Don't buybused, you never know how beat on the chainsaw will be,
There will probably be a bunch of guys here who give you all sorts of suggestions on what to buy etc but it all depends on what you're going to be doing,

Fall cleanups are a great place to start
As is weeding/general landscaping work
Dont be afraid to get dirty, planting. And uprooting shit isn't hard and alot of people (atleast around here ). Need it done ,as for actually cutting down trees, most people will want a person/company that's insured. So its not a great place to start out ( plus nowadays there's a ton of people doing tree work so prices are down)
Offer to clear brush, and remove downed limbs once you get a chainsaw

I would also make a flier to hand out personally, and of course word of mouth is th best advertisement so do a good job

Maybe also give a discount to old people it makes you look like a good guy

>>642110
Great thanks for the advice!

>>642066
Gardener here. You can get alot done with a pair of pruners (Felcos), a spading fork, a grub hoe (w/pick head for rocks and such), a shovel, a fan rake and a metal stiff tyned rake and a wheelbarrow. Get one of those green plastic ones, not those low wheelbarrows. They're terrible for getting around. It's amazing how much I get done with these tools. No need for machines, and if you're being paid by the hour, all the better.

>>642123
Do all your clients pay in cash?

>>642110
Would facebook be a good source to advertise on local groups?

>>642130
A fair few do. It depends on the person, but more often than not clients are laid back old folk who can no longer tend to their gardens. So they're just happy to see things neat and tidy again. It's pretty easy to request cash payments for these types of people. Just be careful who you decide to work for. I find there are so many gardening jobs in my area that I can cherry-pick my clients.

>>642164
Be careful about what? low playing customers?

>>642165
Overly fussy or anal people. They can make a job a real nightmare. I worked for this woman who had a notoriously bad reputation for fussiness at the local nursery. She would ask me to move large shrubs I had just planted "1 inch to the left" and nonsense like that. You also don't want low balling customers. Make sure they know your rate before hand. And if you work by quotes, quote high. This way you'll finish the job under the rate and the client will feel they got a deal,

>>642168
Fuck fussy people
>clearing a few hundred feet of woods
>anything smaller than forarm comes down
>have to take up 8-16 inches of old leaf litter
>cut down 2 larger trees and haul away the wood
>haul away all brush
Told the homeowner it would be a two day job probably and that I would be there two days in a row

>He tells me to come on Friday
>At the end of the day I tell him il be back tomorrow
>Argues with me that I can't do it on the weekends
>Tell him that I AM going to be back tomorrow. And that he needs to have the payment he owes me
(Normally I'm flexible on when I get paid. But I knew he was going to be a cunt )
>Come back the next day and he isn't home
>Fuck it do the work anyways
>load the truck
>go out and get a sandwich
>finish halfway through the day
I needed the cash desu
>I wait in his driveway for the rest of the day
(After trying to call him repeatedly )
>getting late in the day
> he finally comes home
>aproach him
>tell him that I'm done everything is loaded in the truck. But I can't go and dump it until I get paid
>he argues with me about money
>we agreed on cash
> he asks me where all the wood from the trees is
>it's already loaded in the truck along with a bunch of other brush
>he tells me he wants it to keep
>ask him if he wants to go climb in the back of the truck with the thornbushes to get his wood
>he says no but he still wants it
>tell him il get it for him but he has to pay me for the half of the day I waited for him
>tell him it will be an extra hundred
> he agrees and I go unload the shit for him
>he still doesn't have the money for me
>offers me a beer
>nope
>offers me some food
Nope
> tell him il be back tomorrow to get my money or I'm going to dump all of the brush back on his property and he can deal with it
>he's shocked
> come back the next day
> he has the money
>claims I didn't do everything he wanted done
>he wants me to pick up and get rid of all the rocks
>fine but I'm.getting paid

>>642194
>I pick up the rocks and take it all flat,
> go get paid
> ended up making doubble my original quote becuase the half day I waited and the picking up rocks
>supposed to only make $275
> ended up making $475
> $75 to my buddy who let me use his dumptruck

In the long run it was worth it but I told him right then and there I wouldn't work for him ever again

>>642195
What a douche. It's like some people get off making things difficult. That's a perfect example for avoiding fussy people. I remember that when I was working as a piler, my idiot boss agreed to be paid by the chord. Long story short, I made 40$ for 16 hours of back-breaking work. The guy offered us ice cream at the end of the day as if to wipe his conscience clean. I flatly refused. Gardening is where it's at. So long as you know how to weed out troublesome clients, no pun intended.

Landscaping is hard for an old fat broken dick like me. Plus it seems like the kind of people who want landscaping done are generally shittier than someone who wants a faucet replaced which is why I am now a handyman.

>be industrious 15 year old
> old Asian bitch down the street wants bigger window wells for basement
> dig out old ones
> 80% done with job and pinch a nerve in my back
> can't walk for a few days
> contract work out to 15 year old friend
> he finishes the work but the bitch never paid

Fast forward 10 years
> high school buddy has landscaping business and I work for him
> he gets a job
> Same bitch
> I warn him not to take it
> work work work work finish
> bitch won't pay
> buddy leaves backhoe parked in her backyard halfway out so that she can't put her fence back up
> 3 months pass
> she finally payed to get her yard back
Fast forward 1 year
> bitch gets brain cancer and dies
> no one feels bad

>>642205
I put a lien on anyone's house who won't pay up.

>>642205
how much was the job?

>>642600
The first one when I was 15 was only a couple hundred bucks but $200 to a 15 year old might as well be thousands.

I'm not sure exactly how much it was the second time around but I know it was several thousand. Enough to justify leaving a very expensive machine parked for months and even then my friend ended up settling with her for 60% or something.

It's amazing how fucked some people are. I've worked construction for quite a few years and I've seen builders finish an entire house that way, fire a contractor halfway through and settle for 60% or just straight up refuse to pay citing shoddy work or some other bs. Shady as fuck.

>>642652
Contract law doesn't work that way in Canada

Kinda intruding but...

Is there anyone here that has completed an NPTC level 2 or 3 in trees and timber?

Don't really know anyone else doing one and could really do with another portfolio to "reference" to.

Would really appreciate any kind of help.

>>642652
People are cunts in general
>work for farm
>this one lady orders mulch
>deliver a shit ton of it to her house
>sh gets home and says she doesn't like the color
>tell her we will be over in 20 min to load it up with a machine and take it back
>says we can just leave it
> take it back
>she gives us a hard time about taking it and scratching her driveway with machinery
> yells at us that she's a sherrif and will arrest us
> tell her to pay or shut up and leave us all e
>turns out she does this with every hing to try to get it free
> she did this with her house, made them build and rebuild 3 times

> working splitting firewood
> boss isn't there that day
> people pull in
>take firewood from the rack
>take half of another rack
>leave without putting money in the cash box
> I see this
>nope.jpg
> follow them home
> pull in driveway after him
> demand wood back or payment
> he comes up with some bullshit story about how he forgot to pay
> tell him I saw him take the other half of a rack
>he claims there wasn't a rack the size he wanted
>there is. Right next to the empty one
> tell him double the price of what the one rack is worth
> take money and head back to farm
> talk to friend who's been working there longer than I have
> the guy always does it and doesnt pay whenever the boss isn't around,
> the boss knows but haven't ever given a fuck to go get the money back
> turns out the guy owns(or owned). Like half of the townns commercial land

>>644109
What do you mean by trees and timber? You mean a ticket in felling?

>>644869
nooo, I mean the level 2 or 3 diploma in trees and timber.

It includes the tickets but it's the attached portfolio I'm after

>>645707
Why not just do arboriculture?