Goin' Metric

I had made it home from work last night and was about to eat dinner when my cell phone rang. Looking down, I could see it was from my wife, Karen, who had told me she had some shopping to do and to go ahead and eat without her. Figuring she was about to tell me what a great deal she had gotten on something (wife speak for "I just spent a lot of money"), I flipped open the phone to answer it. "Honey", she said (now I knew she had just maxed out the credit card), "I can't get the van to start."

Since I had come home very hungry, I gave her the standard "man answer" to all questions when we're trying to buy some time. "Wait about 15 minutes and try it again. If it doesn't start then, give me a call back."

She replied that she'd do that and would probably wander around some stores (more money spent) while she waited for the van to revive itself. "Well, you know, five or ten minutes should really be enough", I replied, thinking I could swallow my dinner whole if needed to keep her out of the stores.

Sure enough, about 15 minutes later, she called again saying that the van would only click when she turned the key and the lights would dim after a few seconds. Yep, dead battery, I thought.

Since she didn't have any jumper cables with her and I had "loaned" mine to my business, I headed out the door, grabbed my toolbox and socket set and stopped by the local auto parts store for a new battery.

Another 20 minutes later, I arrived at the parking lot and found Karen waiting for me. She popped the hood and I started to disconnect the battery. So... "started" may be a bit of a stretch. In my haste to get out the door, I had grabbed my SAE socket set. Of course, my wife drives a Honda Odyssey - a Japanese company who uses all metric parts. After trying to use an adjustable wrench, busting my knuckles and cussing under my breath, I realized that I was getting nowhere. Fortunately, a short trip to Lowe's for a metric socket set (just like the one setting on my tool bench at home), I was able to get the old battery out and the new one in.

So the lesson for today is to always take the time to think about your project before you start it and make sure you have the right tools to complete it. It certainly would have saved me about half an hour, $12, bloody knuckles and a reprimand from my wife from cussing at an inanimate object.

Meeting half way

I've been discussing with the surveying community lately the need for our profession to develop better relationships with other professionals like engineers, architects, GIS folks, etc. It seems that, as a group, we tend to wait until they come to us needing something that we have expertise in. I have a fear that some of these groups will develop their skills in these areas that are currently (at least in my mind) the practice of surveying.

It leads me to my very favorite current saying: "You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."

In case you're wondering, the saying was not by a person but rather from a very wise bear named Winnie The Pooh.

Over the past month or so, I've been trying very hard to go more than halfway to reach out to potential clients as well as our current clients. With the economic turmoil, it's a little difficult to determine if it's working yet but I'm going to stick with this strategy for the long haul. I'll let you know how it works for me.

If It Doesn't Look Right.....

There have been a few times that we're completing a survey and when I determine the boundaries of properties based on deeds, I miss every single fence and other evidence of the boundaries on the property. Normally, it's some stupid mistake made by yours truly. However, when it doesn't appear that I've made a math mistake, I still try to go back and try to see why the visible evidence seems to be different than my solution. In 22 years of doing this, there's almost always a good reason why the long-standing visible evidence is correct.

Here's a story from Nashua, New Hampshire where a surveyor had a similar situation and has now upset an entire neighborhood. Without giving a legal opinion, I'm going to guess that the fences in the neighborhood are in their correct location and the surveyor has simply missed something. If it doesn't look right, it probably isn't - so check your work before upsetting the neighbors!

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090617/BUSINESS/306179958/-1/XML15

What Keeps Us in Business

I was having drinks with a friend of mine at a convention earlier this year when he asked if he could ask me a "somewhat" personal question. With fear in my voice, I timidly said "yes". Due to the downturn in the economy and the state of government in Indiana, there are some survey companies who have gone out of business, many who have cut back on employees and hours and others who seem to be hanging on by a thread. Anyway, the question my friend asked me was this: "You and John Doe (obviously not his real name) both had companies about the same size. Both of you appeared to do roughly the same type of work. Why is it that John went out of business and you didn't?"

