Running a small land surveying business isn't all bad. There are painful lessons - but there are also pleasant surprises. In this episode, I talk about 3 pleasant surprises from my first 5 years running a land surveying business. Those surprises are:
Running a small land surveying business isn't all bad. There are painful lessons - but there are also pleasant surprises. In this episode, I talk about 3 pleasant surprises from my first 5 years running a land surveying business. Those surprises are:
(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music) Hey guys, it's Landon. This is the third episode of the Putting Your Business on the Map podcast. Trying a new camera and audio recording software setup today. So we'll see how it works. Hopefully the results are a little better. So this episode, we're gonna talk about the three pleasant surprises of our first five years in business at our RH. I wanted to do this episode 'cause the last two episodes were a little bit of a downer. They were a little bit negative. So I wanted to do something positive and we'll have some more downer episodes only because we're running a small business and a survey organization is really hard, but I wanted to do something positive. So there's been a lot of painful lessons that we've learned the last five years, I think our five year universities and roughly February. But the result of that has been a lot of growth. A lot of growth for me personally and professionally and I suspect some growth for some of my employees too, which isn't a bad thing. Some of that pain was because, like I said, just running in a small business is hard and some of that pain was because I wasn't very good at it when we started, so I've been learning and hopefully getting better as we go. But despite the pain and there's a lot, there's a lot of painful lessons, but despite that, overall I would say it's a very rewarding experience and there's a lot of good things too. And so certainly starting our age and growing up with my two partners, Brian and Danny and our team has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life. So I wouldn't change that. I wouldn't go back, I wouldn't go back to a job at a big civil engineering company, for example. So what are some of the good things? I wanted to talk about that. Now some of those good things about running our H, worldwide design and they were things about the business that we, Danny and I, and especially in the beginning to liberally set out to create, but some of them were very unexpected and I was quite surprised by two or three of the things about running our H that have been the most rewarding for me. And so I call those pleasant surprises, right? These are things I didn't necessarily expect. For some reason, I didn't see it when I worked as an employee at the other serving in engineering companies. That doesn't mean it wasn't there, but it's possible, I didn't see it'cause I didn't have enough direct interaction with the client maybe or maybe it's because I worked at mostly bigger companies and there's just a different level of client service. You know, you get a more intimate level of client service at a small company. So I'm not sure, but for whatever reason, I was surprised to, I'm gonna try and put bang in my chair and in my desk. I was surprised at these things. So I'm gonna talk about three things that surprised me. They're good things. So pleasant surprises. And there are other things that we could talk about. I just picked three. So there are other good things and a couple of other things, good things that I would put in the pleasant surprises category, but I just picked what I thought were the three most important to talk about in this episode. So the first one, number one is the deep gratitude from our good clients. Now, we work for a lot of people and organizations in the last five years. I haven't counted, but it's a fairly big number. I don't know. Somewhere between 15, 75 clients, let's say the first five years in business. Now most of those people will never hear from again. And especially when we first started the company, we were doing more transactional surveys. We moved away from that a little bit, so we're not doing as much. We have some more repeat business now, which is nice, but especially the first couple of years as COVID was going on and economy was in a weird place and we were just getting started out. So we did some surveys for people that will probably never call us again. But there's always been a few clients, even among that group of what I would call transactional clients and other typically just work from once. There's always been a few that have taken the time to express their deep thanks for the work that we've done. And that's even more common among our long-term repeat clients, so that's something we hear more regularly from our long-term clients. But even those transactional clients, I've been surprised at how important our work has been to them and how much they appreciate it. And I don't know that that's just because we're special or uniquely handsome. Unfortunately or depressingly, I think that's because there's a lot of not fantastic land surveys in our profession and there's also some good land surveyors that are not good communicators and good business people. So either one of those results and a not great result for the client. So I think some of the gratitude that we get from