I am usually mister positive on these threads. ?ÿBut, I have to admit feeling some stress, anxiety, and depression mainly over cash flow woes right now. ?ÿMy wife??s mother died suddenly at 73 yo; 5 months ago. ?ÿThis combined with a local friendly competitor retiring a month ago, coupled with an unusually busy year has my workload backlog at an all time high of about 3 months (feels like the bubble from 10 years ago). ?ÿThis is stressful, because I don??t like disappointing good clients and struggling to meet self imposed deadlines that I thought were safely in the under promise over deliver timeframe.
A/R is good and healthy. ?ÿI get 50% retainer fees on nearly all new jobs. I am better than the average surveyor at cash flow management. ?ÿBut damn if I haven??t hit a hiccup. ?ÿI know it won??t last. ?ÿI know everything will be a okay soon enough. ?ÿI have learned these things. ?ÿI can??t believe that this is still due to the daily hospital trips from March to May, now five months later. ?ÿBut I have to admit, this is one of those stressful anxious and depressing moments. ?ÿThis too shall pass.
I have had this business 20 years, and been solo mostly for 10. ?ÿ Have had full time jobs here and there throughout. ?ÿ2006-2009 were with a wonderful fast growing outfit. ?ÿI also turned down an offer last week from an old friend to join his fast growing (warning) mid size (6 crews) surveying and engineering firm.
The worst day as a solo guy is still better than any day as an employee.
Bottom line, even in tough times I am still glad to be solo.
With a 3 month backlog, I'd say it's time to raise your billing rates. Put some cash away for the inevitable recession. You can count on one happening sooner or later. Being self-employed, you're not eligible for unemployment compensation insurance, so you must self-insure.
This happens from time to time for me as well.?ÿ It has nothing to do with billing rate.?ÿ It's all about when good clients from the past need something again.?ÿ And, they all seem to need it at the same time.?ÿ I could raise my rate 50 percent and have the same load.?ÿ Or, I could cut in half and still have the same work load.?ÿ The catch with raising it is that sooner or later someone would realize I was that far out of line compared to their alternatives.?ÿ The word would spread.
Nope, I'm quite content being a bit more expensive than anyone else around, just not extremely more expensive.
MY?ÿ post ON REFLECTION was originally commenced to respond to your queries with the commencing line ????.Will be knocking on half a century from graduation having ?ÿstarted my own surveying practise in 1978.
?ÿWell I would like to raise a few points for your consideration before leaping headlong out into the unknown with some pointers gleaned from my time as proprietor of a private surveying practise.
First thing I did was to chat to a friend who ran a popular Adelaide hills restaurant ?ÿand said that I would be around looking to wash the dishes if the survey work dried up. I only ever made it to his restaurant to eat and dirty his?ÿ dishes!
CLIENTS
To run a successful practice you require value adding clients who require ongoing surveying. Where fee dollars charged are counted by the savings due to servicing the client.
I shall never forget the Greek developer when the interest rates in OZ were around 20% who asked me to quote on the surveying to?ÿ strata title a series of units ?ÿin response to giving him a price and saying the job is mine now if I dropped my fee by $200 dollars. I quickly said What is 20% of?ÿ million , divided by 50 ?ÿHe responded with a vacant look to which I rapidly suggested 4000. Before explaining that if I gave the job my undivided ?ÿattention that for every working day I would save him $800 . Go and do the bloody job ! WAS HIS RESPONSE?ÿ
Today the vast majority are looking for a Rolls Royce service and product for a Mini Minor fee. Also often their surveying ?ÿrequired as an unanticipated un-budgeted ?ÿexpenditure?ÿ required by a third party.
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The spreading of the likes of Uber offering cut rate fee for service at below cost and therefore subsidised by their hair brain investors willing to invest in schemes designed to never make a profit is a genuine concern..
