Sunday, January 29, 2012

Moving

First I want to give a big shout out to my boy Dane for giving me a hand on Saturday.

I moved offices over the weekend and I have to tell you that I'm glad.

I am a creature that likes to change things up. Although change scares me to death I make myself constantly do it because it eliminates complacency. It is way to easy to get comfortable and lose site of all the good things in the world.

However there is always that part when you start packing things and discover that you have accumulated way more junk than conceivable even though the space you are occupying is very small. It's kind of disturbing.

This also gave me an opportunity to jettison a metric butt load of items that have been stuck in the catacombs for the last 3 years. Things that I have long forgotten and and now serve zero purpose. Bye bye!!

I think in order to be effective in any circumstance a person must be able to roll with anything, adapt and absolutely must know how to shoot from the hip and most of all accept change.

Change is the opening for all new things and if a person stays stuck behind that cad program and never looks up, then that will define them as non-progressive and that's where they will be until they die. Stuck to the chair that that are sitting in.

If a person comes up for air and checks out new things and looks at the big picture as endless possibility then they will most likely be defined as progressive.

I personally fit into the progressive category. While change does scare me I get more agitated when nothing new has happened. I would rather walk through life petrified and see new things than sit around like a blob and be comfy.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Civil Dialogue

Last Friday my Scottsdale Leadership class was about Civil Discourse and how to avoid it by opening up constructive dialogue.
I have always thought of myself as a person that could mediate an inflamed situation but after this particular session I think I realized that there is a lot more to making a circumstance of opposed thought a smooth event.
I have been in a position of authority since I was 23 years old when I became a crew chief. I had many men 20 years + my senior working under me and I was constantly met with resentment from a lot of people because I was so young.
I had to get real tough real fast and learn to never back down from the opposition and not worry about what others think. Being tossed to the wolves was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.
During Friday’s class I started thinking of how I used to act as a younger man.
You see I was brought up my some crusty old boys that would give a person an un-merciless amount of shit on a daily basis and if you couldn’t hack it you were gone. I saw a lot of people crumble under this onslaught because they lacked the thick skin that I was blessed with. I guess I just never cared what people say or think and just gave it back.
Looking back at this time in my life was pretty awesome. This time period was actually the end of an era, an era where you could tell someone what you really think and throw in some degrading profanity in the process and you could avoid getting in trouble.
I was also thinking how these guys would have been the current epitome of civil discourse. They would have never tolerated all of this sensitive stuff of today and would never survive because they would have had their ass’s sued off.
Now as for myself, I held onto this way of behaving a few years longer than I probably should have. I was a massive heckler and was completely unaware and could care less about how people felt or the ramifications. I still think people need to lighten up and take things at face value; however after Friday I truly learned the importance of civil dialogue in order to keep the wheel greased and moving smooth.
Sitting there I remembered a particular instance that was the game changer for my behavior.
Before I owned RJR I had an employee that in my opinion was kind of sue happy and was a little displaced.
I used to give this guy kind of a bad time like anyone else and I took for granted that he had a thick skin. Well I was very wrong about that.
I insinuated that he liked to have intercourse with barnyard animals and the next thing I knew HR was coming down on me like hell hath no fury.
In short form, after all was said and done the guy no longer worked at RJR and myself and the rest of the company had to sit through sensitivity training. Boy they sure hated me for that.
While this is an extremely condensed version of the story, in hind sight this person did me a great favor. By being the person that they were at the time and doing what they did, it made me wake up and do some serious re-evaluation of things and it helped me completely change the way I go about interactions. Sometimes a person just needs a swift kick to the nuts in order to wake up. So thank you anonymous person.
Going back to last Friday in leadership made me realize that we are truly in a different world and if we are to get by, we have to adapt if we are to succeed.
Civil dialogue is a fantastic start. If we can keep different groups calm enough to see the big picture we as the human race can evolve into something far beyond anything we imagined.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Files

So there I am in staring at all of my old files in storage and I made supreme command decisions.

That decision is to scan all of them to disc and toss the paper. I starting thinking that at the rate I am going and if I stay a surveyor for the rest of my working life I will have enough files to fill a garage.

This has got to stop.

I am implementing a new procedure this year. I am only going to have temporary paper files and any notes sketches etc will be scanned at the end of the job and then the paper goes into the recycle.

I do realize that there will always be exceptions to this way of thinking, however we have virtually every document we need available online and I can always re-print.

