Full-time workers find time for small tree business
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FAIRMONT - On top of both having full-time employment, Nick Segar and Carter Leiding have seen their Fairmont-based business, L&S Tree Service, grow exponentially since opening in the spring of 2024.
Co-owner Nick Segar said L&S Tree Service does pretty much anything.
"Full removals, stump grinding, trimming of trees," he said. "We’ve done some hedges before, but that’s few and far between. People ask about landscaping. I’m not a landscaper. We don’t do snow. We just do trees mainly. Pretty much anything to do with a tree, we will do."
The one thing they can't do is treat trees, because they currently do not have the certification.
To get the job done, Segar said they have a few tools in their arsenal.
"We have a lift," he said. "That’s access to the tree. The smaller the piece you can take, the less risk you inherently have. We move our lift around with an Avant. It’s a mini articulating loader with giant lawnmower tires on it, so it doesn’t damage the yard at all. We have a grapple truck, which is one of the more, I would say, difference-making pieces we’ve bought. We don’t have to make trips from the job site. We just put everything in a big neat pile, and then our grapple truck comes and grabs it and loads it right into the truck."
As for how they got started, Segar said the genesis for his and Carter's company is a bit of a funny story.
"My dad doesn’t like trees because he had one fall on his house when I was a kid," he said. "Ever since then, he basically didn’t want any trees around his house when I was growing up. You could buy the equipment and have friends come help out and get the job done. Just spiraled from there. YouTube videos, [buying] chainsaws. My best friend and business partner, Carter, his dad has a dump trailer. He says, 'You have all the saws, and I have access to a dump trailer, so why don’t we just start a business and see where it goes?'"
From there, things quickly spiraled in a positive direction.
"Once you start buying equipment and the commitment is more, it’s really easy to see that you’re progressing fast," Segar said. "That first year we didn’t do a lot because it was all physical labor, loading material and renting, playing the schedule around that. Last year we took a whole jump from zero to 100."
This trend hasn't stopped this year either.
"We basically have doubled what we did last year this year," Segar said. "It’s kind of crazy. I got married in June, so it put a halt to things. Just a constant influx of customers all winter through the spring, and now even still coming in this fall."
As for how they are able to do work year-round, Segar said it boils down to what their most common work is.
"Overall, 90 percent of what we do lately is ash trees," he said. "There’s no real difference between cutting an ash tree down in the spring, summer, or even in the winter. It’s just going to be more sticks you have to pick up when they shatter on the ground. Not too many different challenges. Maybe equipment challenges. Machines don’t like to run in the winter as good versus in the summertime."
While most of their work is in the late spring and summertime, Segar said there are some projects, like working on oak trees, that are better in the winter. This is because there are fewer cases of disease, and they don't have to worry about disease being spread on oak trees during that time.
Regarding ash trees, Segar acknowledged that in Fairmont and other places where emerald ash borer has already gone through, they're closer to the end than the beginning. That's not the case everywhere, however.
"It seems to be that ash borer here is a lot further along than it is in Blue Earth," he said. "A town like Blue Earth, you can drive around that town, and a lot of those ash trees are still green to the top. A town like Blue Earth is closer to the beginning than they are the end."
As their whirlwind ride as entrepreneurs continues, Segar said the one thing they would like to have is a permanent home base.
"We use Carter’s dad’s shop right now, but having our own place would probably be our next thing," he said. "Just keep serving the community. I don’t know where it’s going to go. Time will tell. I didn’t think it would be here, but it is."
For more information, call Nick Segar at 507-848-5675 or Carter Leiding at 507-848-8138, or email them at lstreeservice2@gmail.com.