Drones in Tree Care

by | Feb 21, 2019 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Drones in Tree Care

SJust thinking about using drones in tree care gets me excited. Being able to get a bird’s eye perspective while standing safely on the ground definitely has its advantages for your company. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that by 2021 there will be 3.5 million unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States with 1.6 million of them being used for commercial purposes. A large percentage of those commercial drones will be used in the tree care industry. So if you’ve been thinking about using them, here are some things to consider.

Uses for Drones:

Drones can be utilized in many different ways within the tree care industry. The most common application for them will be in doing visual inspections. The operator can perform both Level 1 (fly-over) and Level 3 (aerial inspection) tree risk assessments. Flying a drone up and over the crown of a tree can help limit unnecessary or potentially dangerous climbs by identifying hazards before a rope is set.

How about using them for planning out landscape design or tree replacement plans? The US Forest Service is already using drones for overall forest health assessments. They also are being utilized for help in disaster area cleanup, where the workers on the ground cannot see beyond their immediate vantage point. The drone can give them an idea of what dangers lie ahead as they work their way through the damaged area.

Even though Jamie Hyneman was unsuccessful at retrofitting a pruning shear onto a drone in a recent episode of MythBusters, advancement of this piece of equipment will probably one day include a pruning or removal drone.

Issues to Consider:

As with any new equipment or technology, drones have limitations and issues to contend with. By no means do I want you to think these are deal breakers, but rather items that you must consider before going out to purchase a drone for use in your tree care company.

Flight Times: Currently, flight times are limited to only 15-20 minutes even less when winds higher than 15 mph. The batteries aboard drones today take a while to charge back up, so an experienced pilot must have a plan in place before the drone is turned on so they can capture as much data as possible in that small amount of time.

Regulatory: Laws for drone usage are continuing to be created however currently, there are three major regulatory issues to understand.

500 feet height limit. The FAA has limited drone flight height to minimize accidents with aircraft and lost drones. Many drones have geolocators built into them now that limit the height.
Operator must possess the following documents:
Section 333 Exemption or Aircraft Certification
Certification of Authorization (COA)
Aircraft Registration and Markings
Pilot Certificate

Cannot fly over people unless the commercial operation entails recording the people. Your COA will state the commercial application that you are authorized to use the drone for.

Liability: Drone operators are subject to a number of liability issues that you need to be aware of. These are the two main issues to focus on.

Injury or property damage to others – Whether it was from the pilot’s error or a mechanical failure, drones can cause significant damage.
Privacy – Most states recognize some sort of tort for invasion of privacy. The laws have different components concerning privacy, but generally contain one of these principles.
Public disclosure of private facts.
Intrusion – The plaintiff must demonstrate that there was an intrusion upon his or her physical solitude or seclusion and be offensive or objectionable to a reasonable person
Appropriation of name or likeness – When someone’s name or likeness is used for commercial or newsworthy purposes.
False light in the public eye or defamation of character.

Insurance: Just like technology changes the laws we abide by, it also has a great impact on the insurance coverages available. Almost every General Liability insurance policy issued today have considered drones with most of them specifically excluding coverage.

Exclusions – CG2109, CG2110 and CG2111 are all used to remove coverage for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The difference between these three exclusions is how much coverage is removed. From excluding everything to do with a drone to only removing coverage for just privacy concerns, your General Liability policy probably has one of these three attached.
Physical Damage Coverage – With prices ranging anywhere from $75 to $3,000 and beyond when specialized cameras are added, it is important to think about insuring the drone for the damage while flying.

Despite the concerns that I listed in this article, using drones in your tree service can be a huge differentiator for your organization and can literally take your business to new heights!

Written by: Eric Petersen

Keys to Great Company Culture

by | Feb 4, 2019 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Keys to Great Company Culture

Google.

Zappos.

T-Mobile.

We’ve all heard about giant companies having great company culture, right? But what about your tree service? How can you create the best culture for your team that keeps your top performers engaged while still attracting new talent?

Creating the proper culture doesn’t happen overnight, however, focusing on these four key areas will help you accomplish this important aspect of your business.

Your Why – Employees want to be a part of something bigger than just work. They want their employer to stand for more than just the services they provide. So, ask yourself: why do you do what you do? Write it down and share it with everyone in your company. Ask your employees for their input and have them help define who you are. If you are struggling trying to define your why, check out an article that I wrote last year here (What is your Why?).

Delivering Happiness, a book written by Zappos’ founder Tony Hsieh, states that his company’s culture was simply based around living a life of passion and purpose. This translated into treating his employees like they were family and empowering them to be able to do whatever they could to help their customers have a great experience with their company, aka deliver happiness to their customers. I strongly recommend reading this book for ideas on how to improve your company culture.