I believe 2012 marks the time for space saving storage on multiple discs stored in a safe. I think this is a forward thinking situation as long as I am diligent about the after scan and it is absolutly the wave of the future.

I can keep a couple of cabinets around for those files that need to be here but the rest it's bye bye.

Oh yeah, I mean all files, business, jobs, whatever.

Did I mention that my teenage daughter will be doing the scanning of the back items? She doesn't know yet so it will be a big surprise. Any of you that have a teenage daughter will understand that this could be a grim circumstance :)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

The cost of things

Well it's that time of the year when I have to fill out applications for E&O and GL renewals.

The good news is revenues are down for 2011 so the premiums will be a lot less. More good news is that I have gotten rid of a lot of equipment that is collecting dust and the price of replacements has dropped as well.

I did some checking and yes what I said is true. Equipment is a lot cheaper now. I was pleasantly surprised by this fact. So much so I got to drop the replacement cost &100,000.

This should be a great year for premiums which will make things easier while business picks back up. Next year will be a much different deal, but go 2012 rates.

I spend a lot of time trying to cut costs for my company. I search for better phone deals, better premiums, I find the best places for fuel (Scottsdale is not one). Essentially I cut cost wherever I can.

I recently renewed my plan with TMobile, by doing so I saved $125.00 on my monthly bill and ended up with a much better plan. I also switched my office lines to Vonage and clipped another $30.00 off of my bill.

I am in the process of moving offices because the neighbors want to take over the entire upper floor and sign a 3 year lease. I found a spot that is bigger, $25.00 a month cheaper and I am month to month. How much better does that get? Did I mention closure to home therefore I will save on fuel.

All of these little things add up. At the end of the day it increases my bottom line and makes for a much happier surveyor.

Why should I spend my life working to pay someone else when I should be getting paid?

As the year progresses I intend to hire 2-3 employees. The forecast looks great and I am going to go for it.

The dilemma I am having is what kind of a package should I offer? Should I bring them in as employees or contract labor? The office people are absolutely contract, but the field people have to be employees because of workers comp issues. Do I offer the field people health insurance? That is a good question. Do I pay them less and insure or let them deal with it?

Employees in any business is the largest expense.

I am an employer that believes in paying for full benefits, contributing 6% to their 401k and giving large bonuses.

Business has become a lot different today and anyone that is a survivor will approach things with extreme caution.

I think when it comes to employees I will start very lean, see how things progress and then expand the benefits.

In a nut shell boys and girls 2012 is going to be a good year. I believe that a recovery in our profession is here. All of the bad employees have moved on, people are hiring and the cash is starting to flow.

We all now have a chance to staff up with quality people and really crank out some good work. For the first time ever I can be choosy about the bodies and I intend to build a dream team of talent.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year

Well ladies and gentlemen we have made it to 2012.

I want to start out by saying forget any resolutions.

Why do I want to start something new when I should have been doing it to begin with.

The beginning of the year marks just that and life is simply a carry over.

In order to advance we as humans must have the mind set that we do it every day.


Okay, that said lets talk about surveying.

According to the Mayan calender and a hand full of crazies the world is supposed to end this year and we will all die a horrible death.

I personally think 2012 officially marks the end of the industrial age and we will be completely in the information age from hereon. The world is simply adjusting to its new condition both in nature and economics.

How is surveying going to fare in the information age?

I think it will do quite well if we can keep it together and continually strive to become a desired profession that people appreciate and understand the value of.

Some advantages we have is the advancing technology that we must embrace in order to stay current and another is the increasing demand for CEU's and another that we become more familiar with the laws surrounding us, the later of which I think is the most important.

Now let's talk about Light Squared.

A lot of you are totally freaked out that we may lose our GPS if they actually get their deal shoved through.

To this I say so what. A change may just be the best thing that ever happened to us.

Fact, because we are now officially in the information age there is no way we will ever go without GPS. In fact it is only going to get better and better.

If LS does get the frequency it will force GPS people to rapidly advance the technology and in the long run it will be better, faster, stronger and more accurate. Did anyone think of Steve Austin right then?

In addition, the LS deal will create a lot of long term jobs in GPS, IT and surveying, construction and a lot more.

Essentially the LS project is a good thing. Do I hope they have to find another way? Yes I do because it will be less complicated for us.

However if they do get it pushed through on the GPS frequency then we will adapt.

2012 may just mark the end of surveying as we know it.

For me whenever a door closes another one opens and whatever is on the other side is generally much better and I would have never considered using the old way had I known what was behind door #2.

Happy New Year. It's going to be an interesting one.