Ran across this article on the internet. Sounded interesting- too bad I live in Florida, where the demand for firewood is low, lol.

Unpredictable fuel costs and the necessity of keeping warm in the winter have resulted in "boom sales" for manufactures of wood-burning stoves. There has also been a return to the use of the fireplace as a form of supplementary heat and as a luxury that promotes the "cozy" atmosphere sought after by both middle class and affluent families. This renaissance in the popularity of wood heat, and upward spiraling sales of associated equipment, has created a demand for firewood that's almost impossible to fulfill.

A very important element: This demand has caused the price of firewood to almost double over the past several years. Whatever the "going price" for a cord of firewood in your area, you can expect it to increase by 20 to 30 percent each year for the next ten years or so.

Your potential market is as varied as the weather; it is also somewhat dependent on the weather. You'll find buyers among apartment dwellers as well as home owners. The rich buying firewood perhaps more than the poor; those concerned with the purity of the environment and the so-called "voluntary-simplicity" folk seeking a return to the "pioneering" life are all part of your market.

And don't think for a minute that firewood sales are limited to the colder northern states. people living in sunny southern California and along the Gulf of Mexico buy and burn firewood for the same reasons as people living in Minnesota and Montana.

One of the secrets of success in this business is understanding why the people in your area burn firewood. Then it's a matter of learning when and how often they need it, and positioning yourself to fill those needs.

It doesn't take special education or training to become successful firewood supplier. Just for the record, the backgrounds of people operating businesses of this kind range from farmers to unemployed factory workers to doctors, lawyers, real estate salesman and even university professors.

The kind of equipment you'll need varies according to the type of business you want to establish, and the kind of wood you will be supplying.

The first prerequisite to the establishment of your business is to decide what kind of business---wholesale to retail outlets, or retail to the general public--you want to operate.

Next, you'll have to decide on the type of firewood you will sell. There are three major categories: 1) mill ends or sawed up scrap lumber and kindling, 2) whole logs for the buyer to cut according to his own specifications, 3) fireplace and stove wood, cut and split according to the general requirements of your market area.

Your next step is to line up a source of supply. Actually, it's best to "lock in" a number of sources of supply. Later on, as your business develops and grows, you may want to offer several different kinds of firewood, that is, become a full-service dealer offering firewood to meet everyone's needs and fancies for your area. We'll discuss different categories of wood and demand, so that you can explore sources of supply and costs.

MILL ENDS: Your best source of supply for this type of wood is the sawmills in your area. If you live in a metropolitan area, take a few weekend trips to the small towns in the wooded areas of your state. With a little bit of initiative on your part, you should be able to discover any number of small sawmill operations within a 200-mile radius most metropolitan areas in this country.

What you'll want to do is buy a truckload of mill ends, take them home and package them into sacks of firewood. Thus, a load of mill ends that you might buy for $50 would be broken down into perhaps 200 sackfuls that you sell for $5 per sack. Multiply these 200 sacks of firewood times $5 each, and you have a gross income of $1,000 for a load of wood costing you only $50. You wouldn't have to be very smart to realize that's pretty good, providing your sources of supply can keep up with the demand.

The beauty of mill ends is that they are clean, burn down into sackfuls are fast, put out a lot of heat, and when broken down into sackfuls are ideal for apartment dwellers, as well as people in warmer climates needing firewood for just a few cold spells each winter. Until you have a large full-service firewood supply operation, it's suggested that you leave the sale of truckload supplies of mill ends to the larger, more established firewood suppliers. My advice here is that you should stay within the capabilities of supplying the buying demands of your market, and further concentrate on selling what brings you the greatest profit. However, as your operation grows, the supply of truckloads of mill end firewood is definitely worth considering.

Other sources of supply for mill end will be your local lumbar yards, woodworking or furniture manufacturing firms, and home building or remodeling contractors. in many instances, you can offer to stop by these places about once a week and clean up the worksite by hauling away the scrap lumber, and they'll let you have it without cost. It is possible to even get paid for doing this. The only drawback will be that you'll have to sort this wood, and then saw it up into the sizes you want for your bundles or sacks. This is no big deal, because you can handle a pickup or trailer load with a power saw in just a couple of hours.

When you have the wood ready to package into sacks, you'll save time and increase your profits by hiring a couple of high school students, explain that you need a couple of people for part time work sacking firewood, and you'll have all the help you need.

