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What is the up front investment.
When launching a Survey Business say Solo to maybe yourself and a crew. What are the cost up front. How much cash should be set aside for the launch to be successful. Equipment from GNSS Robot Software. Plotters other necessary tools hammers sledge vehicle. Computer etc. would a half million to a million be about right or less. I am talking the whole thing. Business license liability insurance etc. those of you who have launched and been successful did you cash flow the whole thing. So not borrowing or leasing equipment and vehicle. Or do you think paying the piper having business loans . What are all the hidden cost that not many realize once you took the leap. You know those little things that just add up. The small items you didn’t account for up front.
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26 Replies
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A gazillion dollars. Spread the word. 🤣
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LOL But I am sorta being serious. If I were setting funds aside for say 5 years from now. How much should I have set aside before I launched. I have a friend that is already licensed and wants to do this. He is not in a financial situation to do it mostly cash. So he would have to borrow out of the gate. I am not big on borrowing for everything and just paying monthly payments personally. However sometimes its not bad especially like when I bought my tractor. 0 percent for 5 years and Had the money setting there to pay cash. But if i were to be a silent partner for him I am trying to figure out myself what all is needed and who knows 5 years from now maybe i do my own thing. Right now i am having to much fun but just brainstorming really.
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My response was similar to certain states not wanting people to find out how wonderful it is to live there because adding new people would dampen the great experience.
Honestly, you can start on a shoestring and add as you have profits to cover those expenses. But, if you want to start off with employees, that’s a completely different story. I would suggest being a one-man band initially. Get comfortable with all parts of the business first, before being obigated to feed the families of other
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Gotcha. Thats exactly what i am trying to educate myself on. First so if I decide to invest to aid a friend different state about how much to get it going then he won’t be solo what time frame would the ROI be . I am trying to not drop a bunch but have a little bit better understanding so its a win win. If 200k and say a couple years to return that plus a little. Not bad but if its upwards of 500k and 10 years I would have to re think that. If i we t solo in 5 years it would probably be exactly that just solo. At this point i have no desire to build up a firm for myself. I would just have fun picking and choosing the jobs I would like to do. I most certainly would not be one that races to the bottom thats not fair to the profession itself. Well schools were delayed this month we got a bit of snow mostly ice. Not expected this morning. And i am headed south to be gone all week.
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You can do it either way. My recommendation is to start slow the first year and buy used gear as much as possible. Buy newer gear and desired extras with the profit from revenue. Borrowing large sums early will hobble any flexibility you need to survive the early years and the changes in the economy. I hate borrowing money for anything and borrowing to build a business carries large risks.
—Dan MacIsaac, PLS -
Yeah borrowing money stinks for sure. I probably will never launch a survey business but who knows. I already running a farm and should be turning the corner with it soon as my heard is ready. But the friend is starting so i can look at cost of equipment and justify that but all the other things that keep the business afloat like plotter ink i have no idea software etcc.
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To outfit one truck with the latest and greatest is about 100K.
Truck – another 50k
computer/software 7-10k
Office space can be widely variable
Insurance needs vary depending on the niche
Starting solo using your own truck and home office is absolutely the safest and cheapest and you don’t have to buy the best of everything. I started with nothing (some years back) and a 50k loan bought everything I needed and floated me through a slow start.
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A startup cost that must be covered is living expenses for the 3-6 months it is going to take to get anything like a cash flow going. Beyond that I concur with Tom’s numbers.
Of course, nobody just going into this business has that kind of loot, everybody either borrows and makes monthly payments or starts off on a shoestring. On the positive side I’ve heard of lots of cases where the loans were paid off within a year or two.
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This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by Norman_Oklahoma.
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This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by
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I started out solo in 2017. I already had a truck, tripods, old laptop with Civil 3D, metal detector, machete, and Trimble 5800 gps. Everything was paid for and bought piece by piece over the previous 5 years except the truck, which I still had payments on. I also purchased a brand new Spectra Focus 35 robotic package which I paid $360 per month for. I could have waited a bit and paid cash for a used gun but I figured that wasn’t an item to go cheap on. I had $6,500 in the bank the day I quit my old job. I was probably lucky because everything went well. The only thing I really NEEDED immediately was a plotter, which I bought for $1200 after I got paid for my first few jobs. I would have preferred to have more cash in the bank in the beginning but there was plenty of work at the time (as there seems to be now) so it worked out fine for me but a housing crash would have killed me.
