Evolve or die

[Jims5543]

Evolve or die, I was not evolving set in my ways, complaining about the situation but never thinking of a solution, just resisting the change that was facing me.

Not a good business model, while this seems to be the theme with the government agencies I deal with the small businesses like me are changing every year, hell, every month, that goes by.

The smack to the head came about 2 weeks ago, I complained to a good customer that this 48 hours turn around is difficult.  They responded to my complaint. They took their business elsewhere and I immediately noticed.

I reached out to them and asked why they were not ordering from me, the answer was short and sweet,  "You complained that 2 day turn around is too hard".

Damn, I owned myself.

I did not immediately reply, I instead, thought about the problem I had and what a solution would be.  I have the people in place to actually make 24 hour turn around happen, why am I not doing that? 

This business has changed drastically in the last 10 years, email, electronic signatures etc.. has all made things that would take days to do happen in hours even minutes. I needed to evolve and I needed to do it fast!!

What do I need to do this? How can I accomplish this?

I then emailed back and informed them they misunderstood me, they did I was only complaining.  I pointed out I was making their deadlines so there was not a problem I was just not comfortable with the short deadlines.

After tossing some idea around in my head, I jumped off a cliff and further responded to my customer:


As a matter of fact, after you email I had been pondering how I can get you surveys faster than you need them. I am in the process of rolling out a system where you will be able to get your product in 24 hours if needed.

Then they started to order from me again, and man the orders cam pouring in, I got a good client back!   Much needed in this time of uncertainty.  When the Fed bumped up a quart point in September I noticed house sales slowed a lot, the stupid builders missed the memo and have kept be really busy for the last couple of months as they seemed to kick on an afterburner.

This is not good as they are creating a huge inventory with slow buyers.  My work for actual home sales has dropped off drastically.  With this second hike last week I am expecting a VERY slow January.  This may be the bucket of water tossed on the housing market.

So you may ask, how did we evolve?  Great question!! I picked up some new toys, first and most important I added on a new cel phone with 4g wireless hot spot activated.  I now have a wireless network in my work truck.

Then I purchased this laptop, perfect for the field, a refurbished Panasonic Toughbook, with all the software I need for work. It is like I am sitting at my desktop when using this laptop. I even uploaded the software I need to make my field data collector talk to it so I can email data points to my drafter, this was a huge problem and bottle neck for me before.



This thing is a beast, I think I can use it as a bulletproof shield too.




Then I decided to completely change how we gather field notes, I picked up a reMarkable tablet, they are expensive ($600) but so simple and made for one task that it does extremely well, worth it.  Once complete I can transfer the field noted to the Toughbook as well including them in the email with the points.

The reMarkable is really cool. It only responds to stylus touches to dragging your hand or a template across does nothing.  We LOVE it.



Now we roll up to a job site, take the notes on the digital tablet, then shoot the job in collecting the points on our windows mobile device, once back in the truck we fire up the wifi and laptop, transfer the points to the laptop and meail them to the drafter who is waiting for that data to finish the job, he has already started the drafting early in the morning when we leave and just needs our data to complete.

By the time I arrive to the office the drafting is complete and I am just checking it.

Boom!

We told this one client what we were doing.  We will roll this out next month to all our clients.  This will put us way ahead of our competitors and make our days way more efficient.

Evolve or die.

[MiniDave]

It also sounds like it will be more efficient for you and lighten your work load too, sounds like a good move and all it cost was some depreciable assets - well done!

[94touring]

Smart move  4.gif.

[Jims5543]

It also sounds like it will be more efficient for you and lighten your work load too, sounds like a good move and all it cost was some depreciable assets - well done!

Expense for this setup was paid for the first day in the field.

Smart move  4.gif.

Tanks!

I had no choice, we have to adapt.  Everything is changing.

[MiniGene]

Good on ya for doing this!  It was really interesting to read your story.  Did you know there is a whole industry made up of people who are paid by companies to figure out how to do stuff more quickly and efficiently?  Companies struggle at doing this themselves due to the "That's how we've always done it" mentality.  Somebody brought in from the outside can usually see what people internally have become blind to.

