Go Ahead– Take That Risk!
Most risk-management articles written for the tree care industry center around avoiding, minimizing or reducing risk within your tree care company. In simple terms, we usually look at risk as a bad thing for your business. However, I feel the need to address the other side of risk, the positive risk. Those times when you take action and things work out the way you wanted them to, or maybe even better than imagined.

Eric Petersen
My inspiration for this article came from a recent trip to Egypt that my wife and I took for our anniversary. It was an unforgettable adventure where we crawled into pyramids and ancient tombs, slept under the stars on the Nile in a felucca and overnighted on a sleeper train, not to mention enjoyed the traditional cuisine of the country. It really was a trip that had it all, and not one we normally would take. Sure, we like to travel to see new places, try new foods and such, but there was so much more unknown about this trip than any we had taken before.
In every sense of the phrase, we “took a risk” on this vacation of unknowns to experience something we hadn’t before, and I’m so glad we did. Not only were the physical experiences so memorable, but the conversations we had with our new friends reinvigorated us to continue to take risks and grow as individuals, sharing new ideas and energy with others.
Could it have been the worst trip we ever took? With everything we didn’t know about the country, culture, food and other people on the tour, absolutely. But it wasn’t, and we obviously wouldn’t have had the time we did if we hadn’t taken the risk. It’s easy to confidently say that our risk paid off with this vacation.
It’s this spirit of positive risk taking that I want to bring back to your business now. I’m sure every tree care company owner remembers the moment he or she wanted to start their own company. Think about that moment for a second. The moment you knew you had to do this for yourself, your family or your future family. You were staring risk directly in the face, with the potential of that risk slapping you back in the face at every turn. And while it maybe took a bit to build up the courage to take the leap, you did it anyway and you made it.
There would be no one to write this article for if no one took that risk to start their own business. And so, I want to encourage each one of you to remember that we need to continue to take risks for our businesses and, more important, for the people our businesses depend on to thrive – our families, our employees and their families and our customers and their businesses/families.
I challenge each of you to take a risk this year within your business. Go reach for that one thing you’ve been holding back on, maybe starting a PHC department, opening an additional location, spending that money on marketing, investing in a customer-
relationship-management system. Whatever it is, work with your leadership team to build a plan first, and then take action.
Once you start, tell someone outside of your organization about your plan to hold yourself accountable. The accountability part is where we often fail as business owners, as there is always something else that occupies our time and distracts us from taking risks that can transform our businesses. Remember, we used to do this when we were new in business. If we do it together, now, we all can improve so much faster than by doing it alone.
Eric Petersen is president of ArboRisk Insurance, an 11-year TCIA corporate member company based in New Berlin, Wisconsin. He also is a member of TCIA’s Board of Directors.