firewood sales, how many cord you do so far?

[GRANITEstateMP]

spike60, I have a core customer base that I've been slowly training/herding ;D towards getting next years wood either a year early OR just early in the year for a while now. Every year I loose 1 or 2 and gain 2 or 3.

I could add more customers, the extra $ would be nice, but I'd loose more me time and add more stress.  I don't have a bunch of me time anyway, and I've got more than enough stress, so when we get around 125ish cords, the regulars are taken care of, and I need to add multiple layers on a Sunday am, then the end is near!

I plow snow and sand roads for the town I live in, so we take most of winter off, but try and start as early in spring as we can.

I do stress about getting orders done too. I worry about getting logs some years, or if the processor breaks. I figure that where I'm at, if something goes wrong I can still find away to take care of my people, and in the end that's pretty important to me.

[Spike60]

Yeah, I get it. My friend Jimmy's operation is set up much the same way. Like you, most of his customers are regulars. And they appreciate having their wood early, and that it will be dry come winter.

And since he limits himself to "X" amount of wood he avoids the other end of the wood business that seems to drive a lot of my customers nuts. The "one cord at a time-I'm almost out-how soon can you be here" dance so many guys do all winter long. I'm really surprised that more people don't run their operations like you and Jimmy do.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Thanks Spike60!

We had my sons annual Bday bonfire party last night (he is turning 12) so I was pretty whooped this am. Got 1 cord done before the rain came, I'm not interested in catching a cold this early in the year, so time for some indoor chores...and a nap

[Spike60]

That's plenty enough to get done post-party. 

Regarding the other discussion, a lot of firewood guys around me bring the anxiety on themselves. In many cases they are doing a lot of other things during the year. Excavating, landscaping and such. So, Fall comes and now they are ready to do firewood. The commitments they've made, and the ever closing window to keep them make a smooth operation impossible. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Yeah that kinda describes me Spike60.     I have a bad habit of taking on more than I can handle in the time given.   I'm working hard to learn to just tell people "nope, cant do it, or cant do it that quick."
Seems every forester is in a hurry to get every cut done.   I've started reminding them that I signed a one year contract and I'll complete the cut with in that time and I don't want to be rushed.   Land owners sign a year long contract and then want the job done in a month.

As for the firewood deliveries I dont stress to much over that.  First come first served and I always manage to get the wood there pretty quick.    The folks who wait till they are down to the last stick before they call are a pain in the rear but their failing to plan doesn't get a whole lot of sympathy from me.

[Big_eddy]

How do you manage the operation so your list even approaches "done"? Especially this early in the season. The firewood guys who come in my store for supplies complain that their lists just keep getting longer. lol

I do know one person who does a fixed amount of wood every year, and when he's done, he's done. And he likes his "done" to happen by Thanksgiving before real winter weather sets in. Doesn't want to be running wood in the snow and single digit temps all winter long.

We are similar. We buy x trucks of logs in the fall, cut and split over the winter, then start making calls to last year's customers  in May. We deliver over the summer, and when the pile of splits is gone we order more logs. Some customers don't want their wood in May so we will put them on a call back list for June, July or August if they want. If we callback and they still don't schedule a delivery, we move on. I also put an ad up for new customers in May, and it stays up till the last wood is sold. 
We don't maintain any wood "on hold" for anyone. You want wood, you agree to a delivery time within two weeks. Otherwise, you take your chances.
When we get down to just a bit more wood than we have scheduled to deliver, the ad comes down and we say sorry to anyone else who calls. We have an arrangement with one customer who always takes our last 3-5 cords, however much there is. She buys 3 years ahead, so the exact amount doesn't matter.  Makes it a lot easier to manage selling it all without selling more than there actually is. 
Last year we were sold out at the end of September,this year it was early November, but this year we took a few weeks off in August / September for family time. 
Most of our customers are trained, but there are always a few that call after we are done. We just say sorry, and offer to call them in May for the next winter's supply. Most learn.