I know you saved a TON of coin figuring it out yourself!  Have you calculated not just the time saved, but how much money that equals saved for your business?

BTW, those toughbooks are rugged.  We used those in deployed environments in the AF.   4.gif

[Jims5543]

Good on ya for doing this!  It was really interesting to read your story.  Did you know there is a whole industry made up of people who are paid by companies to figure out how to do stuff more quickly and efficiently?  Companies struggle at doing this themselves due to the "That's how we've always done it" mentality.  Somebody brought in from the outside can usually see what people internally have become blind to.

I know you saved a TON of coin figuring it out yourself!  Have you calculated not just the time saved, but how much money that equals saved for your business?

BTW, those toughbooks are rugged.  We used those in deployed environments in the AF.   4.gif

I will answer more thoroughly over the weekend, I have not calculated the costs. I only know one thing, as far as I know, I am the only surveyor around here offering this service.  THAT was my motivation, to offer something no one else is offering.

We put it to the test today, let me get a few fires put out and I can tell a story.

[Jims5543]

I get an email before 8 this morning from a very good customer.

She forgot to order a survey and the closing was today at 11:00.

I informed her we would practice our new setup on her.

I had one another job before hers then had to stop at City to drop surveys off to the inspection dept*, then finally arrived at the house at 9:45.

I email my drafter Scott the file before I left the office this morning, he was drafting up the platted lot and title block while we were driving there.

At 10:05 we were done measuring the house, I turned on my wifi and send Scott the house notes straight from the reMarkable device, then we set up the instrument and shot it in.

10:15 we were done shooting it in, I downloaded the points and emailed them to Scott and drove to the next house we had to work at, it was a 15 minute drive away.

10:30 Scott sends me an email that says,"Done Motherfucker"

I grab the laptop and head to the porch of the house, it was new construction so no one in it. I check over the drawing real fast, Scott is thorough and requires little review. 10:40 I am emailing the completed survey in PDF format to my customer.


Backing up a little, the realtor showed up with the buyers to do a final walk through before heading to the closing. They arrived at 10:00.

The realtor, like 90% of woman realtors was a chubby middle aged fucking bitch. Instead of being nice, she comes at us like a raging asshole.

"Who are you and why are you on this property?" is the first thing out of her mouth, no good morning no hello nope, straight to bitch. We have tape measure in our hands there is an orange safety cone behind my truck, there is no way in hell we looked seedy.

Mike ignored her, I never looked at her and did not initially respond to her, I just recited a bunch of numbers to Mike I had in my head as she had walked up and interrupted us.

Once Mike had his numbers, I did not stop measuring, I just said to her while measuring a wall, Nancy thought the bank ordered the survey, she realized this morning there was no survey, I am rushing it for her. It will be there for the closing. Then I turned to Mike and said 12 feet, and was measuring the next wall, she yells back at me, NOT 12 its closing at 11!! In a very nasty voice.

Mike was closer to her at this point, he looks at her and points to the wall, and says to her, "No, this wall is 12 feet long and yes, your closing is at 11." Then walked away from her, I was already gone.

As we were emailing the notes to Scott I could hear the bitch on the phone calling the title company to complain to Nancy about the survey not being done.

I emailed Nancy already and warned her about the meltdown. She had the receptionist take a message. LMAO!!

I fucking hate realtors.


* Like most government offices this one is stuck in the 80's. What could be accomplished with a simple email cannot. We have to drive there, walk in and put a hard copy of the survey in a basket for them to take it out of. The same way they have been doing it for 40 years now. I once asked why they do not go to email and save everyone time and help stop wasting gas etc.. The man behind the counter proudly said it would never work he only checked his email once every few days.  Oh the irony!!

[Jims5543]

@Jims5543. Very cool. Thanks for sharing your story! Remember, you'll need to reinvent something else soon too as the world changes!

@MiniGene "Did you know there is a whole industry made up of people who are paid by companies to figure out how to do stuff more quickly and efficiently?  " That exactly describes what I sell :)

I have to do it again this next year, with Win7 being phased out I am being forced onto Win10.