Structure = Direction & Communication – With your “why” firmly in place, you must provide the proper direction and communication to your team so everyone knows where you are headed and how you are going to get there. This structure to your organization is vital to keep everyone on task and engaged during the grind of production season. Providing clear expectations of what you expect each employee to do is critical. Everyone wants to know what they are responsible for and how that fits into the overall success of the company.

Collaboration. Not Competition – Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. To build a great culture, you need to have everyone working together for the common goal. Take an honest look at your company to see if you have unintentionally pitted one crew against another or have fostered a competitive environment between employees. Friendly sales competitions may work for some companies, however, the vast majority of your employees want to be successful together. Make sure to include a member of each department on your safety committee, as well as conducting strategic planning sessions so that every employee feels that they are part of the team and building something great.

Have Fun – Some owners mistake “company culture” as only about having fun at work. While enjoying what you do and the people you do it with is very important, it really is only a piece of a comprehensive company culture. Take time to plan team events to get everyone together to relax and socialize, whether it be at a cookout at 2pm on a Friday or an evening trip to a local Escape Room. Ask for input from your team to hear what they would like to do. Create a “Social Committee” and give the members a certain dollar amount to spend on fun activities each month.

Having an exciting culture is something that all employees want and will help attract quality workers to your business. Think about these four areas within your company and how you can focus on building the best culture possible.

Written by: Eric Petersen

5 Levels of Leadership

by | Jan 29, 2019 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

5 Levels of Leadership

Have you ever found yourself asking “Am I really doing a good enough job as the leader of my company?” In the spirit of Crew Leader Month as declared by the TCIA, I want to give you some insight into the five levels of leadership to help you determine where you can improve.

At the 2018 TCIExpo, Todd Kramer gave a great presentation on leadership and talked about what it takes to be an effective leader. He used John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership to explain the different stages of development that leaders go through. So, where do you rank yourself as a leader?

Position – This is the lowest level of leadership and one where the leader has subordinates, not team members. The leader was given the position to lead without much qualification. They have authority to direct others based on the rules of the organization. All leaders start off in this capacity, however, to be truly effective, they must desire to grow beyond this level.

Permission – Leaders at this level have begun to understand how to use influence to have their team perform the work. The leader focuses on the relationship with the individual team members and gets them to want to do the work versus just complying with orders. The leader helps foster trust between everyone on the crew thereby truly instituting a team first attitude.

Production – Good leaders get results. This becomes the difference between Permission and Production leaders. The Production leader has a strong sense of self-discipline and work ethic to be productive, while at the same time continuing to understand how their influence on their team affects the results. Without achieving the desired goals, a leader does not reach this level.

People Development – At this level of leadership, leaders invest their time and energy into helping their team members grow and develop as individuals. Their focus is not on direct production as much as it is on developing the potential in each team member. This can be difficult for highly productive leaders, but makes a dramatic impact on the company. The more well developed all team members are, the stronger the company.

Pinnacle – The highest leadership level, unfortunately is rare in the tree care world. Here the leader has been so successful at all of the four prior levels that they have created a legacy of leadership in their organization. They have been able to develop other level 4 leaders inside their company and are viewed as mentors to those within the industry. Pinnacle leaders are ones that strive to make the entire tree care industry better.

Great leaders are not simply born great. They have developed their skills over time and worked their way up level by level. Don’t forget to continually invest in your own skills as a leader of your company. Attend leadership courses and talk to others about their challenges as a leader to hone your skills.

If you are interested in growing you leadership skills by connecting with similar sized tree care companies in the Thrive Peer to Peer group contact ArboRisk today.

Written by: Eric Petersen

How to Run Effective Meetings

by | Jan 16, 2019 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

How to Run Effective Meetings

Meetings. Eeek! Just the mere mention of that word probably makes your blood pressure rise, right? While listening to a session at the 2018 TCIExpo in Charlotte, North Carolina by Melissa LeVangie, I realized that even though the points that she was making seemed like common sense, many leaders do not practice them on a daily basis, thereby making meetings an excruciating part of business today.

Now I have plenty of room to grow in this area myself, however, I have been fortunate enough to learn from some great leaders within the Wisconsin Arborist Association (WAA) on how to run effective meetings. The strategies below have helped me and my Board of Directors accomplish a lot when I was the President of the WAA as well as in my agency today.

Prepare an Agenda – There is nothing worse than going into a meeting not knowing what will be discussed or how long it will take. Send an agenda to the participants at least two days in advance so everyone knows what to expect during the meeting. Have no more than three or four topics at the meeting and list a desired amount of time for that topic right on the agenda. If there are topics that you want the participant’s input on, the agenda needs to be sent to them even further in advance so they can prepare before the meeting. Give as much detail to the participants as possible so that when you sit down to start the meeting, everyone is ready to contribute.

