Thinking about kicking off and doing my own thing. I don't expect to save the world, but would like to make a decent living. I think marketing is huge starting out. Any ideas on what works for you or your company?
That depends on your area of focus. Residential boundaries, rural boundaries, construction staking, etc. How long can you starve before getting enough income to offset your expenses up to that date?
These are all part of the consideration process I presume. Did you have savings when you broke off? What areas did you focus on? It is really competitive around here for residential boundary. I don't plan on making that my main stay. It might grease the wheels, but I doubt it.
Did you have savings when you broke off? YES
I focused on surveying what I know... so I suggest that you focus on what you know, whatever that is. You also better have contacts, clients, and a plan to secure more work.
You had better be a people person, not shy, not afraid to walk in somewhere and sell yourself and your company. You must be prepared to work long hours with no a lot of money made in the first year or two. I suggest having a good wife that makes a decent salary, who is not worried too much about loosing her job (that has health insurance you can get on). She must also be in full support of you starting a business.
Next, why would anyone hire you rather than an established company with whom they may have had some experience? Plus, residential boundaries have minimal exposure to liability losses as compared to construction staking and ALTA's. Better line up some really good insurance.
I started out five years ago and was very hungry for the first two. My business model was to lose money for a while and then slowly climb out of the hole and that is exactly what happened. I had the support for that kind of living which was the difference between long term failure and success.
For marketing, I got invited to some networking meetings, very few of which produced even one job but they were all important. Donuts are your friends also with a business card taped to the top.
Being active in your local surveying organization may get some overflow work sent your way from other established and busy companies. I've been on both ends of that.
Look for engineering companies that don't have a surveyor on staff.
Once, I mailed a letter to every property sold in my county within the last month over five acres suggesting that the new owners may want to know where their boundaries are and did get a little work.
How did you find out who had bought property over 5 acres in the last 6 months?
Hello Holy Cow
"Better line up some really good insurance".
Thinking about doing side work focusing on boundaries...What is the usual insurance and fees?
How brave are you? I've never had a residential issue cost me any money in over 25 years.
(Knocking on wood!!!)
We can scan the deed books fairly quickly by flipping through the pages. In my little county, that would not be a huge number of filings.
Brave enough to see the woods for the trees...Thanks
Realtors have that information at their fingertips. I thought it was a fantastic idea but it didn't pan out as big as I had expected. If I were looking hard for work, I would probably revisit that concept.
I think it was Dan Robinson in his book that said "you can't create survey work" and my early naivette led me to believe that I could convince people that they really should know where there lines are. Mostly you can't convince them unless they already feel the need for it.
On the subject of realtors, try to put together a short Survey 101 class for realtors. Many offices have continuing education programs that would love to have you come in. I have gotten jobs that way as well.
Our local papers list property transfers and we direct mail new homeowners.
We also have a spot on the local NPR station three times a week. Mailing abutters is a nice way to get your name out, too....
Best that you can do is to find your market and hit it, phone calls, what ever....
Are you hoping for peer referrals? such as architects and engineers? Then get on the horn... Or lawyers? or is your market going to be homeowners??
Figure out what you want to do and direct market that area, mailings, phone calls, etc...
Get active in local government, volunteer....
Give me a call 678-432-7908 x24 or send me an email, I can share some insight to small business operations in your area (and all of Georgia for that matter)
In 2004 my partner and I had 6 months of salary in our bank accounts. Didn't need it until 2007 and then that wasn't enough but made it through but glad I'd left it in the bank. We went in business in an area we heard that people couldn't get through to a surveyor and when they did it was months until they got served. Found out the reason was that most weren't willing to pay going rates to get their work done. They'd wait till the local whore who was doing the work for 1980 rates got to them. The ones who were willing to pay good money were gold and happy with the service we gave them and kept coming back. Thats the key, service. You give them that and it'll take awhile but you'll do plenty of work.
Every little thing you can do to get your name out in the beginning will help. If it doesn't cost to much do it. People don't keep you in mind if your name isn't always in front of them. Like every small business, surveyors come and go. Keep your name in circulation. Join your chamber of commerce, sponsor a few community events, spend a few mornings at the local coffee shop with your name on your hat and truck. You'll be surprised at how many people strike up a conversation and how'll that'll turn into work. Our Friday "safety meetings" with a local engineer turned into $55,000 worth of work from local farmers who have a local bs party every day in that place.
If there's a glut of surveyors providing the same thing in your area, re-think the area you'll be targeting or re-think taking off on your own.
Good luck.
I started out 5 years ago with a free website setup for quote requests and generated traffic to my website using Google Adwords within hours. Adwords is cheap and easy to use, allowing you to set a daily budget and restrict the geographical area you want to advertise in. It generates a lot of small lot surveys, but also gets me out of town Title Companies and Contractors with projects in my area. I also get free advertisement from registering my business with Google, Yahoo and Bing maps, which also links up to my website. Make sure your website looks professional, I doesn't have to be super fancy, but I've seen some pretty bad ones. I made mine for free using a template from Google Sites.
Kelly
www.apexlandsurveying.com
I once sent a flyer to over 300 local Realtors. Result? Every single one placed me on their email list for every listing they had over the next year. I don't think it resulted in one job - but I knew every parcel that was for sale within 50 miles...
Thank you for all of the replies. I have some soul searching to do over the next year. I am confident in my abilities, just don't have things structured for success and long term viability yet. I definitely have some things to chew on. When I decide to do it I will let ya'll know!!