How To Make More Money With The Firewood Business

[@RTeBokkel]

This video really struck a Chord with me.

[@scottbailey.fingin]

Another great video: In Wilson Forest, where echoes are stored, I swing my axe, splitting cord by chord. Chop and stack, the woodpile grows, Fuel for the fire, as the cold wind blows.

[@lucasdog1]

Wow. You just walked a mile...3 times.. with all those camera moves. I'm impressed!

[@joelb9010]

you see how lean this guy is...

[@davebloggs]

A good friend of mine in the Uk has been selling fire wood for about half a century , not so much now because he is wayyyy old now . dont tell him i said that, but you are spot on he has been supplying some of those people and their families for all of that time, I used to give him a hand loading and unloading at times he is very particular how he stacks the wood on delivery, he does not tip and run but stacks nicely cleans up and I guarantee you that simple above and beyond attitude he has has kept him very busy over the years,

[@Peter-od7op]

I hate when they say its seasoned when its not

[@davebloggs]

@@Peter-od7op stacked and dried for a year or 2 is always nice.

[@mrredtreee]

Has he ever had a customer ask for his firewood back? And what did he do to resolve the situation?

[@brucea550]

It’s all just common sense. Firewood is hard work but an incredibly EASY business. My price was always higher than anyone else and yet I sold out by December every year, no matter how much I grew the business. People got dry clean wood and always more than a cord, no matter if they stacked it like a jigsaw puzzle. I never advertised. Word of mouth and repeat business was more than I could keep up with.

[@erickeenan7562]

It is REALLY hard work. It is all I can do to help my dad get his supply in each year, cutting, hauling, spliting and stacking on a small woodlot.

[@brucea550]

@@erickeenan7562 Yeah I’ve slowed down a lot. I can only cut/split/stack about a cord a day now and I’m done. Probably if I had a hydraulic splitter I could do more. Swinging the maul wears me out. But man I love doing it!

[@markp4967]

Your video is SPOT ON. You could take this video and apply it to MANY businesses!

[@sstocker31]

I just bought a CORD of wood this afternoon. I had to go pick it up, rather than get it delivered, and it was a fantastic experience. I've heard that delivery services frequently short you on the product, so that's why I chose a pickup service. The wood was exactly as described, looked exactly as the pictures depicted, and I got a full CORD plus extra. The guy even had split it with a maul and helped load it on my trailer. Your vid really hits on all the things that can go wrong buying a simple pile of wood, great content.

[@Gordon_L]

I had a couple of 1 ton loads of gravel delivered with a small tipper , all good ,then I asked the guy for a full size tip truck load , emphasised a *full load* , he turned up and I stood on a wheel to look , pile in the middle of the tip body with like 3 feet to each corner . I refused delivery , he got angry and verballed me . I never used him again and told many others about him . That was about 18 years ago . I guess he was planning to tip out first so it was on the ground but I looked first. The audio clip transitions on this video were seamless Michael , despite all the different camera moves , well done 👏

[@Lad733]

Ive been doing firewood on the side for the last few years. I make sure to stack my wood in exactly a cord at my house to let it dry. Ive still had people complain saying i didnt bring them a whole cord. No matter what, if someone complains, I offer to bring more wood at no cost even though i know i delivered a full cord. Usually a happy customer is a returning cudtomer. On occasion i do have to turn down customers because they want 12-14" firewood for their small wood stove when i cut my pieces at 16" standard. This year i decided to cut a few cords a little shorter to cater to those customers. I think its ok to sell wet firewood as long as you make it clear that its not cured and the price reflects that. When i first started i didnt have a place to store more than 4 cords to dry so i would sell green firewood at a discounted rate.

[@erickeenan7562]

That's funny, wanting 12" firewood. My dad loves that size, and cuts almost everything under 14 inches. And when it comes to splitting, he likes it small too. He does it all himself, with help from me, my sister and my daughter. He is 80 years old, so it is good exercise. When a friend came over to help him split some wood, he called it 'kitchen wood'...wood that women would use for their kitchen stove.

