So it turns out that having a deceptively snazzy name isn't the only thing I have to worry about to keep the money flow coming in. On top of the normal things, like employees not showing up until 6AM, drinking water all the f-ing time, refusing to work past 10PM and not willing to skip lunch most days and insisting I pay them for all of that time, I'm also having problems with them always "going the extra mile".
I keep patiently explaining that the "extra mile" costs me "extra money" from my billables, but they keep looking for extra adjoiner corners, digging holes to China (way in excess of the width of the shovel blade) when looking for monuments, repeating observations with RTK, turning angles twice... I'm really tempted to take all of this technology away from them for a few weeks and send them out with the cloth tape until they learn their lesson. By the time they get done they've done the job twice and I'm only getting paid by the client once. Who makes up for the shortfall? Yep, you guessed it. Me.
Maybe it's time for another staff meeting so that I can explain that we are in the business to make outrageous profits while deceiving the public into thinking they actually bought a professional product. Let the guys with their actual names in the phone book dig the f-ing holes, and survey every job twice, dammit!
And if that sorry a$$ party chief comes in the office one more time and says "that's how they say they do it on RPLS Today" I'm canning his sorry butt.
If he has time to visit RPLS Today, he ain't workin' near enuf. Can hiz butt, PRONTO.
He is just doing what he was taught when he worked at Henklesburg, Jackson, Knox, Smith, Daniels, Lipscnitz, Fitz, Williamson, Hatfield, McCoy & Associates.. If only he had be properly trained at Joe Don Jenkins, Land Surveyor.
Good help is hard to find...and no, I didn't come up with that saying.
My biggest gripe is when the hands quit at quitting time..and there's only an hour or so left out there to finish. I minimized this by paying OT over 8, and not over 40.
But they're still a bunch of sniveling, whiney, lazy, pussified good-for-nothing boneheads....;-)
The worst is when they come in wanting to tell me about their day.
"Hey boss, we found an old..." they'll start off saying.
And I'm like "Hey keep it to yourself. Download the coordinates and get the data to the CAD tech".
I told one of them last week, "If you want to 'talk about your day' save it for when you get home to your wife".
If I listened to every crew tell me about every stake they found in the course of a day, I'd never get anything out the door.
The struggle is real when you're just trying to make a little in this business. Maybe those places where the surveyor has his name on the sign have time to listen to the field crew blab on about the technical parts of a survey at the end of the day, but not me. I figure, hey, I'm paying them to figure that out, not to have a counseling session about it at the end of the day. I've got an illegitimate business to run.
paden cash, post: 378082, member: 20 wrote: Good help is hard to find...and no, I didn't come up with that saying.
My biggest gripe is when the hands quit at quitting time..and there's only an hour or so left out there to finish. I minimized this by paying OT over 8, and not over 40.
But they're still a bunch of sniveling, whiney, lazy, pussified good-for-nothing boneheads....;-)
Well I think I'd just work a 40 hour day and stick it to the man. Good thing employees at Quickie Dickie Surveying, Inc. are so dumb or they'd have figured that out by now.
Handy management tips in an easy to understand graphic format
Positive reinforcement. I like it James.
"I'm positive you're the worst employees I've ever had".
Shawn Billings, post: 378085, member: 6521 wrote: Well I think I'd just work a 40 hour day and stick it to the man. Good thing employees at Quickie Dickie Surveying, Inc. are so dumb or they'd have figured that out by now.
Scoff if you will, but I know more than one attorney who bills 40 hour days 😀
A team must sit down regularly and discuss things.
Most of the time me my helper do that during the trip to and from the job.
My main point of conversation is that I am paying wages accordingly to how much money you can generate by your accomplishment to complete jobs and not by the amount of hours you put in.
What I hear most is do you have any more coffee rather than how that can be accomplished.
A Harris, post: 378097, member: 81 wrote: A team must sit down regularly and discuss things.
Most of the time me my helper do that during the trip to and from the job.
My main point of conversation is that I am paying wages accordingly to how much money you can generate by your accomplishment to complete jobs and not by the amount of hours you put in.
What I hear most is do you have any more coffee rather than how that can be accomplished.
No offense, but if this is continually a problem with everyone you hire, then the problem is not the people you hire but the process that you use to hire the people.
Shawn Billings, post: 378075, member: 6521 wrote: So it turns out that having a deceptively snazzy name isn't the only thing I have to worry about to keep the money flow coming in.
Yes, but I trust that you know that posts lhat this only cut into the BRAND VALUE that you should hope to be building before the sale of your business. Most marketing experts will tell you that the Pendulum brand needs to be built upon variability, the to and fro of normal business in terrestrial gravity. Now, a potential franchise purchaser will be able to look up "Shawn Billings" and see that the whole deal is fake, that rather then buying a piece of the Pendulum deal, it is just Shawn Billings & Associates that he will end up owning a slice of, which will raise far more questions than answers, of course.
