Saw Bucks, the sawmill forum for everyone interested in sawmills,
trees, woodworking and the stewardship of our natural resources.
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Promoting Sustainable
Forest Management
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Sawmill Locater expands to New Zealand,
Australia and England
The positive response from Sawyers, Homeowners,
Builders and Contractors has created the need to expand
coverage to more parts of the world. If you are looking
for a sawmill or needing to advertise your services
the possibilities have expanded. The Sawyers
showcasing their businesses here have been
steadily growing along with the Internet searches
leading to this invaluable resource, so if you haven't
already posted your information, now is the time to
do it. Visit the Sawmill Locater today.
Welcome, October New Members Rank
SawdustnSplinters Tue Oct 07 New Member
sgschwend Wed Oct 08 Saw Buck
SpTreesInd Thu Oct 09 New Member
marklambert61 Wed Oct 15 New Member
Bowhunter Tue Oct 21 New Member
Pat Caulfield Thu Oct 30 New Member
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Stand up and be counted! Current Poll Results
What kind of mill do you own? Timber King = 40%
Best Performance Blades Wood-Mizer = 37%
How many employees do you have? None, except myself = 100%
Best Chainsaws Overall Husqvarna = 50%
Weekend Warriors or Full Timers? Full time for profit = 80%
Note: Not all members have placed a vote. Stand up and be counted!
See all Polls
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Papa1stuff, Cedar Leader in Tree Saves
These Cedar trees were destined for the chipper
until the owner was directed over to Dave's place
where they will find a far better use than chips. "My
neighbor told him that I had a chipper and wanted to
know if I would like some cedar for mulch".
Papa1stuff goes on to say "It was a fernery and
these trees were planted for shade and wind
protection. Now the ferns are gone and they are
planting other crops and don't want the trees". By
making lumber instead of chips the carbon will be
preserved in the boards instead of a more rapid
release into the atmosphere, this will help slow the
green house effect. With Sawyers all around taking
advantage of opportunities like this there will be a
reduced demand for commercial timber harvest
along with a more appropriate use of our natural
recourses. This kind of Natural Resource
Management just make good sense. More
Biomass Fuels Portable Sawmill Businesses
Most of us are familiar with how biomass harvested form
the commercial timber industry has fueled co generation
plants and can be processed into pellets and presto logs
for home use, but how about the small portable sawmill
operators and the biomass they generate? The growing
business of small sawmills now play a larger part in the
home fuel wood market. Its no secret that tailings and
drop off after milling can easily go through a secondary
process and turned into cord wood. Long practised by
small stationary mills who easily use a conveyor, sending
tailings and boards to a cutoff saw where the first step in
the grading process is sizing the waste into firewood
length for stacking and eventual sale. Portable
operations can use this same concept to keep this
material in the total volume count at billing time. By
addressing this topic during the job estimate phase
Sawyers can provide the secondary processing during
the milling. Give customers the opportunity to except it
into the price or have it removed by the Sawyer who can
set up a future sale. Making every effort count at the job
site can make a large impact at the end of each job and
at the end of the year.
These times they are a changing. A few tips to weather the storm.
The political landscape has completely changed. We've got a Democratic President coming in bringing
an increased Democratic majority in both houses and a dark economic climate that is pushing people to
call for quick and bold action. This means that there will be quite a few changes that are pushed through.
No matter what your political views are (I understand that this is a really sensitive subject) we are all in the
same boat when it comes to weathering the changes ahead. State, County, City and local Municipalities
everywhere are all cutting back services and looking for ways to increase revenues any way they can.
There is no doubt that small business will be hit with licence fees and increased operating cost along with
reduced income caused by the tightening of the purse strings of the average consumer.
Last month we looked at trimming expenses, expanding investments and working with positive pier
groups. With tax time coming up this is a good time to look at how to keep as much of your hard earned
income as possible.
Tip one
Smart business owners should structure their business so that the hard assets (buildings and equipment)
are owned separate from the business, with the business paying rents and leasing fees for the use of
these assets in the course of doing business. As Backwoods Sawyer explained in a recent post "The
other day my home owners insurance agent came by taking pictures of the lumber and sign and then
called to cancel my insurance. This got my wife all in a panic. I took a map showing the property lines
into his office and showed him how we had the business completely separated from the home. He
shredded the pictures and apologized for the over cellist mix up". Planning ahead and avoiding higher
fees and possible loss of services can save not only cash but plenty of headaches.
Tip two
Savvy business owners with multiple entities (e.g. C-Corp with an S-Corp or LLC taxed as an S-Corp)
will to need to really get strategic about how they use multiple entities (e.g. C-Corp with an S-Corp or LLC
taxed as an S-Corp) to reduce total tax burden. A tax expert may prove to be well worth the expense if you
have more than one entity. Of course if this applies to you then a professional is probably in your employ
already and you will need to ask them about how the new changes coming will effect you.
Tip three
For the sole proprietor and the part time business owners who do there own taxes or have them done by
a tax service take the time to ask and get quality advice from a skilled professional (not H&R Block) who
can give detailed information on what is a business expense and can be deducted as a cost of doing
business. Turbo Tax for business (this is what I use) has a detailed step by step walk through of
deductions you can take that includes work clothes and boots and many more that you may not know
about. If you have old clothes,furniture and toy's that can be donated to charity now is the time to do a
clean up so that this too can be added to your this years deductions. For those who volunteer to non profit
community organizations such as the fire service, Lions, Rotary and such, a proton of all travel expense
and cash donated towards your membership can be deducted.
Tip four
Delay any new hiring you may have planned on in the next 60 days until 2009. The proposed "Stimulus
Package" tax credit of $3,000 per employee for companies that increase their net number of workers will
benefit everyone who hires new employees next year.
Tip Five
As mentioned in the Biomass article above making the most of out natural resources may seem like only
a small difference at the end of each day but will add up at the end of the year. With minimal effort during
normal processing at the job site we can milk every ounce of value from our labors by reassessing how
sawyers do their job. Firewood is just one small aspect of what we do and tailings cant be avoided and
should be viewed as an asset, not a liability. Little changes in the way we operate can add up to a lot of
groceries at the end of the year.
I hope this will help with this years bottom line and set up for next years success. TreeBones
Sawdust and Splinters is the official newsletter of the Saw Bucks Forum
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