Hit 20 years in this business last week without really noticing

I was going through old paperwork and found my LLC filing from 2004, seems like yesterday I was just a guy with a chainsaw and a pickup truck. Now I'm staring at a stack of invoices wondering how the tech side of running a tree service got so complicated. Any other small biz owners here surprised by how fast the years add up?

2 comments

2 Comments

west.casey5d ago

Man, congratulations on 20 years! That's a huge milestone. For the tech side, honestly, the best thing I ever did was hire a good bookkeeper part time. Just a few hours a month to keep the QuickBooks straight and handle the billing side of things. It freed up so much brain space for actually doing the work and running the crew.

ward.kim5d ago

...and nobody ever talks about the physical toll catching up with you as the years stack up. I'm not even old yet but my knees remind me every morning that I'm not the same kid who could wrestle a stump grinder all day without thinking twice. The paperwork side is frustrating, sure, but the real surprise for me was realizing I need to plan for a body that won't hold up forever. Things like crew training and equipment upgrades start looking different when you know you don't have another 20 years of heavy lifting in you.