I will be updating this guide in coming months so check back in few weeks to see how much progress I’ve accomplished. Please give your comments at the comment section and I will modify the article according to our conversation.
I have gone through just about everything I could find on internet regarding making firewood as something little more than a hobby, although I did check many of those hobby pages too. Here’s my take on the matter.
Table of contents
-1- Making firewood as a hobby
-2- Running a niche firewood business
-3- Running a small firewood business
-4- Running a large firewood business
1. MAKING FIREWOOD AS A HOBBY
Even this article is not about making firewood as a hobby, eh, let’s face it, for many this is exactly how it all starts and balloons from there on. Many of the teachings with firewood making as a hobby can be used in your actual business.
The important thing with a hobby is that the purpose is never to make money. If there is some pocket money after an enjoyable day, well it is all well and good.
2. RUNNING A NICHE FIREWOOD BUSINESS
Most people look into making firewood as a volume business, but there is much more to it. There are plenty of people who will greatly value your efforts to provide specialized firewood. You could go for hardwoods or softwoods but that is simplified division. Remember, whenever you are in contact with people – ask if people have their firewood needs covered.
-Tree removal service for gardens and parks
If you really go for it the first obvious value proposition is to offer a service that comes to someone’s home and cuts down an oversized yard tree then chopping it down into nice clean cords of firewood. In this your income will mostly come from offering the service of taking care of the tree the part of turning it into a firewood is to create raving fans for your service (not to mention that it naturally gets something extra in your pocket).
Another cherry on top with your yard tree removal service accompanies with firewood making service (hah, now that does not go down in history as one of the more eloquent phrases by me) it what you do with the tree stump. You can either help the client with grinding out the tree stump or you can advice them to leave it about human height and use it to install some flower pots and make it a centerpiece of the garden. Fantastic extra value and less (ok, maybe more if you actually do this center piece) work for you as you just leave the stump there and at the same time you have less wood to make firewood from.
-Specially made firewood kits for busy
Kid or pet might need a doctor or dentist, car might need fixing as it doesn’t start. Urgency sells, but so sells business. The best way to serve people in urgency is to sell them solution. However, the best way to serve busy people is to sell them time.
What a wonderful market segment as you can always find some extra margin for catering products for busy people. I would put together bundles that offer great quality firewood together with matches and some various size wood. This way you could help people to have their picnic fire without resorting to a knife to make some easy to start sticks. Offer such bundles to gasoline stations close to parks and other recreational areas. When you pack this bundle into a cardboard box with a handle, you provide a nice mobile fire for the client.
-Using service to source wood for different uses
If you start your firewood business with a soft landing and mix it with services like tree removal services, you will have a very special wood sourcing channel. We both know that people have huge variety of trees on their property like apple, pear, oaks, maple, cherry, cedar and many more. Oftentimes customers just want to get rid of the tree and all its remains. Then you will have some quality wood in your hands, which you need to get rid off. You could offer some responsibly grown wood for carpenters. There’s nothing quite like selling that old apple tree back to your client as a eating table set.
This specially collected wood can also be branded into very special firewood. What if you mix together the cardboard box (for busy) and sustainably acquired tree from someone’s property. Then you produce boxes with specific wood species for people to order. You would have boxes for apple tree and boxes for oak. Slap a nice brand name on top of that and you get to ask three to four times the going rate for your firewood when compared to bulk products.
Providing service also means that afterwards you must clean the spot where the tree was standing. Branches make good wood chips that can be used in garden composts or possibly while smoking food in grill or a food smoker. Use the same brand with this and remember to keep the brand local.
Tree stumps are the biggest problem for people. They usually want to have lawn planted on top of the stump. Usually this is taken care with special grinder, which can be costly. But here is an idea for you. In England they started to have these stump gardens back in 1850 or so. You could really go with alternative road and leave something left of the tree stump or even a tree trunk. Having a new place for vines or hanging flowers might be just something that lets you off the hook regarding tedious stump removal.
-Costs of running a niche firewood business
This greatly depends on the combination of services you are going to offer as well as on how much elbow grease you are willing to put on it. I will look for some real-life Amazon links for you to verify the costs, but for now I’ll just mention some ballpark numbers.
First of all, you MUST have a chainsaw that is the very least you need to use when making this as a business. A proper chainsaw will set you back about 500 USD but the range is somewhere between 1000 and 300. Other big investments are a stump grinder, portable sawmill and firewood processor but these are more optional and related to the way you are going to spin your business.
Firewood processors suitable for this scale of business run in the price range of 4000-8000. They usually come with gas engines and are portable – you just hook them up behind your car or alternatively carry them around with a trailer. I don’t really calculate those cheap log splitters into this segment. You can do better with a good ax.
Stump grinders are usually between 2000 and 5000 and with this price you get a machine you must move or pull around manually. Cheaper ones look almost like lawn mowers. This is very heavy duty work so you must buy something bigger that doesn’t tire quickly.
Portable sawmills cost just about the same as firewood processors. However there is a pretty good way to get some planks done by attaching special braces on your chainsaw and then run the saw along the length of a tree trunk. Unfortunately is is time consuming and the cut is not especially smooth also you lose lot of wood in sawdust that your chainsaw produces. Best results you get with a portable band saw. But those are once again more expensive.
3. RUNNING A SMALL SCALE FIREWOOD BUSINESS
This is the stage where you have to start making significant investments into firewood processors and other related machinery like separate splitters, conveyor belts, tumblers, tractor and the list goes on… However, you don’t have to get it all that is the worry for a person looking to build a large scale firewood business.
4. RUNNING A LARGE SCALE FIREWOOD BUSINESS
Storage rooms, operating halls, machinery, equipment and probably hired workers these are the things a large scale firewood business is made of.