I am struggling with the under promise over deliver game. ?ÿSeveral jobs I had estimated at 6-8 weeks this spring are now taking longer. ?ÿCurrently I am estimating 4-6 months. ?ÿHere is a common email I am sending to clients with a variety of responses:
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I was prepared to knock four jobs off the to-do list (except drafting, etc.) today.?ÿ The first job today, as I mentioned somewhere else was a cluster**** which took far too much time to finish.?ÿ The second job went great.?ÿ The third job was dependent on finding up to six bars that I had set on a survey in 1996.?ÿ We found three after much grueling effort in the 97 degree, high humidity afternoon.?ÿ Gave up and called it a day about 30 minutes short of the intended end of day.?ÿ DAMM that TDD!?ÿ I thought of him every time I took another swig of liquid to replenish that soaking my clothes and dripping onto the ground.
I too am consistently overly optimistic.?ÿ A few years ago I reviewed my estimates and found that if I take whatever price or time I come up with for my estimate and multiply it by 1.25 I tend to hit my mark.?ÿ Timing is more difficult, but you might want to add two weeks to your estimated completion date to offset your optimistic tendencies.?ÿ
Overwhelmed
@murphy I believe 1.65 is the commonly accepted multiplier, but it depends on your thought processes.... the planning fallacy is real!
Unfortunately land surveying is like automobile repair in that you have to keep your crew billing 40 hours a week or you'll sink and most clients want timely service so you have to balance right now fees vs. next month fee prices.?ÿ It gets easier when you're running 5 crews and can instantly respond to a high dollar project by pulling crews from long term projects that can lose a day and still meet the contract.?ÿ It's a business call but I'll play the schedule it for two months from now and if they demand immediate action my rates triple.?ÿ And if their story is suspect I'll offer other LS phone #s in the locale for them to contact.
The key is to not ever enter into contracts where you will get screwed, but if it's long term and you crew(s) are fully employed for months a near at net zero profits, you and they and your base costs (facilities, equipment, etc.) are covered so you're shielded from taxation.
Anyway I'll under-promise and never overdeliver every time.?ÿ I'll take 15-20 referrals by phone or web and only pursue 1 where the client has the dough, has a beef or is a player wishing to subdivide land. The next step is a retainer and a contract which protects me even if my survey damages my client's position.?ÿ Sorry, you still gotta pay.
great link Dan, that was an interesting study! I am glad it??s not just me. I can attribute ?ÿmy blown deadlines on human nature.....ok not really..., but at least I feel a little better about it.