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TECHNOLOGY EXPLOSION
Due to the major technology revolution in measuring and recording of vast quantities of data, also with?ÿ ongoing advancements in computerisation today??s surveyors are able to provide additional value adding information. With the high cost of the technology and down time required to become proficient it is going to be not profitable to stay ?ÿsmall and earn a good income as you you need far more gear at a higher cost ?ÿthan when?ÿ I started and could be both a ?ÿboundary and engineering surveyor with just the traditional 100 metre invar band and a theodolite .
?ÿStart?ÿ up capital for measuring equipment and associated software is extremely expensive today and the need to be out in the field every day on your own in a small practice means that some equipment sits idle and not earning dollars. Thought must be also given ?ÿto now having state of the art equipment that requires proficiency and reliability in producing and delivering the survey. This requires today's survey firm to have a total station , a GPS, a scanner and or drone , plus the ancillary computer hardware and software, that must all have regular use by competent reliable staff to derive an income to service the capital outlay.
?ÿI see the future requiring existing survey ?ÿfirms to combine to be able to provide a service to the rapidly expanding corporate sector engaged in multi million dollar infrastructure and construction ?ÿprojects that are impossible for the small operator to manage.
While I was extremely fortunate to ride the technological boom I see no future for the small solo firm unless opting to squabble with the bottom feeders over ever deflating fees AND endeavouring to survive with the ?ÿMini minor clients.
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RADU
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There's a lot of truth in what RADU writes, but even in a future marked by high capital costs and the attendant need to grow, there will always be room for small niche businesses.?ÿ A niche can consist of a specialized practice, a general practice in a concentrated area in which personal relationships play a large role, or some combination of the two.
My firm is an example of the latter.?ÿ I'm located in a small city, and I think I'm currently the only private-practice land surveyor actually based here.?ÿ There are plenty of other firms -- some quite large -- within 20 miles, and they do a lot of work in the area, but my relationships with public agency staff and my general reputation in town seem to keep work coming in the door.?ÿ I also do occasional large-scale geodetic control projects that the regional multi-disciplinary firms tend to avoid due to lack of knowledge and experience.?ÿ It's a formula that has worked for almost 27 years now, and I expect it can be replicated by the right individual in the right place.
I have been solo for 3 years now. I have had help in the field a little and help on the drafting side a little in the past. I don??t like drafting. I am slow at it therefore, it causes certain parts of my anatomy pain. I have struggled to find contract draftspersons. I am currently behind in drafting and I am not looking forward to having to do it myself to catch up. There are a couple of other aspects of being solo that I don??t care for either. My personal life has taken a major hit due to my solo career. My project car and trucks have been languishing away in storage and I used to go fishing several times a month. My boat has been on the lake three times this year. ?ÿI hope to find a work flow that agrees with me one of these days or I might have to go back to working for the man so I can leave the job behind when the whistle blows at quitin time.
Much like Darryl, I am not a draftsman.?ÿ Yes, I draft, but I do not enjoy it nor am I extremely proficient at it, despite over 40 years of practice.?ÿ Updated (corporate ripoff) software makes the irritation greater each update.?ÿ But, I am the guy who has to do it.?ÿ There is no IT guy to turn to in the next room for assistance.
Lugging 50 pounds or more of gear all over creation gets less fun as the years go by.?ÿ Especially as those little aches and pains that come with decades of use increase.
Being triply cautious about climbing gates and going through fences and descending/ascending steep slopes is essential but time consuming.?ÿ The alternative might be reminiscent of those commercials that scream out "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."?ÿ When would you get help if you really needed it and who would that help be??ÿ Working on a busy construction site is completely out of my thoughts at this stage of life if doing so without at least one helper to provide another set of eyes and ears for evermoving hazards.
Lucrative (well-paying) big jobs may not be workable because you are the only one to do everything that is required.?ÿ Their time constraints may not match your time availability, especially if you want to go fishing more than three times per year.?ÿ I can remember a possible job from 30 years ago that I lost out on because I needed roughly one week from the time they said to do it and the time when I would be able to complete all deliverables.?ÿ A mega survey company said they could do it all in two days.?ÿ They got the job.?ÿ It still took six days, but, their lie won them the job.