As for how much to pay them, establish a pay rate for 100 full sacks. Of two high school students, one would hold open a sack while the other uses a scoop shovel to pick up the wood and dump it into the sack. Between them, they can gather the top of the sack and tie it with twine. The full sacks, of course, must be stacked on a pallet or in a area ready for selling. Check the time it takes two good students, working at a reasonably fast clip, to load 100 sacks. Knowing the current minimum hourly wage rate, you can then determine the labor value of 100 loaded sacks.

For a supply of burlap bags for use in sacking wood, check with a farmer's feed store. If you buy in quantity, you can get them at a very reasonable price. You can purchase twine for tying the sacks at the same place.

WHOLE LOGS: Many people have chain saws and fancy themselves as "do-it-yourself" types, but they don't have the time to go out into the woods and bring back firewood. If you can supply these people with a location not too far from home, where they can saw and split their own firewood, you'll have a steady stream of customers. You'll need a large vacant lot--about a half acre to a full acre---and preferably on the outskirts of town. The first thing will be to put up a 6-foot cyclone fence around your lot, and then a small garden shed type building to serve as your office.

Contact a sawmill or logging operation not too far from where you want to open your business. Arrange with them to deliver whole logs (lumber rejects) to your wood lot. Your costs shouldn't run much more than $10 per log, even for premium wood, but will depend upon the size and number delivered in each load.

If you have the vehicle and the energy, you can also contact the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management in your area for a permit to cut firewood in government preservation area. Then you go out into the woods, saw up downed trees into eight-foot lengths, load them into your vehicle and haul them to your woodlot.

Still another source of supply is the farmers in your area. Talk with them and offer to "thin out" area of standing timber, and the downed trees. Oftentimes, you can get this wood at no cost other than offering the land owners a share of the timber you take out. He may even consider your "thinning" and hauling an even exchange for logs.

Don't forget about the road building construction companies, and commercial and residential developers as sources of supply. Actually, once you get into the business you'll find sources of supply virtually unlimited, and restricted only by your initiative in making contact with the property owners.

Once you have a supply of logs within your wood lot, there are many things you can do to attract customers. Run an advertisement in your local paper inviting "do-it-yourselfers" to come out and cut their own firewood. You charge them twice as much per log as your cost, and they do the sawing, the splitting, the loading and provide their own car or truck to take them home. You are only there to supervise and receive payment.

You could also rent chain saws, axes and the use of your power splitter. Allow the customer to select the log of his choice, and then have the hired help--high school students, perhaps--who would saw, split and load this wood into the buyer's vehicle. The ultimate, of course, would be be include delivery and stacking of this wood at the customer's residence.

Once the customer has selected his log--at twice your costs--and pays you $5 for sawing it into the lengths he wants, plus $10 for splitting it for him and another $10 for loading it onto his vehicle, you're talking about $150 to $200 per cord of wood. The secret here is to have your helpers working in teams, with the kind of efficiency that means $100 per hour for you.

FIREPLACE AND STOVE WOOD: In running a program of pre-cut and split fireplace and stove wood, you combine all the principles we've discussed so far, into either a wholesale or retail firewood supply sales outlet.

The easiest and most profitable operating procedure is to set up a wood lot where whole logs are delivered to your location. Part-time workers saw these logs into 16 to 24 inch lengths for you. A couple of people with chain saws should be able to cut two cords of wood per hour. A couple of people working a power log splitter should be able to keep up with the people on chain saws. And a couple of other people stacking this wood onto pallets as it's split, or for storage until sold, would be all the help you need.

If you can set your business up along these lines, you'll realize the greatest profits and not have to get involved in the physical part of the business. The big thing to remember is that--as the business owner and operator---your time should be devoted to selling the end product

If you decide to be a wholesale supplier, and sell to retailers, advertise for and hire commission sales people to call on the retail outlets in your area. You'll need help in covering all the possible opportunities for retail sales of your firewood.

You should be selling sacks and pallet loads of firewood. Remember: The more you can divide a basic cord of firewood into sacks or pallet loads, the greater profit you're going to make from each cord of wood you sell.

You'll find most people buying cords or truckload quantities of firewood before cold weather sets in, and after that, people will buy in quantities only large enough to get by, or to last out a sudden cold snap. When selling to the public, after setting up retail sales outlets, be sure that your prices at least "average" those being charged by the retail sellers. Never "undercut" the price your retail people are charging.

If you decide to do all the selling yourself--in other words, act as your own retail outlet--you'll need to advertise.

