Chippin' Away Podcast

Inside MH Treecare: Building a Successful Tree Surgery Business 🌳

• AMW.Visuals • Season 3 • Episode 1

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0:00 | 30:54

We sit down with Mark from MH Treecare to talk all about the world of tree surgery, running a tree care business and the journey behind building a successful company.

Mark shares how MH Treecare started, how the business has grown through family roots and the steps, challenges and decisions he’s had to make to get to where he is today. We dive into what it takes to become a tree surgeon, the realities of running a tree business, managing customers, growing a team and keeping a company moving forward.

Whether you’re interested in arboriculture, starting your own business or just want to hear the story behind a growing tree care company, this episode is packed with insight and inspiration.

Follow MH Treecare:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mh.treecareltd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mhtreecare

Website: https://www.mhtreecare.co.uk/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSyKEtleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFHMzhJUkVNRW10RXVCTjU4c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjUzhhnPnZ_w-uxuDJX9jmtya25fmjQDbvQQv2wd7RUNoKM4UoXyefsGRfdG_aem_0rMRtd8PnEdGGt3UppnRgQ

A huge thank you to our first ever podcast sponsor: AMW.Visuals 🎥

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#TreeSurgery #Arboriculture #TreeSurgeon #BusinessPodcast #Entrepreneurship #TreeCare

SPEAKER_00

Uh welcome to another episode of Bitchip in a way. We're really excited about this one. We've got the mark from MHP. This video has been kindly sponsored by AMW Visuals.

SPEAKER_02

AMW Visuals create social media content, marketing, videography, videography, cinematography, pretty much an all-round package for anyone looking for someone to look after social media for those. If you want to take that, there is also a promo code at the moment. So if you enter GTT26 on any inquiry to AMW Visuals, you will get 20% off over your first two months of content.

SPEAKER_01

So before I did tree care, um was an engineer at the world company. Uh when I was like 18, 19, I've always been around trees work. I used to do timber that weekend. So my uncle did tree work on the land. I was like, wow, this is amazing. Like you fell in a big old tree, like, wow, this is exciting. And that's how I fell into it kind of. Yeah, chainsaws, XX from there. So I was like, sweet, I'll do it. And he's he's he he taught me how to sell some trees, and I was like, Yeah, this is cool. And what age is this? This was like when I was probably about seven. Seven. I've been well that's the thing. When it was like eight, eight, I was like, never he would never let me touch a chainsaw, never, yeah, until I was like 16, 17. Yeah, and then it's just it built up around that kind of thing, and then before you know it, you think, Oh, I want to do this at the weekend. So you buy your own chainsaw in one of the older trees, he says, Why are you a chainsaw? Because I was helped I was on the farm working at weekends and doing a bit. He says, 'Oh, I just like I like cutting timber, you know, that's how it all falls into it.' Just pure love of doing it. Just pure love. And then you get to like you like so it was 16, 17, I got me on chainsaw. And he give me the chainsaw pants, and it was drowning me, you know. There's thick leather like pants, you just like proper old school and it was middle of something like sweating when I'll wear them anyway. Yeah, wear them, got a chainsaw jacket and a gloves on, and I think like, wow, this this is like you're sure you want to do it. It's like, yeah, sweet. So then I used when they got me driving, I'd done my driving, got my license, had a pickup truck. I was like, Ah, I can I can sell timber, I can sell logs. So my uncle's old Ford major with a log split one, it was like Frank Stein split on with around one, it's just just pushed sleeper back into and um started doing timber. I was like, Okay, so how much should I sell it for? I was like, I don't have a clue. You know what I mean? I used it in diesel when the tractor was like red diesel. I didn't know the prices back then of it. Yeah, I was like, yeah, no worries, chase uncle, you know what I mean? Yeah, just keep putting it in. I was like, okay, ÂŁ10 a ton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, pick up truck was like, I think it was like back then, it was like ÂŁ50 quid. And you just get like when people say how how how much you owe me for it, I was like, Oh, it's 50 quid. You you put it. I said then I one evening, I was like, I emptied all the pickup truck and put like a ton bag there. I was filling over a ton bag and a half. I was like, so basically it was 50 quid, they're getting a really good deal for a ton bag and a half. So I went from there really and then um just built up my stuff and then quit my real job. That was the most scariest thing I ever done. Like just quitting my real job. I I settled MH3 care, I had no money behind me, I had 850 quid in my bank, and I had the missus of why um a baby and I think I'd pay for I'm like, I need, I need, I need to push my business that this has got to work. I quit my job with like nothing behind me. And I had um, but over over the time when I was building up bought a transit with me with my job from the money where I used to work full-time. Um, that transit wasn't the max of transit 287,000 on you. I mean, I was like, wow, this has been to the moon and back. Yeah, I remember like going to jobs and I put some greedy boards on the sides, painted them in green, got my um got my wife, got those little printing machines, yeah, your labels and everything, and we um put the logos like stuck in there. I was like, my name's in the van. We couldn't the machine vote, so we only had one sign on the right side door on the driver's side door. Things like I remember I remember like going to jobs like best best park chair, so it doesn't look like there's not like oh this this guy just turned it on. There's no sign, there's no there's no chase, but this guy for jumping if it goes wrong, it means there's no number, there's no name. Um but yeah, it went from that and then it's just kind of you do you you do a job, you plant a seed, you neck the next one say, Oh, can you come in this head screen for me?

