It took me awhile to acknowledge that I FAILED BIG TIME. After reflecting on the feedback from other survey companies in the industry, it became clear that I had significantly undersold our time, skills and undercharged for Architectural CAD drawings.
I learned the hard way: cheap doesn’t mean sustainable, especially in London’s surveying industry, with all the costs involved in the work. By offering cheap measured building surveys, we only earned rebuke from other surveyors.
Bidston Draughting: Going in at under 1/4 of the standard rate is making a lot of surveyors work at a loss. Completely ruining a market that's been solid for decades!
DTM Surveys: You guys work for £100 a day?? That’s shockingly bad for the industry please revise your pricing to reflect the level of skill and accuracy required for this profession.
Turnbull Surveying: Costs of survey equipment, software, PI, PL, travel expenses and offices.... Then this seems insane day rate.
Precise Land Surveys: Agree with all the other comments here - £100 a day is way below the worth of a skilled surveyor, especially near London...
Benchmark Surveys: This is undermining the industry, the cost of equipment, insurances, staff and the skill involved. £100 a day is cheap labour money...
Project North Geomatics ltd: Race to the bottom… as if business isn’t hard enough at times.
I really messed this one up and definitely don't want to race to the bottom!
I earned these rebukes when I shared our recently completed project timeline and the cost on social media The Instagram Post
This is what happens when I undersold myself as a measured building surveyor👇!
Unfortunately for us SpaceSurvey, this resulted in completing the work at a financial loss. When agreeing on the price, I failed to accurately account for the level of detail, the size of the building, the time it would take to complete the work, and the resources required to deliver the survey to a professional standard.
However, as I was committed to honoring the agreement I made with the architect, and since payment had already been received, I was bound to complete the project to the best of our abilities. In the end, the client (the architect's client) came out as the big winner, receiving the cheapest measured survey of the highest quality in the shortest time possible, as we had to do al that it takes to deliver!
This experience has been a valuable learning opportunity for me, and I recognize the importance of being more careful and thorough when providing price quotes in the future.
I sincerely wanted to apologize to all the building surveyors for undermining the industry with our low prices for the skilled work in measured building surveying and I acknowledge the cost, time and effort it takes to do produce accurate As-built Drawings or 3D models, you and I we all deserve more!
A race to the bottom is not an option. This approach won’t help us feed our families or pay the bills, it will only lead to frustration, burnout, and panic attacks as I experienced myself a few years ago by doing just that Here I talk more about it (During the lockdowns, I went through a rough time. I started drinking every evening to take the edge off, gained excessive weight, and struggled with finances. At the same time, I went through a tough breakup with my girlfriend, where I felt like the ground beneath my feet had disappeared...).
My sincere apologies!
Best,
Peter Bauman

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