How is the workload?

Randy,

Didn't you just post about hiring a few folks a couple of weeks ago? I hope it picks up for you.

On the East Coast,a nd out on this sandbar I call home, we are plugging away with work crawling in the door. I am fortunate to have some major town work that is carry us along and enough small jobs to keep busy.

I get some RFP's that are very interesting, some major GPS networks or corridor surveys for utilities....that sort of stuff.

over all, I hear it's picking up and I'm doing slightly better than last year where we were 40% off....

Lost a big one yesterday

I was really looking forward to doing it too. Would've been about 2 months of solid work. Oh well, I'll try to make a learning experience out of it; what could I have done better, what did the guy do that got the job, try and make something positive out of it.

Little stuff keeps trickling in, so at least I can keep the lights on for another month.

Have a great day, I know I will.;-)

Dugger

In a Word - Sucks

And it's getting worse.

I made some personal appearances to several architects and builders that I've worked with over the last few years. - They are hurting as bad as I am, if not worse.

I went to Colo Springs two weeks to meet with guy selling his firm, he all but wants to give it away. Not to mention it's not worth anything. While down there, I stopped in to visit an old firm that had been around a long time -- Out of Business --

A day or two later - I stopped in to speak with a commercial broker in Denver who used to order a lot of ALTA's back in the day. I asked if I could be put on the bid list again, he informed me that they are using a national provider (read survey broker) for all their ALTA work. He said their prices are 1/2 what the local surveyors are charging. -- I asked how that can be? He told me that they don't have to set the corners. - I then asked who the provider was? He, said the escapes him. -- HHhhhmmmm

BTW - It's a violation of Colorado rules to conduct an ALTA survey without setting monuments.

I then went down stairs to speak with the residential department and the gal at the front desk said "we haven't had to order a survey is years"

I then decided to call it day.
I stopped at the local liq
& slept in late

99.9 percent of my calls are either bill collectors looking for past employees (they never believe me when I tell them that they don't work here anymore), people shopping around for the lowest price, or groups looking for donations.

I am very fortunate in that I am on the verge of retirement. There are so many good people out of work-it sucks.

It makes me wonder when some of these desperate, chronically unemployed people go off the deep end a la the guy in CT who shot the 9 co-workers.

I haven't had a call in weeks, but have taken on 2 new jobs because people saw me out and about. I consider that to be very lucky. I have about 5 jobs to do on my whiteboard, and I'd like to keep it that way. I kinda string some jobs along these days, just so I can be out and be seen. That's the best advertising that I know of... to be working.

> Rant on!
>
> I don't care what your flavor is in the political side of this, they are all idiots, nuff said.
>
> Rant off!
>
> Randy

Randy, I agree with your sentiment in that regard, but that kind of thought process isn't going to change the harsh economic realities that many in the surveying profession are facing these days. I have no idea how well those in the geomatician profession are doing. I think those type pukes are better politically positioned. 😉

You have to consider that early colonial surveyors were usually well connected to their local communities and were also at least part time farmers or associated with some other type of endeavors they fell back on when surveying commissions became scarce. In my case I've had to rely on different little projects outside of surveying these last couple of years to help my wife and I get by. Some surveying work is always out there, but when it becomes the sole basis of your economic survival then you are stuck with the competition of too little work for too many surveyors. This leads to a lot of finger pointing as to the cause of such a bad situation. Low ballers, political agendas, governmental policies or the even the weather or whatever. Fact is if you're not tightly bound to public money as funding for your livelihood, i.e.
government employee, or your company doesn't rely on, say, public infrastructure projects, of which there are only so many, you best study the business models of yesteryear and see how they might benefit you. This idea of steady private work from residential and commercial s/d development has only existed since the end of WW2. And we're just simply not in THAT Kansas anymore.

It's worked for me. I'm not happy about it. I love surveying more than anything else I've ever done in my life or ever will do. But, I'm also a pragmatic s.o.b.

I don't know, just my 2 cents on the subject.

Good luck to ya, and take care.
Ed

Well, I've never managed to get completely caught up in years, so I guess the workload is about right. I serve a niche market that isn't really closely tied to construction starts and land sales, though. In fact, if anything it picked up these last couple of years as the real estate marked slowed a bit. That was a pleasant surprise.

Too busy for me to reasonably handle by myself, not busy enough to take on any full time staff. (makes for a lot of 2 AM drafting sessions)

Wrapping up the plats & easements for the first 70 lot phase of a residential development (60 single families, 140 townhouses, 160 apartment units in four phases). LOTS of easement exhibits to prepare since it is a "neo traditional" design. It should start construction in October or so to be ready for spring sales and if I get the stake out contract I'll end up hiring a guy or two.

