I sold my soul and I love it...

Jims5543 · 03-07-2007, 10:40 AM

This is hard to explain. I was approached by a company that wanted to use my company to do all the work, then send it to them with their name on it. They take the glory, and I get a little box where my company name is listed.

I had to drop my per piece price $50 but considering I was not dealing with the consumer and did not have to do collections on unpaid bills, or deliver the product I felt it was a deal.

We are 1 week into this and they are swamping me with work! We are all pretty happy here right now because it was really depressing these last few months not having anything to do.

Normally I would tell these places to take a hike, I feel like they are breeding grounds for the unethical to gather. I felt as if I had sold my soul as I signed the contracts.

I thought it was funny though, I asked them if they wanted to see my data and they said no only the finished product. Almost as if they don't care how I do the work as long as they get a finished product. We will still do it the right way especially since my company name is associated with them.

Rot 911 · 03-07-2007, 10:42 AM

Congratulations! I know what it is like to deal with clients!

Jims5543 · 03-07-2007, 10:56 AM

Also I barely have time for anything other than work lately. This time here right now (10 minutes) is too much.

I am running a field crew again so I am out in the field from 8=2 every day then catching up in the office in the afternoon.

Its good to have too much work again I feel like its 2003 all over agian.

Joeaksa · 03-07-2007, 11:09 AM

Make the money while you can. Just make sure that they do not do anything illegal and get your company roped in the middle of it.

Jims5543 · 11:12 AM

iTS ALL ON THE UP AND UP. Caps lock was on I was using my Cadd program.

Joe - I am not doing anything unethical, its just other surveyors that participate in this kind of work tend to not do the job correctly. We have seen them doing Mortgage surveys and never using anything more than a tape measure to do a "professional" survey.

We take too much pride in our work to not do a complete job.

Rot 911 · 03-07-2007, 11:29 AM

And never let them get a copy of your seal! I represented an architect that got suckered into letting a company he was doing work for get a copy of his electronic seal and that was all she wrote. Took me six months of litigation with the licensing board to convince them that he was actually a victim and not part of the illegal activities.

Zeke · 03-07-2007, 11:43 AM

Yeah, there' would seem to be a need for a trail established thru emails or something for verification. Or a disclosure. I'd hate to see any work simply be transferred into another database w/o a tag on it.
In surveying, don't you use previously filed surveys that you did in order to expedite any new ones that are tied to the previous by any boundary? How would that info be used by the contracting company?

masraum · 03-07-2007, 11:52 AM

Yes, my wife had a small business for a while that didn't work out in the long run, but she did some work like that and it was much better than being the retailer.

wreckersteve · 03-07-2007, 12:40 PM

As long as they pay on time. Hate to see you get buried indept waiting to get paid. If they get behind shut them off. No work is better that being busy and no pay.

jyl · jyl's Garage

This is good news, glad you are busy again.

Stepping back a bit, does this suggest that you need more/better sales and marketing? Apparently there's plenty of work out there, how come they have it and not you? I'm not trying to offend, just asking.

Jims5543 · 03-07-2007, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jyl
This is good news, glad you are busy again.

Stepping back a bit, does this suggest that you need more/better sales and marketing? Apparently there's plenty of work out there, how come they have it and not you? I'm not trying to offend, just asking.

This company is owned by a huge title company that has multiple branches in many cities. The order was given all orders must go through this company.

A few girls at the branch that used us and love us informed us that they would not be ordering anymore. But, they also contacted to owner of the Survey company and gave him my contact info and it went from there.

When I e-mailed them a sample survey they were pretty blown away at our work. I say so because their next contact with me was 10 orders.

I am not only getting 1 office anymore I am getting 20+ offices worth of orders.

wreckesteve - I am going through hell right now with the branch I was working with now, they have stuck me over the last 2 years with over 10K in unpaid bills. I am trying to collect on them but its tricky to do. When they do 200K in business with you, you do not exactly want to tell then to do a hike. So we are trying to fix the problem and stop the non-payments.

But, with this new setup I get paid no matter what, its their problem to collect on it. So this is better for me.

Milt - we rarely see another surveyors work, normally we are working from legal descriptions or record plats. You would be amazed at the stuff I have found, houses on wrong lots or hanging 1/2 off of them. One lady though she was buying a peice of vacant land 1/2 a mile from where ti really was and the realtor was showing the wrong piece as well.

All I know is we were so slow I laid 1/2 my company off and this has been going on for 2 years this steady decline in work, to hit bottom and see a turning point is a tremendous relief for me from a business point of view. I have been going without paychecks or with 1/2 pay depleting my personal checking account and coming very close to having to dip into savings to get by. It was not looking for for the toys I was trying to hold on to.

We will keep a close on on these guys and make sure they pay promptly. I am keeping to a really tight scheadule for them so they can do the same for me.

We also hooked up with a local Engineer who is so busy he turns work away every day, we are quoting and winning about 1 project every other day with them as well .

Things are finally looking up. Its been a freaking roller coaster ride since Sept. 2004 when that 1st hurricane rocked our worlds here. Its never been the same since.

sewell94 · 03-07-2007, 09:59 PM

Jim,

It seem the local economy has picked back up, everyone i've talked to lately is busy, everyone from cabinet guys, carpet guys, or repair shops. Is about time, everyone seemd like they were gonna be starving soon. To bad i'm wheelchair bound, this is usually my busy season

Jims5543 · 06-15-2007, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sewell94
Jim,

It seem the local economy has picked back up, everyone i've talked to lately is busy, everyone from cabinet guys, carpet guys, or repair shops. Is about time, everyone seemd like they were gonna be starving soon. To bad i'm wheelchair bound, this is usually my busy season

Not exactly true, I ran an add in the paper for help, I really didn't want to for the following predictable reason. I got a couple of phone calls from local competitors/ sort of friends sort of pissed that I am busy enough to hire when they are laying off like crazy and trying to figure out how to stay open.

I revived this thread because I just expanded my service to 2 more counties using a sub contractor, on top of that I just hooked up with this companies commercial division and thay think we are the cats meow and are ordering jobs all over the state. We are off to Ft. Meyers next week for 3 more commecial sites on top of the 3 commercial ones we have to do locally, and I am starting to spread my staff thin, something I have not seen in close to 3 years.

Meanwhile my local competition is sitting on their butts crying that there is no work. The applicants that came in for the job opening all had very sad stories to tell. It was depressing hearing them all.

masraum · 06-15-2007, 08:38 AM

Glad to hear that things are going well for you. That's fantastic. I got laid off in Mar '01 when the dot com crash hit. It really sucked for a year or so. I'm doing well again. I know what it's like.

Jims5543 · 06-15-2007, 09:25 AM

I am talking to one competitor yesterday, he is upset he has no work to do and wants to apply for my job opening, seriously.

So we get to talking and I say I am working as far as 60-70 miles away for smaller jobs and 200 miles away for bigger ones.

His response was I hope your getting paid really well, and I informed him, no I am being paid average pay, just less profit than normal. He says he would never do that, drive far to work. My response was a little profit is better than no income at all. I dont get it, why turn away work when you have none?

Thanks for the well wishes Steve, it has been very stressful but it has made a turn for the better and I am glad. I am happy I could hang on to most of my good staff through all of this.

Sewell - I missed your last sentance when I first read your post, I hope your o.k. and or recovered by now.

svandamme · svandamme's Garage

i sold my soul many times, each time they return it with a note, don't worry bout no refund... we understand