Much of my software is not compatible with Win10, while it sort of works, it is unstable and prone to crashing.  The Cadd software crashes in a spectacular manner corrupting the .dwg file and rendering it unusable, ever again.

We already changed our accounting over to freshbooks.  I will start shopping next year for new cadd software.  What grinds my gears is that everything is subscription based. During the housing crash and subsequent years and years of the economy never taking back off, what saved me was low overhead. 

Once I go subscription based I am already planning on just going full cloud based with my business. No need for a physical office. I can get rid of this commercial space I rent and run my entire business off a laptop in a coffee shop if I needed to.

I have also toyed with a mobile office, getting a Ford Transit van and setting up an office in it, getting rid of my actual office and current work truck, then using the van as a roving office.

I have lots and lots of idea rattling around this head. 

If the economy tanks again I am very sure I will be getting rid of the commercial office space.

[MiniDave]

If you do that, where will Scott base himself?

[Jims5543]

If you do that, where will Scott base himself?

This is another think outside the box moment. Scott does not sit in my office.

Scott was almost killed 2 years ago by some hack doctors doing a quad bypass on him. He is disabled now and will probably die in about 10-15 years from now. Scott is only 45 years old. He is a candidate a heart transplant, once that happens a 10 year clock starts ticking that signifies his life expectancy. 10 years is what a typical heart transplant recipient has to live. So every year he can stave that off, is another year added to his life.

Scott is my BIL (our wives are sisters) he used to work for me before the housing crash, he worked for me for 9 years, came on board knowing nothing, in 5 years was running my company.

After all the heart problems 2 years ago he was just sitting home, I was talking to him at a family function and he told me he is losing his mind out of boredom.

We hatched this idea he would help me with drafting, I purchased a nice laptop, loaded it up with software and handed it to him.

I pay him for his efforts, in return he uses his mind and is not losing it anymore. 

I send him emails either in the evening or early in the morning with the work I need help on.   If there is a rush job like this one I give him a heads up so he knows what is going on.

I asked if he wanted more work and he is all for it.  It is not stressful at all and he rather enjoys the distraction.

[MiniDave]

Sounds like a great partnership!

[MiniGene]

@MiniGene "Did you know there is a whole industry made up of people who are paid by companies to figure out how to do stuff more quickly and efficiently?  " That exactly describes what I sell :)

Whee, after seeing the front of your house in the picture MiniDave posted, business must be good!  71.gif  Ever think of setting up a San Diego division?  I've been toying with getting a Six Sigma cert to help my job prospects out here.

Jim, this entire story is really satisfying!  I'm glad that it's working out great for your business.  I hope your upgrades go smoothly (even though, working in IT I know hope doesn't mean sheet! Back up all you can! LOL!)  How much of your business is walk-in related or from people seeing your business name on your storefront?  If your answer is nil, I'd drop it like it's hot and go 100% cloud and mobile! 

[jeff10049]

Jim,
I was like you a few years back not wanting to deal with the expectations of the next generation of customers finally decided to evolve. We are on the third evolution since then.
we moved processes in-house that were outsourced for a faster turnaround. Got a landline that will accept text messages and photos. Have online payment options.

Most recently a complete website redesignhttps://bendrvrepair.com/ all of this has cost over 100k but we've made it back and business is good.

website analytics show over 200 calls a month made right from the mobile site call button the phone was slow before the redesign and mobile-friendly site.

I'm always up in the air if I want to keep evolving or scale back on good days it's easy to get pumped up and want to go big then other times I'd just as soon close it up or put it up for sale... But what would we do then?

[Jims5543]

Bingo Jeff!!  Many of my clients are very old and a new crop is coming up to take their places, they want more tech and less fuss.