clients is just because they had some pretty bad experiences with other surveyors. So I just, I put together just as an example, half a dozen or so things that we've heard from some of our clients. And some of this is on our website. So you guys are awesome. We could have never got through this without you. Your team has been an absolute blessing. We learned something new from you guys all the time. Your advice has been invaluable. You guys are loaded with great insights. So those are all things that we've been told by clients in the last five years and that is deeply rewarding, right? And I just didn't expect that, right? I just when we started the business, I thought I'm gonna do a good job because it's the right thing to do. And I'm gonna just, I'm gonna do a good job for my clients. We're gonna take care of them. And I never expected to get the deep gratitude in the things that we have received. So that has been very rewarding and fulfilling. It was not something I expected. And really it's been interesting to see how you can kind of take your potential client base and bifurcate them or split them, right? And so there's, if you think about it as like a probability distribution, it's like an inverted bell curve, right? So on one side of the distribution, you have all those clients that don't care. And then on the other end of the distribution, you have clients that are deeply grateful and appreciate what you do. And there's very little that are in the middle, right? So, and so obviously one of the things, and I didn't, who did know, right? I just didn't know that until we started. So one of the things, now that we know that that we're trying to do is we're trying to move to the side of the distribution with the, with that has more of the clients that are deeper grateful, right? You don't want to be on the side of the distribution with the clients that could care less. So that's been a surprise that the number of people that will follow up with us and say, thank you so much, you guys are great. You know, you really helped us. That is not something I expected when we started five years ago. And I know it's not a blip because it continues to happen five years in, right? So that's, that's a good thing. And I would tell you, one of the greatest compliments we ever receive, I think as an organization is when a client includes a thank you note in their bill, right? Nobody likes a pan of bill. And our bills are not small. You know, our bills are almost all of these thousands of dollars. And I'm often surprised at how often we get payment for an invoice with a thank you note from the client. And that just deeply moves me. Yeah, if you've got somebody that's saying thank you when they pay your bill, that's a great thing, right? And it's made me think about the times in my own life when I am deeply thankful to pay a bill, right? So, you know, as an example, my wife and I, we had our air conditioner, go out a few summers ago and it was way more money than I thought. It was almost $8,000 to get a new air conditioner. Turns out that's not actually that bad. And we got way more to life out of our air conditioning unit than we should have because I took good care of it. But I was super surprised at how much it cost, but we had a guy who came out, he did a great job. You know, he even did some extra stress that we didn't ask for, he dropped off some extra filters. And man, I've never been happier to pay $8,000 in my life, right? And if you live in central California, you know how hot it is. You can imagine that I was pretty happy to pay that bill and get my air conditioner turned back on, right? And the guy did a great job. So I'm more aware of those instances now, my own life, and I actually try to say thank you more now when I pay bill because I realize how much that can mean to the person that's providing the product or the service. So that's the first kind of pleasant surprise is the amount of deep gratitude that we've gotten from our clients. The second one, number two, is just the loyalty of our team members so the folks that work for us. Our retention rate is pretty high. I wish it was higher, but it's still pretty high, especially for being a small business. So I think in the last five years, if I count or write, we've had five people leave. I'm sorry, in the last five years, we've had seven people leave. So it's about-- I lose about one person a year. Now we're still growing. Our overall head count is still growing. We've gone from two people, including myself the first year to-- about 12 people now, 12 or 13, depending on how you count. But we've lost some people. So I had to lay off a couple good serveers. When we lost an important client, I talked a little bit about that in episode two. I had a couple team members that did a good job, but just decided that they didn't want to be serveers. And that's OK. I tell people what I offer people is a career, not a job. So sometimes people come try it out. And after six months or a year, or even a year and a half, sometimes they say, you know, I don't think this is for me. And we understand that. And we don't-- it's disappointing, but we try not to get upset. We try to be understanding and supportive in that situation. Surveillance hard work. And I don't run a shop for cring puffs. So we understand not everybody's cut out for this. So I had a couple people that just decided serving wasn't for