Sawmilling Websites

[WV Sawmiller]

   Over the past few days I have gotten on a kick to go search out and visit a number of other sawyers websites. Since I mostly do mobile sawing I entered my search for portable or mobile sawmill services and checked out the results. There were a pretty good number of sites returned so I mostly checked the ones in my general region of the country and in more rural areas although, for good measure, I did check a few in more remote, to me, places like California, Oregon, Wisconsin, etc.

  I checked their lay-outs and areas they emphasized to see any I felt I should incorporate in mine. Mostly I checked out their services and prices. What I found was pretty much all had an hourly rate which was generally more than mine. The ones with bf rates were usually higher than me but some in my neighborhood. I always compared the region to mine and most are higher cost areas than where I live so their pricing made sense. At least one had a daily & half day rate. Some seemed very pricey but if it is working for them I am happy for them.

  I also looked at set up, mileage and mobilization fees and found they were interesting. Several had no mileage or set up within their home range and varying rates for further distances. Nearly all had a damaged band fee and it was pretty consistently around $25. A few charged for all bands used on a job or TBD at the end of the job if they felt they used more bands than normal.

  I enjoyed Tom The Sawyers chart with different rates for 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 6/4, etc. It looked like he had put a lot of time into deciding what was fair and profitable. I still tell my customers anything less than 1" thick gets billed by the square foot as if it were a bf but that is a good method also.

  On one I found my checklist for customer log and site prep had been copied and in use. I was flattered he felt it was worthwhile to include. A quick note to me before using it would have been nice and I might could have sent him a bunch of other tips and forms I use.

  I have said it before but all the various pricing methods are fair as long as they are discussed well and agreed upon by both parties before sawing starts. I am still interested in the price by the log I saw on a thread here. Both parties know perfectly well what that will cost/yield. I did not see that on any of the websites but might have missed it.

  For any new sawyers I'd spend a lot of time checking out the features in other websites and cherry pick the features you like, modify the ones that need tweaking and disregard the ones you don't feel fit your specific needs. I'd also recommend those of you who have had a website up a while should do the same thing and update yours where it is appropriate and at least keep up with how others doing similar work are doing business.

  I sent my IT guru (an all but adopted young family friend of ours - on her deathbed his mom told my wife she was leaving him, a student of my wife for us to take care of) an update with several minors changes to my website to hopefully clarify and simplify my pricing and procedures.

  Of course if you don't have a website or a duty expert in the family or close circle of friends to build or update one for you then you can contact Jeff here on the Forestry Forum as that is a service he provides and is well versed in doing too. Good luck.

[starmac]

It makes sense that rates differ in different parts of the country, so does wages and basic costs of living. It has to be a workable mixture of them all to make a go of it.
A few years ago, about the time I bought my mill, I met a nice and ambitious young man, with a nice, very pregnant wife. He had just bought a new woodmizer, I want to say lt28, maybe manual mill and was milling for 35 bucks an hour, while holding on to his day job. I told him he needed to go up on his rates, as he was not even charging wages, much less for the mill, and that I would be better off not buying gas for mine and just hiring him.
Fast forward to this year, and and he is staying fairly busy at 80 bucks an hour and while he still has his day job, he just works part time, plus has boought a skidsteer to boot.

[Tom the Sawyer]

"Sawmilling Websites" ???

[WV Sawmiller]

"Sawmilling Websites" ???

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Tom,

   Is there a question? I started this after surfing various Portable Sawmill websites some months back and made a few comments and observations. I still think it is a good idea and worthwhile for most of us to periodically take a look at what our peers are doing and see if we can learn and update some of our prices and practices if worthwhile. Its neat to see what options and products/services we might offer and how our pricing compares to comparable operators. :P

    As I mentioned, I found your site very interesting in that you had a pricing technique I had not seen elsewhere that seems to work well for you. Keep those chips a'flying.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Howard, it wasn't your post, the question was for the previous comment.  I, too, enjoy checking out members' websites.  Clips from my website have turned up a number of places.  If 'copy and paste' helps someone else out I usually don't mind.  I've never turned down someone who asked, but some just take.  My .jpg files are identifiable.