You seem to have solved that problem and like you, sometimes I want to expand, other times I just want to downsize to a 2 person company (with Scott drafting as 3rd since he is a sub) get rid of the overhead of the office, receptionist (Dori) etc.. and not stress so much.

to answer your question I do not need to have an office space, I get zero walk in clients. I occasionally have a client need to pick up an hard copy of a survey, alternative arrangements could easily be made.  There is no reason for a proper commercial space anymore, most of my competitors work from their homes.  Many break local community rules regarding that, as in, no employees can report to your home for work, no clients may arrive at your home for any reason. Everyone knows those rules are being broken every day and no one enforces those rules.  That is what I am competing with, I used to be proud I have a legitimate office space except no one seems to care, they only want the piece of paper at a reasonable price and fast.  My office costs me about $3000 a month to keep.  Is it worth it?   That is something I am contemplating now, I see no reason to keep it beyond 2019. Come 2020 I may close it.

Internets....Another evolve or die moment.

Since the days of the yellow pages, I have always had enough or more business to make me happy.  The yellow pages rep would be dumbfounded when I told them I was not interested in a bold ad that would place me above my competitors. Word of mouth is gold and I had so many great clients that I did not ever need to advertise.

As the age of internet took off, I have had the same mindset, I have no website, do not need one, except now, I am thinking I cam make a website work for me. So that is my mission this year.

I am exploring a streamlined ordering process online (right now all orders are send via email) where a client punches in the information I need, then the website / server, assigns a PO or Job#, generates an invoice and I have the order sitting in a folder ready to be printed, possibly a text message sent an order was placed with the address of the property and due date.

If certain criteria is met, i.e. size of property, location of property etc.. then the invoice will generate, if not then a notification will be sent that the order is received and an invoice will arrive shortly.

I am also toying with a app for a smart phone too.  My goal is to make it as easy as possible to order from me.


That takes me full circle back to the office space, one I have a website doing a lot of the work for me, assigning project numbers, invoicing and alerting me when an order comes in, I see no need to have a traditional office anymore.


In 2010 I was trying to go paperless, the tech was not there yet, now it is so I am revisiting that this year.

[MiniGene]

I was in San Diego just before Christmas for business! I did Six Sigma a while back, as well as Lean and 7 step. I'm not sure the Six Sigma certification itself actually helped me much, but what I learned during the projects I had to run certainly did!

I was very lucky getting into the business I did. I came to the States with about $200 and one suitcase (the rest of my worldly goods were 3 cars I left behind in England). It was at the beginning of the .com boom and I got hired by Microsoft in a low-level job - about the only large company that would hire someone without a degree. I wasn't early enough for the famous Microsoft stock options, but I'm not complaining at all - I made a 17 year career of it there. I'll pm you to see if any of my connections in IT could be helpful.

Whee, I got your PM and replied.  Thanks!!  Your migration to the states must have been an exciting one.  That takes some b*lls to do something like that with only that amount.

[jeff10049]

Bingo Jeff!!  Many of my clients are very old and a new crop is coming up to take their places, they want more tech and less fuss.

You seem to have solved that problem and like you, sometimes I want to expand, other times I just want to downsize to a 2 person company (with Scott drafting as 3rd since he is a sub) get rid of the overhead of the office, receptionist (Dori) etc.. and not stress so much.

to answer your question I do not need to have an office space, I get zero walk in clients. I occasionally have a client need to pick up an hard copy of a survey, alternative arrangements could easily be made.  There is no reason for a proper commercial space anymore, most of my competitors work from their homes.  Many break local community rules regarding that, as in, no employees can report to your home for work, no clients may arrive at your home for any reason. Everyone knows those rules are being broken every day and no one enforces those rules.  That is what I am competing with, I used to be proud I have a legitimate office space except no one seems to care, they only want the piece of paper at a reasonable price and fast.  My office costs me about $3000 a month to keep.  Is it worth it?   That is something I am contemplating now, I see no reason to keep it beyond 2019. Come 2020 I may close it.

Internets....Another evolve or die moment.

Since the days of the yellow pages, I have always had enough or more business to make me happy.  The yellow pages rep would be dumbfounded when I told them I was not interested in a bold ad that would place me above my competitors. Word of mouth is gold and I had so many great clients that I did not ever need to advertise.

As the age of internet took off, I have had the same mindset, I have no website, do not need one, except now, I am thinking I cam make a website work for me. So that is my mission this year.

