Any advise for new business opening?

Have a web page and internet presences. About 25% of my calls come from the internet, even though my phone number has been on drawings for 30 years.
Do a little extra and a better job than the other surveyors. Simple things like a few more lath on a property line than the client expected or a phone call to ask if they have received the drawing you mailed and if they have any questions. This will cost you almost nothing and give you great reviews and the word of mouth advertising that is so important in this business.
Best of luck.
Scott

The fastest road to becoming the business person you need to be would probably be to team up with another surveyor who is doing well so that you can “hold onto their bootstraps” to keep the hiccups to a minimum. They may do it for a prescribed period for a meager sum per month. They will not need to supervise the surveying, but mentor you on the business. Many good recommendations have already been made.

Let’s talk about getting ready to go. Create a Logo. Make business cards. You need a website!!! Make letterhead. Put together a couple of contract forms. Develop a budget worksheet to make it easy to prepare an estimate. Come up with fax forms, email forms, RFI forms, Proposal forms, all the items you will need in the day-to-day business world.

Several have mentioned the accountant. Your accountant will take care of the taxes, but the accountant should also provide you with reports that tell what is happening in your business. You should be spending xx% on marketing, xx% on administration, xx% on professional activities, xx% on vehicles, xx% on labor, etc. You need to know what those are going in and then make sure none of them get too far out of line. Of course your accountant will also tell you what your profit is….. if you have any! My suggestion is to get some timekeeping software that you can track against your budget within the first three days of a project. The sooner you know it is not working right, the sooner you can work on a fix to correct whatever is the problem. This has saved my bacon several times in a big way!!! The bigger the project, the more important it is to find and fix problems early. The smaller the project and the tighter the budget, the more important it is to monitor the budget. Your time keeping software may be the most important item to running a successful business.

Now, about your Quality Control standards….. Use those that have already worked well for others. You must maintain that high standard for your new company. This should be enough for now!

Do what you say your going to do . Buy good Insurance . Buy a good Truck . Dont work for wages .

🙂

Thanks to everyone for all the great "advice" ... as Dave Ingram noted, I misspelled that in my original post.

I am very hopeful that starting small, but not selling myself short, will be very beneficial. Although competition is limited, there are a couple of surveyors that really low-balls prices, but I tell possible clients that they will get what they pay for. I do not believe in robbing people blind, but I do believe in charging enough for me to the best possible job I can on each project. I take great pride in the work I do, and I love the surveying profession!!! It's not a job .. it's a passion.

As far as investing in a GPS or a robot ... I may look into that in the future, but I do not want to put the cart before the horse. The majority of work I am doing now is boundaries in the mountains of East Tennessee, so neither are very practical at this point.

I have spoken with an accountant, and based on everything I have read here, he needs to become my new best friend! Maybe in a few short months, he will be telling me that I NEED to go buy that GPS or robot .. lol 😀

Excellent thread. Thanks!