Bruce Small, post: 403546, member: 1201 wrote: Nothing magic about it, just lots and lots of preparation.
I fall more into the magic category. I started in business for the wrong reason (had a major disagreement with my boss over lack of a buy-in opportunity and quit), and set up shop with a month's worth of prep. I did some in-person marketing for a couple of weeks, calling on select clients of my former employer, and that generated a trickle of work. A trickle was all I could handle at the time anyway, as I was still figuring out the business end of being a sole proprietor. Year 1 (1993) was pretty slim, but I was single and had money in the bank, and quickly learned to enjoy the freedom I now had. I patched things up with my former employer, who had been a friend for about 15 years when I left, and he started throwing me some work. Between that and growth in other client workloads, Year 2 was modestly profitable and provided a middle-class income. By Year 3 I had picked up some large institutional clients, and that filled out the workload and brought my income up some more. Things kept going up until 2008, but by that time I was making good money and was able to weather the Great Recession without having to change much of anything. Things didn't really get rolling again until 2012 or so, but the last 4 years -- and especially the last 2 -- have been really good.
I agree that you have to be able to do the work that needs to be done -- which means you need a modicum of smarts and a healthy dose of self-discipline -- but it's the local market that limits your top end. You can be the smartest, most efficient surveyor around, but if the only available work is mortgage certificates and your colleagues are doing them for $200 per, you're not going to have much success.
Daniel JD90, post: 403441, member: 9559 wrote: I've been out of this circle for a little bit but I have a nagging question for the folks in this profession that own their own businesses or work as senior members of the management team at their firms. To detract from the philosophy of business ownership versus employee, I will jump straight to the root of my curiosity. As a business owner, what is the greatest hassle that you deal with on a daily or weekly basis? I'm a student and I work at a very small survey firm between semesters at school, and until recently, I have long aspired to the eventual dream of owning my survey firm. My cause for skepticism is that I cannot stand the idea of having to stop production to go sell my business to clients, dealing with payroll, and hiring and firing help. This eliminates the variable of wondering if there will be any share of profits leftover to collect after paying people and bills of course. I'm not as much looking for mentoring on the subject at the present, but I am very curious what business owners perceive to be the biggest inconvenience in owning a survey firm. Theoretically, anyone who starts such an outfit does so because they enjoy the work and enjoy their indepedence. Thanks in advance for the feedback! Happy holidays to all who read this.
Cash flow.
Daniel JD90, post: 403441, member: 9559 wrote: I've been out of this circle for a little bit but I have a nagging question for the folks in this profession that own their own businesses or work as senior members of the management team at their firms. To detract from the philosophy of business ownership versus employee, I will jump straight to the root of my curiosity. As a business owner, what is the greatest hassle that you deal with on a daily or weekly basis? I'm a student and I work at a very small survey firm between semesters at school, and until recently, I have long aspired to the eventual dream of owning my survey firm. My cause for skepticism is that I cannot stand the idea of having to stop production to go sell my business to clients, dealing with payroll, and hiring and firing help. This eliminates the variable of wondering if there will be any share of profits leftover to collect after paying people and bills of course. I'm not as much looking for mentoring on the subject at the present, but I am very curious what business owners perceive to be the biggest inconvenience in owning a survey firm. Theoretically, anyone who starts such an outfit does so because they enjoy the work and enjoy their indepedence. Thanks in advance for the feedback! Happy holidays to all who read this.
Employees are the biggest hassle. The next is whether you're gonna be a surveyor or business man. You will have to choose, and the other will suffer. To what degree will depend on how large you are and how much available human resources you have.
