Evolve or die

Started by Jims5543, December 26, 2018, 02:31:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Jims5543

Quote from: cstudep on November 13, 2020, 02:31:13 PM
Just read through this whole thread for the first time. Surveying classes in college were my absolute favorite part, absolutely loved going out in the field. Now the equipment is smarter than the surveyor most of the time.


A good friend of mine, who is also a surveyor graduated the University of Florida with a 4 year degree in Land surveying.  I remember sitting next to him in a CE class when have a degree was new.  The instructor asked if anyone had a degree my friend raised his hand, he was the only on in the class with a Land Surveying Degree.  The instructor asked why he chose land surveying, my friend quipped right back, my guidance counselor told me I was too stupid to be an Engineer.

I about fell out of my chair laughing. Some of the old timers in the room were not amused.

My favorite part of my day is working with my toys in the field. I cannot wait to get out and start in the morning.  Some days are mundane others are adventures. The cool thing is, you never know what kind of day you are in for. I love that. I love the constant changing scenery.

I am in the middle of my least favorite part of the day and sadly it is long from over... drafting up all the work.

I would rather be outside.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

Quote from: Jims5543 on December 26, 2018, 02:31:19 PM
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 email 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.


We now have 2 ReMarkable tablets, I let the mortgage crew have the new one, I took the old one.

The new one is thinner and more intuitive than the MK1.  It has a stylus that has a digital eraser on the back of it, no more changing icons to erase to clear a line out.. It also has at least 4x the battery life of the OG one.  It also lets the stylus stick to the side of the tablet via a magnet which is really helpful.

The crew loves the new one and said the old one is garbage compared to it. Wish they were cheaper I would buy one for me too. I will muddle along with the old one, I tend not to take notes as much as my tasks per day are mostly construction related.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Is it anything like an etch a sketch?  ;D

Jims5543

I guess I will put this here. I had the most profitable year in business in over 12 years. 

The crazy part is I am doing that with 1/5 of the staff I had 12 years ago.   My gross revenue for the year rivals 2007, before the housing crash, in 2007 I had about 15 employees, now I have 3. Granted I spent close to 100K streamlining and adding tech to do that.  My truck alone has over 50K in tech in it, that eliminates the need for a co worker, it paid for itself in less than 2 years.

I have been handing out Christmas bonuses over the last 3 weeks, one to each employee per week.  Looking at their faces when they see a bonus that equals over a months income and in some cases, 2 months, is awesome!  Best part of owning a business are these moments.

The worst is laying them off, especially when you like them. I really hope I am not laying off anyone in the next couple of years.


Completely unrelated to politics, so do not read into this, purely based on prices.

Vacant lots here spiked at an alarming rate. 4 months ago you could grab a 1/4 acre lot for 25-30K, now they are 60-80K..... not good, this is reminiscent to 2008 for me.

I already started circling my wagons a few weeks ago, I am pretty sure a huge crash is coming, I am glad I have a lot of gold, silver and lead on hand.

The RE market is priming itself for a big fall.  There are also a lot of factors in play I am purely looking at house pricing and it is not a pretty sight.  Overvalued is an understatement.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

Quote from: 94touring on December 14, 2020, 07:10:14 PM
Is it anything like an etch a sketch?  ;D

LMAO!!

Ummm  no....

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

Lets recap the week so far....

I had a Monday from hell, I am sure of it.

In addition to Gmail being down (I am reading news Google is down today as well) I had a shitastic morning.

Monday is garbage day, my 0500 task before I leave for the office is to gather up the trash and take it to the curb.  We have a pooper scooper setup for the back yard consisting of a scooper with a winn dixie bag on it.  Then a baby diaper can that holds the poop until trash day to keep order down.

While getting all the shit bags a piece must have fallen and I stepped on it with my flip flop unknowingly.

I took the trash out to the curb, shit included and drove the office, I did not smell anything foul on my way in, but I did have my window open.

I get to the office walk around turning on things for the work week, getting ready to make some coffee, I walk to the bathroom to rinse out a mug and happen to look  down, I see a smudge, like Mr. Hanky and scooted by. I immediately realized it was from my flip flop and then notice the shit over the edge of it. Then I look back across the office and see the dabs of shit from every step I took all over the office.

I spent a good 15 minutes running around cleaning up sit marks all over the floor.

Yay for Mondays!


Tuesday?  Worse than Monday?  Possibly.  At least there was no shit..

