Clevinger Forest Services, LLC

06/09/2026

Just a friendly business PSA from someone who has been running equipment-based businesses for years and wants to see owner-operators succeed.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that before you can determine what to charge a customer, you must first know what it costs you to produce one productive hour of work.

A lot of contractors account for fuel and maybe the machine payment, but those are only part of the picture.

Every productive hour has to recover three categories of cost:
-Owning Costs�
-Operating Costs�
-Overhead Costs�

Only after those costs are recovered does profit begin.
For example, if a machine's ownership cost is $42/hr, operating cost is $28/hr, and overhead cost is $28/hr, the business has a true cost of about $98/hr before making a single dollar of profit.
If the owner wants a 50% markup on cost, the required billing rate becomes roughly $147/hr.

That's why the most important number in an equipment-based business is often Total Cost Per Productive Hour.

Once you know that number, then you can compare it against your local market and determine where you should be pricing your services.

Your cost determines your minimum sustainable rate. The market helps determine your final rate.

The goal isn't necessarily to be the cheapest. The goal is to find the price point that creates the greatest long-term profitability while still winning enough work to keep the business healthy.

That's the difference between guessing at pricing and managing pricing as a business owner.

06/07/2026

TRUEHOUR is the trusted source for equipment-based contractors who want to know exactly what their machines cost to own and operate. Built on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' gold-standard Ownership & Operating Cost methodology, TRUEHOUR helps skid steer operators, excavator owners, and other equipment contractors calculate their true hourly costs, uncover hidden expenses, and develop profitable pricing strategies. Beyond equipment costing, TRUEHOUR provides recommended billing rates, professional job estimating, job profitability tracking, expense management, business analytics, and benchmarking tools that help owner-operators make smarter decisions and build stronger businesses. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing fleet, TRUEHOUR gives you the confidence to price every job accurately, protect your margins, and operate with the knowledge that your rates are backed by real numbers—not guesswork.

04/30/2026

I built this TRUEHOUR app for small equipment-based contractors. It turns the hard stuff that is a pain to deal with, into easy stuff.
-Pricing your equipment with a profit.
-Build job estimates and send quotes in under 60-seconds
-Job tracking. Customer info. Win-Loss analysis.
-Expense tracking. Expense reports. Schedule C. AI analysis.
-Input expenses by category in under 30-seconds.
-Calculates Owning-Operating-Overhead cost per hour using the industry standard method.

TRUEHOUR is here to help.

04/02/2026

This is the gold standard method for calculating owning-operating-overhead cost per hour for equipment. Learn all about it in this video. You're going to want this app from the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/truehour/id6759004025

04/02/2026

I started my forestry mulching business in 2014. Before I started, I did my research and found the gold standard of how to calculate my Owning-Operating-Overhead cost per hour for my T770/mulcher/truck/trailer. My business has been sustainable and profitable all these years. I tracked my costs on an Excel spreadsheet and Quickbooks. If you feel like you are working hard, but just keeping your head above water, it’s because you are bleeding money from somewhere you not aware of. This is the best tool that can 100% help you know your exact costs and manage your job quotes, job tracking, and expense tracking. I threw away (deleted) my spreadsheets and Quickbooks, and just use this app called TRUEHOUR. The good news is if you just need to calculate your O&O cost and Overhead cost per hour, you can do that for free on this app. Knowing that number alone can save your business. You’re welcome. Get it for free now.

03/24/2026

Time for Spring cleanup. Out with the old winter wildlife habitat, in with the new.
And big rocks break PTO shaft pins. Note to self.

03/14/2026

https://youtu.be/SHAhPOrm1lU

If you own a skid steer, excavator, truck, or any piece of equipment and you're not exactly sure what you should charge per hour, you're not alone. Most owne...

03/10/2026

Thinking about starting your own land clearing or equipment business?

Before you buy a skid steer, trailer, or attachments… there’s one thing most people never do.

They actually evaluate whether the business makes sense.

When I started my forestry mulching business 12 years ago, I had to figure everything out the hard way—excel spreadsheets, equipment payments, fuel costs, repairs, insurance, pricing jobs, and making sure the numbers actually worked.

A lot of guys jump in because they’re good with equipment.

But being good with equipment and running a profitable business are two very different things.

That’s exactly why I built TRUEHOUR Decision.

It’s a structured tool that walks you through the key factors that determine whether a business idea is worth pursuing—things like market demand, startup costs, risk, competition, and operational complexity.

At the end, it gives you a clear assessment of whether your idea is:

• Ready to pursue
• Needs more validation
• Or likely to fail before you invest serious money

If you’re currently working a job but thinking about starting your own operation, this is the type of analysis you should do before buying equipment or taking on debt.

You can download TRUEHOUR Decision on the Apple App Store and test your business idea first.

It might save you from making a very expensive mistake.

Read all about the details here: https://truehourapp.com/decision

Download here:
https://apps.apple.com/app/truehour-decision/id6759505668

03/07/2026

Over the 10 years of running my forestry mulching business, I’ve talked with a lot of guys asking me advice about getting into the forestry mulching business, how much does everything cost, how much to charge, how to find customers, on and on. There is a real method to the business decision making process, and understanding concepts of risk management that go into:

Buying a machine.
Starting a new service.
Taking on a loan.
Changing pricing.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

The problem I’ve seen is most guys don’t know the real steps on how to analyze the decision, or even know all of the questions to ask, before they commit money and time, or worse- buy equipment THEN hope they can make money.

So I built something to solve that.

It’s called TRUEHOUR Decision.

It’s a simple tool that walks you through the ‘by-the-book’ key factors behind any business decision and then gives you three things:

• A viability score showing how strong the opportunity really is
• A risk classification (Go, Caution, or No-Go)
• The primary failure driver of your specific plan — the one factor most likely to cause the plan to fail

In other words, it tells you what could break your plan BEFORE you invest in it.

I designed it for people like us — owner-operators, contractors, and small business owners making real-world decisions.

If you’re thinking about:

• Buying equipment
• Starting a side business
• Expanding services
• Taking on debt for a new opportunity

This tool will definitely help you pressure-test the idea first. It’s a reality check that will show you the right questions to ask, awareness of decision factors, then allows you to make adjustments to your plan. All BEFORE any financial commitments are made. This is the right way to do things.

You can check it out here:
https://truehourapp.com/decision

You can download it from the Apple App Store here:
https://apps.apple.com/app/truehour-decision/id6759505668

Let me know what you think.