Today we’d like to introduce you to Darin Kiefer and Nate Peters.
Darin and Nate, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We started out part-time working weekends with just a truck and trailer after meeting at my son’s 1st birthday party (Our wives were high school friends). Nate had already worked in residential and commercial removal and pruning for years. I had experience with tree work and high-angle rope access in college but was looking for something other than working as a physical therapist assistant to keep me busy.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The transition to full-time owners was quite stressful. We were both nervous about quitting our full-time jobs to transition to full-time business owners. It was very physical work at first while saving up money for better equipment.
First, we only could mulch the brush and stack logs in the trailer by hand. Eventually, we bought a chipper but still had to shovel yards of chips out of the trailer after each job. All the logs were moved with a dolly and stacked by hand (which can be about 100 pounds each.)
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think our approach to tree work is very climber-focused. We do most removals and trimming without the use of a bucket truck. Each job requires its own creative approach to enter the tree safely and rig out large pieces while avoiding obstacles or damaging the lawn. Often we work in city environments and very tight quarters where a smaller footprint is beneficial.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
We would like to thank our wives and family for believing in us and encouraging us to leave our old careers and start this new journey. Their support and patience with us has been huge. We come home pretty tired and sweaty most days full of sawdust.
We gave up our 9-5’s to basically work every day towards our business. The other industry professionals we bounce ideas off of have been very helpful as well. Making new friends in the industry has been super helpful.
Contact Info:
- Website: Topdowntreeservice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/top_down_trees?igsh=d2k4bHByYW51ODVx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075804731868&mibextid=LQQJ4d