I am exploring a streamlined ordering process online (right now all orders are send via email) where a client punches in the information I need, then the website / server, assigns a PO or Job#, generates an invoice and I have the order sitting in a folder ready to be printed, possibly a text message sent an order was placed with the address of the property and due date.

If certain criteria is met, i.e. size of property, location of property etc.. then the invoice will generate, if not then a notification will be sent that the order is received and an invoice will arrive shortly.

I am also toying with a app for a smart phone too.  My goal is to make it as easy as possible to order from me.


That takes me full circle back to the office space, one I have a website doing a lot of the work for me, assigning project numbers, invoicing and alerting me when an order comes in, I see no need to have a traditional office anymore.


In 2010 I was trying to go paperless, the tech was not there yet, now it is so I am revisiting that this year.

I told yellow pages to fuck right off a long time ago their fees were/are stupid expensive. Our phone book is about like a magazine thickness these days so I guess I'm not the only one.

we work on word of mouth as well but I wouldn't compare a website to the phone book at all very different in what it can and will do for you. I won't say I couldn't survive without one but things are much better with the website and if you don't need more business so what just cherry pick the best jobs we've always been busy but being busy and making money are not always the same thing. We have our website company push the areas that we want more work and it works it also can w help discourage the type of jobs we don't want our web gal is amazing if you don't know anyone I can send you her info.


We went mostly paperless and went back it's just easier to have certain things in hard copy right on the desk in front of me. Our customers do however have the option of paperless.

I have also noticed a shift in our vendors starting to no longer accept credit cards or most online pay and requesting a good ole paper check I guess they are tired of the fees/other problems. I get 5% off if I pay with a check to my biggest supplier that adds up.
It's almost strange to me that with all the ways to pay and tech stuff that paper is alive and well swift steel only accepts cash and check they are the biggest steel supplier in the area millions a month but imagine the fees they save I guess I get it.

We are still using much less paper though. I refuse to go to online QuickBooks unless our internet becomes way more stable we invoice from it and it needs to be reliable we also have several add-on's that don't play well with online. So cloud-based is still out for us, for now.

[Jims5543]

@MiniGene "Did you know there is a whole industry made up of people who are paid by companies to figure out how to do stuff more quickly and efficiently?  " That exactly describes what I sell :)

Whee, after seeing the front of your house in the picture MiniDave posted, business must be good!  71.gif  Ever think of setting up a San Diego division?  I've been toying with getting a Six Sigma cert to help my job prospects out here.

Jim, this entire story is really satisfying!  I'm glad that it's working out great for your business.  I hope your upgrades go smoothly (even though, working in IT I know hope doesn't mean sheet! Back up all you can! LOL!)  How much of your business is walk-in related or from people seeing your business name on your storefront?  If your answer is nil, I'd drop it like it's hot and go 100% cloud and mobile!

I was in San Diego just before Christmas for business! I did Six Sigma a while back, as well as Lean and 7 step. I'm not sure the Six Sigma certification itself actually helped me much, but what I learned during the projects I had to run certainly did!

I was very lucky getting into the business I did. I came to the States with about $200 and one suitcase (the rest of my worldly goods were 3 cars I left behind in England). It was at the beginning of the .com boom and I got hired by Microsoft in a low-level job - about the only large company that would hire someone without a degree. I wasn't early enough for the famous Microsoft stock options, but I'm not complaining at all - I made a 17 year career of it there. I'll pm you to see if any of my connections in IT could be helpful.

Since you are not in the line of work I would say no, no one cares if there is an office some of my competitors are working out of their houses and doing fine.

One of the larger companies in the area felt the hit from the 2008-2015 era and pulled back into his home from a office front.  Nothing changed for him.

No one cares, they care about 3 things.

1. Can you get it to me fast

2. Can you do it cheap

3. Will it be right.


Breaks every rule in the book, welcome to 2019.

[Jims5543]

Tomorrow I make the call to the salesman so I can make the jump back into GPS Surveying.  I suspended in back in 2008 and hoped to get it back up in a couple of years I never anticipated it would take 10 years to need it again.

I also contact my 2 day a week helper and see if he is interested in coming on full time the first week of March.

