by EricColburn
February 18, 2013 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Business Videos, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Members, Professional Land Surveyor Practice, Videos, Vlog
Seeing is Deceiving…So is Negativity!
Here’s the bonus video for Associate & Premium Members, which builds on the last Motivational Monday: Celebrate Your Daily Successes post. You can watch the Motivational Monday video in that post.
by EricColburn
February 18, 2013 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Business Videos, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Members, Professional Land Surveyor Practice, Videos, Vlog
Seeing is Deceiving…So is Negativity!
In this new feature I want to start everyone’s week off with some motivation for success in the week ahead. In this episode, I discuss how to build on positive experiences by celebrating your daily successes.
Too often, we are crippled by negativity and place our focus on what went wrong or wasn’t finished on any given day.
by EricColburn
January 12, 2013 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Members, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Geo-Knowledge Workers. Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Wikipedia begins defining a Knowledge Worker as: “Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge“. Is knowledge your main capital?
The term “knowledge worker” was first used by Peter Drucker in the late 1950′s to describe post-industrial employees working primarily with, or developing, information and knowledge. Put more simply, a knowledge worker uses their head more than their back. While the concept is fairly straightforward, adoption of the knowledge worker concept is either difficult for some to make, and/or is not implemented fully or competently by some.
by EricColburn
March 24, 2012 in Associate Membership, Business, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Links, News
Premium Membership
I was just updating the Premium Membership Specials page by adding a list of all the Premium Posts I’ve published to date. I did not realize that they now add up to over 40 premium posts, how time flies when you’re having fun (and I am!). To sign up, click here »»Premium Signup
On the Premium Membership Specials page you’ll find special premium members only downloads and some other premium content, but for some reason I’d never thought about adding links to all the Premium Posts I’ve written. Sometimes, it’s the most obvious thing we overlook, isn’t it?
Having put together this useful list for that page, I then figured it would be a good resource for anyone interested in learning about the Premium Posts found here on EricColburn.com. So, here you go:
by EricColburn
November 12, 2011 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Knowing Your Numbers-Project Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company
If you’ve followed the last few Premium Posts, then you know that I’ve been working through the “Knowing Your Numbers” series of posts, describing how to use Metrics in your professional land surveying business.
To date, I’ve written Knowing Your Numbers-Business Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company, an article on which business metrics you can use to run your land surveying business, Knowing Your Numbers-How To Measure Your Success, an article on the importance of developing your own set of metrics and benchmarks to accurately measure your success, and Knowing Your Numbers-Project Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company, an article on how to use Project Metrics for your land surveying company.
In this Premium Membership post I share: How to Develop Project Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company.
by EricColburn
October 9, 2011 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Continuing Education, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Knowing Your Numbers-Project Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company
In earlier Premium Posts, I wrote Knowing Your Numbers-Business Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company, an article on which business metrics you can use to run your land surveying business, and Knowing Your Numbers-How To Measure Your Success, an article on the importance of developing your own set of metrics and benchmarks to accurately measure your success.
In this Premium Membership post I expand on that theme; specifically how to use Project Metrics for your land surveying company.
Your land surveying business, no doubt, collects at least two business and project metrics, being: Time and Employee. Every week you have a the metrics of your employees hours worked, what projects they’ve worked on, or time spent on non-project specific hours worked. Because this is the least data required to collect to pay your employees, this is often where project metrics collection ends in many land surveying firms.
With this minimal amount of collected project data, you simply do not know and understand enough about your land surveying projects and business to run your business.
by EricColburn
January 8, 2011 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Do You Know Your Numbers?
A while back, I wrote Knowing Your Numbers-How To Measure Your Success, an article on the importance of developing your own set of metrics and benchmarks to accurately measure your success, or failure, which is something we all need to understand. In this Premium Membership post I expand on that theme; specifically how to use Business Metrics for your land surveying company.
If you’re an owner of a land surveying company, then you regularly access and update many business metrics with your business accounting systems. If you’re looking to start a land surveying company, then as a new business owner you will need to learn about business financial and accounting principles. Even if you are a manager or employee working on the front lines, like surveyors and crews working in the field, then understanding these basic business concepts will make you a better employee.
This article will not delve into the nitty-gritty of accounting – rather, let’s try to pair down business accounting metrics to focus on running your business profitably.