[Spike60]

That's a real good way to have it set up Eddy. If you let customers set the parameters it's just chaos. I suppose that much of this can be excused in the case of new customers that don't really know the drill. But it's amazing how many people don't learn and will do the same last minute scramble every year. In this day and age where people hit a button on their phone and expect the Prime truck to show up in a few hours it's hard for them to grasp the fact that things like firewood are best planned/purchased ahead of time.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

So there is three firewood guys in my sales area with larger operations than mine.  I watch their prices close and keep mine about the same.    Two of them recently increased to $100 a face cord or $300 a cord picked up at the wood yard and a fee for delivery if you want it.   Ive no idea what the delivery fee is. 
 I'm waiting till after the first of the year to raise my price per cord also.  I'm currently still where they were at $250 a cord delivered. 
   $300 a cord seems steep to me, for this area, but if they can get it maybe I can as well. There is plenty of customers and good demand for wood so why try to undercut anybody? Seems smarter to just raise with them.   But I'm not charging a delivery fee unless I have to go over $25 miles.   
    Hope this isn't to much of an increase to quick.   We'll see.
In the mean time I'm still selling and it looks like I did meet my sales goal for the year.   Next year I still want to do more.    Its raining cats and dogs here so I'm going to go check out a timber piece I'm told is mostly low grade and firewood poles.   I'm already thinking about camp fire wood.   May will be here soon.

[barbender]

I'd go up in a heartbeat.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Well, I'm not happy about this and I'm a little disappointed in myself but I have come to realize a full time or even mostly full time firewood business is not for me. And I'm glad I never bought that commercial splitter.  I'm not enjoying it like I thought I would.  I like cutting firewood, like to split and stack, just love the work of making firewood.  One of my favorite things to do.

 But since I made a big increase in how much I'm trying to sell I found out that dealing with a half dozen regular customers is one thing. Dealing with lots of them is another thing altogether.    The people drive me nuts.   I won't get into all the reasons. All you guys delivering wood already know.
    So, I'm keeping a few of my old customers I've had for years, and certainly keeping my self serve racks, frankly they are the easiest to manage and make the most money per cord sold any way, but I'm not going to keep the delivery end going.  Ill still have to cut about 6 cord a year for myself, 5 for my daughter and about 10 or 12 for the racks and and maybe 8 more for old customers. So around 30 cord a year but that's it.  To all you guys running a delivery based firewood business I don't know how you do it and may you have the blessing's of patience and tolerance cause good grief you'll need it.  

[woodrat]

So far this year, I sold about a dozen cords between Jan 1 and the end of the heating season. Ran out before people stopped asking. 

Then I had a big mess sorting out the log supply and trucking for a few months but in June finally got logs flowing again, and have sold about 45 cords or so since then, plus a few hundred bundles to my local campground and the local store. Sitting on about 20 cords worth of logs that I'm picking through now to get next year's inventory stacked up. And have paid up at the pole yard for another 30 cords worth of logs. 

I'm hoping to hit around 100 cords or so next year, I think I can handle that along with my other jobs. That will make the payment on the machines and put a little extra in my checking account.

I guess I've been lucky with the customers, so far no one has been too annoying and when you show up with a dump truck full of firewood, people are happy to see you... lol

One older lady hired me to stack hers, and another older couple gave me a $50 tip on a five cord order.  

Then again, all my customers are rural people, not city or suburbs. Maybe that helps... 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I have no more seasoned wood to sell and I just took my third call of the day from people wanting a cord.   Hate running out of wood.  Bad for business.   I can't keep letting this happen.  Gotta make more wood and gotta do it faster.    

[Spike60]

BCC, how'd you make out scaling the operation back to the level where it was comfortable for you like you posted back in Nov.? I enjoy doing wood like you do, although never did it in a commercial sense. Have helped some older folks for nothing. One was a close older buddy who passed last Fall. We had some great times. Last couple years I did all his wood as he was slowing down. He ran the lever on the splitter and stacked, but I did everything else. Never wanted to deal with firewood customers. Had enough of the public with the store. And as I posted earlier, my customers that sold wood told me all I needed to know about that. 

Either way, the work itself is both fun and healthy. Just don't want it to get to the point where folks take the fun out of it. So I'm wondering how you made out with that.