Involve Others – When you send the agenda out, assign topics to other people to present or lead the discussion on. No one wants to hear a single person drag on and on throughout the entire meeting. Specifically asking an individual to present a topic gives them ownership in the meeting and keeps others engaged as well. Make sure the person(s) you ask to present are comfortable doing so and have enough time to prepare before the meeting. This strategy can backfire quickly if you do not communicate with the prospective presenter far enough in advance.

Respect Everyone’s Time – Start the meeting promptly and pay attention to the time during the meeting. If a topic is going off track or taking longer than planned address it directly in the meeting. Either state that you need to move onto the next point and set a time to finish the discussion later or get a consensus from the other participant’s that it is okay to continue on this topic.

Never let a meeting run beyond the scheduled time. Period. Everyone is too busy to have meetings go longer than planned.
Because we cannot free ourselves of meetings, use these three simple strategies to hold better meetings. These more effective meetings will engage all team members at a deeper level and help your business achieve its goals much sooner.

Written by: Eric Petersen

3 Critical Cyber Security Measures

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Risk Management | 0 comments

3 Critical Cyber Security Measures

“Cyber Security? Only mega corporations like Target and Home Depot have to worry about that. I’m just a small tree service. I don’t have anything that hackers would want.”

Be honest, have you ever found yourself saying that? Chances are you have and, naturally, this article will tell you why you need to pay attention to what is going on in the cyber security world. Last year, I attended a Cyber Risk Seminar and learned that 69% of data breaches occur from a negligent insider (or former insider). That means someone inside your company either clicked a bad link, emailed a virus or unknowingly allowed a hacker into your computer system.

Before discussing the ways to minimize your cyber liability, I want to highlight a few areas of exposure that every tree service has. As with any exposure to loss, there are internal and external risks that a business faces.

External Cyber Risks

1. Transmitting a Virus to a Customer/Vendor – Tree care companies rely on email to communicate with their customers and vendors. Email is the most efficient method of communication and also presents the easiest way for your company to be liable for a cyber breach. If one of your employees sends an email that contains a virus to a customer or, worse, your entire customer database, you could be facing a huge unexpected expense. It costs anywhere between $100 – $350 to remove a virus from an infected computer and that cost does not include if any personal data was compromised or any business shutdown occurred because of it.
2. Customer’s Personal Data – Every tree service has some personal information from their customers. Names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and credit card numbers are all considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and is therefore information that must be protected from a data breach. If a hacker gets into your computer system and gains access to this basic customer information, you will be responsible for notifying the customer of the breach and providing credit monitoring for one year.
In 2016 the average cost for a data breach was $158 per record – How much would a breach cost your business at that price point?

Internal Cyber Risks

1. Employee’s Personal Data – When hiring someone onto your team, there is a lot of personal information that you gather – Social Security numbers, birthdays and driver’s license numbers, to name a few. Do you have a direct deposit payroll system set up? If so, your employee’s bank information is in your system. As the business owner, you clearly have a responsibility to protect your employee’s data. What would happen to your employee loyalty if you failed at keeping their information safe?
2. Business’ Computer System – Interruptions seem to happen fairly often when using technology for your business. Sometimes the internet goes out due to a cut wire down the street. Your phone system may suffer a break in service due to something on the provider’s end. Those are out of your control, however, what you can do something about is your internal business system. Is your computer network backed up in the cloud or off-site? What would happen if your system got hacked and held for ransom from a cyber-attack?

Now that you know the common cyber exposures that all tree services face, here are three areas to focus on to reduce the chance of a cyber liability event. Implementing these changes can reduce your chances of a breach by almost 70%!

1. Inbox Security – Studies have shown that 93% of all computer hacks begins with email phishing. Email phishing is a tactic that hackers use to get the email user to click an infected link embedded in an email to gain access to their system. These can be specific to an individual and look VERY similar to an email that you would get. I’m sure you have received these before but may not have even realized it – an email from UPS about a package delivery or that your Amazon order needs more information. They look very real and ask you to take action by clicking the link included in the email to resolve the issue. Once you click the link, your system is compromised. Working with a proactive IT company will help you get the proper email controls in place to limit the phishing attempts on your employees.
2. Browser Security – The next part of cyber security is enabling the proper security features on your internet browsers. This can again be controlled by your IT firm and will help you restrict access to potentially damaging websites. We’ve all heard stories of how one employee used a work computer to search for something that wasn’t work related and the shady website that was viewed infected the computer and it spread to the other networked computers. Tighten up what sites can be opened and this exposure disappears.
3. Employee Behavior – Training employees on what to look for from a phishing attack or questionable website is the best way to limit the accidental “oops, I shouldn’t have opened that email.” In our agency, we signed our employees up for a six part training on email phishing. As the owner of my company, I need to do whatever I can to make sure my team understands how these schemes work so we don’t cause a data breach.

The world of cyber security can be overwhelming, however, if you focus on these three simple areas, you will drastically limit your exposure to a crippling data breach.

For more information on how to properly protect your business against a cyber event, contact our agency.

Written by: Eric Petersen