Article provided in collaboration with Affordable Stump Grinding
After working for Delta Air Lines for more than three decades, Raymond Worley retired at age 55. For the next 18 months he took it easy, doing all the jobs his wife had lined up for him around their Peachtree, Ga., home.
Then, out of the blue, he came home one day with a stump cutter.
Nine years later, Worley says his experience in removing stumps has gone really well. “It’s a great job,” says the owner of Affordable Stump Grinding.
His interest in stump grinding came about after he hired someone to remove six trees from his front yard.
“The guy didn’t do the best job in the world,” says Worley. “I thought I could do better myself. I didn’t know anything about the tree business, but I did a lot of research and concluded stump grinding was an area where I could work by myself, and if I had good equipment and pleased the customers, I could be successful.”
Working on the south side of the Atlanta metro area, Worley is kept busy five days a week taking out stumps for landscapers, tree-service contractors and homeowners.
“Starting out, just learning what people wanted, was a little difficult,” he says. “I had to understand what the customer was planning on doing around the property. I also had to learn what I could and could not do, and explain that to the customer. That’s really important. Sometimes the stump is on the side of a hill and you cannot get to it, or the site might be too rocky and you cannot do the job. Once I figured out all the challenges of the business, I had plenty of success.”
As part of his initial research, Worley looked at every stump cutter on the market and decided the Vermeer SC352 stump cutter was the best for his needs. “It was a good piece of equipment and it worked quite well,” he says. “However, after 2 ½ years the business was growing so fast that I needed a bigger machine. I checked all the brands again, and, to no surprise, the larger Vermeer unit was the best.”
He purchased an SC852 stump cutter and quickly discovered how it significantly impacted his work. “Without this machine I could not keep up with all the jobs. It is a lot faster than the smaller unit and a lot less work for me.”
To succeed in doing only stump cutting, Worley says he needs to be conscientious, do a good job the first time so he doesn’t have to come back, and leave the property looking better than when he arrived.
“If you do all that, it’s a great business,” he says. “For me it has become a very good choice as a second career. But you have to want to do it — sometimes the working conditions are not all that great. Too hot, too dirty, too cold. Nevertheless, I like the feeling of satisfaction when I finish a job.”
Are you inspired to start your own business? To learn more about how to start, get tips and a start-up checklist read Starting Your Own Tree Care Service Company.