Our Product

All these blogs and we have been concentrating on the business element of the work, but the important factor is the final product, as reputation is everything, and repeat business is your best source of income.  So what do we produce:-

Topographical Surveys or Land Surveys: 1:200 Survey Plans

Measured Building Surveys: Floor Plans & Elevations

It is impossible to get the true feeling for a survey from a tiny image on screen but is does give a good idea of what we produce, and we like to think that this is a product that will constantly be evolving.  Albeit some of the improvements will be in the stages leading up to this point, but any suggestions you might have on the presentation please let us know so we might incorporate them into the third presentation revision.  Till now the ideas have been solely ours, and great pains have been taken to avoid deliberately copying the format of any styles used by any of our former employers but the natural development of the product may take us that way anyway.

Please keep checking back as new products and services will gradually be added, but with less than a year on the books our pool of examples is limited (yet fairly diverse within themselves).


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).

Free Advertising

There are ways and means, and plenty of free courses out there to gain this knowledge.  With the advent of Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn (there are other social media out there!) it is easier than ever to get your news or comments out there, but it's harder to target that news to the right people.

Recently we got a small article in the local paper to announce our intent to enter a charity bike ride, it covered the bases and included our company details and what we do - the cost to us £0 except for the time taken to write the article and send it in, and as one company once said 'Every Little Helps'.

Papers love stories and articles to fill their pages.  I heard a story recently about a fruit farmer trying to hire staff for his farm to help pick the fruit - he spent a fortune on advertising and received no replies, however one call to the editor of the local paper and he was deluged with responses!  How?  The paper came over and wrote an article about the farm and how it was having problems recruiting staff - so whilst the information was out there originally, it was not being targeted in the right place. 

"There is no such thing as bad publicity" (Barnum?), or "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about" (Oscar Wilde).  I'm sure there are some notable exceptions to these ideas, but in general unless it really is something terrible (sorry to BP or Toyota) you're on to a winner.  "Everyone loves a good story - and you don't need to be an author" (Mike Holiday - 2012)

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).

To Employ or not to employ

Possibly the biggest leap of faith after establishing a business - at what point do you take the plunge and accept responsibility for paying someone elses wages, take the risk of letting outside people into your business. So what are the options available?

School leaver - can be moulded more, will need significant time training so will not be 'fee earning' initially, but the cost of employing would be lower.

Junior level - costs are starting to rise, but also the ability to carry out the job is already there so there would be an element of autonomy.

Senior level - costs have peaked, but except for a little training on coding they should be good to go straight away, however they may be fixed in a way of how things should be done - but conversely may have some very useful ideas into improvements which could be made in the business.

Then there is the nature of the employment - full time, part time, limited contract, summer work experience or even apprentice (not that I'm suggesting I'll follow Lord Sugars lead - unless the BBC are interested).

Finally there is the nature of that person - should they be an out and out Surveyor with little or no administrative input, or should they be completely office based dealing with the marketing of the business and progressing the various policies that are in place?

These are big decisions for any business, but especially for one in its early stages! Any helpful suggestions out there? I think there will be a lot of sleepless nights over this one.

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