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@bruce-small
If you are two months behind, work 40-hours a week, won’t in two months you’ll still be two months behind?
Today, I’m looking at a 100k job and thinking I may not want it. That’s how crazy it is right now.
Or even worse. That is largely based on how many unexpected, time-consuming things come along in that two-month period. Someone gets sick or there is a death in someone’s family or……………………..odd things force certain jobs to take significantly longer than expected.
As a solo operator I have completed 65 surveys this year as well as numerous house stakes, subdivisions etc. on old jobs. Personally this has been a good year all things considered. I was sick for almost a month earlier in the year and barely got anything done during that time and I have only been working 3 days a week since around the middle of August due to my wife having chemo and everything that goes along with that. I will continue the three days a week for the rest of the year at this point until she finishes up her chemo on Dec. 28th. As it stands right now I have five jobs on the board that I have to start and finish before the middle of December and I am sure I will pick up a few more before the end of the year. I have noticed my phone ringing a little less lately but I feel that is because the real estate market is slowing down here in Asheville. Hopefully next year will be as fruitful.
- Posted by: @thebionicman
There is more work now than I’ve ever seen. We learned nothing in the last recession because peoole are doing the same stupid crap…
One thing you can be sure of is when it bursts again, and it will, you can find some huge investment opportunities. I??m waiting on the sidelines. ????
Being in the construction side of things, I’ve got 60 active projects in front of me today and in the last week we’ve gotten 6 more jobs.
Like others, finding help is the current struggle.
Needless to say, we’re pretty busy.
T. Nelson – SAM, LLCReal Estate sales on this island are already up over 100% over any previous year.
So, yes I’m taking only the jobs I want to do.
- Posted by: @larry-best
Real Estate sales on this island are already up over 100% over any previous year.
That??s incredible, especially since a modest residence that??s even habitable starts at $1M where you are. ????
- Posted by: @wendell
As I sit here trying to use every last cent of value from my $8 Southwest Airlines internet service, I find myself wondering how all of you are doing. How’s business? Are you slammed with work or just the opposite? Or perhaps somewhere in the middle?
I’m no longer surveying, but my web design and maintenance business is going full steam lately. In fact, business picked up while on the vacation I’m currently returning from. Go figure.
But every surveyor I’ve talked to in recent months has said they are swamped. What about you?
This is what my project manager has posted in front of his desk. It sums up our situation pretty well. No end in sight even through this winter and we have several people retiring in the next couple years who are going to have a huge affect on us (receptionist of many many years – she does so much stuff behind the scenes, one of the best drafters, 2 field guys from a company the boss just bought, etc).
This thread (Uncle P) made me realize that while I have twenty plus years of Quickbooks data (used mainly as a checkbook, invoice tool, and PL year end tax tool) I have no idea (zero) what my profit margins are or have been or what in hell that actually even means. I have been making money, and even keeping some money by setting aside certain percentages of most every check that comes in to various savings buckets by ??paying myself? first before bills, etc.
But, I realize that measuring my business by length of workload backlog in weeks or months or even dollar amounts of backlog is only part of the picture.
I have reached out to a financial advisor guru to help me learn this and whatever else she thinks I should know which I don??t even know yet that I don??t know.
Thanks, everyone!
B E E R L E G dot com R O C K S !
Brad,
That reminds me of a very old joke that hits at the core need of understanding our business such that we cam figure out how to be financially strong.
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There was the pair of (insert nationality of your choice) bachelor farmers who were in the hay business. They would purchase small square bales of hay from their neighbors for $2 per bale then load it on their truck. They would drive to (adjoining State) where they would resell it to the needy farmers there for $2 per bale. Eventually, (insert ethnic name) realized they were not making enough money to survive. He mentioned this to his brother, (insert different ethnic name), who responded, “We can fix that by getting a bigger truck.”
@holy-cow yeah, make it up in volume.
I also should note, that I value my time (free time or otherwise) as much or likely more than accumulating money. Which is partially why my retirement plan mirrors yours, quit about three days before they spread my ashes on the family farm.
Since nearly every response was that they were very busy and/or turning down work, it seems to be an opportune time to re-evaluate charge out rates and increase fee schedules. Even a modest 10% increase could be significant for your efforts of trying to keep up with a hot market.
Our office is telling people we’ll see them in February now other than the high production residential builders that I deal with daily.
We started out in a small venture 7 years ago with only 12 employees and my field work was subbed out to one crew. We’ve had to lease bigger office space twice and are now in the process of buiding a new office building. We currently run 6 field crews and have almost 70 employees.
Even during the beginning of the pandemic our workload was increasing and it continues to do so. I’ve been surveying for 38 years now and have never seen this type of demand.
If you are a Criew Chief, Survey Tech or work in other related land surveying fields, I urge you to persue your education to become licensed. The are only so many of us licensed individuals out there and allot of us are aging out. The sky is the limit.
@dougie If you just consider the recent inflation costs of labor, vehicles, supplies, gas, cheeseburgers…. a %10 increase barely keeps you where you were for profit a mere 6 months ago. We have raised my wife’s charge out rates (medical field) 15% just to try and get ahead of inflation for a bit. She has a 4 month waiting list. I raised rates on my hangar business too, nobody is complaining, hey are happy to have good customer service and availability.
I’m too busy to respond to this post… 🙂
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts
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