Leadership

On my last post I mentioned the Surveyor's leadership or lack of role in the community.

A couple of people commented about it and I want to touch on it briefly and then move along.

Regarding the persons comment about the APLS and if someone wants to form leadership they need to essentially shut up and get involved in the survey world to make a difference.
I agree 100%

Now to my main man Dane's comment of a lack of leadership. He was touching on the lack of Surveyor leadership in the public community. This is my fault for failing to clarify my statement, however Dane knows me very well and understands that I think about the big picture not just the little survey world.

OK, all that said lets talk about leadership.

I use to define a leader as someone that I would personally follow into battle. I have recently discovered that this is a very poor way to gauge a leader especially since there are so many in different fields.

Are there many that I would follow into battle? Hell no, because most industry and field leaders are not the people behind the scenes driving the truck.

This year I was accepted into Scottsdale Leadership which is a community program that educates one on every aspect of city and the shows different kinds of leadership roles one can assume from sitting on boards to public office to volunteering. This program also puts one in touch with community and business people that are generally hard to gain access to.

The reason I am going through this program is to further my understanding of the big picture, further myself and to of course meet the people I desire to associate with.

A well rounded sense of community is very important to any business person, this is impossible to emphasis enough.

Now comes the Surveyor role or lack thereof.

I belong to some organizations and aside from myself I have never seen nor heard of a surveyor getting involved in the community at any level except to suck up to townies to get contracts. (Note: This is in my world, others probably know more.)

Is this a bad thing? Absolutely.

Why? Because no one knows what a Land Surveyor is, they are completely unaware of what we do, what our value is and how important we are to society and order.

This ladies and gentlemen is our fault. Yes that's right our fault.

Is it any wonder that society has taken on the image role of the surveyor as the scruffy guy with ripped jeans that come their house and appears to be doing nothing because they can't see it, or how it has become OK for for some donkey to charge $50 an hour and totally screw an entire profession, that people are stabbing colleagues in the back by filling complaints instead of talking, that designers and engineers that used to be great clients are now trying to push jobs through without a survey, this list goes on and on and on and on.

Landscapers get more respect than we do and we are often mistaken for one because people hear "land" in our job description. We are at the bottom of the barrel for recognition because no one knows what we do.

To this I say WHAT have we done to ourselves? This situation should be the polar opposite and a survey should be an expected part of life just like consulting a doctor or an attorney.

I think it is time for the Land Surveyor to put themselves in the public eye. This will make it a more respected position in society.

Join a chamber, networking group, go through leadership, sponsor an event, volunteer, do a job fair, do something.

We are at a critical time in our profession and it has become imperative that we advance or we will regress. We will be left behind by others that seek advancement and yes technology. We can no longer be stagnant if we want to be a "Profession" as opposed to a technical skill.

Associating with other surveyors is a great mirror and a great learning tool but it is not enough for us to progress. There is a whole big world out there that needs to know how awesome most of us are.

I personally refuse to be part of all that negative stuff and am striving everyday to become the surveyor that is expected to be a part of things. I am working toward being a leader in the community and establishing associations with successful people that can help me advance in every aspect.

Bottom line, we as individuals have a lot to offer but we are doing a really bad job of execution and I personally think all of us can do much better.

Do I have all of the answers? No. I can only take responsibility for myself and encourage others to do the same.

So now it is time for this leader to wrap up for a 4 day weekend and prepare to eat and drink to much.

I highly suggest all of you do the same. Monday we can all do it again and again.

Happy Thanks Giving

Marketing

For as long as I can remember word of mouth has been the best friend to the surveyor that owns their own business.

I have always puzzled at the lack of marketing the profession of surveying does.

I have done a lot of things from sending letters to people I want to work for and following up with calls, pushing my website, joining networking groups, belonging to the Chamber of Commerce (which I recommend for any small business), placing myself in positions where there are opportunities to meet new business colleagues etc.

After all of this, it still seems that nothing compares to word of mouth.

Now I am going to speak of recent times.

Throughout the last 3 years a lot of us have had our balls handed to us with a major decline in business, old faithful clients are using the cheapest surveyor they can find, clients are trying to get out of having a survey done and guys are doing things for $50 an hour. Yes I said $50.

Oh I also have to mention the roadside marketing genius who is posting signs all over town who is the $50 and hour person.  I could go on for hours about that guy but it will be a waste of breathe. As things come back he will go away. Essentially he will run himself out.

Now the big problem we have in front of us is that we offer a skill that is undesirable to anyone that needs us and if they could get out of using us they would in a second.

So now I say this. Right now is the time for us to set the bar for pricing.

 I will fall back on the word of mouth thing. Since word of mouth and reputation is the best friend of any surveyor in business, why is it a lot of you are afraid to maintain or raise your prices? I will tell you why, because you are afraid that your clients will leave you because of cost.

It’s a good worry, so how are you going to combat it?

I personally have sharpened my pencil, I have cut my staff so I can do things cheaper but I still bill myself out at least $125 an hour and I often can do more circumstance depending.

Have I lost some business? You bet I have. I’m glad to. Those clients that have been with me for years that have jumped ship because of price are all starting to humbly come back. Why? Because the cheap person they went with has done mostly damage and it ended up costing way more in the long run because of extras.

These people always knew where they stood with me because I am honest. Cheap? Ha!! Never!! But they always get quality.

So does quality rule over price? In my world it does.

Bottom line, we are in a profession that is extremely hard to market.

I am going to explore new ways to hit my target market which I know will be different than most of yours, but at least I have one. I have decided to concentrate on certain areas instead of wasting time bidding things that I know someone is going to beat my cost.

This is a topic that I am going to be writing about as I progress and hopefully some of you will learn from my experience even if I fail.

If anyone has marketing tips or stories, please opine.

My next post will be about leadership and the surveyors lack of it in the community and my new found experience with Scottsdale Leadership.