2020 News and Updates

The time of year is here when spring is not far away. This article will cover some important 2020 news and updates to my services. Every year I like to re-visit my business’s mission statement and make sure what I am offering fits within that mission.

Mission Statement

Aspen Arboriculture Solutions is rooted in the core values of respect, integrity, and professionalism. It is our mission to provide our customers with the very best in customer service and science based arboricultural knowledge and expertise. How we do anything is how we do everything.

Business this past few years has been great! The demand of people looking for an arborist who can provide excellent customer service and accurate science based information on the health has been amazing. Because of this growth and the fact that I am running this business by myself, has resulted in me taking a hard look at the future. My time providing plant health care (PHC) services (spraying, fertilizing, etc.) is starting to overshadow my ability to meet customer demand for diagnosis and consultations. Therefore, some changes will need to be made to the services I can continue to offer. I prefer and want to continue to work with customers and provide diagnostic services. I am not interested in being a business owner who just manages employees.

Service Changes

Business Partnership

Starting either later this season or next year (2021), I will be partnering with Action Lawn and Action Tree Service. We have worked out an agreement where they will be providing some of the basic plant health care services. Those services will be under my direct control of training and education of employees. Action will be using my science based protocols and oversight for those services. I will also be providing consultations to Action’s clients. Plus, any other consulting, training, education, or protocols to Action’s employees, so they can better serve their customers as well.

Lastly, I will now have a Tree Care Company (Action Tree Service) to refer pruning or removal services to. They will be able to perform work at my direction and within my specifications. This will help to extend the services I typically recommend for your trees. Ultimately providing you will the services necessary to have the healthiest trees available (treatments, pruning, maintenance, removals).

We are taking our time with this transition. I will still be performing most if not all the spraying and treatments for my clients in 2020. Our goals with this partnership is too extend my mission and goals but not bog up my time with managing employees and other business aspects. If you have questions or concerns, please contact me. You will not notice much if any changes this upcoming season.

Clear and Transparent Pricing

I am currently working on pricing sheets for all of my services with varying prices or volume discounts. This will allow for clear and upfront pricing on all of my service offerings. Most of my services pricing will be the same, so you won’t notice anything on your end. But, if a client is curious on how I priced their property, I will be able to provide it was off a specific formula and not just a price off the top of my head.

My base consultation rate for the year will increase to $100 for properties in the Sioux Falls ‘Metro’ Area. Roughly within an area from Wall Lake, town of Lennox, city limits of Harrisburg, near and west of Six Mile Road, near and south of Baltic Exit Road. Properties outside of that rough area will be $125 for a consultation. This will only apply to NEW customers. As always, the consultations are for up to 45 minutes of my time and any information I can provide either on site or after the visit in an email.

Existing customers will have a site visit fee of $80, which will cover the visit to evaluate an issue or request. You will only be charged the site visit amount if you request a visit to look at a tree where I wasn’t already planning on being there for other work. It will not be tagged on to a visit for other work.

Continuing Education

This late February, I was in California attending the American Society of Consulting Arborists’, Consulting Academy. This was a week long course as part of a process to become a Registered Consulting Arborist. Once I complete the post course evaluations of sample reports, I will become a Registered Consulting Arborist. Currently, there are less than 800 nation wide. When combined with my ISA Board Certified Master Arborist certification I will be one of less than a few hundred and the only person with both designations in South Dakota. Having this registration will be helpful for my consulting career. I’m also sure it will help me be a better arborist.