Oh, did I mention I hired a guy part time?  I did, he has been helping for about 2 months now, he is good, smart, hard working and loves the job. Plus he is super easy to get along with.

I keep bracing for another crash, that just will not happen, I was positive the fed was going to cause a housing crash, they have slowed it down a little but it is still cranking along, I cannot keep this lean anymore, it is impacting me on many levels.

Therefore I am hiring at least one guy if not 2 by summer. Plan is to run 2 crews by summer.  Training the new guy to possible run a crew.

[94touring]

Glad business is booming.  Jen had 5 job interviews this week, things aren't slow in her field either.

[Jims5543]

Glad business is booming.  Jen had 5 job interviews this week, things aren't slow in her field either.

Yeah, it has been for a couple of years now, I figured by now the Trump bump would end.  It has not and things seem to just be getting more steam.  Instead of buying gold and bracing for a hard crash I am investing more into the company in an effort to give myself more freedom.

Life changes:

A month ago, my wife left me.... for a week to be by the side of a good friend who is going through a divorce. The friend invited her to come on a cruise she booked. At first my wife said no, because it would leave a lot on my plate, I convinced her to go, it was the second week of January. I am typically pretty slow in January, yeah... not this year.

Anyway, she went, and I realized half way through the week she was gone, we made our lives way more hectic than it should be. Our younger son is 15 and in 9th grade, he has never stepped foot in a public school. His entire life has been in  a Montessori pre school,  private primary and private High School.  The education he is getting is remarkable and if all goes as planned he will be close to a 2 year degree when he graduated HS.

The problem is, the school he attends is 25 miles away.  That is why we purchased he i3, to save on gas as we drive 100 miles a day just getting him to and from school.

The week was an eye opener for me on many levels, one was regarding my relationship with my wife, the other was my relationship with my son and also my approach to my business.

Before the housing crash in '08 I had a right hand man, he ran the place like I was there, therefore I did not have to be there as much. I just had to come in and review everything and sign off on it. If I did not like something either it went back to a drafter, or back in the field then to a drafter.  I would come in at 9 am and leave around 4-5 PM M-F.

If I wanted to take a vacation I did, I would spend weeks at my vacation home in NC when I owned it, I would spend a week every year in my Timeshare in Atlantis, my only regret during those years was that I did not head over to Europe at all.

After the crash I put on all the hats, I was running the field crew, I was drafting, I was checking I was researching the jobs and processing the orders.  I have a receptionist now (Dori) who does an OK job with the orders and barely acceptable job with research, I typically work on that myself.

I still run the field crew and up until a year ago did 50% of the drafting. Now I farm out 50% of the drafting and my son, who works for me drafts.

After me wife left me for a week I realized I have been in a rut for way too long, I refuse to believe the economy is back and will stay.  I have to change that mindset.

Therefore I decided to make some big changes.  I was using Nick 1 day a week I added him on to 2 days and I am going to make him full time soon.

Nick and I work on Wednesday together in the field while my son Mike catches up on the drafting in the office.

On Wednesdays, I leave the office at 1:30 in the afternoon, if the weather is nice I grab the E30 or E21  and drive it down to get my 15 y/o from School. I joined him up at the local LA Fitness and we have a racquetball membership. We play for about 30 minutes then we do some circuit training for another 30 then leave for home for the evening.

On Fridays, I send my son Mike out in the field with Nick, it is my day in the office. I take my 15 year old to school in the morning then pick him up in the afternoon heading to the gym again.

Again, if the weather permits, I take one of the fun cars.

My reasoning was, this 5 days a week taking him back and forth is insane, I wanted to give my wife a break from it and in the process spend some time with my son.

When my 26 year old was 12-15 years old we spent a ton of time together, I had lots of free time then because the business was running itself. I have neglected the younger guy due to me being so obsessed with the business. I decided to change that up some.  We used to go to the park in the evening to play racquetball except the weather would cause a lot of cancelling and on hot summer nights we were not interested. Now we are indoors in AC and loving it.

Sometimes something shaking up the daily routine is good, makes you open your eyes and look around and realize you are in a rut and need to get out of it.