Start out with a large three-column wide, by four-inch deep display ad in your local paper. Unless you've had advertising experience, at least contact the advertising instruction class at your local community college for help in layout and writing of this ad. If you're not far from a large metropolitan area, you can often contact the advertising agencies in that area, and get freelance help to assist in the makeup of your advertising.

Plan the appearances of this ad for a Saturday morning paper. Make your opening a big event--much as the same as a grand opening or special anniversary sale--with free coffee, donuts and balloons for the children. Ideally, the opening of this kind of business should be staged on a weekend in late September or early October, and designed to acquaint the people in your area with your firewood business.

Get the name, address and phone number of everyone who shows up. This can be handled very unobtrusively by giving away free prizes requiring the attendees to your event to fill out simple prize drawing forms. The prizes can be a free cord of wood, dinner for two at a local restaurant, or even movie passes.

The whole purpose of your grand opening show is to let people know that you're open to serve their needs; to get them to discover your location; and to implant in their minds the memory that you can supply them with the means to keep warm when the weather turns cold.

Quite naturally, many will find your services to be more convenient, time-saving and less bother that whatever methods they're currently using. As you talk with your customers, listen to their "complaints" about their present methods of firewood procurement, and then alleviate those problems with the services you provide.

After your grand opening, a small 2 by 4 inches display ad in the yellow pages of your telephone directory plus the posting of advertising circulars and business cards left with woodstove and fireplace suppliers, insulation and remodeling contractors and lumber yards in you area is about all the advertising you'll need to do. However, it would be wise to follow the lead of the "snow tire" people, and whenever the weather forecast shows a cold front or winter storm moving in, invest some money in radio and newspaper advertising.

Statistics prove that 20 percent of your potential market will prepare for cold weather by purchasing before the cold weather sets in. Another 30 percent of the market will wait until the first cold snap hits, then buy from the first supplier that comes to mind. Finally, the remaining people will have to be "sold" via suggestion of the benefits your business provides.

This is the period when you begin profiting from those names, addresses and telephone numbers of the people who turned out to your big opening event. Simply set up a telephone selling program utilizing the services of commission telephone sales people, and follow up on those who had registered.

You can conceivably operate this business from your home or backyard, and definitely on a part-time basis, but their prospects of immediate success, with outstanding profits are so great that it would be wise to plan on a big operation from the start.

A receipt pad for taking orders, a "daily diary" or ledger type of bookkeeping system, a calculator and a telephone should suffice for office supplies and equipment. Until you're over the hump on the profit side, you can keep your sales receipts in a shoebox or daily staple together and store in chronological order.

A couple of other points remember: Hardwood burns the longest and gives off the most heat; firewood that has been cut in the spring and seasoned through the summer is the kind most people will be willing to pay premium prices for; and giving the customers a "little extra" for his money will result in greater and longer lasting success than quick profit schemes.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), March 11, 2002

Answers

not around here,, wood prices havnt moved in 15 years, nor are they expected too

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 11, 2002.

Yeah, I wondered if the writer wasn't being a bit optimistic with that statement. If there were that kind of growth everyone would be investing in firewood!

Still, I though he had a couple of good pointers to offer to someone who might be considering starting their own business. I can get all the free oak wood that I want around here from tree trimmers, but turning it into firewood is a lot of work for the amount I could sell it for. Still, I try to sell a few bundles every winter to the rich yuppie neighbors- can't make a living at it, but every little bit helps.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), March 11, 2002.

At $100 a 4x4x8 ft. cord, I'd say the folks around here earn every penny of it. That's a lot of hauling, splitting and delivering. I'm glad there are folks who are energetic enough to do the work and rich enough to afford the tools and trucks and skidders ;-) I used to cut my own firewood, but leave it to others now that I am old and decrepit.

-- Peace and Carrots Farm (wsm311@aol.com), March 11, 2002.

100 bucks for a face cord? Id do that,, around here its 30 bucks for a face cord of dried oak. 35 delevered

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 11, 2002.

We sold 6 log bundles to city folks in Huntsville a few years back for $15 a bundle. We delivered to apartments and condominiums with real fireplaces on Friday nights so they could have romantic evenings and no wood mess.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 11, 2002.

I would say you could have a better chance of selling firewood in Florida than most places. Best money would be small bundles for tourist campfires. Around here wood is cheap and if you're ambitious you can get all you need for free.

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), March 11, 2002.

The price of firewood in my area has increased about $10 in 2 years. It goes up each year. You could get a rick for about 35 dollars acouple of years ago. Now it is anywhere from 45 to 65 depending on if its hardwood or if its aged. We cut our own.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 11, 2002.