I actually had to stop and think about that for a minute before I answered him. There were several reasons (luck maybe not being the least) but I think there were three main differences between my firm and his.

First, I learned from a business seminar what financial ratios were important and what they needed to be to survive. At the end of every month, I compute the following:

Current ratio (assets/liabilities) and always make sure it's more than 2.5:1
Working capital (assets - liabilites) and try to keep four months operating costs. This is the hardest for us to maintain, it seems.
Debt to Worth (liabilites/owner equity) and keep it under 2:1
Return on Equity (net income/total equity) and shoot for 14% although that's been very difficult lately.
Return on Assets (net income/total assets) and try to hit 8% - also very difficult lately.
Accounts Receivable Days (accounts receivable/sales*365) and hope to be under 45 days.

Any time these are out of balance, it's time for action to bring them back in order. In addition to being a good surveyor, being a good business person is very important.

Second, our firm is not a "one-trick pony". In other words, we're diversified across nearly every area of surveying. I learned early on that subdivision design was a two-headed monster with regards to cash flow and since cash is king, we've never done any of it. Anything else related to surveying is fair game for us.

Finally, and most importantly, we try very hard not to develop clients but rather develop relationships. It never hurts to have friends when you really need a job or when you really need an overdue invoice to be paid. After all, when all is said and done in this world, relationships are really all we have. In addition to spending money and time on things, we try to spend money and time on doing things with people. Try it sometime - I think you'll be much happier.

So give these ideas a try and let me know how they work out for you. I can tell you that they've worked out very well (so far) for our company.

Summertime Treat

I had posted before that we normally make homemade ice cream (it's really custard since it has eggs in it) every summer holiday and even posted the recipe that I use. My kids and wife always try to talk me into putting "stuff" in the ice cream - I'd be happy with plain vanilla.

This Memorial Day weekend was no different. And again I succumbed to their wishes but I'm very glad I did. If you make the ice cream, try this. Melt some peanut butter. Crush some chocolate covered pretzels in a bag. Let the ice cream maker run for about 10-15 minutes so it's starting to set up but not completely frozen yet. This will ensure that anything you put in it won't sink directly to the bottom. After the 10-15 minutes, pour the melted peanut butter around in the mix and pour the crushed pretzels in as well. Let the ice cream maker do the rest until it's done. It tastes just like Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby. My kids affectionately named it Chubby Daddy.

Let me know how it works out for you.

The End......Or a Beginning

Today was the high school graduation for my oldest son, Kyle. It's weird to believe that I can actually be old enough to have a son almost 18 years old. I can't believe that this youngster

has now turned into this fine young man:

Congratulations on a job well done and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Another Brush with Celebrities

My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to get away for a few days earlier this month. I guess to be correct, I got away while she was working a trade show in Las Vegas. We did take a day after the show was over to walk around, gamble, see Blue Man Group, etc.

Anyway, on our way home I was wearing an Indianapolis Colts t-shirt and waiting for our plane to arrive when a lady leans over to me, points quickly at my shirt and then at a man just sitting down to wait for his flight, too. "Isn't he on the Colts?" she asked. I looked up to see All-Pro center Jeff Saturday. When we got on the plane, I was seated in the row behind him and his wife. As others were getting on the plane, many people appeared to recognize him but I don't remember anyone speaking to him (probably because he was in the window seat and had a hat kind of pulled down a bit). When we landed, he was directly in front of me while getting off the plane so I said, "Hey, Jeff, it's great to have you signed back with the Colts" to which he answered, "Thanks."

The flight had been pretty rocky during the last hour so the pilot had us strapped in our seats and everybody was headed to the bathroom as soon as we got off the plane, me included. As I stepped up to the urinal, Jeff (I can call him by just his first name since we're friends now :) was at the one right next to me. Now........if you remember in an early post, I also stood at a urinal right next to Peyton Manning once while at the Murat Theater for a show.

Got me to wondering...how many people do you think can say that they've actually shared a bathroom with an All-Pro center and QB from the same team? I HAVE!