[@Lad733]

@erickeenan7562 I know people that like their firewood at 24" its all personal preference but standard is 16" pretty much everywhere that I'm aware of. I definitely see why people like the smaller wood, it's much easier to handle and easier to split too.

[@pettere8429]

@@erickeenan7562 Here in Sweden we call it "kaffeved" (literal translation coffee wood), probably because it is convenient to make a small fire to cook coffee on.

[@hkfan4596]

You have such a great way of explaining things. Truly one of the best individuals on youtube (and I watch a lot of youtube!). You would make a great teacher/professor.

[@vb4567]

Good video. The funniest misspelling I have observed is the several ads that say "For sale, truck with wench". One could only wish to buy that one.

[@robertschmidt9296]

I was never in business but I have sold quite a few cords. I loved it when I was find out that they don't know how to measure the wood to know if they are getting ripped off or not and how to tell if it's dry or not. I taught them that a cord is 128 cubic feet, a gallon is 128 fluid ounces. A quart of beer is one fourth of a gallon and is 32 onces. 4×32 =128. People are happy to learn things like that Also, the lengths of the wood were uniform and i got a lot of of impressed comments.

[@shaneruff7035]

My Father had a firewood business and he was honest and would sell everything he cut. He never had enough wood for everyone. Amazing how word of mouth spread.

[@brucea550]

That was my experience, and repeat customers always got priority treatment. I only delivered within 15 miles or so but had customers who would drive an hour to pick up wood. We were fussy about the quality and people appreciate that.

[@lesahanners5057]

Michael, your thoughts on how to be an honest decent human being really rang a chord with me. My Dad used to say, "Some folks can't learn, even if you hit them with a dull axe." 😅 Which was just his way of saying, you can't fix stupid. Nice of you to give it a try! 😊

[@CookieRager]

Very good points. I run a side business in Australia, selling in the winter. The amount of customers that tell me stories of other sellers giving them wet wood, pricing wrong, wrong amounts and general unprofessionalism. Doing the opposite of that already sets you above everyone else. With how competitive it is, treating people with respect, gives better business and loyal customers.

[@jeffpeters1014]

Professionalism is essential in any business!

[@dh6937]

I really appreciate any videos about the business side of firewood, thank you!

[@mikegolden6003]

Another very good video. I noticed at the opening there was some round, unsplit wood in the woodpile. Is it possible you understand that not all wood must be split before it can be burned? It seems that every channel feels the need to split every stick of wood before it can be burned. Where I live in Maine it is common for there to be a fair amount of round unsplit wood in the woodpile. Although the split wood does dry more quickly, the round wood will dry and burn just fine. I have even seen some people putting some trees that we would cut up and burn into a burn pile to get rid of them. Around here a round piece of wood 6 or 8 inches in diameter are called "overnight sticks" because the burn longer than the split wood. Keep up the great videos.

[@TheWoodpreneur]

Useful information mate. Thank you for sharing this well-earned info for those of us, like me - getting into the firewood business. Greeting from New Zealand.

[@John-i6m8k]

In colorado its common to pay for pine and people show up with aspen which burns twice as fast.

[@alleycat9369]

You burn pine in your fireplace?

[@John-i6m8k]

@@alleycat9369 Its the majority of what we got here in southern co

[@grahamgeiger3206]

Lots of people burn pine. It may not be the best wood but if it's dry and you clean your chimney once a year it's not the creosote chimney fire causing hazard that people think it is. In alot of areas it's about the only wood around and people been burning it forever.

[@alleycat9369]

@@John-i6m8k Thanks, I was wondering about that. I grew up in the south east and nobody used pine for the fireplace because of tar buildup in the chimney. If it works is all that matters. Thanks for the info.

[@John-i6m8k]

@@alleycat9369 I am using a newer wood burning stove that burns more efficiently. Sweep the chimney twice a year. Build up is not bad with dry wood. Most people around here burn pine. I think it is also pretty common up north as well round the arctic circle.

