumps are a chore for a 35hp grinder. Keep’m coming brother, Fran
Great advice, I always look forward to your videos. keep it up. Thanks you’re helping us more than you know . All of us new guys that are just starting out.
Great video as always. I bought the sg40 back in January after watching tons of your videos. I'm only doing it on the side but hopefully in 6 months or so I will be able to retire from my regular job and get my small business started. I took your advice on the greenteeth and I called them directly, they are awesome. Do you have a particular company online that you order all other bandit parts from? Like replacement belts, filers, fluids, oils etc. Thanks again for the videos and great advice.
Your videos are really, really helpful to those of us just starting. Ive got an SG40, that I rent exclusively to a buddy who owns a tree company. He only uses it 2 days a week or so, on the non -use days, I do maintenance on it, and have it available to do jobs myself. I just drove by a house near me that had a massive live oak removed.. prob a 6-8 ft stump, fairly big mound 2 ft. off grade. I was gonna stop and bid it. Being brand new to the stump grinding game, I was gonna bid 400-500. After watching this video, I realize its prob a really big job for an SG40. Would you pass a job like this off?
@@mustangrebuilder Yei i kinda figured that might be the best bet.. although I would like to do one like that so I have a baseline idea how much time it would take with a small machine. Thanks
With our SG40 we don’t do anything over 50”. And if we do it’s cause I can’t get our big grinder close. I honestly don’t like doing anything over 30” with it unless I have to. My 80 horse rayco spoils me and using less power sucks lol. I do stumps all the time like this video where i can go from stump to Stump with my SG40. In Iowa My minimum is $75, if I’m at location and it’s a quick stump i pick up I would do for $50 - $100. Great discussion
You can't afford to drive a truck and equipment to a job site and run the equipment and pay all your maintenance and other behind the scenes costs and only charge $50 for a single stump. Yet there are customers expecting to pay that little. Because in my area we have "stump grinders" chasing a quick buck that have old junky machines they barely maintenance and don't have a legitimate business, so not paying insurance or taxes, that only grind them maybe 1 inch below grade, pile the grindings on top of it, and taking the money and running. Then the customer can never get a hold of them again after they move the grindings and the stump is still there. So I get called out to grind it correctly, 6"-8" below grade, and now the customer is having to pay again but are wanting a discount cause they already paid for it once.
Oh the old regrind and I agree with you 100% but I have to say I do like regrinds ... have one for tomorrow and customer is begging me to come out ... I tend to take it easy on them because I am locked in as there guy for now on
@@mustangrebuilder My big question has always been how are these guys even getting the business in the first place. I still give some of a discount on a regrind. I'm not having to grind a stump down to grade that was potentially 8-10" above ground originally. Most of the trees we have to grind are Oak trees with lots of surface roots. So the customer can decide how much they want to spend I give them a price to regrind the stump down correctly and then a price to regrind the stump and chase all the surface roots out.
I own 4 stump grinders. The smallest is an SC252, the other 3 are large diesel units and my minimum is $100. That said, I would have to disagree that there are no more $50 stumps. I started as a guy driving a Ford Ranger with a small 13 HP handlebar unit. The costs per hour to operate a Ford Ranger and a small handlebar unit, is a fraction of the cost of operating a F350 and a $75,000 stump grinder. The relative cost vs profit comparison to operate each setup (big machine vs small machine) rarely gets talked about but it is an important consideration.
The guy with a small handle bar unit can grind out a few bush stumps pretty much just as quickly as the guy with the monster machine, but the out of pocket expenses to do the same work will be pretty lopsided to favor the smaller unit. For the guy with the handlebar unit, the small jobs are their bread and butter. They may need to pass on the big stumps but there is plenty of very good money to be made on the small stumps. A smaller unit does not mean that they will do an inferior job, nor does it mean that they are not legitimate. On top of that, the comparison of older (inexpensive) vs new (expensive) is another discussion that rarely gets talked about. There are good advantages of an old "junky" unit versus a new unit. I could swap out an old Kohler engine for a brand new engine on my SC252, in an afternoon. The cost would be about $2,500 and have a good reliable machine for a bargain. My current setup would not work to do a stump for $50, but it might easily work for the guy hauling a handlebar unit in a Ford Ranger. Just my $0,02
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I started out with a 4 cylinder Ford Ranger, and a 13 HP handlebar unit. Removing bushes and small stumps was my bread and butter. And because the expenses were so much smaller, you could offer a $50 stump that would be counter productive for someone with a bigger machine. Even today someone could still make descent money with that kind of setup by catering to that niche (small stump) market.
My hat is off to you for the excellent advice on pricing out this job 👍👍👍
Thanks 👍
Thats generous, we are at $200 minimum. Can't rent one cheaper than that in our area. Plus it's more than likely not gonna be a 100hp lol
Fantastic advice as always. Unfortunately cost of living and cost of fuel drives prices of everything else and as you said, $50 stumps are basically non existent. Can’t wait to see a video on the new truck. Keep up the good work!
Great point!
A great laid back Saturday business advice session. I agree with you and mike, the real costs of doing business, insurance, workshop, tool repair and maintenance are squeezing initial project costs upward. Small jobs still the best profit.