Ok, I forgot to add, Dave cuts ours, I just stack it. LOL

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 11, 2002.

Around here you pay $120/full cord, cut, split and delivered. A logger buddy of mine and I are thinking about building a firewood processing machine. I've got lotsa industrial duty hydraulic stuff around.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 11, 2002.

a buddy of mine did build one,, he is a logger,,so all the tops jsut sit out there,, basically he built a LARGE chop saw thats automatically moved back and forth,, only labor was moving the wood after a pass of the blade. After a few hours, we figured we need a converoy to move the cut wood,, away from the saw, where it would be split, and stacked ready to dry/be sold

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 12, 2002.

Well..... Guess it depends upon where you are located, etc. We bought a ranch in Arkansas with a sawmill. The sawmill is gone, but we have a HUGE woodpile left over and I can't move any of it because the price per cord here is $15.00. Even though ours is dried oak, well, doesn't matter. So I am sitting on a fortune rotting.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), March 12, 2002.

Seems a shame to "let it go to waste" Bernice. Can't you find a city market or campground to sell to?

-- Rog (rw285@isoc.net), March 14, 2002.

Yep, Elizabeth, you're right when you say that the info you posted does contain some good general "how-to-start-your-own-business" pointers. And you are right again in that the author was being a bit optimistic. DH is Skinny Kenny of "Skinny Kenny's Firewood," so I speak from experience when I tell you he was being a LOT optimistic in MANY of his statemtents! LOL! When I read through it, what came to mind was a yuppie with a shiney new BBA degree who'd read a little about wood and mayhaps even bought a couple bundles himself. *grin!*

One "optimism" that jumps out at me is you can't really sell mill ends or scrap lumber like that. You have to have a good product that burns well and is visually appealing. Most scrap isn't pretty ~ looks just like what it is, scrap, and people who pay you good money won't take kindly to that. Nor do you always know what kind of wood it is ~ might not be a kind that burns nice and slow like oak. Even if you package them like he describes, you won't make that much profit ~ he forgot to factor in costs of the packaging and gas to haul it home and to the retailer. We do a lot of bundles and I noticed you said you do some, too! Cool! How do you package yours? We get those 6" wide rolls of shrink wrap that's used for wrapping stuff when you move, wrap both ends of the three-log-bundle together, then staple on a foot-long piece of cotton rope with an air-powered roofing gun ~ makes for a nice little burnable handle! We get a buck seventy-five each wholesale. LOT of work, but it does add up.

Yep, Peace & Carrots (LOVE the name!), cutting and selling firewood is real work! They don't call DH "Skinny Kenny" for nothing. The man eats like a horse and burns every bit of it off! He's getting older now and I want him to slow down ~ one back surgery is enough. Luckily, we have land in a prominent location and he has the contacts to buy unsplit cords through the summer, split them with his splitter, then just deliver or sell right off the woodyard ~ that'll take half-plus of the work out of it.

Stan, a face cord is not a 4'x4'x8' stack, but about half that depending on the length of the logs ~ sometimes it's only 1/4 if you want really short logs (foot-long). The following is FYI for everybody so you don't get gipped! A true cord should be a total of 128 cubic feet, however it's stacked, AND stacked tight enough to walk across the top without much shifting (discounting corn- fed walkers, of course!). I've seen some seller's cords stacked so loose that you could throw a dog through, so beware. A traditionally stacked cord is two stacks of 24" logs stacked side by side, each 4' tall and 8' long ~ 4'x4'x8' and 128 cubic feet. A face cord is just that ~ the face, or one side, of the traditionally stacked cord. BUT, the amount of wood you get depends on the length you want the logs ~ 24" long and you'll get the full half-cord (64 cubic feet), 16" long and you'll get a third of a cord, 12" long and you'll only get a fourth. It's common to pay the same amount for the three sizes of face cords as there is just as much work in one as in another. The best way to go is just buy a true cord ~ you should always get 128 cubic feet of wood, no matter the log length, though there may be an extra fee for foot-long logs. If the sellers purport it to be a "cord" and you don't get 128 cubic feet, you should refuse the wood and report the sellers to the local sheriff's office. They might not want to do much about it, but some states take this sort of thing seriously. And don't be afraid to ask the seller ~ some may get a tad bent if you do, but many are like DH who carries a tape measure on the dash of the flatbed.

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), March 16, 2002.