Opportunity in your back yard – do you see it?

August 31, 2011 in Business Start-Up, Finding Passion with 13 Comments

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO I noticed there were several tree companies working in our neighborhood. Their assignment was to cut the trees back wherever there was danger of them falling against power lines. Their work often left the trees looking misshapen and distorted, thus they were frowned upon and treated badly by most of the neighborhood residents, even though they were doing work that needed to be done. While they were on my property I concluded that I would get better results if I befriended the workers. In doing so I also discovered they had to drive about 15 miles out in the country to dump each truckload of freshly chipped wood. I asked if they would mind just dumping the chips from my property right there in a big pile. They laughed at the thought of not having to waste an hour driving to their normal dump site. What they thought was trash I recognized as a bonus for me.

Over the course of about six months those tree companies brought me approximately 120 truckloads of chips. I have used them for nature trails, playground areas and in covering areas formerly full of rocks and thorns.

Neighbors have asked me if they could buy chips from me and wondered how I was so “lucky.”

If I were looking for another source of income I could sell this “free” product, install playgrounds or create nature trails as I have done on our property.

Cost of business – zero.

Just this week again I saw another tree company in my neighborhood removing a large cedar tree.  Again, I talked to them and they readily agreed to bring me all the small limbs that chipped easily.  I now have several large truck loads of great-smelling cedar chips ready to spread on our trail that goes back through the woods.  (Yep, that’s me in the pic)  Now if I could just find someone looking for work??

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  • David L Henderson

    I’ve often wondered how much money could be made from all the rubber you see scattered along the interstate highways. Some enterprising high-schooler might just make his, or her, car payments by picking up the scraps and selling them to recyclers. Any takers?

    • Anonymous

      David – that’s an excellent example of opportunity right in front of us. It seems that supply of rubber increases daily.  

    • Rick

      When my brothers and I were young, and bored in summer, we would walk the streets for miles around and collect tossed glass soda bottles and take them to the store to claim the 5 cent deposit.  I see some retired folks now going around collecting tossed aluminum cans.  In my late teen years I began to see hubcaps on the side of the roads that I drove, especially near pot-hole strewn sections.  I collected those and took them to a local store called Hubcap Heaven, where I cashed them in for small amounts (and they resold them at a profit).  If I were to do that today, I would just sell the hubcaps on eBay or Craigs List and cut out the middle man.  My enterprising son in college started going around to office parks one day a week and will buy empty ink and toner cartridges for cash, then turns around and takes them to Staples or Office Depot where he recuperates his expense plus makes a profit.  I recently used a service at http://www.JunkMyCar.com that towed away my dead car and paid me $435 cash on the spot (and they salvage them or auction them off locally).  After Googling, I see several more of these towing/salvage companies exist.  Recycling opportunities abound.

      • Anonymous

        Rick – man you have all kinds of great ideas in there.  If we have our eyes open it’s amazing what’s all around us.  

  • http://about.me/colinmichael Colin Michael

    Wow. Free mulch plus the bonus that your property smells great when these chips are fresh and as they are moved around. :-)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Karilee-Schmeckpeper/664724449 Karilee Schmeckpeper

    We did something similar.  We have a 4 acre lot we are building our dream home on.  We needed some fill dirt to shape certain areas to our needs.  A little way up the street is a wash that runs across the road and covers it with dirt when the monsoon rain flows in the summer.  City trucks have to come out, scrape the road and push the dirt to the side.  When summer is over they scoop up the huge piles of dirt and truck it away somewhere ten miles away to dump it.

    We approached them one day as they were scooping it up to take away and asked them if they could dump a few loads at our house.  They were happy to give us the dirt that we needed and one extra pile that we didn’t need, just to avoid the ten mile drive for that one last load.  :)

  • Doug Houck

    Out west, besides not having tornadoes and hurricanes, we also don’t have much surplus vegetation for chips.  Tree companies used to dump the stuff for free but have been able to turn some profit from dumping to order.  It makes great mulch.  Eucalyptus is our odor of choice!

    • Anonymous

      Doug – so your opportunity may not be with free wood chips.  I remember years ago when we were traveling out west and Joanne kept marveling about the tumbleweed.  I finally stopped and picked up a couple and put them in our motorhome.  She thought they were delightful.  Only later did we discover they were full of all kinds of mites and insects.  Nonetheless – you could probably collect and sell tumbleweeds to naive Easterners.  

      • Anonymous

        Your mentioning  tumbleweeds reminded me of cowpieclock.com where an absolutely uninteresting, unneeded commodity was turned into a business. I just checked it out and 12 years later it is still flourishing.

        Dan, I love your think-outside-the-box thinking. It is refreshing and very welcome!

        • Anonymous

          Oh wow – I checked out the cowpieclocks.com site.  What a hoot!  Yep, I love those unusual ideas – even the crappy ones.

        • Anonymous

          Oh wow – I checked out the cowpieclocks.com site.  What a hoot!  Yep, I love those unusual ideas – even the crappy ones.

  • Chuck

    I am sorry, but where are some peoples heads today? Have teenagers running around on busy highways collecting tire scrap? If they don’t get killed they will surely be ticketed.
    Collect insect infested tumble weed out west and sell it to easterners? No wonder we have problems.

    • Anonymous

      Yeah – let’s just be “safe” and have kids that only know how to work in factory jobs.