SPEAKER_02

I bet the early days from your engineering background probably helped you with a 278,000 mile. Yeah, you could fix these things if they're gonna help you.

SPEAKER_01

I remember having this van, and I was like, God, that's that's ready for scrapy. I was like, Yeah, but it's a cheap van, it cost me two and a half grand. Yeah, the engine works. I went to look at it, it needed um alternate belt, it needed diesel pump, uh, filter changing, and you know what I mean. And I limped it along, yeah. Okay, like you you full the van's full of load, load, load of logs and timber and chip and stuff, and you're like, it's blowing up black smoke, the van's cutting out a light.

SPEAKER_00

She's like, But it's doing the job for you, though. But it's doing a job for you.

SPEAKER_01

It's a workhorse. Um, and then I bought uh Jay uh Jenkson's um 540 chipper, yeah, that cost me four grand for auditory surgeon who's literally next door to us up the road. And he said, What are you doing? I said, Well, I'm doing my own thing. It's like looked at me. We got the transit man there, yeah. I mean, greedy balls and size. It's like, oh, and then like about six months, I was like, I wish I never saw that chip. I was like, done me well. Yeah, and then you like go from there and you like this you you tone the chip the old chip's like weigh like 1200 kilos and you're winging it, you know. You got like full loaded chip, full loaded chip. You got a chip away in the uh 1200 kilos, and this is the performance. Yeah, that's when you that's before they like scrap the license to tow to tow a trailer. Yeah, you're like, I'd be fine, just crack on, crack on. You know, it went from there, really. Yeah, what's the uh story of the golf? So the golf, um, when I got furloughed, um I don't like sitting about at home. So this is in this is the tinkering, this is like the engine before MH3K even name was about coronavirus. This is like coronavirus time. So I got furlough, yeah. Um, and I didn't like sitting about at home. I always did stuff in the yard, messing about. And then my golf was like, but you always want baby. I mean, it's like when you're youngster like 19, 18. Or golf GTI. Yeah, golf GTI. You just like you just want you just to dream about the the side of like the boy racer car and stuff like you know, but we still have your 1.45 door golf, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

1.5 uh 1.45 door, then as you get a bit older, then you can move on to three door, then you end up with the South African GTI without the red eye. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Because you can't in the two litre, which actually was slower than a one-litre fiat, but you got it everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

Um the Volkswagen, some guy was gonna scrap it. I was like, whoa, I buy off it, give him like I think it was like a grand for it. It's like, because you're not gonna get that scrap, so I just said it was like ABS sensor, um this thing that's gonna cost. I did all that and then got in road, and then I took it off the road, and then obviously I got filled out. I was like, right, I'm gonna do it up. So I put a new clutch in it. I spent so much quid, and I was like, Oh, I can't afford to buy anything else. So I was like, right, let's go back to the logs, do some logging. And then ever since then, from the logs, it's grown, it's grown. Then I've not got talented in my my hobbies, yeah. And then it still sat there in bits five years, six years later, you know what I mean. It's still in the same access. The tires like the tires are all crowding, it's like you just get you just gets it's bials, and that just shows how busy you've been that.