[@KillerBYTE367]

entry level job: you're ahead of the field just showing up on time

[@skater4life31683]

I'd be curious to hear about the forestry business you have expertise in. Thanks for sharing!

[@Corwin256]

It's funny. Watching your video here caused me to just want to share my frustrating story of buying firewood which I did in another comment. But I see that the real point is about attitude and how one should look inward and see how to make onself better. I'm glad that's the sort of thing you talk about in your videos because it's a my mindset I want to be filled my head with from as many sources as possible. Thank you for the attitude you bring to your videos. I think it's a powerful good thing.

[@davidmcgennity3182]

In other words , your working in the best interests of the client . Your Not a politician!

[@nearlynormal2293]

I had a customer who thought delivered and stacked meant hauling the whole cord up 20 steps by hand and around the back of the house. There was no way to use a wheel barrel and staking the wood would have taken at least 2.5 hrs. He expected all that at no extra charge of course. Yes he was a professional, a doctor. Doctors charge for each unit. A unit is 2 minutes, even if you are only 2 seconds into the next "unit." In your next video please explain to doctors how to be good business men!

[@Dadnatron]

Most of the time, I’ll pay a big bonus, if I get good wood stacked. My fireplace make winter fantastic and there is nothing better than an easily lit fire. BTW, I’m an MD, and we don’t charge by the minute. If we did, we wouldn’t care how long we spent talking.

[@kateriholbert2687]

The ad information is spot on!! There's a new tire shop in our town with a hard to read Facebook ad I plan on not using.

[@coffeebuzzz]

My biggest problem selling firewood on a small scale is customers telling their friends and then being overwhelmed with orders. Apparently the other guy in my area has many of the negative traits you mention, green wood, unreliable deliveries and so on. Apart from the hard labour, firewood is easy business. Deliver the right amount of dry wood when you say you'll deliver it.

[@brucea550]

When I was doing it I called it the simplest way to double your money. I bought tandem loads of cull logs, all oak, and even after all expenses I sold the same wood for 100% profit. I was making about $25/hr back in the 1980s.

[@cjtaylor5917]

I've been heating my home with wood for 30 years, I've bought one cord of wood during that time. It was supposed to be dry and ready to burn. Not even close. I haven't paid for a piece of wood since. I'll get it myself, thank you.

[@tinytoesfarm]

Thank you for the information and the very entertaining video.

[@eddieslittlestack7919]

I love how this video did waste anybody’s time with an intro or an outro. Obvious points that sadly still need to be said. Thumbs up sir.

[@camperjack2620]

I press the like button as a thank you for creating and posting your videos. Some are educational, some entertaining, some tips and tricks, or just plain eye candy. Nice background today.

[@crazybill49]

Excellent video and full of good common sense practices for a successful business.

[@saltrock9642]

I have fired customers. Had one guy complain the entire time, wouldn’t shut up, as I was offloading his wood about the price and stacking fee(both of which was fully disclosed during our phone conversation when he requested wood). He’s blocked.

[@ohiowoodburner]

Nice vid Michael. It seems to me that our industry could benefit from a commitment to professionalism. Recognizing your delivery model is just as important as your product is a good start!

[@Corwin256]

I purchased firewood exactly one time. The guy was pushy about selling me more than I wanted, showed up in a truck with the firewood tossed in so I couldn't be entirely sure it was the amount he said it was. He stared at my land which I had recently purchased metaphorically drooling at the idea that I'd pay him to do tons of work for me, which seemed rude. He charged me $5 more than he had said when I made the order, and laughed about it. I was very new to all this and I wasn't really expecting this sort of behavior so I unfortunately allowed him to push me around like that, but it became very important to me to figure out how to process firewood without buying it in the future. I didn't have a chainsaw, or anything like that, so the next winter I picked up sticks to burn rather than try to buy firewood again.

[@enriquepena5206]

I believe all business need to concentrate on customer service. I always go extra miles out of my way and tip well if they treat me nice and show appreciation for my patronage.