- Lost my work phone ( more on that later)

- client orders a survey that requires me to survey 1 square mile and thinks they can have by Friday

- Client I have not heard from in 20 years reaches out and wants me to stop what I am doing to survey his properties in Palm Beach. LOL!! No happening

- Client who I have never worked for before needs to be present when I survey his 5 acres. Needs me to coordinate my movements so he can meet me there on Wed. - I am telling him I need to push his surveyors show off for at least a week, maybe 2.

- Stupid bitch cunt that works for my big builder and handles closings.... we do not hear from her for a month at a time. Then she pops up and orders 30-40 final surveys and wants them all in 10 days.
I just sent her a polite email and told her some of them would be impossible.

- Because bitch cunt sucks at her job, the title company that closes all the houses goes around her straight to us to bail them out when she is doing what she does best, nothing.  I put my foot down and told them they need to go through her, its her job to make sure they have what they need.

- My ditz client forgot to order a survey again. Crunch time tomorrow. She orders more from me than entire offices, when she says jump...... I jump.

- The girl that works for her mom and dad called the office today and cried to Dori that a mean lender demands a survey today or else she cannot close a file Monday next week.  Unbeknownst to her, it was a previous survey for us, we "rushed" it and delivered it the same day looking like hero's.

- Big builder has pissed of the County and cannot get Certificate of Occupancy on several houses in one community due to drainage problems. The bitch cunt orders finals this week and claims they are closing on Friday  the super is frantic and trying to sort all the properties out at once, and thinks I have nothing to do but stand and wait for him. Fuck both of them.... cunts!!

- This evening I am in the process of drafting up 7 plot plans for builders who all want them.... NOW!!

- I have several more boundaries in my office that have to be drafted up before Monday. Weekend Fun!!

- I have another 15 finals to draft up that are all "closing" next week. More weekend fun!!

- A new city rule was implemented on 1 Nov, I have to survey every property they want to put a pool in at. I have a backlog of about 10 pool surveys, some are over a month old.

- There are easily another 40 jobs that need to go out in the field and we are struggling to get to them.


I start to rage them remember 2010, I was sitting in my office watching movies hoping an order would come in and I would have something to do.

This is a good problem.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

Jims5543

BTW - I Cannot wait until tomorrow!! I am sure it will bring all kinds of excitement.

Oh and the title company what wants a survey by Friday?  After I pointed out the task they put before me... they were very accommodating and gave me 1 extra day.

Woo!
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

I'm supposed to work tomorrow provided we don't get snowed out. 

Jims5543

The client that wanted to meet me at the 5 acre survey brought a side by side with him.  I was planning on taking my FJ Cruiser out on the property and giving it a proper 4x4 workout, we got to abuse his machine instead. So, I was stressing over coordinating for nothing. I guess I am just stressed out lately.

Met some surveyor buddies for beers last night, it was nice to blow off some steam with them.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

94touring

Sounds like prime opportunity to post beers in the drunk thread.

Jims5543

Seems I am ahead of my time.

FloRida passed a $15 Min wage law.

This year in Sept. we bump from $8.30 to $10 an hour min. then bump a dollar a year until we hit $15.

At $15 an hour my robotic total station pays for itself in 9 months.  Not my intention but to be honest kind of glad I went this route now.

I am toying with doing another Section 179 next year to get the other crew a robot too. 

I am hesitating because I can see the writing on the wall, I will be laying off late in 2021. At least one is going and he is the field helper, I may or may not replace him with a robot.  Most likely I will keep the cash in reserve and not spend it and just let him go.

My older son and I were talking, we are going to see an ushering in of robotics in the next 3-4 years. I see many industries changing.


Who would want to work as a plumber making $15 an hour when you can get a low stress gig at Publix or Target for the same pay?

Office Dori already makes over 15 an hour, I have a field helper who I pay 40 hours a week no matter what he works that this will impact. See, he works 20-30 hours a week and get paid for 40. He makes good money when you back out hours worked vs. take home.

When I am forced to pay him $15 an hour he will go on a time clock and only get pad for the hours he works, that is if he is not laid off in a year or two. Same goes for office Dori, if things get as bad as I am anticipating. She will be gone too.

I am so close to erasing my debt from 2008-2015, maybe 4-5 more months.  Then I get into protection mode, I learned a lot in 2008-2010 and will not repeat the same mistakes.


Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! -Hunter S. Thompson

MiniGene

Hey Jim,

It's been a while since I've posted on the board--anyway, rereading some of your posts on this subject.  More than a year has gone by, I'm interested to hear what your thoughts are with the time that has past.

I did recently read an article about how big wall street firms were buying up parcels of land to build single family homes to own as rental properties (since the market has been pushing a lot of previously would-be buyers out of the market).  What's your take?

-Gene