[Jims5543]

I took delivery of my new GPS setup Friday morning, did a 1.5 hour training session. Then left right after that to go fix a house stake out I messed up on Thursday.  The builder moved the house back 5 feet in the lot.

Office Dori never pulled the old plot plan out of the file, as luck would have it I pulled out the old plot plan and staked the house 5' too far forward.

I took the GPS to the property, located the 4 hubs that were wrong, then calculated them 5' further back and staked them out.

The data collector is a Win10 tablet.


Fixing the house corners in the field.  I guess you could say I hit the ground running.



I sat down last night and played with the tablet some, trying to understand everything. My mission last night was to be able to export the points in a text file format that could easily be imported into my cadd program.

I was able to turn on background mapping that over layed my points on the lot I was staking the house one. Pretty neet!!


Yesterday was a hectic day, as mentioned in the post above, I take my son to and from School on Friday, I left the office with a few files that still needed checking.  I grabbed my Toughbook with me.  I got to the school 15 minutes early, so I spent that time checking and sending a couple of the jobs. Then we were heading to the barber shop, I worked in the waiting area on another job and got it to 90% complete.

Once home I finished it up and sent it before 5PM since it was due Friday.



I am going to use the GPS some more on Sunday, really trying hard to get confident with this fast.  It has been 10 years since I last used GPS, so I am a bit rusty plus the interface is completely different now.

[Jims5543]

Wow, this is a game changer, I spent the weekend playing with the tablet, since it is the one thing that is so new to me. The actual GPS location surveying stuff, been there done that. Gots me a t-shirt.

The interface.... all new and much different. Actually much easier, I keep expecting it to be more difficult, except it is not, and I cannot believe how simple this all is now. It used to be a battle.

I calculated some point to be set at that job I posted above, but here is the crazy part, something I forgot. Since I am always triangulating with satellites, ground bases GPS stations (up to 3 at a time / I pay $1500 a year to be able to do this) and cellular towers, I can attain millimeter accuracy.   I can also just walk up to a job site with my calculated points, let me GPS get synched up (takes about 3-4 minutes) then proceed to just go to my calculated points and set them, no need to set points to use later, to coordinate with.  This is something I forgot about an a HUGE game changer.

So this week, when I return to locate the formboards on this job site, I can set the property corners the land clearer wiped out.

[jeff10049]

 77.gif thats really cool stuff. I'm starting to feel like I'm in the wrong business.

[Jims5543]

77.gif thats really cool stuff. I'm starting to feel like I'm in the wrong business.

Ironic, that is how I feel.

I have received over 40 orders in 5 days. Wonderful great business is great!! Right, well, it just too much not sure how I am going to meet all the deadlines.

Then today at 12 noon one of my better clients emails, informing me they forgot to tell me their financing is FHA which requires well and septic located on the survey.  I was actually glad it was not FHA when I was there because it was an older home and they are a PITA tracking down the well and septic.

They ask how soon I can get back. Decided to push them off to Monday.  Wrong answer!! They are closing Monday (of course they withhold this info until it is a problem) so I have to try to get to the property tomorrow and locate it. Problem is it is about 20 miles south of me.....

Wait it gets better....


Another client, that has not used me in years, had be do a survey 20 miles north, I finished it 3 weeks ago, it was a rush job they were closing in 5 days, it too was FHA and I knew when I was there. I located the well and the septic tank but could not determine where the drainfield was and told them that.   3 Weeks later, yes... 3 Weeks later  which is today, they email and tell us they have to show the drainfield, they hired a septic company to come out and they need me there NOW (3 PM) to locate it.

I was not in the office I was down getting my son from school.

Then they demand they have a revised survey with the septic drainfield whown by 12 noon Thursday.  Fine.. I charged them a trip charge and will head there early tomorrow morning before we start our day.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. 

OH and I have about 12 other jobs to do in the field tomorrow, I am 2 days away from running 2 crews it cannot come fast enough.

[Jims5543]

2 days into running 2 crews, I am hopeful I will have a life again.


Have a meeting over a pint (my idea) with my big builder at 4 today.   We are starting a 200 home subdivision very soon.