SPEAKER_02

Is it is it British racing green or is it another colour, but it's just gone green?

SPEAKER_01

No, it is it is yeah, it is it's a wallpaper dish, one and so it's it's a limited edition. I'm like, look and go, hmm. I need to get a sort and you get on the shower, but it's just vote family lifestyle. So married, kids, two kids, running your own business, running your own business, or part, you know.

SPEAKER_00

So where about so where are you located and where do you predominantly work, would you say?

SPEAKER_01

So we're as you search us on Google MH3 care, we're based in Congraton. We're well known in Congleton, um, but we cover all North West now. We've pretty much gone from like just covering Congleton and going all of Cheshire East, and then commercial jobs come to us like, oh, can you go over to Blackpool? You're like, yeah, sure, no worries. You know what I mean? Housing associations, the the senders here, Rochdale and Barnsley, and you it it becomes a network with with the with the motorways, highways, if you've got the connections or the link boards, it all links together within like 45 minutes. You can be in Chester, yeah, yeah. You can be in Wales, you can be in Manchester. It it is good. People moan about it, but for businesses, it's network, it's good because you're flying around. It's really good, actually. Like Cheshire, I feel like Cheshire East and I think it has got a good network on the roads, so it does help us as business to get about, yeah, yeah. Um that's why there's people like we we said I came with my name was my next year's yeah, just because MH3K can be anywhere in the Northwest. Yeah, it's not you know MH Crongmuton.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, puts it in that bracket, it's just putting in that bracket, don't just go there down there, they're not gonna come over. Yeah, that's we go and say, Oh, we've got a job here, and you go, Okay, great.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's the thing. That's where it goes. That's where it opens doors, it's open a lot of doors.

SPEAKER_00

So I wanted to talk to you about is so as a business, we are myself and Rich, we're big advocates of you guys, what you guys do, and we recognise what you do as well. So we came into our business with the understanding that these guys work extremely hard and give us their byproduct, which you do. But it starts with but what does it look like for Mark from when he wakes up in the morning to when he finishes at night?

SPEAKER_01

Give us your day. So my day of a bowls round, say my my alarm sets for half hour in the morning, yeah. Goes off. I'm straight my phone gets comes in my hand at half five in the morning. I'm spending 10 minutes on my phone in bed, not TikTok, job cards, job cards, whatsapp messages to the group chat to the lads, so they know what spec they're doing today, etc. From there, and then you've got the kids sometimes. My wife, God bless my wife, she's amazing. She does the kids' runs in the morning because I'm too busy on the tree game. It's it it'd be lovely to uh get off the tools like one day a week sometimes just to take the kids to school. Yeah, but running the tree game, it's you got equipment to load up, you got the vans to go out, there's so much goes into it. So I we we I leave the house so half five, get up. Sometimes the kids wake up so you get them dressed before you go to work. Yeah, um sometimes come downstairs. I want my breakfast. But okay, I'm not looking thing, it's quarter to six.

SPEAKER_00

But they need the breakfast, don't they?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's the thing, they need the breakfast, and you're like, right, you get them get them sorted. Um but my wife does a lot of that as well because I'm out of the door for like six, four or five, half six most days. You know, I need to get out because I need to be out of the yard for like at least quarter past seven. Last get there for half seven, but sometimes I'm getting to the yard like eight, seven forty-five. I'm like, I'm late because I've just juggling everything else, and then I'm sorting out emails and sorting out getting back to people because like it's such a juggle. Then you do your day's work, you get to the job, spec can change. So you've got to figure that side out. Or there's a telephone wire what you didn't see. Yeah, we haven't got a ring yet, right? What we're gonna do? We're gonna have to figure something out, and then you know, you do all that, you do your day, um, chainsaw need sharpening from the next day. You know, you use so many factors, oil, oil, grease, grease to chip it, keep on top of that, make sure the vans are working correctly, falls into part, like someone needs a new lanyard, someone's cut one, you know what I mean, like, okay, we need that for the climber tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's so much stuff that you've got to take. You got because you've got like an eight four sheets and you've got this every month.

SPEAKER_01

You've got you've got a list of stuff in that day, yeah, just to make sure that that the tree game runs smooth in the morning.