[@DavidSauer-l5n]

Many, many years ago My dad, who worked in the logging industry, started having me help him get and deliver firewood. In the area we lived there was an abundance of tamarack snags. He would fell the snags and pull them to the road with his truck where he would saw them into 16" rounds. Sound familiar? From that point on it was my job to split the rounds into 6 to 8 pieces, depending on the size. Once split I had to throw the pieces onto the truck, then get up on the truck and stack the wood. Dad let me get the first rick stacked and then began to teach me about the firewood business. I thought I was pretty smart for a 10 year old and figured out if I left big holes between the pieces I would get done much quicker! He immediately made me tear down the rick and start all over. When I finished that rick this time I had to throw a bunch more pieces on to the truck! He had an old Chevy 1 ton flatbed which could hold 2 1/2 cord.When I finished the load he put on the back rack to hold everything in place he then told me we were going to throw few more pieces up on the top. He then told me that no firewood customer was ever accuse him of selling short cords. He always had customers! Everything you said in this video is true, and hate to tell you that although I enjoyed what you had to say, I did not learn much!!

[@joelleblanc-km9cm]

I love this! Super stoked. Please do more inside baseball business vids!

[@edwinlikeshistractor8521]

Awesome walk in the forest. Good talk also.

[@stephendickinson9929]

Thanks for the walk in the woods and friendly chat. Makes me see why I didn't make it in my attempts at business.

[@exitar1]

What a concept seeing things from another point of view....🙂

[@jasonpinnix1905]

Here in North Carolina Hard wood , clean wood , split small so easy to handle . And take them what you advertise or just a bit more .

[@G.I.JeffsWorkbench]

Thanks for sharing tips that should be intuitively obvious to even the most casual observer. That said, most stereotypes are based on facts. There’s no suspension of facts in the wood selling business. Following the basic points that you raise - that should be common sense - will have a direct bearing on your success. I hope that my competitors weren’t listening.

[@obiwanjacobi]

I had to look up what a cord is. I found it's a stack of wood that's 8'x4'x4'. That's a lot of wood. We use cubic meter (m3). But then I'm in Europe.

[@lorensmarkiz5176]

please do as well sales videos! its very useful to hear about your experience!

[@DrDanClement]

Excellent content that our world desperately needs. Reminds me of the advice Bob Schultz shares through real life stories in his three books, "Boyhood & Beyond", "Practical Wisdom" and "Created for Work"

[@Carboneye7]

This was a great video thank you

[@DaveForArt]

For me. It's less about your content and more your format that I'm drawn to. Beautiful natural scenery, fronted by a calm, intelligent man with a timberous voice. You may not hear yourself as such, but you sound wise, mature, and calming.

[@erickeenan7562]

your woodlot looks great. Good, healthy forest. A good businessman too, that knows the business, and doesn't give anyone the business.

[@jefff6167]

Good common sense information that is timely and accurate.

[@alittleofthisandalittleofthat]

All good points 👍

[@Dadnatron]

I speak to them before they ever show up, telling them I want only wood downed the year before. I always check the wood before it’s unloaded. They say ‘it’s seasoned’ and then try to give me wood that’s green enough to grow.

[@Lazarus-aap]

I can always learn more from other people's way of seeing things, especially when it comes to running a business

[@martinv.-]

Excellent video Wilson, thank you!!

[@magunco]

yes you are on the right track

[@danwilliams3416]

Please more on the firewood business side of things.

[@TheOldJarhead]

I cannot agree more! Good video

[@nicholasjackson5311]

Great message, I like to see more forestry business videos?

[@Hoop-pi6dp]

Bring it on Chuck! Your simple, clear and direct communication skiĺls seem to reasonate with 46000 and a bit worldly people so far. so i think it would be awesome to hear about some of your business experience!👍

[@Ras7685]

Your right I didn't really learn very much.....however I did learn that if I have to make a KZbin video , I better be prepared to walk my ass off doing all the scene changes......another good one ...Thanks from the Willamette Valley !

