The following is an informative article geared towards helping the average homeowner find a capable tree service company.

The tree service industry has one of the highest overturn for workers than any other small business.

This fact in itself should be enough to warrant an investigation into just what is going on inside of this quickly expanding industry.

Tree service is a highly skilled trade, however, it does not require the need for a college degree, or even a high school education for that matter.

It has been the mindset of many who start a tree company that I've been using a chainsaw since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I know how to cut wood…

In most of those cases, it had been firewood these individuals were cutting, not the beautiful trees in a finely cured neighborhood.

In most instances, these people were either cutting or dropping trees around a forest floor instead of a lush green Scott's free yard full of expensive landscape additions. Fences, sheds, sidewalks,etc… Add in a couple of pickup trucks, or even worse, a chip truck and chipper, and perhaps even a bucket truck, for those that had made a few “ good hits “ so the saying goes with them, and the potential for expensive damage is highly likely… things like ruptured septic tanks, deep ruts, smashed fences, and driveway damage are most likely to occur with inexperienced tree workers.

And that is just touching on the mechanical aspects of tree work. But what about the actual cutting of the tree, one must ask.

The skillset required to properly climb trees is of a very high nature. So high in fact that the MAJORITY OF TREE SERVICES, INCLUDING many big name tree companies like Monster, start with absolutely no, NONE, experience performing accurate residential tree care.

To get going they must rely on climbers that freelance for anyone and on workers that make their rounds through local trees services. These guys just seem to bounce around from company to company after being dismissed.

You see the demand for an experienced tree workers is such that the highly skilled climbers, as few as they are, are presently, as of 2021, demanding as much as 600.00 a day. Tree ground men are wanting 20-30 hr for the decent ones.

This is where the so called Mom and Pop tree services, many family owned, excel in their field of work… the same mom and pops that Franchise Minster Tree Service uses as an attraction to potential franchisee's… yes you heard that right, the Monster Tree franchise folder tells potential investors that people like us( mom Pop) doesn't have a chance against the monster they have branded !

See, The Monster on our menu

Tree Service Companies, a view from the inside

A tree service truck driving slow - faded out chipper in tow. Coming down the road they make the turn - and young minds begin to burn...

A neighbor wandering around his yard - last night's storm sure hit hard...

Broken branches are spotted in the trees....Don't worry partner, soon we will be busy as bees...

But the truck creeps on by...not stopping the driver mumbles, " better wait on this one, that tree is way too high"....

Two guys bargaining against luck - and the thoughts continue... " Man, I bet that yard is full of bucks"...

Tree trucks with chippers in tow are everywhere it seems...though it may go along with the theme of the American way., operating a small business - what many are doing is learning as they go, only thinking of the money that can be made cutting on trees.

After all, how hard can it be, I got a good Stihl chainsaw and been cutting firewood since I was knee-high to a grasshopper - so the line of reasoning goes.

The end result of a firewood cutter sawing on residential trees is most often times a butchered tree and or damage to persons or property. We have seen it all to often, and most likely so have you as you pass by trees that have been closely cropped, left to die and at the later expense of their owners...

The plain jest of it all is that it takes much more than a chainsaw, and even a chipper and bucket truck all combined to perform tree care the proper way. In addition, a certificate of tree workers insurance is not a license to perform tree work.

Trees are intricate living organisms that require experienced and knowledgeable tree arborists in order to prevent danger and damage to both them, the people working on them and to your property.

So how did all those tree companies come to be ?

Wind and weather wreaking destruction upon trees was an open avenue for people looking for work. There are at least a dozen newer tree companies in driving distance of the Forest area alone operating as a result of the two derechos and tornado that hit in recent years.

These storms came at a time when unemployment was high, attracting people looking for work who figured doing residential tree work couldn't be much different than cutting firewood as they had been doing in their own yards - moving from their yards to the many neighborhoods that dot the Forest, Smith Mtn.Lake area.

The tree service industry has attracted people of all types and diversities looking to make big money quick. So many that it has fueled a franchise buying frenzy across America.

The problem is evident through the way certified tree climbers are now freelancing, bidding their services out to the highest bidder. This means you could potentially pay too much for tree work should you call one of those companies that hire out climbers..

For those looking to start a business, the tree service industry is not one to be taken lightly ...or jumped into without having the proper background. It's just too dangerous, and trees should not be cut in any way a person seems fit.

THE INTERNET AND THE TREE SERVICE INDUSTRY

Another trend, this one fueled by the internet, is for people to use their computer prowess abilities to upstart tree services.

PLACES SUCH AS Home Advisor and Angie's list are the big players in this scene. They use their clout to saturate then dominate the tree service pages of Google, leaving little for the consumer to choose from. Aside from Home Advisor and Angie, both now one and the same if that tells you anything, there are hundreds of smaller sites like doing the same things.

HOME ADVISOR

HOME ADVISOR is a internet lead generation company that sells homeowners information to contractors. Each request received from a homeowner is processed and sent to at least three contractors for a price. Angie/ Home Advisor deceives you by telling you that you pay nothing for their services when in fact the high prices the contractors pay has to be deferred somewhere and the homeowner is their only source of income.
If Home Advisor doesn't get any bites from the contractors they have in that particular area when you use their service for a tree service provider they then funnel your contact information down to smaller pay for lead generation companies such as Craft Jack and Porch.com, in fact selling your information to these companies for Pennie's on the dollars. That is how greedy they are.

So, Home Advisor is owned by a parent company named IAC which owns a conglomerate of smaller companies.

Angies list owner Angie sold her company to IAC. They rebranded it as Home Advisor integrated with the old Home Advisor.
Home Advisors main tool they use to attract potential homeowners is that they perform background checks on all contractors in their data base. But the smaller subsidies of Home Advisor do not.
So, in fact, you do not know who might show up at your doorstep when you put your valuable contact information into their data base.

Any reputable tree company out there DOES NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR JOB LEADS!
This trend has even caught the eye of people that has never held a chainsaw, or a job even!….

Though Monster Tree falls into this category we will focus on another problem…The computer smart people looking for a way to hit it big.

These people are computer smart and they use their abilities to make tree service websites. They then turn around and find a tree service in their area that is low on work, a red flag to the consumer btw, that is in need of jobs. Once the contact has been made they CHARGE THESE SO-CALLED CONTRACTORS PREMIUMS FOR THEIR JOB LEADS, - So now we have entrepreneurs luring in unsuspecting people looking to have tree work performed through legitimate looking and sounding websites they create.

These people oftentimes post fake pictures from the web, fake press releases to gain traction in ranking their sites and good sounding things...

These same people use tricks to gain your attention... some claim to give discounts if contracts are signed on site before their competition has a chance of speaking with the customer in question. They sell your contact info to any tree service they can find willing or take a cut of the job, depending on the deal they can strike with the tree service they find.

Tree work is extremely dangerous and unpredictable.. It is a trade that has taken the lives of many a seasoned tree care worker, not to mention the countless amateurs that has attempted it.

Statistics prove this. In fact, it shows that the recent surgency of new tree services has sent the mortality rate of tree workers through the roof, and limbs through the tops of houses and garages as well - many times the entire tree itself.

It takes years many years of practice, study, and real life happenings through trial and error to learn the tree care profession. As a professional tree care provider for a decade and a half, I can only estimate that 7 yrs. of on the job training would be sufficient for a person to try and do it on their own. And it is ALWAYS the customer who pays for the inexperience when the bar is not met

There's simply too many things that are unforeseeable which makes a seasoned tree man reconsider how to attempt things on future jobs - things that the inexperienced learn the hard way and at the expense of the customer. Please do not let that person be you.