SPEAKER_00

But what people forget though, and I think this is the most important thing, is staying alive.

SPEAKER_01

It's staying alive, and that's that that is the thing. Like, I feel like in in the UK, the tree game isn't respected. Yeah, you know, it's the safety, what goes into us, the the customer just looks like, yeah, we just jump from the tree. We just cut it down.

SPEAKER_00

We've gone on socials before, and like and we've said, like, these guys are hanging from ropes in adverse weather, yeah, trying to take down a tree. Like, we've got to respect what these guys do before we get rid of.

SPEAKER_01

We we was on a job last Wednesday, right? And it was like sunny, hailstorm, rain. Yeah, I was up a tree on the sycamore, and there's like branches over the property, and we're rigging it, and the customers are looking outside through the wind, they're like, I'm there, like stretching over this slippy sycamore, and then like rigged on there, like got this, and like talking to lads, like, what do you reckon? Is it is the physics all that and that is it is it gonna miss the house? Is it gonna swing swing, you know? Yeah, and like and then Josh goes, it needs to go bit more, it needs to go bit more, and you're like, I was like, look, so it's just like you want me to go more. I can't go any further, I can't go any further. I'm stretching as it is, but you just don't recognize that's the thing, and then and then the rain is absolutely battering down on my shoulders, and I get down at lunch and I am soaked, yeah. I am completely soaked, and then like you can't just go, people say, Oh why don't you put a jacket on? Mate, you're sweating, yeah. You just gotta go open your jumps sometimes. Adjusting a lot of energy, yeah, I mean you literally do it's the Olympic sport, and then you do the physics and you're like and it works, and you're like, and you get down, you're like, Yeah, that's that's sound. At least without danger that side there, if it's easy now, you know.

