He is not us on this board.
For the most part those of us on this board seem to be doing what needs to be done by communicating and sharing knowledge and experiences. Those of us here possess a wealth of knowledge and scars from bone headed mistakes. There is a great benefit to reading some of the postings here and I am a frequent lurker on all of the categories.
The problem is associated with those who do not participate here or in their society meetings. They keep themselves sequestered in their own little thought bubble and are rarely faced with any alternative opinion or way of doing things.?ÿ
There is a great benefit to being able to learn of other ways of doing things.
It's only a rat race if you run with rats.
If your business model relies on cold calls from individual property owners then you are always going to be scraping the bottom. Such clients, who probably have one survey done in their lifetimes, have no way to differentiate between the various available service providers other than cost. So, naturally, they are always going to choose the lowest. You cannot compete in that kind of market on the basis of service or product quality. It's not just your area. It's everywhere. So just get out of that market segment. Find better clients.
A lot of surveyors on this board eschew construction staking, for example. But good contractors don't mind paying for good service. Paden Cash has a good client - an electrical utility. Believe me, his area is chock loaded with low cost, low quality providers. Bruce Small (whatever happened to Bruce?) did only ALTAs for a certain group of clients - very profitably. Kent does large Texas ranches. There are several others on this board who have similar stories. But there are very few, if any, whose business model relies on divvying up Ma and PA's 40 into 5's for the kids who report making good money.?ÿ ?ÿ ?ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ
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I'm in the same boat as JAS, but I'm lucky; most of the low-baller's in my area have died or retired. The few that are left, have realized; there is a lot of money to be made out there.
Something else, that nobody's brought up; most of these one time client's get sticker shock, when I tell them, their simple little lot survey is going to cost them $1,600, even if they only need one side. I can hear their jaws drop open and their eye's eye's pop wide open. I get the; OK, well, I'll have to talk to my spouse and I'll get back to you... Never to hear from them again. That's OK with me, their the one's that have a hard time paying the other half, when?ÿthe survey's done. I've got a 2 month back log as it is and the phone rings every day; sometimes 3 or 4 times. This cuts into a lot of Dougie time...