them. And that's OK. I had one employee come down with some pretty major health problems and wasn't able to stay with us. And so that was tough. He was an important part of the team. And we cared about him a lot. I'm happy to say he's doing better now. We weren't sure at the time if he was going to get better, but he's gotten better. He's not back to workforce. And then I had another employee and lady that started a family. She had her first child. So she doesn't workforce anymore. So-- But we felt all those losses, for sure. All those losses were tough. But we managed to hang on to most of our people over the last five years. So we're thankful for that. And so that loyalty is very satisfying. And not something I expected. Now, we work hard to retain our folks. That's something we put a lot of effort into. Something I put a lot of thought into. And there's some very practical or pragmatic business reasons for that. I mean, we want our H to be a great place to work. That's part of the reason I started it. But that wasn't the only reason we started. It's also because there's good business reasons to keep your retention high, right? I think we've had some success in hanging on to good folks. And that's why I appreciate their loyalty. So it hasn't been as hard as I thought. Our team members have been more loyal than I expected. So why do I say that? Why do I think that we've got some loyal folks? Well, there's a few things. I wrote down a list of a few things. One is our folks recommend that their friends and family come to work for us when we have an opening. So that's encouraging, right? I think if we were a horrible place to work, or they didn't like working for us, they wouldn't do that. I know sometimes it irritates my business partners because we have a lot of friends working for us. But there's advantages and disadvantages to that. It's something we talk about a lot. That might be another podcast episode, but I think the advantage is outweigh the disadvantages. So that's encouraging that our employees are willing to do that. But my people don't threaten them to hop jobs almost never. And we encourage open conversations about what a competitive wages in the market for people at different skill levels. And I tell people, if you have a job that you think qualified for that pays more than you make here, bring it to us. Let's have a conversation about it. You're not going to get fired for that kind of thing. So I'm sure that's part of it. But I don't have people come in very often and put a gun in my head and tell me they want more money or they're going to leave. Now, I hope part of that's because we pay good. But I think part of it's because people are loyal to us, which I appreciate. The other reason I'm fairly confident people like working for us is there is a high level of emotional attachment to their roles, the tasks that are signed, even to their deaths, to their personal spaces in the office, which can cause sometimes-- cause problems. We'll have to talk about that maybe in another podcast episode. But it's not a bad thing. It means people care about what they do, they care about their job, and they care about the organization. If I came to work in none of my people had any of that emotional attachment, I would be worried, right? So one thing I've learned is I have to be careful. I like to experiment and try different things, and I have to be careful sometimes even with small changes to the way the organization is structured or operates, because people care a lot about their jobs, and what they do and who they work with. And so I have to sometimes be careful about, I have to temper my experimental side a little bit, and carefully consider what impact those kinds of changes will have on our folks, because we care about them. And we want them to enjoy coming to work. The other reason, the fourth reason, I think, I'm confident our folks are loyal, is a lot of them have stuck through us, stuck with us through a lot of adversity through some tough times. That's more, that is more true of the people that have worked for us a little longer than the recent hires, but I have a half a dozen or so folks that have been through some really hard times with us. So, you know, that's things like hour cuts, winter layoffs, working extra hours, when we're super busy, working in the cold and the heat, which is something that we have to do here, it's in California, working out of town, and we've had to take work out of town. The only one with a lot of changes is in the organization as the type of work we do is changed, and as we learn to be better at what we do, so we've re-jiggered the organization quite a bit. This hasn't happened a bunch, but there have been a few times, and I can count them on one hand, but in the last five years, there's been a few times where we've paid people a week late, just because of some unexpected problems, either with payments or with the bank, and my people have just stuck with us, just been really surprised at how art it is been to get people to leave. I mean, they just stick with us, and it's of all the things about running this business, most certainly been the most deeply humbling for me, is just the amount of loyalty that our people have shown despite the challenges. It really, really touches me on a deep emotional level, and makes me deeply grateful for who we have working for us. And certainly a lot of those