Kent McMillan, post: 375670, member: 3 wrote: So, should one understand that pretty much any name a professional surveyor chooses to do business as is perfectly fine as far as you're concerned?
Why shouldn't they be able too. David Komie may be the most professional ambulance chaser in Texas. Being a professional is not only having an advanced knowledge in a known subject. But it is also carrying ones self in a respectful manner and to help advance the profession in the eyes of the general public. I for one would much rather have a professional with a "store front name" that carries himself in the manner I mentioned; than an arrogant (insert adj.) with his own name above the door.
Jones, post: 375676, member: 10458 wrote: Being a professional is not only having an advanced knowledge in a known subject. But it is also carrying ones self in a respectful manner and to help advance the profession in the eyes of the general public. I for one would much rather have a professional with a "store front name" that carries himself in the manner I mentioned; than an arrogant (insert adj.) with his own name above the door.
The obvious answer is that marketing a service as if it were a "brand" like a chain of fried chicken or oil change shops is completely contrary to the real nature of a licensed profession and misleads the public into thinking that surveys are just another commodity to be purchased like fried chicken or oil changes. How professional is misleading the public, really?
To a large majority of our clients we are just another commodity, or just another hoop that they have to jump through to close on a loan or property. Most clients choose a company because of prior experiences or referrals from others. Or the choice comes to price or possibly which company can get to the job the fastest. I just can't wrap my head around how a name makes you more professional than someone else.
Jones, post: 375684, member: 10458 wrote: To a large majority of our clients we are just another commodity, or just another hoop that they have to jump through to close on a loan or property. Most clients choose a company because of prior experiences or referrals from others. Or the choice comes to price or possibly which company can get to the job the fastest. I just can't wrap my head around how a name makes you more professional than someone else.
Well, can you conceive that a professional service is not a commodity? I'm assuming that you can. Optimizing one's business model to deliver maps for real estate sales for the lowest possible price on the quickest schedule is basically accepting the premise that one is selling the equivalent of fried chicken at a drive-through window. If one wants to do that, the following business names may not be taken yet:
Mighty-Fast Mapping,
Speed-o-Light Surveys
Already Surveying!
Dollar Surveying
Discount Mapping
Super-Pro Surveying
Mr. Surveyor (a national franchise run from kiosks at the mall)
Half-Second Surveys
Kent McMillan, post: 375687, member: 3 wrote: ...Already Surveying!
the others were good but lol at that one!
I believe a survey is not a everyday commodity. But what I believe is irrelevant, it all comes down to what the public believes. Like I have stated before it's the men and women at the practice that makes it professional, not the name on the door.
My go to tool is the R-10, if I can get my hands on it.......
R-10-10 Surveying.
Jones, post: 375693, member: 10458 wrote: I believe a survey is not a everyday commodity. But what I believe is irrelevant, it all comes down to what the public believes.
So, in other words, it's whatever the clients want that makes the profession whatever it is?
I like "Half-Second Surveys" but most of the survey consumers wouldn't get it; they would be thinking time not angles 😀
Yes and no, we as the professionals should guide the profession, but I really don't see personally attacking another surveyor over his name as advancing the profession. And the clients do push the profession in different directions as well, we have to conform to what the public want to an extent or we as a profession become irrelevant.
Kent McMillan, post: 375653, member: 3 wrote: So, when you decided to set up shop under the rubric that you did, what made you think that it was smarter to do business under a storefront name rather than your own? I mean, you could have changed your name from "Cash" to "Crediteau" or something to which your prospective clients might have even more positive associations.
Generally, I think it is fair to observe that licensees who choose to do business under a storefront name instead of their own do so because they think it is necessary to market their services. That does mean that they believe that it's useful to dissociate the service from the licensee who provides it.
Marketing of services has nothing to do with my company's name. I'm not even in the phone book. I've only operated as a "sole proprietor" once for a brief time. In Oklahoma that means you are not required (At that time) to obtain a Certificate of Authorization number. When I became an authorized firm, I chose a name other than mine simply because I had seen an older surveyor make that mistake a few years earlier. By the time he retired he attempted to sell his establishment to an understudy and it fell apart. I gambled that if I were successful enough to cultivate a profitable business I might be able to actually profit from the sale of that business if I ever felt the need.
And don't give me any of your South Texas crap about there being a difference in the quality of services between a business interest and a sole proprietor. The main difference I can see is bottom line. I have employees whose time is charged to the client along with my time. As a sole proprietor you are either forced to take away from some seriously billable time to perform rudimentary tasks (taking a package to FedEx) or possibly charging the pee wadding out of you client for running to the P.O. or filling up the truck. Surely you don't charge your client $150 an hour while you sit at Jiffy Lube, do you? hmmmm? That wouldn't be very professional at all.