SPEAKER_00

But there's so much that goes into your job that people do not know outside of the forestry sector, yeah. So then they don't see the bit that it's not as simple as starting up a chainsaw, starting at the bottom, push the tree down.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, there's so much thinking like before we always before we climb a tree, we stand back, look at it, weigh it up for a good ten minutes before we even start to put it on. Risk assessment, see what the scenarios are, see what's what, what. Um, you know, by the time you're done with that, then you're like looking at the time like, oh, it's it's two o'clock, right? We need to get out of here for like because I like to get the lads back to the yard for like four or quarter past four, so they can go at half four. Yeah, and you're thinking, right, we've got all this, oh my gosh, and then you're like, oh no, it's gonna be overtime. You think the lads are looking going, don't want to be doing overtime, I won't be on, they won't be on with a pub or something, you know what I mean? And it's it it's stressful, and it's like and then once I've done the job, back to yard, I'm at half four. The last one out of the yard, quarter to five, and I'm like, I've got three quotes to do now. Once I've re-oiled the chainsaws, once I've done then the things you know, cleared each. We get in the morning, the lads get to yard, and they just do the sores five to ten minutes in the morning with the two saws with the vice and sharpening up. I go do my quotes, and you're just like you've done so. You've been out since say half six in the morning, left your house on your driveway. You don't get back to that driveway for like like last night. I did get into probably I think it was around like quarter to nine after doing my quotes. So you do a day's work, and it doesn't stop, does it? After after quarter to nine as well, and then and then you you get a text message oh can we have this? And you're like, Oh, you were meant to be coming like last night because my oh you were meant to be at half hours. Like, I completely overlooked you. I'm sorry, we it's not it's not on purpose, yeah. It's because my day is like rammed with so much thinking, what's going on, yeah. And you're like, you've got three quotes to do this evening, right? It's summer fantastic. I can I can go quote in the evening, yeah. Okay, it's longer days, but I can have my weekends back. Yeah, you're always offsetting that. That's the thing. So my children, they don't see me five days a week, they don't see me. They see me in the morning a little bit, but in the evenings, they don't see me. Saturday, Saturday, Sunday. I've in summer, I'm wanting to have weekends off to spend time with the family, and it gets to a point where it's just like, is it all worth it?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, and it's really hard. I mean, and it's interesting because we're talking about the quotes, something I wanted to go back to because you were talking with me before, we're talking about quotes, and when people look at you and you say it's going to cost X amount for the work, and they it's that thing of you're just cutting a tree down. But we were talking about, you know, because one thing that I've had recently, one of our suppliers down in the south, and he was the most stressed for about two or three weeks, and it wasn't about the tree cutting, it wasn't about machinery. The biggest hit headache he had was the traffic management on site, yeah, organizing road traffic management, and actually all these factors that I don't think people see as being part of the job. That's where the money's going. It's not just going in your pocket, you're paying your stuff, but you've also got to pay for you know, the council have to sign off when you being able to do it. Yeah, you can't just jump on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, so you know, for you, what you know that that actually leaves you where do you, you know, when you so like you don't that's that's things like when someone a customer puts it on you, you're like you don't want to lose a job, but you just got to be famous and like yeah, you booked in and you say, like, oh, if they do get cancellation, I'll see what I can do, you know, but you guarantee you you can't because that's planned job. Yeah, and there's so many factors, you've got the permits, you've got your risk assessments, you've got everything to go with the job to do the simple job that will take a morning, yeah. But you've got 160 questions to answer, yeah. And people don't realize that. You know, you got like we did we did a job on standing own in Hamforth and took two oak trees down, um, but like we've got cherry picker there, we got the digger, the tractor unit. You know, say if it's like, for example, you know, you're not you you're making money, but by the time you pay your traffic control at two grand for two days, you know, plus V18. Yeah, you got a cherry picker at say 500 quid to a grand for two days, reductions. That that profit margin from say five grand is going back down to three. Yeah, then you get your wages, you've got your running cost, you're like dropping it off, and you're like it it gets scary. You think it'd be easy to just go work for someone, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You love it though, don't you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's the thing, it's a lifestyle, it's a lifestyle. That's the that's the thing. Like, I wouldn't change it for anything else. I love the game, yeah, and it's it's great, and that's why I do it.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, we love being in the game, like there's never a dull day for us. It's never every day's different, every day's different it's new challenges and it it just works. I remember I come out to see you and uh we were talking on site, and you said I said to you, What uh have you had any near-death experiences? I remember you wrote me a week after, you know when you were there, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, we were dringing, we were drinking, and then like the rope got binded on the block. Um because what happened was it was like twisted, and because where the block was, it was it was in front of the bush. We couldn't see the block, we could see the block like on the side, but where it was ringing, it was like hidden. Yeah, so what happened? The the rope got twisted, anyways. It was like we needed to get that on twisted because we've got this like 750 kilos of logs just hanging there, and you're like, right when you saw that, but this what do you do? You can't just cut a rope because that rope's that log's gonna come crashing down and smash into someone's patio and cause tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage. So we have to like hold a rope, and when it releases, you just have to pray it works. So what happened was like it released, and next minute I'm there, it's coming out, it slipped off the block. I'm like burning my hands, rope burn. You know what I mean? It's just like you should that's the other side to it. The the the near misses, what you don't see. But this happens to all three surgeons. It's like when I was in uh we was working up in Pox Trigley, uh, Pox Trigley Hotel um up there, and we was taking out an ashtray, and um I was rigging it, done my physics, yeah, that that's gonna swing that way, right? Done my gob, yep, yep, yeah, done my back cut, it started to go, but then when it started to go, it's gonna come back to me, the ropes like a pendulum. It was like there, the rope's there next to it, the ropes come to me, pulled me, pulled me to the stem of the tree, give me rope burned here, and I was like, But it was like trapping my net, nearly killing me, and I'm like, I need to do it, I need to get some strength. I need to get that rope and get that rope and get some strength and pull it. I don't know where the strength came, I should literally pulled it. The lads on the ground go, they just like shocked what happened, and going, Is it alright?

SPEAKER_00

People just don't know this part of the job, do they?

SPEAKER_01

You they think yeah, that you that's the thing, and this is where the respect needs to come with us in in the UK. Like, it the general public needs to respect tree surgeons, don't just look down at tree surgeons, tree surgeons are quite knowledgeable person whenever I speak to them. Like, there's not just yeah, we're gonna cut a tree now.