people, if they went to take a job at a bigger company, they would have a more stable and comfortable life without a doubt. So they're here, and I deeply appreciate that, and it surprised me how loyal our folks have been despite the hardships. All right, so the third thing, the third pleasant surprise is just watching our team members grow. And some of that, we have a special business model here, and I was gonna call it unique, but I don't think it's true unique, so I wanted to be careful about that. I do think it is special, I don't think a lot of other organizations run the business model we do, especially on the human resources side, so we are not an organization that focuses on credentials. And some of that is just my partners and I believe that the world puts way too much emphasis on credentials and that those credentials aren't worth as much as a lot of people assume they are. And we've seen that born out, that's a topic for another podcast, probably. So we try to run what we call meritocracy, so we try and reward and advance people based on merit. And that's not always easy, and those decisions are always super clear, it's not always black and white, but we do our best. So another thing that we do that I think is important is we hire non-traditional folks, and we're often doing that at an entry level. So we are not opposed to non-traditional employees, right? So as an example, I don't know, seven of the 12 or eight of the 12 team members that we have are women, that is pretty uncommon for a land-serving company, right? But we don't even think twice about it. And it wasn't something that we set out intentionally to do, we just looked for the people with the right personality trade and moral values, right? And we don't care what color their skin is, or if they're a man or a woman, or where they went to school, or what religion they are. If they've got those right mix of personality traits and work ethic, what we oftentimes will give them a shot, even at an entry level. And I think we also hire way more entry level people than a lot of serving companies. And certainly we do way more than your typical engineering company. Now we also train people a lot, and that's the part of that model. You know, we hire non-traditional employees often at an entry level, but that means we also do a lot of training. So what's the result? The result to that is people that come to work for us, especially at an entry level, they either flame out or they make really rapid progress. And there's not very much in the middle. And I've talked about that at the start of the episode, right? I've lost a couple people just because they decided they didn't want to be serve-aers. And I was okay, they were both good employees, and I was sorry to see them go. But people, you know, people, we have a special place. I think it's a lot different. We have a special culture, and we work really hard, and we train a ton. And so, you know, if you're looking for a place where you can be on cruise control, this isn't it, right? And so what that means is people that aren't interested in making rapid progress as a Lancer there or in a related profession. They don't stay with us very long as a Jumbo rule. And so the upside of that is the people that do stay develop very quickly. And I just, like when I say quickly, I mean, like it blows my mind how fast are people develop? They develop much more quickly than I developed. You know, I think about a team member recently hired. She hasn't been with us that long, four months, maybe five months, and like she is freaky good at CAD, like freaky good, like she is just picking it up so fast. And I know a lot of that's because she's being trained now by the other employees I have. So, you know, we grow and pass the size where I do the majority of the training. Now we have other employees that do the majority of the training, at least for our entry level folks. And this, you know, this young lady is smart, but she's also working side by side with some other really smart young people and her growth has just been, it's just been really surprising. And she's not the only one I've got. I've got a ton of people that are just really growing super fast and I've been really surprised by that. So I just, I wrote down a few examples of that. Just, and I talked about one, but I've got a young lady we hired. She was a barista at Starbucks. I hired her a few years ago. I think without a doubt she is better at most CAD and mapping tasks than I am now. And I'll sit behind her. You know, she'll be showing me something on the computer and I sit behind her and I'm just amazed at how fast she moves in our CAD software. And, you know, I just, it's deeply satisfying and super rewarding and also makes me a little bit sad'cause I know I've lost some of that, right? As I've moved into more of management role, some of my technical skills have gotten a little bit rusty and I still use CAD almost every week, but I just, I don't use it like she does and she's better than I am, but not buy a little bit, either buy a large amount. So that's an example. We hired a young man. He was scrubbing floors at night for a janitorial business and he's now an excellent survey tech. And we, in fact, we were just talking to him a couple of weeks ago about, you know, taking some steps to kind of round out his experience a little bit. I've got a former vet tech that runs our whole monument