A Mill-Slab Firewood Business

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In my experience, one cord of slabs will take one person one hour to cut to stove .length and toss into the delivery vehicle, half an hour to unload and stack in the customer's woodshed, and two hours round-trip travel time . . . for a total of 3.5 hours per cord.

Dividing your $45 net profit by 3.5 hours indicates that you can reasonably expect to earn $10 per hour with enough left over to splurge on a storebought lunch in town. If two people join forces, the time required to do the work will be less, but the travel time doesn't change—so you'll each net about $6 or $7 an hour.

If you can afford it, it's a good idea to pay yourself at minimum wage for the travel time (and perhaps even for all of your time) and consider what's left over as profit to be reinvested in the business. Either way, be sure to set up an equipment depreciation account— a percentage of each sale put aside for the future replacement of tires, tools, and your delivery vehicle itself.

FINDING AND WINNING CUSTOMERS

With your slab supply tentatively lined up and a good sample of well-aged wood at hand, you're ready to sell. But don't expect just to put a sign out front and have customers come knocking at your door; all you'll accomplish is to inspire other local entrepreneurs to go into competition with you.

No, to get your business up and running, you'll have to move the slabs yourself (in more than one sense), and in the beginning that will require personal-contact salesmanship—selling yourself in order to market your wood. But one of the benefits of the fuelwood business is that you can be yourself. The firewood industry attracts interesting, independent folk—loggers, wood sellers, and chimneysweeps—so you needn't hide your latent showmanship under the slab pile. A colorful sign on the side of your truck, comfortable (but not garish) clothes, and a cheerful manner will win you friends and customers.

A good time to make introductory "cold calls" (as unannounced visits are known in peddler's jargon) is during late weekday afternoons or on weekends in early spring. At those times, people are usually home, the weather is still cool, woodsheds are running short of fuel, and most wood users are weary of the long months of splitting kindling and hauling heavy logs during the winter that's just, past.

Make up a truckload of 2' X 2' bundles of well-dried 16" lengths of slabs. Each bundle should include a firebox load of good thick chunks of a dense variety of wood, several thinner slabs of quick-burning wood, and a onefire supply of split kindling. Wrap each bundle with a couple of rounds of stout cord, and tuck a promotional flier describing your services into each bundle.

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