The thing that you should be concentrating on is securing long-term contracts. As I understand it, that is where the money will be when you sell out in a couple of years.
Kent McMillan, post: 378114, member: 3 wrote: ..The thing that you should be concentrating on is securing long-term contracts. As I understand it, that is where the money will be when you sell out in a couple of years...
Darn tootin'. Multi-year contracts that generate six figures per annum actually sell rather quickly. I just threw in the company for free...
paden cash, post: 378123, member: 20 wrote: Darn tootin'. Multi-year contracts that generate six figures per annum actually sell rather quickly. I just threw in the company for free...
Shawn doesn't need to make your mistake of waiting too long to sell off the Brand, though. He needs to sell out while he's young and can move the profits into the next business opportunity like a Whattaburger franchise. East Texas has not been traditionally a market receptive to the Whattaburger brand, but a savvy marketer could piggyback it on something more familiar such as bail bonds and make a fortune.
TXSurveyor, post: 378102, member: 6719 wrote: No offense, but if this is continually a problem with everyone you hire, then the problem is not the people you hire but the process that you use to hire the people.
You sound like a disgruntled employee.
"I am not working for you, I am helping you".
"This job is the only thing that gets me out of the house."
"I am a surveying junkie"
"I am only gonna work the days that you will be in the field with me."
"I love this job, my wife makes more than I ever could, I'm not trying to make money surveying."
"Man, you are gonna have to pay me every afternoon for me to stay."
All those are quotes by some of my past helpers that later became serious and actually went on to get their license.
Everyone was "green" at some point, let's hope there continue to be people that do not want to stay "green" forever.
Kent McMillan, post: 378125, member: 3 wrote: Shawn doesn't need to make your mistake of waiting too long to sell off the Brand, though. He needs to sell out while he's young and can move the profits into the next business opportunity like a Whattaburger franchise. East Texas has not been traditionally a market receptive to the Whattaburger brand, but a savvy marketer could piggyback it on something more familiar such as bail bonds and make a fortune.
Clearly you know nothing about Whataburger in East Texas.
I don't think Shawn Billings has any employees, but himself!
And, I don't think Kent defines "Pendulum Surveying". Shawn does that.
I think we all make our own beds, and lie in them.
Our liabilities extend to our telephones, and the words of our mouths.
I reckon there is not a big chance that Kent McMillions will be able to afford to purchase Pendulum Surveying, but it is entertaining to watch them dicker!
It is hard for the general public to conceive what we do.
This is evidenced by the odd statements, and questions we get. "I used to be a surveyor". Then, you find out that the guy read grades, for half a day, back in '63, to build a garage!
Or, that he cut lines for a BLM crew, back in '75! Or, "where is your starting place" or the mirade of other over simplifications we get on a regular basis.
No matter what you name your business, you are going to have to climb over many mis-conceptions, held by the general public, fostered by those who want it faster and cheaper.
To successfully acomplish this, we have an advertising industry, filled with professional liars, brainwashing, and image management tools.
I say that in the end of the day, we all define who we are. What we are, and if our word is any good.
I remember an old Western movie, that had this guy in it, who was hired to go around town several times a day, saying "important message for Mr. ______________.__________. And here he'd give the guys full name, title, and all. It was strictly a publicity stunt, to make this second guy look important.
When day is done, and the sun goes down, at the end of our lives, who we are, is who we are. No amount of publicity stunts will erase a life of lies, mistruths, exagerations, or deceit, that we have built. We will all someday give account for our lives.
So, there are 2 days that we should think about.
1.) The day we stand before Jesus, and give account.
2. Today. Today is the day we have in front of us, right now.
Keep the "main thing, the main thing" and 'let her rip, potato chip'.
That's what I'm doing.
Nate
Good stuff Nate.
A Harris, post: 378130, member: 81 wrote: You sound like a disgruntled employee.
"I am not working for you, I am helping you".
"This job is the only thing that gets me out of the house."
"I am a surveying junkie"
"I am only gonna work the days that you will be in the field with me."
"I love this job, my wife makes more than I ever could, I'm not trying to make money surveying."
"Man, you are gonna have to pay me every afternoon for me to stay."All those are quotes by some of my past helpers that later became serious and actually went on to get their license.
Everyone was "green" at some point, let's hope there continue to be people that do not want to stay "green" forever.
Not disgruntled, just misunderstood your post i suppose. I took your post and other post made on prior threads to mean that most of your help that you've hired never could stick it out in surveying, as they were just there to draw a paycheck. I guess that's what I get for assuming.
Shawn Billings, post: 378131, member: 6521 wrote: Clearly you know nothing about Whataburger in East Texas.
Hey, maps don't lie. The orange counties are those with Whataburgers in operation. Look at those empty East Texas counties.
There is obviously a really good opportunity waiting to buy into once you develop the surveying brand and sell it off for big bucks.