I was wondering how's business going out there? It would be nice to hear from folks and see how the different regions of the country are doing.
About 30% better than last year. That total is about about 50% of the last good year. Like I've heard others say, if it wasn't for that one good contract, it would be toast-ville.
Pretty pitiful where I am....a few calls and cancellations....
I guess you could say I live in "Toastville" as Steve just coined.
Actually great.
Just started a project that will require a crew to be onsite for 6 days of the week every week for the rest this year and all of 2011.
I have about a 6 week backlog of just boundary projects on top of our everyday construction and oil and gas location staking.
We have been very blessed this year and am actually looking forward to what 2011 will bring.
Cautiously optimistic.
Being solo gives you alot of flexibility. I do a few other things other than just surveying for some of my clients, so that has helped fill in the gaps considerably. My brother is helping me part-time right now, and we're making it.
One of the contractors I work for has started picking up some jobs, so I am seeing a small increase in construction activity, so hopefully that is a sign of things to come.
Cautiously optimistic enough here (Maryland suburbs and exurbs of DC) that I quit my part time magazine job to concentrate fully on my surveying business. I was looking at my 2010 projections and realized that I was going to make $X at Professional Surveyor working three days a week and $2X surveying two days a week, not too hard a decision.
A few caveats:
1. I work almost exclusively in land development.
2. I'm not sure that some of the development work that's shaking loose is based on a real need for the residential and commercial space. Rather some companies are just tired of paying mortgages and taxes on expensive, highly intensive zoned land and are willing to take a chance that the demand will be there, and if not they might be better off financial taking a loss on the development cost instead of continuing to pay the carrying cost.
3. I'm solo for the most part (unfortunately there are enough un or under employed guys out there when I need a hand) and positioned myself to work almost solely "business to business" with other land development consultants. I do almost no work for the general public, realtors, etc.
3(a) I'm not sure work is picking up for the more traditional, multifaceted (engineering, planning surveying, landscape architecture, etc.) design firms. I think that the business model at the time may of these firms started (1960's to 1980's) is history. Now with the portability of information and the exchange-ability of digital data (For $50 a month I can put a terabyte of data on a cloud server for all my clients to access), a more efficient model is smaller firms that concentrate on their design specialty working in a team format.
Busy. We even just hired yet another Surveyor temporarily, because we have one client that is willing to pay to have someone sit on the site full-time (a big caisson job), and we're too busy to do that without hiring someone specifically for it. So we hired back an employee we laid off last year, at least until this job is over (in about 4-6 weeks).
With all the warm weather we're having here in Colorado, a bunch of people seem to keep wanting to do work, so we keep having new stuff come in. So far, we haven't had any of the usual "winter slowdown". We're even working on two new subdivision plats at the same time - first time that's happened in a couple of years. In addition to that caisson job, we have a couple other big jobs that will also be ending over the next two months, so we might be significantly slower in February, but right now things are really hopping.
Simply sucks.
I keep in touch on a monthly basis with 5 other firms. These firms are small, ranging from solo to about 20 guys. A common theme has been playing out the last month.
Construction staking is all but gone. Probably seasonal.
ALTA bids are up considerably, Due to end of year closings and portfolio management.
However, lowballers are prevailing, securing most of the work. But there has been a backlash, these lowballers are not getting the work done and other firms are being called in to pick up the pieces.
Design surveys and topos for design build & architects seem to be up quite-a-bit, compared to the last year and comparing to same period last year.
Absolutely no new subdivision work by anyone.
Mortgage surveys has seen the worst November in 25 years.
Staying pretty busy. Some of my stuff in AZ has picked up for now. Hopefully between the spikes in both states, I can maintain.
I'm glad I have a job. There is plenty of work to do. My income is down substantially but I have more time to do what I want to do.
I took Wednesday off as my first monthly PLP day (Personal Leave Program). It's not voluntary, I had 4 point something percent deducted from my pay for that (supervisors only, rank and file are still receiving their full pay). We can accrue it but there's no cash value and it will disappear in 3 years so I'm going to use it as we go. I have plenty of vacation on the books, no need to accrue more time off.
busy one week...slow the next...
seems to be the general feeling in most of CT
the bills are getting paid. a few bright spots on the horizon. expecting it to be a slow winter.
>expecting it to be a slow winter.
Then I'd suggest you head south, rumor is the "staples" are cheaper down there
[flash width=480 height=385] http://www.youtube.com/v/TjvPudHZ6Ow?fs=1&hl=en_US [/flash]
Sancho brought a message from the Fat Man
"Sorry, boy, to leave you high and dry,
but I went to see my mom in Ensenada,
and I left a little something to help the time go by
Just a little something to help to keep you high"
Bananas & Blow (oh - oh), Bananas & Blow
Stuck in my cabana, living on Bananas & Blow
Now the rainy season reminds me of Maria
The way she danced, the color of her hair
Now I'm locked inside a stall at the cantina
Eating the bananas and the cocaine off the mirror
Looking for a ticket to take me away from here
Bananas & Blow (oh - oh), Bananas & Blow
Stuck in my cabana, living on Bananas & Blow
Bananas & Blow (oh - oh), Bananas & Blow
Stuck in my cabana, living on Bananas & Blow
I'm Solo, so I probably don't represent the other firms around here very well. But I'm doing about 80% survey and 20% engineering now. In 2006, it was more like 50/50, I did a lot of site plans.
Now I'm averaging one commercial site plan a month and a couple of larger boundarys (+80 acres) with a few lot surveys and construction stakeout sprinkled in. I'm invoicing about $13K/month now compared to $10K/month last year. In 2005-2006 it was more like $18K/month on average.
Things are better and the work seems to be coming in at a steady pace. Seems like as soon as I finish a boundary, another shows up within a day or two.
psst---these are the good times you'll be telling your grand chillens about.
the economy won't ever come back- our military will never come home--and inflation will double by summer-- gold will hit 2000 dollars an oz and silver will hit 40-50 dollars per oz--
tdd's best bet right now---copper !! yes you heard it here---COPPER ..
SAVE THOSE PENNIES---
TDD
Slowed a bit since November 1st but it might just be that time of the year. Things should be much busier with the $12 trillion the Fed put out...
Bittersweet, but I'm working again and that's the important thing.
Upside is, job security for the next year if I so choose, downside is back in another motel room, 800 miles from home.
Oh well, get the bills caught up, a little bit of a war chest, and take another run at land surveying later down the road.
Certain areas of Indiana aren't to bad while others aren't doing great at all. Crown Point looks relatively good as well as Vincennes.