Drew Bedingfield, a former firefighter, started doing tree care work part-time in 2012. Now, his business, TreeWiseMen Tree Service, in Bluffton, S.C., runs three high-production crews of at least four tree care workers each.
“I just started out with a small truck and a lot of hard work,” says Bedingfield, “and we just arrived here today.”
“Here” is a busy, local tree service company doing residential and commercial removals, pruning, stump grinding, and plant health care. Bedingfield feels the company’s size is a benefit for customers, “It’s large enough to serve any of your demands but small enough to where, if there is a problem or issue, it gets addressed quickly and efficiently.”
TreeWiseMen currently has 12 people in production, two office staff members, one full-time arborist, and one full-time sales representative. Bedingfield credits his growth to hard work, good people and hard-working equipment, including his fleet of Morbark® machines. His company has three Morbark chippers — two Beever™ M18Rs and a Beever M14R (an older model Morbark has replaced with the M15RX) that typically run every day, according to Bedingfield — as well as an MXD86 track stump grinder and a Boxer® 320 mini-skid steer, plus a handful of other support equipment: “everything that you’d need to get a big job done quickly,” says Bedingfield.
“Morbark’s been a household name for a long time,” adds Bedingfield. “They’ve got a great reputation. I was already considering them before I realized there’s a dealer in Savannah (Georgia), which is very close to us — about 30 minutes away. Once I met Josh, the sales rep for Morbark, he really sealed the deal for me.”