The surveying fraternity

In the last 13 years I have worked for a wide variety of Surveying firms and departments, however it is only in the past 18 months that I have realised how many Surveying firms exist and the level of interaction between them.

Many years ago I noted that a lot of surveys were being lost to small independent firms with low overheads and a fast turn around.  At that time I floated an idea to my then boss about setting up a firm to handle this growing demand which worked as a separate entity to the main firm, but still within the same operating standards.  The idea being to keep the work virtually in house, but not stuck under the same umbrella for overheads/insurance/management.  We'd keep clients happy by doing the work, and keep the work away from the smaller firms - a good principle but it wasn't seen as a viable option at the time because of the insurance & QA hurdles, and working a balance between the two areas of the business.

Well here we are now as a small firm with low overheads, fast turn around times, and a good quality product but without the net of the larger firm should times get slack.  However there are many firms out there willing to pass on any excess work load, and this act can also be reciprocated.  I'd love to go through and list them, but lets face it that would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face!

The challenge now will be to maintain that close fraternity of firms whilst balancing our own needs as a company to grow.  The companies we work with closely are spread across the UK so in essence there is little competition between them, but perhaps in time as each of these companies develops we might find ourselves in the position to create a much more formal agreement to enable the larger group of firms to tender for larger jobs as one, and then split the rewards.  But for now we shall all soldier on through the wind & rain alone to reach our goals.

For more information on the services R L Surveys can offer please visit our website at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or for a more relaxed view we can be found on Facebook, or Twitter.  We are also on LinkedIn, and this is an area we are looking to develop going into 2013.

A new development on the blog is a reaction bar at the bottom of each blog just to keep us on our toes to see what areas people are interested in for future wonderings.