Edit, I also had payments on my E&O and General Liability insurance.
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This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by gmpls.
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This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by
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The only thing I really NEEDED immediately was a plotter, which I bought for $1200 after I got paid for my first few jobs.
Heck, these days for most jobs we don’t need a plotter, just Bluebeam…
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil Postman -
I guess it depends on your clients. About 75% of my work is residential or rural and I always prepare paper copies.
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Oh wow so 200k is an reasonable number. I guess i was way high. And that 200k is with latest and greatest. 50k for a truck yikes. I didn’t pay that for a new f350 in 2021. 4 door lang wheel base long bed 4wd. But i guess vehicles are high today even used ones. Thank you.
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If i were on my own thats what i would love to do is just rural boundaries. Thats why i came back to land surveying side. I missed the boundary work. I am told no money in it but i farm as well so just being out in nature working with people that are salt of the earth. Helping grandma divide for grandchildren sounds good to me. I need some serious learning on that though.
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Living expenses. Yeah. I guess i would approach that just like the emergency fund for personal home. Have 6 months setting just encase it rains or murphy shows up. No matter what happens that nest egg is for emergencies only. Not an investment not to buy Christmas or pay for a set of new tires. Thats already a given tires last only so long so budget for them . Emergency is lost job injury something that prevents you from working. I appreciate all the info. Now I feel a bit better on what to ask if I invest and or later on down the road how to be prepared if I wanted to do my own thing.
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“I guess it depends on your clients. About 75% of my work is residential or rural and I always prepare paper copies.”
Not to beat a dead horse, but emailing pdfs to Kinkos to be printed is an option if you must have paper. There is always a way.
It’s not the $1200 plotter that kills you, its the hundred dollar cartridges. Add a $10 charge per full sized copy (the Kinkos fee) and you will have all your clients wanting pdfs.
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I believe you on the ink and cartridge. That stuff will cost you your first born just for home use. Lol. We don’t even have a home printer anymore for that very reason and the printer itself is useless in no time.
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I would have to do a search on line to find out how close the nearest Kinko’s happens to be. I’m guessing 70 miles. It’s that sort of thing that can make big differences in how to identify what is most economical to own as opposed to outsource. Heck, I started out borrowing a metal detector that my neighbor used to use to hunt for lost bolts and such while working on farm equipment out in fields. Had a 99-foot steel tape.
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I have two 300 ft add tapes steel. One still in the box with calibrations paperwork from navy to invar. Lol. I use one to lay out paddocks. I have chaining pins and plumb bob. Heck a brunton compass and right angle prism still so i am good lol. 99 ft what cut it a bush ace or shovel. I was pretty good at making repairs to steel tapes Do they even make those kits anymore?
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“Not to beat a dead horse, but emailing pdfs to Kinkos to be printed is an option if you must have paper.”
For me the critical product is mylar for filing with the county. When I was no longer able to find new ink cartridges for my HP450C, I tried FedEx/Kinko’s as well as the local mom-and-pop reprographics place as a substitute, but neither was able to do mylar larger than 24″ (I need 18″x26″ per CA requirements). So I bought an Epson T3470 plotter (around $2k in 2019) and have been pretty happy with it.
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What you state by saying start out as one man band and get comfortable with all aspects of the business is some wise advice. Before you take on the responsibilities of feeding others. I guess hypothetically if i were 20 years younger and looking at this. I would probably write a business plan that would have payroll set aside for x amount of employees as time went on for x amount of months before hiring. I had a very talented cousin who good do wonders with craftsmanship I mean just a natural woods worker. Cabinets shelves anything. But he started out in debt hired several people of course payroll was borrowed everything tools and all . We all know what happened. He was so stressed so worried about the folks and there families he was supporting it drove him to a breaking point. It took him a long time to get over that when things went south. He worked for someone else for years before saving and getting the confidence to go on his own and has been successful now. But he still carries that weight to this day of failing those folks early on.
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