The company in question is a tree service company, and since he’s become a client, I’ve gotten to know the owner quite well. He started out with a bucket truck, a stump grinder, and a few chainsaws that he got from his father – classic son taking over dad’s business. Dad never got beyond “him and a helper” but his son had bigger ideas.

Fast forward two years: the company finances looked great, and the phone was steadily ringing. He felt he was ready for a leap and decided to get a second bucket truck and a chipper. Adding these would greatly expand his capacity and meet the ever-growing demand for his services. He went to his local bank, and ultimately, was surprised by their reaction.

After speaking with a loan officer, they did agree to loan him money, but there were a few catches. The first was he had to make sure his bank balance never got below 80% of the loan value. As a long-time customer of the bank this bothered my friend, almost like they were locking away his money because they didn’t trust him.  

The second part was they would not loan him all the money he needed. They balked at the chipper, telling him to wait on that. They couldn’t see that he needed it – having that chipper made an immense difference in his level of service.  

He left the bank dejected. Maybe he wasn’t as successful as he thought, and his visions of business growth were not valid. But brighter days were ahead. 

He looked online, found Crest Capital, and we spoke. And it turned out, he was an ideal customer for us – a company in business for more than two years that is both successful and growing. We said yes to both the bucket truck and the chipper. No matching bank balance necessary – quite frankly, we didn’t care about his bank balance. 

Years later, he’s still a customer, and he has several crews out there at once, all with equipment we financed. By all accounts, he’s done well. And would you know, he still mentions how much that first “yes” meant to him. That it validated his visions of success and showed him that successful business partnerships do not have to be completely one-sided. 

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I’m not going to pretend I’m not influenced by that either – in this very blog I’ve recently been discussing shortages (both in materials and labor), rising inflation, rising interest rates, and similar. Of course, I try to put an equipment financing spin on it, but still, the overall tone is sometimes more influenced by the negative than I’d like. So let’s change that for a post.

I was on Facebook yesterday, and saw some posts from a friend who owns a tree service company. My friend is quite successful – he started more than twenty years ago with a chainsaw and some secondhand tree climbing gear, and through hard work, he now has 40+ employees, about 15 vehicles/pieces of heavy machinery, and is the name for tree service in his area.  

And he was posting this past Sunday evening about his new (financed) chipper, showing videos of this thing just eating full 50’ trees, pulling them in and turning them to mulch in a minute flat.  Also in this video was his new smaller crane (also financed) that picks up the cut trees and moves them into chipping position.

But what really struck me was not the equipment, After all, he’s been financing tree equipment for years, and it’s helped fuel his growth. What made me take notice  was he and the 12 other guys in the video were working on a Sunday. 

I reached out to him and asked him how business was. He said he has never been busier. Here in 2022, with inflation, shortages, rising rates, etc. And he said something that really resonated with me: People still need things done. Except now, there seems to be fewer companies to do them. 

In my friend’s case, one of his competitors hung it up last year, fed up with rising labor costs and his help leaving because they found better-paying jobs. My friend adjusted and continued to pay competitive wages. Yes, he had to raise his prices a little, but he’s hardly alone. And him raising prices for his services has not mattered in his phone ringing – again, people still need things done.  Storms still happen. Trees still fall. And you need both skill and the right equipment to do the job. And he has an ample supply of both. He was already the biggest guy in town, but he still puts in the work. Because he knows success is no accident. 

It doesn’t matter what your industry is: I’m writing about a tree service here, but I’m pretty sure that most industries have seen a shift – either in a reduced service level, delivery times, etc. There is always opportunity for someone to put the work in on a Sunday because nobody else can (or will).