If you don’t measure, track and evaluate; then you can’t apply Business Intelligence, can’t find solutions and can’t fix problems-it’s that simple.
Business Metrics for Your Land Surveying Company: Read the rest of this entry →
by EricColburn
December 27, 2010 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Do You Know Your Numbers?
A while back, I wrote Knowing Your Numbers-How To Measure Your Success, an article on the importance of developing your own set of metrics and benchmarks to accurately measure your success, or failure, which is something we all need to understand. In this Premium Membership post I expand on that theme; specifically how to use land surveying metrics for success.
To have a successful and profitable professional land surveyor business, like any other business, requires mastery of your business and operational practices by everyone from owner, manager, to employees working on the front lines, like your surveyors and crews working in the field.
As I wrote before, whatever it is you’re trying to succeed at, you need to measure some aspect of that goal to track your progress, determine what is working, what is not working, and to know when you’ve fully accomplished what you set out to do.
If you don’t measure, track and evaluate; then you can’t apply Business Intelligence, can’t find solutions and can’t fix problems-it’s that simple.
Land Surveying Field Metrics for Success-Why, What & How to Measure Read the rest of this entry →
by EricColburn
September 14, 2010 in Associate Membership, Business, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Do You Know Your Numbers?
Know your numbers to measure your success.
We all need to know our numbers, but do you know what numbers are important for your success? The metrics and benchmarks to accurately measure our success, or failure, is something we all need to understand.
This is true in any professional land surveyor business, whether you are an owner, manager, or you’re an employee working on the front lines. Knowing your numbers is also important in your personal life, too.
Whatever it is you’re trying to succeed at, you need to measure some aspect of that goal to track your progress, determine what is working, what is not working, and to know when you’ve fully accomplished what you set out to do.
If you don’t measure it, then you can’t find solutions and fix problems-it’s that simple.
So, what numbers do you track? Read the rest of this entry →
by EricColburn
August 14, 2010 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Practices, Continuing Education, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Professional Land Surveyor Practice
Here are a few tips to help you succeed in having a more productive next week.
Question: Why Saturday?
Answer: Why not? No seriously now; because the best way to execute success is to plan for success. The day really isn’t important, so let’s call it “End of the Week” Tips for a More Productive Next Week, if you prefer.
Question: It was a tough week this week, so why can’t I just put this off and worry about it next week? Besides, I love the exhilaration of scrambling everyday to make deadlines and putting out client and project fires as they arise!
Answer: Think about it, you probably experienced a tough week at work, scrambling to make deadlines while putting out all those client and project fires, because you didn’t plan for the things you could control.
Question: But I can’t plan because I’ll just have to change everything next week as circumstances change?
Answer: So what? What you said and what I heard are two different things. I heard, besides fear, is “I choose guaranteed failure rather than give myself a great chance at success” or, maybe even, “I’m really comfortable with chronic failure”. It’s not cast in stone; it’s just a plan for goodness sake – so change it as need be.
Those who set goals and plan for success more often reach their goals and enjoy success than those who don’t.
5 Saturday Tips for a More Productive Next Week Read the rest of this entry →
by EricColburn
by EricColburn
February 4, 2009 in Associate Membership, Business, Land Surveying, Surveys
PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY
Has the Economy Hit Bottom?
Total Voters: 41
Loading ...The 64-thousand dollar question (or more likely trillion), is has the economy hit bottom? Everyone is playing a waiting game, holding their breath, waiting for the economy to bottom out so things can start getting better – it’s like trying to catch a falling knife (or machete, if you will). Grasp the falling knife too soon and you get cut. Wait too long and you miss your opportunity. Or if you are in no position or mood for knife catching, you stand by the sidelines watching and waiting, hoping the economy will soon rebound.
If you’ve been following me you know that I’ve been telling everyone I can that this recession is not about a gradual slowdown but rather, it’s about a complete stop in consumer spending. Retailers and major corporations in the last six months have just found this out the hard way. If you’ve not experienced it yet, get ready, because you may. If the economy holds out long enough in your neck of the woods, and you don’t get too burned in this recession, consider yourself lucky.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball (boy would I be rich then). This recession has been more severe in some Read the rest of this entry →
by EricColburn
January 1, 2009 in Associate Membership, General, Land Surveying
Reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell.
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