The funnier side of Surveying

Life is too short to take everything seriously, and there is endless fun to be had on site without affecting the result.  I've managed to have an apple fight with a Survey Manager from one reputable company, and ended up sitting in a parked car in the Birmingham red light district at around midnight (for work purposes!).  Best not name names as they are still trying to be respectable!  Where to begin, I've tried to put them into groups and keep them brief - some of you might even recognise them -

Messing About on The River

1) Carrying out a number of cross sections on the river Stour through Canterbury.  The final section of the day I put on the chest high waders for the final time, slowly entered the water to avoid any accidents and find the bottom with my feet.  OK all set to work so I step forward and find out I wasn't quite at the bottom - now the waders seem a little pointless as they are full of ice cold water!!!  Luckily it's a nice day and I have a change of clothes but getting out of the waders, and then getting the waders out of the water was no mean feet!

2)  A colleague puts on his dry suit, and gamely leaps into the water just as I kindly offer the comment you should really have done the zip up first!!  Luckily the water was not deep, just cold!

3)  A blazing hot summers day up on the River Darenth as it meanders its way through the grounds of Hall Place.  Kids are in the river, jumping around and splashing about - a lovely spot for a days surveying except under the 'Health & Safety' requirements I'm going to be wearing a full dry suit.  Sometimes I think it can be a little ridiculous!!

4) Again on the Darenth but this time a disused mooring point, happily clambering around in my dry suit surveying the pertinent points, until I slip, drop the pole and  cling to the mooring for all I'm worth.  I pull myself back up and the first question I get asked - 'where's the pogo'.  Nothing like enquiring as to my well being.

5)  Final river story - "are you sure about the tide times because we're paddling this dinghy & going no where!"  We made it in the end, but more by dragging ourselves along the reeds than paddling.

Computing Errors

1) A common AutoCAD mistake highlighted - "So when you searched and replaced all the text 'IL' and replaced it with nothing, did you not wonder what a Stock Pe was, or perhaps a Toet??  Computers have a good side & a bad side, one they do exactly what there are told, however they DO do exactly what they are told!

2)  Scanning through some river sections there was a funny dot which kept appearing, upon closer examination and many times zoom someone had kindly drawn a fish in all the sections!

Equipment Malfunctions

1) Surveyor "ok, all done everything's loaded, lets go".  We pull away the boot opens and the instrument falls out onto the road- whoops! (For all those wondering we did check the calibration the next morning and no damage done)

2) Assistant - "I can't get this GPS rucksack working more than about 10m from the start".  Surveyor - "Perhaps you should screw the aerial in!"

3) A team of 4-5 Surveyors are out doing a GPS survey of various points in a 10mile radius.  To this end a based station is established with a generator to ensure power for the required period, and one member of staff is left to guard said kit.  The remainder of us go of and start co-ordinating points.  The next morning the Survey Manager asks one simple question - "At what point did you fall asleep and miss the generator being taken!".

4)  First day in her new job, her only job is to sit with the GPS base station for the day on top of a hill on a baking hot day.  So we set her up with drinks, a book & the paper and head off.  The days work goes well, and we pick her up at the end of the day looking a little tired & sun burnt.  She didn't come back to work again!

Odds & Sods

1) Wandering along a stretch of open land near a dyke I warn the guy following about a ditch which I immedately misjudge and fall into!!

2) Staying away in a nice pub near Leatherhead, we come down in the morning to the sight of the landlord in his Y-fronts, on the phone having a smoke.  He looks up and says "hang on and I'll cook your breakfast in a minute"!

3) Surveyor (I'll confess me!) on a site in Hampstead - "Where exactly is the instrument, because it's not in the boot!"

4) Surveyor on the same site moments later- "you did pick the logger up?".  Assistant - "no it's still on a wall in south east London".  Amazingly it was still there at the end of the day though!!

5) Health & Safely gone mad - "you have to were full hi-vis, hard hats, gloves & goggles when working on site" - comment "you do understand we are just driving from one end of the road to the other at 2am!!"

6)  Back to university days I try to observe a prisim 50m away down a dark tunnel with various lights trying to highlight the target.  I sight the prisim and hit distance......nothing, so I check the sighting press distance again.......nothing.  So I try a different battery, ask someone else to check the sighting, check instrument stability & wipe down the prisim.  No problems, it must be a disto problem, so off I trott to find the lecturer.  Upon our return he takes one look and laughs.  Did I mention this was a damp wet tunnel with looks of still puddles.  I've managed to sight the reflection of the prisim in a puddle!!