preservation program. You know, she runs, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year with a work, right? And she didn't know how to do any of that when she came to work for us. So she's learned it's been really enjoyable to watch that progress. And then my wife is a retired preschool teacher and she came to work for us and she handles all our HR, our payroll, our labor compliance. And she just learned a ton. She's just learned a ton, you know, if she had to tackle prevailing wage, she's done that. She's had to learn how two different payroll software she's done that. And so I'm really proud of the way our people learn and make progress and it's deeply rewarding. And I'm very, I don't know if the word is surprised or amazed, but I'll say amazed. I don't think that's too strong of a word. I'm amazed at how people advance with the right combination of opportunity, encouragement and high expectations, right? And so, I'm not saying that we do a perfect job of that, it's something that I think about a lot and then I need to think about more, you know, how do we do that? How do we provide people with opportunity, encouragement and high expectations?'Cause over and over again, when I set high expectations for the right people, the people, the kind of people that stick around my shop, our shop, they meet those expectations and exceed them. So it's been very, very rewarding. That's been a very pleasant surprise, again, not something I had expected when I started the company. Now I know there's some other people that know a little bit about how we do business and that will hire nontraditional folks and that we will hire entry-level folks. And some of those people say, you know, and I've heard through the rumor, you know, people say, well, land and he hires Riffroth or, you know, land and Ohio people that aren't, that are uneducated. And they kind of say it with a, with a disdainful tone. But, you know, those people, I think are blinded, right? So they're blinded to human potential. You know, they're blinded by their hubris and their prejudice and what that means is they can't see human potential if the credentials aren't attached, right? And so that's something that I think my partners and I work really hard at is to see human potential even without the credentials. And I think when you give a good, an opportunity to be part of a team and have a good job and to really help people, help clients and each other, when you give that kind of opportunity to somebody that the world has passed up because they don't have the right credentials. I think people appreciate that and they reciprocate with hard work and loyalty. And so that's been a very rewarding and an expected part of the business. So there you go, there's the three things, the three pleasant surprises, right? So let's see if I can remember what they were, just the deep gratitude from good clients, the loyalty that our employees have shown and watching our employees, our team members make rapid professional development. So I didn't expect any of those three things, there are beautiful things about running a small business. And I don't take any of those three things for granted, I think about them a lot, almost. If not every day, every week, I think about it. And my employees would tell you, I will oftentimes post, not oftentimes, but regularly a couple times a month, I'll just post on our team message board when I see just the incredible progress and teamwork that our people do. And that's sincere when I commend them for that, at that sincere, I'm not just show voting. Now you'll notice that none of the things on my list had to do with money or prestige, right? So the last five years has not brought me great wealth or fame or glory, not that I was trying, seeking those things. But the most rewarding things, unexpected rewarding things about this business has not had anything to do with money. So all the three things on my list, right involve other people, right, not myself, but what others, helping others. And so, you know, that might offer you a hint if you're thinking about starting a small business or leading an organization. You know, if you're doing that for money and or fame or prestige, you might be disappointed, right? But if you wanna do that so that you can help others, your clients and your employees, you might find it very rewarding like I have. So, all right guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode. The next episode, so this would be episode four, I am going to talk a little bit more about managing cashflow. So, we touched on that as one of our big three challenges. I know episode one, but I promised to revisit it. So, on a talk next week about what cashflow management is and why it's important, some things we try and do is a small survey organization in managed cashflow. I don't have it all figured out. Cashflow still bites me in the rear and occasionally. But I think we do a good job of it here. And so I wanna talk about, talk about what we try and do to be effective at cashflow management and my level of involvement in that as a principle. I think that's important. So, I hope you guys catch that next episode. And I hope the camera and the sound turns out, okay, for this episode, we'll try something new. And thanks for listening. We'll watch it on YouTube guys. I appreciate it.(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)(upbeat music)