For you current and former True Solo surveyors out there: Have any of you created a business model where you make as much money as you would if you sold yourself to a firm at the going rate? For example, if you could be (or were) a Survey Manager at a firm, have you really found a way to make as much money solo? If so, do you mind sharing your strategies?
FrozenNorth, post: 336491, member: 10219 wrote: If so, do you mind sharing your strategies?
1. Locate in an area in which professional surveying services are valued and in demand. (I happened to live in one.)
2. Establish working relationships with people who value quality service over low fees. (This took me at least 5 years to accomplish.)
3. Look for niche markets in which you can dominate by virtue of having skills and/or tools that few of your competitors possess. (One of these dropped into my lap.)
4. Keep your overhead low. Buy high-quality used equipment, and work out of a home office. (I'm cheap by nature, so this was easy for me.)
5. Deliver high-quality work!
To answer the first question, in the boom years I quadrupled the money I would have made at a large firm as survey manager. It was hard work, mind, but worth it. In the not boom years, aka The Great Recession, I still made more than I would have at a large firm.
As to the second question, what Jim Frame said, except I bought new equipment, and it took me less than a year for solid referrals to build the business.
I'll end with the philosophy I learned from Gex Williams in Florida: Negotiate the best price for the firm, then do the best job for the client regardless of the cost. That is absolutely essential for long term success.
Well all that Jim says, and then some 🙂
I am a little unclear about your question, though. I make more than if I was paid at a firm managing the survey load, but I don't make as much as my bill out rate would be at a firm. Just because of my overhead.
Have zero interest in being someone else's monkey on a leash.
Holy Cow would rather grind his own hurdy gurdy 🙂
I thought the thread involving "self pleasuring" ended yesterday.:-D
I put in enough years being the sad little monkey on a leash for the rich dudes in Philly and elsewhere. Let them make their money the old fashioned way......earn it.
There is another factor you should consider, although it depends on your personality. My wife and I daily give thanks for our business and the freedom it gave us. I had one month of sanity left when I departed the large firm. She left the teaching job she hated to run our business. Now she gets to stay home, and I get to play in the dirt. It don't hardly get any better than this.
Thanks for the feedback. I had my own small shop for a few years in the past, but I had a couple employees and was really pursuing "bigger and better", which stressed me out and was hard on my personal life.
If I went back on my own, I would be looking to NOT duplicate those mistakes. So my goal would be appropriate solo tech (keeps getting cheaper and cheaper!), and NO employees.
foggyidea, post: 336502, member: 155 wrote: ... but I don't make as much as my bill out rate would be at a firm. Just because of my overhead.
Are your prices based on cost or value?
Mike Falk, post: 336629, member: 442 wrote: Are your prices based on cost or value?
Value, in my opinion, the value of my time, that is....
With solo money, you decide what and where the money goes to and how it is invested, put into tools or towards the party barge.
You can pick the color and not settle for some lemon your boss has passed down for it to break down on your watch.
Working for the man, all you get is the meager end of a check with all the mad money being kept in a place that you may never be able to draw from.
Only the partners gain access to the real money and they let many people go just before their benefit packages kick in.
:beer:
My approach is to charge twice as much and to work half as much.
FrozenNorth, post: 336491, member: 10219 wrote: For you current and former True Solo surveyors out there: Have any of you created a business model where you make as much money as you would if you sold yourself to a firm at the going rate? For example, if you could be (or were) a Survey Manager at a firm, have you really found a way to make as much money solo? If so, do you mind sharing your strategies?
Sadly I am unable to make a balanced contribution as I have been too busy traveling along the solo highway for too long.
RADU
I guess you never say never, but I can't imagine going back to work for a big firm.
It's about the joy of actually surveying....not to mention the money as a solo owner is waaay better than a paycheck.
But Jim and Bruce have really nailed it, so there isn't much more to add.
Andy