SPEAKER_00

I've learned everything I know from tree surgeons.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like you might think, yeah, we're we're just cutting trees now, that's what we do, but you see us do it that fast because we do it every single day, you know. Yeah, it it is interesting, it is it is it's hard. You gotta factor in all these near-death experiences, yeah. You guys it I think it's like the second most dangerous job you can do, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Like it's it's up there, yeah. Yeah, who else is like the scaffolders or the people up on the high rise, you know, because it's that same thing, you're putting yourself at risk high up. Yes, you've got safety equipment, yeah. But safety equipment doesn't always safety equipment can fail. That's that was you know, and that's that's no one's fault, but it will fail. Uh you know, these sort of things that there's there's so many factors that you know could create a far worse outcome. I guess the most important for you, which is why you have to be on it, and like you say before, so many trees we know we've met, we've talked to, and we've you know, and they're the ones that they've they've given us so much knowledge. Yeah. The guys where we, you know, we were it's a family fund at college at the weekend, and the guys there we you know, I was still chatting to the guys, they they weren't just students, but they were also guys who are still involved at the college, they do. you know, they're still teaching, they're still there doing the you know, teaching the chainsaw, the rope, and that. But they were talking, I was talking to them, and you know, they were saying, Well, this is where we are, you know, and explaining how the roping had been done, how it was being done so they could trap up the tree properly and you know climb. And you're like, well, you know, I would not have thought of any of those things.

SPEAKER_01

She just said to me, I would not do it, when the Christmas, have you fell out a tree?

SPEAKER_00

You look at you, no, I don't want to it's like when someone walks up to someone that's got a dog and they go, Does the dog bite? It's like, of course it bites.

SPEAKER_01

The dog I mean it's like I wouldn't be standing here if I fell out of a tree because I'll come back and be knacking it won't be working. And that and that and that's the the theory to it like chainsaws climbing trees is so dangerous. Like you you're up there with a chainsaw like like swinging around with a lot a chainsaw using a top hand with one hand sometimes because you have to yeah you know if that slips and cuts your limb you you can't work.

SPEAKER_00

You can't you physically can't you cut your hand and there's lads and lasses out there who have done this who this has happened to you and this is happening and then your your business collapses because you can't go out and do the jobs and it's just kind of and that and it all falls back to the figures again.