@jim-frame. Your business practice model was established with a similar passionate desire to mine. To first see and then be able to succeed in the pursuit of a niche at the changing of of the the traditional survey firm guard of operations. Literally abandoning the long held traditional practice of theodolite and chain with the advent of technology changes that has now exploded, causing many to fall by the way side.
Now resulting in the phenomenal growth here in small operators due to both the economy and staff layoffs of personnel. Who are left with no other option of putting up a shingle and trying their luck as a small time survey business operator. That is now an expensive option doomed to fail, unless a group of like minded experienced surveyors in the emerging fields of surveying measurement combine to supply value adding information and profitably compete to gain large projects.
I also fear with the advent of push button menu technology that here in OS that the days of are numbered for the traditional Licensed Surveyor as our sacred Torrens title operation in the Lands title Office has now been now privately commercialised! ( A subtle difference in Licensing an OZ surveyor radically differs with the US system WHERE YOU NEED A SURVEYING LICENSE TO CARRY OUT A SURVEY THAT INVOLVES THE DETERMINATION AND RELATIVE ASSOCIATION TO A BOUNDARY. Where as here in OZ any one can produce for example a contour plan with out defining the boundaries,yet reproduce plan showing boundary data and survey pegs found with out checking their validity. Or with coordinate systems now in place establish from coordinated control set out works from electronics CAD design So am expecting the US title insurers to soon lobby our politicians that we now do not need a university degree to follow push button menus to gain and produce the measurement data for boundary surveys. Any emerging costly problems rectified and paid for by the insurance policy as the alternative practical economical solution, rather that the individual(s) being now financially responsible to rectify an erroneous boundary problem.
RADU
Help, I've fallen and I can't get up.
My late father-in-law had pastures with very steep slopes.?ÿ He routinely fed large round bales that had the twine/netting removed before he released them from high spots so they would unroll into nice swaths of feed.?ÿ From time to time he would get the bale reversed such that it did not unroll upon release.?ÿ I witnessed several cattle experience something similar to Radar's video.?ÿ The bale would remain nearly intact when it finally came to a stop near the bottom of the hill.?ÿ Those bales are much like a traditional cinnamon roll.?ÿ They only unwind in one direction.
Those round bales have presented a problem for me many times. For some reason, ranchers tend to put their round bales at a corner of their property and leave little space to work between them and where their monuments either are or where they should be and it is very difficult to get the rancher to understand that a couple of bales in the back corner of many need to be moved to look or set their monuments or really the common corner between them and their neighbor. I have actually set temporary monuments (6ft long with half of it in the bale and flagged very well so the rancher will notice and remember) in the top of a bale of hay and have the rancher call me when he had moved that bale so I could return and set it properly.
They can be difficult to see over when they are at the crest of a hill or at a terrace at the break in the ground.
Thanks for that clip. It is finding its way into quite a few email inboxes this morning.
Never thought of that. I have one place where I stack bales in the corner. But, I always keep them at least eight feet from the existing fences. Eight feet is longer than a hungry cow can stick her tongue through a decent barb wire fence. Any corners would fall directly a fence. Right?????????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????
There are places along state highways where the DOT accepts requests to bale hay in the R-O-W. Was near Wichita one day and saw a guy baling on the steep side slope of an overpass for a side road. Could tell he was in wrap mode. A couple seconds later the rear opened, the bale appeared and then made a rapid descent to the bottom where it stopped directly over a windrow. I laughed as I wondered if he would attempt to roll it off the windrow by hand.
Highly variable, depending on type of product and long-term drying effects. 1000 lbs. would be typical for smaller bales. 1500-2000 on really good product and proper baling procedure. Now, some hay is effectively baled as silage and wrapped like a fancy roll of toilet paper to seal in the moisture. Those bales can go over 2500.
