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Startup Business Advice
Posted by Collinray8 on March 19, 2023 at 7:55 pmI??m in the process of preparing to open a small civil engineering and land surveying firm.
What is some advice you have? Is there anything that you wish you had done prior to opening shop? Do you regret any decisions you made in the first 3 months, 6 months, year?
Thanks in advance.
OleManRiver replied 1 year ago 19 Members · 23 Replies- 23 Replies
Try a search of the forum. I think there have been relevant threads.
.Choose your business name carefully. You’ll be typing it a lot, so shorter is better.
What works for one may not work for another. Goals are good, but, be realistic.
Money. Have as much on hand as possible as you spend it like water long before any reliable cash flow starts coming in.
Tolerance. Try to be tolerant of everyone with which you have interaction. Clients, co-workers, bankers, lawyers, title people, petty criminals (former clients), city or county employees, mechanics, survey supply companies, etc.
Do what you say you will do and get it done when you said it would be done.
Don’t show up to a $800 job in an $80,000 pickup. That may work for insurance salesmen and morticians, but, not surveyors.
Plan on working some part of the day, seven days per week.
Choose your business name carefully. You’ll be typing it a lot, so shorter is better.
Also be sure to carefully consider domain names for a website. For example: years ago, someone started a surveying forum and called it Surveyors Exchange. They registered a domain name, which was — wait for it — surveyorsexchange.com. If you didn’t see what’s wrong with it the first time you read it, look again. 😉
Your friendly, virtual neighborhood WebmasterGet a good line of credit established with a bank or brokerage. They are a bit more expensive than they used to be with the interest rates rising, but its a deductible cost and makes cash flow much easier to manage.
I was launched into the fire of starting on own Survey firm after the market crashed in 2008 and the company I worked for laid off my entire department, as well as the engineering people and brought me and my engineering partner running our office back to corporate where they basically sat me in the original office I sat in before being elevated to a department manager for two years, hoping to retain me when the crisis was over.
I had the benefit of working in engineering and managing survey on my projects in the 90’s for a company that was financially struggling with their line of credit being closed to maxed out. The bankers brought in professionals to host a “come to Jesus” meeting in which the stipulated what they wanted us to accomplish in order to receive further funding. Their stipulations were very valuable to me through the business education that was imparted to me in my mid 30’s.
There are a ton of things to consider, especially in the uncertain market that we are in right now with high interest rates and the recent banking failures. If you don’t have considerable cash on hand, this may not be the time to approach a bank for any sort of funding as lending policies are tightening every day.
I was fortunate in my past experiences to learn and understand that the vital thing to launching a start up is to establish a business plan. The major part of that plan is to establish realistic goals to fulfill that plan to make it work while making sure it is adhered to. Aside from that is getting some education in marketing. The most important thing is to establish brand recognition through a well thought out logo associated with your business name. If you think that you are only going to work 50 or 60 hours a week, forget that for at least 5 years or more. You will need to be out at every possible event in your area to shake hands and kiss babies to get your brand out there.
It’s also important to keep a list of the clients that you have worked for over the years and be careful about the ethics of approaching them when you take the plunge. Build a list of contacts for future reference but be careful what you do with than information if you have signed a non-compete agreement with your current employer. Let them know that you have left and started your own venture, give them your contact info and let them reach out to you with any business opportunities.
Ask yourself questions, if there will be a survey component, how are you going to finance a truck, instruments and other equipment necessary to stock it? What about qualified staff and computers/software, office space and the like?
I’m not trying to be a downer but there are a ton of things that you need to consider.
Get a bookkeeper from the jump-go. Don’t just get Quickbooks and think you can do it yourself, then realize you can’t, then think well maybe with more training, then continue to fail and create a rats nest out of your books, then eventually do what you should have done in the first place and pay extra for retroactive clean up.
Read ‘Profit First’ by Mike Michalowicz. Makes easy work of figuring out how much you can spend and pay yourself.
As to a company name (and we’ve had this debate in years past on this forum), in my opinion if you have a good name then that is your company name. Forget the Polaris or -North Star or Superior or Precision or ALTAs-R-Us.
Put a smile in your voice when you talk to people and do your best to help them. Remember that referrals are critical to bringing in quality clients. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Find your niche and enjoy doing what you do best.
Choose your business name carefully. You’ll be typing it a lot, so shorter is better.
Also be sure to carefully consider domain names for a website. For example: years ago, someone started a surveying forum and called it Surveyors Exchange. They registered a domain name, which was — wait for it — surveyorsexchange.com. If you didn’t see what’s wrong with it the first time you read it, look again. 😉
Ahead of their time. Lol
I wonder if their first customer is a regular poster? Who could it be?
Don’t show up to a $800 job
A wise person that is on this site once said….
“We won’t even back the truck up for less than 1500 dollars….”
I’m holding that advice for eternity.
I’m holding that advice for eternity
Just make sure you inflation adjust
We had one old boy who until his recent retirement was charging rates from decades ago!
in my opinion if you have a good name then that is your company name. Forget the Polaris or -North Star or Superior or Precision or ALTAs-R-Us.
Some caution to this, in my understanding, in North Carolina, should your registered firm name include your personal name, should you ever depart the firm, the firm must change names. You firm name can’t represent an actual person who is no longer associated with the firm. This is cart before the horse to be sure, but don’t build brand recognition around a name that at some point in the future you can’t sell.
Not sure if this applies in other jurisdictions.
Dave Industries International, Inc.
Geomatics and Mapping Division
We also have a cabinet and wood products manufacturing division.
Dave Industries International, Inc.
Geomatics and Mapping Division
We also have a cabinet and wood products manufacturing division.
Nice.
A guy I worked with in laboratory had TUF, totally unreliable framing.
He made picture frames on the side.
I have a couple:
SDS Serious Data Solutions (I think the copyright is owned by a big multi conglomerate)
And my registered LLC
Stabbing Westward Geospatial Services LLC.
or SWGS LLC for short and quick.
the band can go stick it…. (actually I like the band) they pulled it right from an Eisenhower speech, so did I.
Had a civil engineering professor who was a partner in a consutling firm that went by the name of Slipshod Engineering.
.
.
slip·shod/ˈslipˌSHäd/adjective- (typically of a person or method of work) characterized by a lack of care, thought, or organization.“he’d caused many problems with his slipshod management”
I’m in the process of preparing to open a small civil engineering and land surveying firm.
What is some advice you have? Is there anything that you wish you had done prior to opening shop? Do you regret any decisions you made in the first 3 months, 6 months, year?
Thanks in advance.
Unless you marry rich woman, don’t do it!!!
- I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
One thing that helped me when I first started out, (other than my wife having a full-time job), was having survey friends/colleagues that I could do work for during any slow times or even on weekends. This helped in the first 6 months/year.
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