7)  A project many years ago was GPS control for photogrammetry.  We needed to co-ordinate a point on each of the aerial photographs, and provide a station description with location photograph.  Not an exciting job, but to take our mind off things we decided that all our photos should have an animal in - felling rather proud we'd managed horse, sheep, dog, cat, bird, cow, human & tiger.  Yes tiger!!!

8)  Finally carrying out a measured building survey, 90% of the work complete but I needed to get into the residential area.  It was about 11am so I knocked, and the guy let me in and told me to carry on.  So I happily measured up a few rooms, then moved onto the bedroom.  I'd finished positioning the walls, and was about to start adding symbols when the sheets on the bed moved & his girlfriends  head appeared.  Scared the life out of me, so seems unbothered by the whole thing and just went back to sleep!


If it doesn't affect your career or current position feel free to share some more, we all have these stories embarassing, stupid or just plan silly.

For more details of the services we offer, and examples of our work, please visit www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter (@RLSurveys).

Priorities

Where must the line be drawn, our list of jobs to be completed is almost endless (even more so than the DIY jobs around the house!!), but what must come first?

Revising Company Policies, Maintaining the Company Website, On-Going Marketing Campagin, Networking, Existing Jobs to be issue, reviewing software and making technical amendments, CPD, professional applications..... the list goes on and that is just from a business perspective.

We all naturally revert to type and complete the jobs we enjoy doing before tackling those less 'interesting tasks'. In some cases the answer is fairly clear cut, if you have a deadline to meet for issuing drawings then you must concentrate your efforts there. In an ideal world we'd have an army of staff all enjoying a certain aspect of the work whom we could delegate to - and yes completing a blog is probably not the highest priority, but it's straight forward with children running around.

Luckily I have a week away working coming up so I think I"ll be knocking off a few of the jobs on the list, but another possibly alternative is information sharing with similar companies - each concentrate on a different element of the 'business' side of operations and share the results??

Policies & Paperwork

Everyone wants something be it an Environmental Policy, Health & Safety Policy, QA Policy, Insurance Policy!

Does the one cap fits all really work, or do we need a rising scale depending on the nature of your work and the level at which you work at. From my stand point our environmental impact whilst present is fairly insignificant - fuel to travel between office & site, energy to run the office, and paper to produce plots, then any environmental impact caused by our suppliers. It may be me being blind to the obvious but there is very little to be done to improve this or mention in an Environmental Policy!

Health & Safety - paper work gone mad. Yes it is critical to all businesses, but please let common sense prevail. I'll happily follow site rules laid down by others but I'm not wearing a hard hat on every site I attended especially when the owner of the house is in shorts & t-shirts gardening not ten metres from me!! In this instance even hi-vis seems a little OTT but there has to be a line somewhere. I once covered a job where is was a requirement to wear hard hat, gloves, goggles, hi vis top & trousers at all times when on site - that included at 2am driving down the road laser scanning whilst the road remained open to everyone - they did relent on the end and allowed us to put the hat, goggles & gloves on only as we left the vehicle, but only after a heated argument.

QA - Enough said, we all live a die by this and it's one of the few policies which I believe can be constant no matter what the level of the company.

You may have noted I'm not a fan of paperwork unless it is necessary in the line of the job. However I must embrace the trend now and set to on revise and developing all of our company policies in line with continued growth into more mainline industry.

More details of the services we offer, and examples of our work can be found at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook (www.facebook.com/rlsurveys) & Twitter (@RLSurveys).

Benefits of Social Media & Networking

As a new start business it's not as simple as it used to be - before the age of the internet (a time I am aware of but never experienced in business ;0p) it was a case of picking up the yellow pages and start dialing - or better still travelling door to door. Now it's all change, whilst the old methods still remain and are by far the easiest and most direct methods they are not necessarily the most effective, consider these new methods:-

1) Networking - BNI, Tweet Up, Chamber of Commerce, Business Events,

2) Social Media - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger

3) Internet - Website, E-mail & Social Media

But which method is the best, and does the same ring true for all businesses - or even the people behind the business. From a personal stand point I hate networking or active marketing of any sort, it is not something I am comfortable doing but I know it is a means to an end, and if there was one element of my business I could farm out this would be it. However this is the one element of the business that I need to commit to to achieve the long term business goals.

So which is best - all of them - sorry but each has its place and you need at least a presence in all of these places. The internet is not the future it's the now so get on board, you don't need to pay out large sums of money to get yourself high in the Google listing you just need to do your home work and spend a lot of time - but it will pay dividends eventually. Facebook/Twitter etc.. again you need a presence but don't go mad people don't want pointless comments it's better to say nothing than say something stupid people will start ignoring you and stop following you which is the last thing you want! I'm guessing if you're reading this you've thought about Blogging, o idea if it works but it is a forum to get ideas out there, and release your frustrations - clears the head to concentrate on business.