I've quit giving proposals to homeowner/realtor clients now that I have three engineering firms and one planner/landscape architect that come to me first for their surveying work.

A major national mapping firm and I are talking about teaming on a big orthophoto project and I'm putting a team together to bid on a multi-year state contract that I'll do a small portion of the surveying and administer the contract for the rest of the work.

So, to answer the question, better than I expected after 18 months in business.

> ... I serve a niche market that isn't really closely tied to construction starts and land sales, though. In fact, if anything it picked up these last couple of years as the real estate marked slowed a bit. That was a pleasant surprise.

Kent, I've always wondered WHO are your clients? It seems that you do some surveying in some very remote places, on some (basically) worthless land. Is the State your client? Or are you kinda like an independent county surveyor doing work for the kingdom (employed by the state). I've never gotten a grasp on that.

Carl

I have no workload.

I have a total of 14 jobs. I don't mean on the back burner waiting for me to do, I mean I am on job number 14 for the year.

I have the IRS levying my account almost every month it seems for back taxes. They have hit me four times, two of those back to back in June and July. I guarentee you they will get me this month also. You'd think they would figure out I was broke. I don't owe them much and they have levied my account all those times and I still owe them almost as much as it started out as. (penalty and interest I guess).

I just scrownged up enough money to get my license renewed a month late. I had the money and would have been on time but Uncle Sam needed it more.

Heck I don't know if you can get license renewed if you owe back taxes. Guess I'll find out.

14 jobs this entire year.

Last year I had around 60 jobs. But many of those were over a short period of time.

It has all but stopped for me. I have been in business for 10 years, started solo and was running 3 crews untill last year, but it is back to me and my son which is about to test for his S.I.T. I am blessed to have paid everything off, but would be willing to travel at this point to keep it going.

Brian Maddox, R.P.L.S.

> Kent, I've always wondered WHO are your clients?

Generally, my clients are folks with a checkbook who want to know what the answers are to some fairly obscure questions, but virtually none of it has been done for the State. A good bit of it has been in connection with litigation.

> > Kent, I've always wondered WHO are your clients?
>
> Generally, my clients are folks with a checkbook who want to know what the answers are to some fairly obscure questions, but virtually none of it has been done for the State. A good bit of it has been in connection with litigation.

Interesting for sure. Thanks for the clarification.

John

If at all possible borrow to pay off the IRS or try to negotiate it down. The IRS P&I is a killer.

Like Kent, we service Niche clients. Our billing for 2010 has already exceeded our entire billing for 2009 and we are on track for a 40 to 50 percent improvement over our previous best year.

Our field employees understand that we can see many weeks of 60 to 80 hours followed by a few at 10 to 20 hours. Our long term field employees have learned to put money away.

We're on our 25th job of the year. A decent year would be about 100 jobs so it's still bad, but thankfully toward the end of last year, we got a big, big job for any year, but it's out of state, about a four hour drive with out-of-town expenses for motels and meals, mileage, materials. That one job is keeping me from further borrowing, cashing in retirement money, etc. that was going on before that.

Next week will be my 1-yr anniversary of being back in biz. This time solo.

I previously owned a firm from 1993-2003.

From last Aug to Dec, I did 3 surveys... I spent most of my time marketing, learning new equipment, setting up my F2F system, more marketing, etc.

From Jan 1st to May 1st, I stayed fairly busy... small projects were steady. From May 1st to early June, nothing. Since early June, it has been steady. I'm working on a couple topos this week.

I have discovered a niche that has stayed steady so far this year. I've also took advantage of some opportunities to gain some real world experience in the GIS and Scanning arenas.

Hardly any reason to come into the office at all. There is nothing going on out here. Our low taxation rates and regressive social policies have driven the local economy to depths comparable to California and Michigan. Times are tough. Stay away.

> If at all possible borrow to pay off the IRS or try to negotiate it down. The IRS P&I is a killer.

Mike,

Honestly, I wouldn't loan me any money. 😉

My credit has taken a hard hit. I've been late on pretty much everything I can be late on. I don't know how in the world I still have my house.

It's my own fault. I tried to keep employees working last year and used tax money I should have paid instead of making payroll to do so. Stupid me. I just kept thinking it was going to turn around....any day now. Ended up getting rid of all employees anyway, and left with back taxes to pay and no work to boot.

I have extra ordinary business sense. I'm good, I'm real good. 😛

If I could get my brains back in order, I probably would be doing a lot better. I have lost many jobs due to not being willing to pick up the phone.

Can't really blame the government. They are for the country not the individuals in the country.