[@scottiversen9234]

Amen my number one thing and complaint I hear from my customers is that they bought firewood from someone else and it would not burn. It was not seasoned and it bubbled on the ends when they tried to burn it. I try not to be that guy. Thanks for the video and keep up the good work.

[@lesahanners5057]

By the by, my Grandma had an electric chainsaw and was still cutting and stacking her own firewood at 90 years old, back in the 1980s. A friend brought her maple logs and dropped them in her yard. We would have done it, but she insisted she needed the exercise. If you haven't shown it before, you might do a video on how to properly stack firewood. Some folks think you can stack it up any old way. Have you ever heard the term, "rick" used with firewood before? My Grandma was born and raised in Oklahoma and lived through the Dust Bowl and Depression. She didn't say stacking firewood she said she was, "ricking", up her wood. I've never heard anyone else use that term.

[@birddogfarms6981]

In the Tn and VA area where I live, the term "rick" is used to describe a face cord of wood (1/3 of a full chord)...except most folks here abouts don't know the measurements of a true chord of wood so they call any freakin' size stack of wood a rick. If someone tells you they are bringing you a rick of firewood, there is no telling what amount they might actually show up with.

[@mtsarch]

Thanks for showing us so many lovely shots of your forest. You could have saved yourself several hours of editing by doing the whole video in front of the firewood pile.

[@Roboticus_Prime_RC]

The customer is always right in matters of taste.

[@Ruff-Cut]

Very Good, Thankyou

[@shaneruff7035]

I tried the first time to buy wood cut split. I paid for 4 cord and got stack about 2.5. Called the owner and he didn’t want to talk to me. I never bought wood again. Cut my own ever since.

[@edrose8358]

The decline of society saddens me. Good business practices used to be the norm. The good news is that us regular people that simply do what we say are now the exception. I'll take it. All while wearing my Camel City Mill work socks.

[@LEADSPRAYER45]

I have been cutting and selling wood on the side for 3-4 years. The first years are a struggle. Any advice would be great

[@Zombeegun]

A neighbor that is (still) in the firewood business sold me some "dry, seasoned, ready to burn" firewood. When he dumped it off it was covered in mud and ice. it looked like they they dredged it out of the swamp. When I complained about it he said "just put a fan on it and will be ok." A fan...in the middle of winter. I never bought from him again and still don't speak to him. What a crook. To this day he still sells green wood, it still has leaves on it!

[@frontyardfirewood]

Replace beer cans with redbull cans you just described my neighbor who sells wood. 😂dirty hands torn up hoodie, trashy truck and all. Pine in the hardwood. Literally every thing you said he does. But 150 dollars for a heaping cord to 1 .25 cords per dump load delivered he is busy. 😂😂😂

[@woodworker3122]

Good advice, spot on, thank you.

[@jalex425]

Thank you for all of your videos.

[@jackseamon7064]

I always stacked my firewood loose to dry easier. I always packed the dried firewood in the covered storage area tightly. With the water out of the wood and tightly stacked, the wood piles were no longer the same size. Extra would be needed to sell a true cord. Anyone selling dry firewood should not be selling what had been wet as the same volume.

[@brucea550]

Yep, I stack 4 1/2’ high for just that reason.

[@allenandmain]

All sounds good to me thanks

[@grahamgeiger3206]

Id love more business videos

[@codysp]

I learned nothing, thankfully. The fact that you had to make a video covering these points shows what a sad state we're in... I enjoy your videos, especially the sarcasm! 😁

[@brianjonker510]

I sold wood out of the same pile and one guy said it was hard to start but burned okay. The other guy claimed it was almost too dry because it burned to fast and never had trouble starting a fire.

[@diederik_theo]

I learned a lot today.

[@joeblow1934]

The secretary at our trucking company office used to show me how ridiculous some job applicants would fill out a job application. I might add, she showed me these applications just before she threw them in the trash can. She thought that if a potential hire would not even bother to take the time to fill out the application right, they would not work for our campany.