Adam, great video as usual. I swap big stumps for smaller work w/a competitor w/large equipment. Works for him and works for me, I leave the larger stumps for larger equipment as big stumps are a chore for a 35hp grinder. Keep’m coming brother, Fran
Your spot on with your advice, I run my business with the same principles.
Put up a video title with the words "stump" and "$" and you're promised to get twice as many views and 4x the comments haha. Thanks for the video!
Send info to mustangrebuilder@gmail.com you won the sticker
Great advice, I always look forward to your videos. keep it up. Thanks you’re helping us more than you know . All of us new guys that are just starting out.
TRUTH! Another good video! Thank You and God bless
Same to you!
Great video as always. I bought the sg40 back in January after watching tons of your videos. I'm only doing it on the side but hopefully in 6 months or so I will be able to retire from my regular job and get my small business started. I took your advice on the greenteeth and I called them directly, they are awesome. Do you have a particular company online that you order all other bandit parts from? Like replacement belts, filers, fluids, oils etc. Thanks again for the videos and great advice.
Truth is I hunt the world of google but there is an online Bandit dealer and I will find it for you
Good advice
Spot on brother. Spot on.
Much appreciated
Good video Adam!
Thanks!
Great advice like always. Thanks
Thanks
I love $50 dollar stumps my zt1844 eats them up and I can do it after work
Your videos are really, really helpful to those of us just starting. Ive got an SG40, that I rent exclusively to a buddy who owns a tree company. He only uses it 2 days a week or so, on the non -use days, I do maintenance on it, and have it available to do jobs myself. I just drove by a house near me that had a massive live oak removed.. prob a 6-8 ft stump, fairly big mound 2 ft. off grade. I was gonna stop and bid it. Being brand new to the stump grinding game, I was gonna bid 400-500. After watching this video, I realize its prob a really big job for an SG40. Would you pass a job like this off?
Pass it to a bigger guy but make a commission
@@mustangrebuilder Yei i kinda figured that might be the best bet.. although I would like to do one like that so I have a baseline idea how much time it would take with a small machine. Thanks
With our SG40 we don’t do anything over 50”. And if we do it’s cause I can’t get our big grinder close. I honestly don’t like doing anything over 30” with it unless I have to. My 80 horse rayco spoils me and using less power sucks lol. I do stumps all the time like this video where i can go from stump to Stump with my SG40. In Iowa My minimum is $75, if I’m at location and it’s a quick stump i pick up I would do for $50 - $100. Great discussion
@@zechariahmoriarty969 on the same track
Send info to mustangrebuilder@gmail.com you won the sticker
You can't afford to drive a truck and equipment to a job site and run the equipment and pay all your maintenance and other behind the scenes costs and only charge $50 for a single stump. Yet there are customers expecting to pay that little. Because in my area we have "stump grinders" chasing a quick buck that have old junky machines they barely maintenance and don't have a legitimate business, so not paying insurance or taxes, that only grind them maybe 1 inch below grade, pile the grindings on top of it, and taking the money and running. Then the customer can never get a hold of them again after they move the grindings and the stump is still there. So I get called out to grind it correctly, 6"-8" below grade, and now the customer is having to pay again but are wanting a discount cause they already paid for it once.
Oh the old regrind and I agree with you 100% but I have to say I do like regrinds ... have one for tomorrow and customer is begging me to come out ... I tend to take it easy on them because I am locked in as there guy for now on
@@mustangrebuilder My big question has always been how are these guys even getting the business in the first place.
I still give some of a discount on a regrind. I'm not having to grind a stump down to grade that was potentially 8-10" above ground originally. Most of the trees we have to grind are Oak trees with lots of surface roots. So the customer can decide how much they want to spend I give them a price to regrind the stump down correctly and then a price to regrind the stump and chase all the surface roots out.
I own 4 stump grinders. The smallest is an SC252, the other 3 are large diesel units and my minimum is $100. That said, I would have to disagree that there are no more $50 stumps.
I started as a guy driving a Ford Ranger with a small 13 HP handlebar unit. The costs per hour to operate a Ford Ranger and a small handlebar unit, is a fraction of the cost of operating a F350 and a $75,000 stump grinder. The relative cost vs profit comparison to operate each setup (big machine vs small machine) rarely gets talked about but it is an important consideration.
The guy with a small handle bar unit can grind out a few bush stumps pretty much just as quickly as the guy with the monster machine, but the out of pocket expenses to do the same work will be pretty lopsided to favor the smaller unit.
For the guy with the handlebar unit, the small jobs are their bread and butter. They may need to pass on the big stumps but there is plenty of very good money to be made on the small stumps. A smaller unit does not mean that they will do an inferior job, nor does it mean that they are not legitimate.
On top of that, the comparison of older (inexpensive) vs new (expensive) is another discussion that rarely gets talked about. There are good advantages of an old "junky" unit versus a new unit. I could swap out an old Kohler engine for a brand new engine on my SC252, in an afternoon. The cost would be about $2,500 and have a good reliable machine for a bargain.
My current setup would not work to do a stump for $50, but it might easily work for the guy hauling a handlebar unit in a Ford Ranger.
Just my $0,02
Do you charge less for a neighbor? Small job.
You have to make it worth your time