Simply put Kent, I stand behind the fact that a name of a surveying business has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the quality of professional services that may be rendered. There are good surveyors and bad surveyors. Some hide behind a thin veil of a name and some don't. Saying a storefront named firm is substandard is just as ludicrous as saying all sole proprietors are old drunks that can't afford an office. Neither is anywhere near reality or truth.
And hopefully you realize a difference of opinion has nothing to do with the mutual respect I keep for you and your narrow-minded Texas hide...;-)
Respectfully,
mj
Kent McMillan, post: 375687, member: 3 wrote: Well, can you conceive that a professional service is not a commodity? I'm assuming that you can. Optimizing one's business model to deliver maps for real estate sales for the lowest possible price on the quickest schedule is basically accepting the premise that one is selling the equivalent of fried chicken at a drive-through window. If one wants to do that, the following business names may not be taken yet:
Mighty-Fast Mapping,
Speed-o-Light Surveys
Already Surveying!
Dollar Surveying
Discount Mapping
Super-Pro Surveying
Mr. Surveyor (a national franchise run from kiosks at the mall)
Half-Second Surveys
No, no, no. For the type of operation you despise those names would never do. They have to be first in the phone book to grab the price shoppers, so more likely it would be:
AAAMighty-Fast Mapping,
AAASpeed-o-Light Surveys
AAAlready Surveying!
AAADollar Surveying
AAADiscount Mapping
AAASuper-Pro Surveying
AAAMr. Surveyor (a national franchise run from kiosks at the mall)
AAAHalf-Second Surveys
paden cash, post: 375707, member: 20 wrote: When I became an authorized firm, I chose a name other than mine simply because I had seen an older surveyor make that mistake a few years earlier.
Okay, so another surveyor had been practicing under your name a few years earlier and it had ended badly or worse? I can see how you might want to use a pseudonym - at least until all those circulars at the Post Office come down - but does "Elvis Land Surveying" really fool that many clients? Doesn't it bother them that Elvis has always "just left the building" when they call?
Jones, post: 375700, member: 10458 wrote: Yes and no, we as the professionals should guide the profession, but I really don't see personally attacking another surveyor over his name as advancing the profession. And the clients do push the profession in different directions as well, we have to conform to what the public want to an extent or we as a profession become irrelevant.
I'll mark you down as "undecided" as to whether a surveying firm ought to present itself in a manner consistent with selling cars or fried chicken. It's pretty clear to me that the supposedly unseen hand of the free market could ruin any profession in less than six months without professional intervention.
Kent McMillan, post: 375717, member: 3 wrote: I'll mark you down as "undecided" as to whether a surveying firm ought to present itself in a manner consistent with selling cars or fried chicken. It's pretty clear to me that the supposedly unseen hand of the free market could ruin any profession in less than six months without professional intervention.
And I'll mark you down as "decidedly obstinate" as to whether or not you really think you're making sense.
You can intervene all that you like, but if you don't provide the services the public needs you are going to be the one that is not needed. I find it funny that that you cannot have a rational discussion without twisting everything some one says. Im sure that you are probably the only one on this board that thinks I intend to let the clients dictact the direction of the surveying profession. My statement was that the public do have a role in the direction of our profession, and if you want to stay relevant and profitable you will keep up with their needs.
Kent McMillan, post: 375687, member: 3 wrote: Well, can you conceive that a professional service is not a commodity? I'm assuming that you can. Optimizing one's business model to deliver maps for real estate sales for the lowest possible price on the quickest schedule is basically accepting the premise that one is selling the equivalent of fried chicken at a drive-through window. If one wants to do that, the following business names may not be taken yet:
Mighty-Fast Mapping,
Speed-o-Light Surveys
Already Surveying!
Dollar Surveying
Discount Mapping
Super-Pro Surveying
Mr. Surveyor (a national franchise run from kiosks at the mall)
Half-Second Surveys
You forgot Surveys-2-Go
The public usually doesn't want a survey. They need one. And they want it fast and cheap bc they think they are all the same and just need it done as a step in a process, be it selling, buying or permitting.
They pick lawyers bc they think a better lawyer means better results. Because they just don't need a lawyer to make a ruling that any lawyer will make the same, they want to profit more and a better lawyer they feel will make them more money, win the case, etc...
Until the public sees surveys as not all the same, and that one surveyor might survey a property better than another then they will keep choosing based on price, speed and....possibly..(gulp)...name.
Just like a really good mcdonalds hamburger ....(sorry. I made myself chuckle) .... people chose that garbage bc it's cheap and fast and most wouldn't know a good burger if one landed on their plate...or wrapper.
Title companies are just as much to blame. They want cheap and fast and whoever does it doesn't matter bc to them all surveys are the same.
AAA Surveys 2-Go