[@geneplummer-jg4en]

ya gotta remember that most of the people who sell wood are doing it as a side hussle , very few do it as a full time business , so as a famous person said , YA PAYS YER MONEY AND YA TAKES YER CHANCES

[@dgoodman1484]

Did you mean hustle? As in a fraud or swindle? Maybe it was exactly this type of person that gave him the idea to do this video? 🤔

[@adirondackwoodsman]

Good common sense business principles.

[@gary2332roth]

What's the best way to find land with timber that's for sale?

[@MikeL-vu7jo]

Great advise Thanks .

[@pjp80s]

Before I got into firewood myself, I always wondered why a cord of wood is so expensive…. Almost on par with heating oil. Now I know. Tons of time and labor to produce quality firewood.

[@mattharris2018]

If you sell a cord repeatedly is it a re-cord ?

[@mattharris2018]

And…… If you sell lots of records together is it an album ?

[@aubreyford9365]

Great video

[@iknownothing-m8c]

I'm from Sweden watching your channel simply for entertainment (though very interesting entertainment). I'd like to know what a cord is/looks like and how to measure it. Here in Sweden we measure firewood by square meters.

[@yearginclarke]

I've seen my share of bad firewood sellers. I was selling firewood myself at one time and started to get a decent little amount of customers. One thing that caught me off guard was when a customer accused me behind my back of shorting them on the amount of wood I gave them. A friend of mine did a barter/trade deal with the customer, where he paid me to cut and haul the wood to their house, in return for whatever he got from them. I know good and well I didn't short them. If they had told me right up front about this I would have gladly stacked it and proven that there was no shorting going on. However that was the only customer where I had that issue, everybody else liked me because I was always good on my word, always sold an actual real cord, didn't lie about whether it was dry or not, and every piece was bucked to the exact length the customer wanted. The other guys in my area who were my competition were an absolute joke when it came to that stuff.

[@BillHale-p9d]

All ways give a little more than promised. Not a lot but a little 😊

[@scrappydog175]

I’m late here, but to say I ordered a load supposed to be split and ready to burn. D-bag showed up with 30” rounds busted in half. I was desperate at the time and took it. Spent the next couple days splitting it so it would fit in my stove. He also swept all the bark and trash out of the trailer on my ground. Be careful folks.

[@robinette72]

Absolutely on the spelling part

[@buildnfix]

How do you measure a cord of wood?

[@mxguy31]

My wife and I run a small bakery, firewood or baked goods, those principles ring the same.

[@ishure8849]

G'day WFL, my two firewood customers only care about species moisture content and volume, and one of them hands me a beer after I've tipped it off 👍.

[@billywright9838]

"Successful people are usually busy not having reactions to things like that" ☠️😅

[@D0praise]

So nice, I’d like it twice if I could

[@Token_Civilian]

Some businesses have a pretty low bar to rate a person as a reliable supplier. If the supplier performs above to well above that bar, they'll have all the business they want and can often times charge a slight to moderate premium on the price. Kind of depressing when you think about it, that to be a high performer in firewood, you only have to deliver the actual product you advertise, in the actual amount, at the actual agreed time, all while refraining from being a slob, stoner, drunk or foul mouth until after business is done. Common sense is an uncommon virtue any more.

[@lpeterman]

As Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said: "Common sense, isn't." He also said: "One can do well, by doing good." It's just a thought

[@Shawn-s8o]

The difference between a good old boy and a country boy. Good ol boy well do enough work to have a good old time. Country boy we'll do enough work to ensure he can come back another time. P.S. if that ain't country I'll eat my hat

[@Pulsarr1]

In our neck of the woods (I live near the coast property), 90% of the firewood sellers are or were marijuana growers who sold firewood for a little side money. They all seem to have that grower attitude from the days when marijuana was illegal and the consumer couldn't really be all that picky about the character and salesmanship. I would actually love to hear of any annoying dealings Michael has had with growers, they usually make for great stories in my experience.

[@TravisDoesFirewood]

Good show. Many sellers are one off sellers and give us a bad name. Keep cuttin'!