SPEAKER_01

That's why you shouldn't own a price where it you got to respect the price and go with with it it's that is the nature of the game and you just you just look at that way sometimes it is you devalue the business devalue the service and you're gonna your health and safety is going to drop you your standard's going to drop the lads are going to turn up and pair trainers chainsaw boots are 250 quid you know you know if you employ someone else it's like say if we we employ a new staff that new staff member's got to have chainsaw pants helmet boots that's just the groundy you you're paying so boots at 250 quid if you want to get the best helmet phone so your health and safety is up there standing there 250 quid for your protest helmets plus your chainsaw pants are 300 quid just settle a staff member with the kit you're looking like a grand aren't you yeah just from day one just from day one yeah yeah and if they say but I'm gonna leave in six months you're like I've just spent grand I'm not just investing my time and my you know I'm investing in you as a community financially to give you the best possible chance of succeeding to look after yourself and to make sure your safety's good yeah so it is it is interesting game it's like and is that quite did you get that you have that frustration sometimes have you had that where you've had people come in and they're we we get good lads yeah we do get we do get good lads and like you know we we get lads who stick with us like three four years and it is it is good really how many lads you got working for you at the moment we've got three lads three lads full full time on the books yeah and we subcontracting grownies sometimes climbers um but how would in where you are where we mentioned where you're working how would a potential client get in contact with MHTree care for their tree care work Google Cheshire Trees on Google Tree Surgeons Arborist um Instagram TikTok all platforms basically they'll put the link on so yeah local local local local local forums as well like Facebook I feel like Facebook is people say oh yeah Facebook's a waste of time but we want some really good contracts for through just be in the groups that's how I found you first time around because it was in a street yeah that was last year find you know that's the thing where you are in Cometon so obviously that's where I'm from so just looking at local areas yeah local local forums and then you do your jobs you do your jobs you get recommended. Yeah yeah and then it goes on public so public platform and then they go people hashtag us bam bam bam yeah and you just build that good reputation and you got to keep once you get there you got to keep that performance going it's not oh yeah we're up there we're not we're not we're not we're not up there we're still in foundations and we're still down here it's and so from there what is for you for MH3k what what's the next step where's the growth what what's your my my what you want my dream is be tick tock that'd be easy money wouldn't you I mean um my dream is get like three teams out see where it goes the next like well I just want to kill me when I say this but my next bird should well be abandoned chipper you know you know it's coming um but that's that's all we're we're at that stage now we need a bigger chipper. Yeah like we we've got a digger trapped a unit um cycling's work we're gonna do cyclist work we're like we need a bigger chipper we've got the 230s running flat out you're gonna be going over the canal to get that in will you that's the thing you I mean but like I can't believe you just dropped that on a podcast and the missus not having the extension now that we we extension we want to do house we house is great where we live in but we wish it was bigger yeah we've got two kids and they're gonna grow out growing room so we we need a bit more space but it's just it's just the band at Chipper will make the money to pay for the this is this is what I keep trying to say but she's I I said to my wife this morning we were speculating to accumulate that's what I said yeah that was what I say you've got to spend to accumulate we were sat down at the table this morning kids are having breakfast and we were talking about this today and my wife said uh to me lad who's nine she went have you got any questions for your dad that you can speak to Mark about today on the podcast and she went um ask him what his favourite tree is so I said to Zach I said what's your favourite tree Zach and he went poetry I was like I know yeah but yeah the kids we were had the kids here uh at Family Fun Day and my youngest great a great beat it was the first time he'd roped up he loves climbing anyway but it's the first time he roped up where he had his foot in the rope and he was climbing moving the rope up moving the foot up climbing up moving the foot up and he's just bought into it massively loves it any tree he sees he's my my my little lad that he he loves coming to my the yard like yeah he he goes to school like daddy I've climbed a tree after school when he's in the clay I'm like I climb a tree I'm like I just say to him don't don't just do it but be careful like don't don't don't go crazy do it right and he he he's just he just loves the tree game like he loves the diggers loves to track units loves to change so but he's he's around it but he's he's in the yard he's not on the job or nothing it's just like at weekend we take we he comes to the yard we do a bit of maintenance at weekend and he's just he just loves being around it like very practical like he's just gets him that's it my eight year old is going to be the same and it's just like it's it's a mega like machinery he's he's he's built little lad you know what I mean yeah and you know he he was just sort of pulling sticks around the yard and just moving stuff and like and he he's close he's climbing log palm like doing that you know I mean yeah so if you are thinking about starting up as a tree surgeon listen and watch this podcast yeah yeah like literally it's good it's good and and if you're just looking at who you use as tree surgeons understand the work that they do and uh appreciate what goes it's not it's not just it's yeah it's not just the the tree surgery there's a lot more around it's it's not just cut like we're not we don't just cut trees down we maintain trees we do crown reductions yeah we've got to have the art to it you got the eye for the game you still do hedge cutting hedge cutting garden maintenance it's like we have to put that on the truck as a garden maintenance because we do shrubs yeah hedge cutting yeah with people just think you can stunt grinding stunt grinding you know I mean stunt grinding flailing six tunes with flails and toppers and stuff like that kind of thing this is all part of MH3 carry that's the thing with our service what we do but it's like you you've got to do all those services to keep the flowing of it you know the crown duction is coming where I like doing crown duction because you look at a tree where it's all gone out of shape and it's all going here and you put it into a nice lollipop yeah yeah and that's the art to it and you walk away from my job and you're driving around at weekend and you say I've done that trip.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah the kids and the cat yeah and then why should like yeah okay you know what I mean yeah yeah okay no worries we do this every time we go out like listen like this at home we go I go on holiday and be like hey look at that that's a battery where you know you're like that'd be quite to climb wouldn't it you you go on walks at weekends to national trust places like Trent from Garden is like the the the there's a massive pine tree I'm like wow I want to climb that yeah and it it you you driving down the road as you're going to jobs you're looking at trees and you you you think you know oh that'd be nice like that you mean that the passion to it comes out and you've got to have the passion to keep yourself going for coming on the podcast thanks for having me brilliant uh if you are thinking starting out as a tree surgeon please watch the podcast if you can help us out to allow us to keep doing these podcasts if you can like and subscribe to the channel it's available on YouTube it's called chipping away jump on have a watch of this podcast but follow us on other channels as well through TikTok Facebook and Instagram follow then northwest northwest yeah cheers mark thanks so much for having me appreciate cheers mark