Licensed folk - what are your Do's and Don'ts?

Good thread. Quickly off the top of my head:

1. Never do work for friends and family.

2. Never think your client is telling you the truth.

3. Never blindly accept another survey as correct.

4. Do not send out a map until paid for.

1. Don't work with crappy, worn out equipment. 

2. Don't bother keeping the crappy, worn out equipment you just replaced "as a back up". You will never need it.

Posted by: @james-vianna

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3. Never blindly accept another survey as correct.

DO If your results are not agreeing with some other survey, check your work. If it still doesn't agree, check your work again. Repeat these steps until you find your error.  If necessary, put it aside until tomorrow and try again. In the unlikely event that the error still seems to be the other guy's, maintain humility when you approach him about it. Because he is probably going to explain how you are wrong.

Put your jobs in a gis map by address. After 35 years I can quickly see nearby jobs when pricing a new one

I use mapalist.com and google earth

Not a comprehensive list, but maybe more will come to me later:

Write a narrative for every boundary survey you perform, preferably recording each decision as you make it.  (I generally do this during the CAD map compilation process.)  Even if you don't incorporate the narrative into your deliverables, it'll help clarify your thought process in the moment, and help you recall why you made a particular decision if/when you have to revisit the survey later.  For simple surveys this won't take more than a few sentences, but for complex surveys having all the court case citations, statute citations, and principle of practice citations in a single concise document can be a professional lifesaver down the road.

Avoid cutting corners like the plague.  If you're about to do something that feel kind of sketchy, or makes you hope you don't regret the decision later, back up and do the right thing, even when doing so tanks the project budget.  Spending a little money now beats the heck out of losing a lot of money and/or reputational value later.

Get a written contact for every job.  Here in CA it's required in some, but not all, circumstances, but sound business practice dictates that it be done in every case.

As others have suggested, map your jobs as they come in.  There are lots of ways to do this; the level of complexity you choose will probably be determined by your business volume.  I'm a small-time operator, so Google Earth works well enough for me.  Remembering to map each job is one of my weak points, but I manage to get most of them in there eventually.

Jim is spot on about narratives.  A good narrative is priceless.  And don't skimp on the details, meeting the minimum requirements is almost as worthless as none at all.  Compiling the narrative while resolving the boundary really help the iterative process for both simple and complex projects.

Never approach another professional surveyor with arrogance when you discover an error. My approach is to say I have discovered some differences between our surveys and want to see if he/she possibly has some documentation that I missed. Nothing is worse than approaching another surveyor with an arrogant attitude and then find out that you were the one that was wrong. 

I always have someone else look at a plat before I release it even if it's a non surveyor. It doesn't take a surveyor to find a stupid mistake like spelling, grammar, etc. sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees and a fresh pair of eyes can reveal a lot. 

Never take someone else's data as perfect. If I get in a fix for making a mistake I want it to be my mistake, not somebody else's. 

Never cut corners. Budget be damned. 

I've been in this profession for almost 40 years and licensed for nearly 30. Experience just means that I've made that mistake before and know how not to make it now.

@james-vianna

Disagree, strongly. I was always glad to do a survey for friends, especially for support staff in a client or title company's office, and usually free. I called it marketing and it was rather successful in building relationships. Higher ups listen when staff tells them, "Bruce is so nice."

Holding a map for payment is a good way to build an adversarial relationship, and you don't want that. Far better to find and keep clients that willingly pay by return mail.

Posted by: @bruce-small

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Far better to find and keep clients that willingly pay by return mail.

Agree 100%, but there is always a first billing. If they past that test then yes.

Before starting your calcs for staking on a construction project, make sure you have the latest revision in hand.

Many good ideas above here.  One of my favorites to remember is that it is much easier to keep a client that to find a new client.  Always take care of them when they hire you.  When they don't reciprocate then never work for them again.

Posted by: @horseshoes-handgrenades

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What are some mistakes you made over the years that you'd be willing to impart on those of us with less experience?

Biggest mistakes I've made so far have been taking a job where an unlicensed person was my supervisor and not drafting my own surveys.

Posted by: @bruce-small

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Holding a map for payment is a good way to build an adversarial relationship, and you don't want that. Far better to find and keep clients that willingly pay by return mail.

If you are working for a homeowner who has never hired an LS before and probably never will again, then by all means get paid before releasing the work product. Working for and building relationships with people who will be repeat clients is a far better way to build a business. Such people will appreciate service and quality. One-timers appreciate lowest bidder. 

@peter-lothian Yup. My favorite from decades ago was the mediocre client who called on a Friday morning because they just had to have a new building staked before Monday. i picked up the plans from them, did the calcs, and rounded up an excellent crew. Done, in time. Several days later mediocre client called to admit they gave me the wrong plans. Not just a wrong revision - the entirely wrong plans. Well, I did say they were a mediocre client.

You will learn something new about how to run YOUR business many times per year.  What works for one business may not work well for yours based on a variety of differences between their business experiences and yours.  Every State seems to have different filing/non-filing requirements for example.  What might be done for $500 in one locale might cost the client $3000 or more in a different locale.

Make time for your family and take a vacation every year, more if possible.

Do: Create a spreadsheet or similar for calculating your proposals, even small ones. It should be a work in progress where you can continue to add or modify labor costs and expenses. Be as detailed as possible (i.e. fuel, stakes, CAD time, field time, deed research, review, correspondence, vehicle expense, equipment expenses, etc.). Include a contingency factor that multiplies your final proposal cost by 1.15 as you're likely to be too optimistic. Frequently review your proposed time/costs to your final time/costs and adjust as necessary. Making a profit is great, share it with your employees and support our profession. Avoid back of napkin cost estimates, acreage or perimeter multipliers and other such methods as you're not a tradesman (not that there's anything wrong with that) and you need to assess risk against reward for every project. The contingency factor can be used to increase your costs on risky surveys. Itemizing all your costs is helpful if you're every questioned about them, particularly if you're involved in litigation. 

Don't: Be afraid to ask for more money if it turns out your client's boundary or project is a quagmire. Frontload this possibility in your contract and in your initial communications with them. 

Do: Come up with a list of questions that a client might be too embarrassed to ask and address them early in the project. Few laymen understand scale, bearings, acreage's relationship to square footage, deeds, plats etc.. 

Don't: Spend more time looking back then forward. Talk to your clients and find out what problem they need solved, and cater your deliverables to them. Don't be a black and white plat delivery service. Send aerials, and KMZs, and colored plats with all the regulatory junk removed that a client can actually use.

Watch out for the exceptionally nice neighbors. They seem to be the ones that'll bite the hardest.

Don't start the bad habit of judging other surveyors work. You are not licensed to tell laypeople that you are a better surveyor. You are licensed because you have proven the skill of boundary retracement. Pincushions often, not always but often, show ones reliance on precision, as opposed to retracement.

Posted by: @stacy-carroll

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Experience just means that I've made that mistake before and know how not to make it now.

Experience just means that I've made that mistake before and know how not to make it now recognize it as one might an old drunken uncle.

You wont lose any $ on a project you don't get.