Finally active networking, my only suggestion is try before you buy! Everyone will find their niche, but until you try you'll never know. I think the nature of the networking will depend on the level your business is at, and confidence you have in that situation, and cost. If you are interested in more I'll be happy to take you along to a few of the networking events I attend as a taster.

Hope that little bit of info helps, certainly concentrate my mind - not everyone is a nature in the marketing environment, those that are are lucky, the rest of us can get their in the end.

More details of the services we offer, and examples of our work can be found at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook (www.facebook.com/rlsurveys) & Twitter (@RLSurveys).

Late Payments?

Is there an easy solution to this problem - should you stick to your guns and chase payment religiously the minute payment is overdue? Is temperance a better approach to take with a few reminder e-mails before cranking up the heat a little? Should additional fees be raised immediately?

From a business perspective we try to pay all of our bills on the payment date (granted never early). We do this to keep control over our cash flow, and maintain a professional stance. From experience there is no pattern to who are the late payments companies people - it could be anyone.

Touch wood so far we have very few instances to chase payment, and of the four occasions we have had to chase only one has proved to be an on going problem. At what point should we defer to a debt collection agency - and is this the only recourse?

Update: Threat of debt collection seems to work, but we have found a number of solicitors offering a fee chase service. For a small fee they will send out a professional chasing letter on their headed paper. Worth remembering!

Any thoughts on that one - suggestions and opinions would be greatly appreciated.

For further information about my company please visit www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or visit our facebook page. Alternative you could follow us on twitter (RLSurveys).

Our First Press Release!!

R L Surveys Ltd, a new Land and Measured Building Surveying company launched recently. The company, based in Ashford, Kent has been founded by husband and wife team, Mike and Beccy Holiday and will initially operate across the whole of the South East of England, including London. Their aim is to offer a high quality survey product at a more competitive price point than some others currently on the market, whilst maintaining a personal relationship with both new and existing clients.

Having worked for the same Surveying firm for seven years, Mike decided, with his technical knowledge in Land Surveying, it was time to take a leap of faith and start his own company. Beccy, an Accountant, has the ideal experience to make sure the office side of things runs smoothly – a match made in heaven on a personal and business level you might say!

“We felt that between us, we had a range of business skills from the technical know-how to the administrative and financial side, that we could use to set up on our own without needing any additional assistance – and marketing, well, we’re learning as we go!” commented Mike Holiday, Director.

Mike is an Associate Member of the RICS as well as being a Member of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors and, with over 10-years post qualification experience there are not many situations he hasn’t encountered, from working at major International Airports, to working on the London Underground network - from large-scale housing developments to small back gardens. At least all jobs are varied!

“We don’t have the constraints of normal ‘office hours’ for work so if a last minute job was to come in late on Friday, we can usually call on a team to try and fit the job in over the weekend. We are also available to speak to our clients during the evenings and weekends, if that is more suitable to them.” commented Beccy Holiday, Director.

As well as establishing a presence in London, Kent and the neighbouring counties, R L Surveys is building up a network of other like-minded Surveying professionals throughout the UK, to combine forces on larger jobs but remain unique in their approaches and not be in direct competition with each other.

R L Surveys would be delighted to tender for any Land Surveying work and look forward to meeting many of you at networking events throughout the year.

Taking the Plunge

Big Mistake or Master Stroke?

At the moment it's hanging in the balance but do I regret handing in my notice from a nice safe job with a guaranteed monthly income? Not for a minute. Why stay in a job with no future, and where the work ethic has evolved to such a state that people have lost sight of why they got into the business? Taking nothing away from them I enjoyed working there, but there comes a point when you want to pursue your own goals in your own way, not as directed by others.

So here we are - R L Surveys Ltd - started with the best intentions, ran through a few rough months (call it a settling in period) where big personal mistakes were made before eventually reaching a point of self sufficiency, and fingers crossed will develop into a viable business opportunity to all involved. But I digress (be warned it happens).

R L Surveys Ltd started trading in July 2011, initially on a part time basis but has now developed into a full time job and has been operating as such since November 2011. Whilst interest at first was slow, the business is gradually snow balling into a viable self sustaining business.

We are targeting the local markets in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London & Essex initially. We'll provide Land Surveying & Measured Building Surveying services at a competitive price whilst maintaining a high cartographic standard & solid checking procedures. Being a family run business developing lasting relationships with our clients in critical to our business development.

More details of the services we offer, and examples of our work can be found at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or you can keep in touch with us on LinkedIn, Facebook (www.facebook.com/rlsurveys) & Twitter (@RLSurveys).

I hope you enjoy this blog, and feel free to make comment or join in any threads you like. This won't be purely business. All work and no play................