Getting into surveying. Advice please

[Island Lescure]

Hi,

 

I have just finished my level 4 at Treelife and would like to get into surveying.

 

First steps:

1: Contact local surveyors/consultants to get some experience.

2: Figure out if I should stay as a sole trader or go ltd. I am currently employed 4 days a week as a climbing arborist and have self employed status. I would like to stay employed for now and do the occasional surveying until I get more of this.

3: Find what I need in terms of gadgets for gps and what sort of mapping software I need for now(keep it simple/never used Autocad). Phone or tablet or Juno style thing?

4: Office from home is fine, right?

5: Insurance wise, all I need is indemnity I believe. What if I sub-contract to another firm? Does their insurance cover me?

 

Anything else?

Website later.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Island

 

PS I should mention that I have worked with trees for over 10 years, about 8 as a climbing arborist and done a few unofficial surveys.

CV on Linkedin: Island Lescure | LinkedIn

[ReubenHayes]

Hi Island,

 

All depends on what type of surveying you are looking at? baseline tree surveys, BS5837, mortgage report, safety inspections?

 

baseline and big scale inspections (i.e. those for street trees, schools etc) will mainly be done by the larger companies, or those who have tendered for the LA tree maintenance. Speak to the big companies in your area.

 

The others are more catered by the smaller independent consultancy firms, so speak with them and see if any are hiring or looking for a freelance tree surveyor.

 

You will need to be either Sole trader or Ltd, that's really your own decision on how good you are at finances and running your books. Sole trader is the easiest but there are draw backs as it'll be your name and property that the courts would go for. Ltd is a bit safer in that they can only go for the company, but then its more expensive to set up and run (accounts fees are about double). Its really just a personal thing, maybe start off as sole trader and see what happens.

 

Starting out just use a pen and paper, if they ask you to do big surveys then ask what kit they have, or buy it/lease it or borrow it. Usually you can borrow or lease a tablet for large scale tree inspections. If you use your own it'll only last a year at the most, they don't like the cold, wet, sunny etc weather and the battery on them just runs down. AutoCAD is good but very expensive, go on the web and search for free versions. There are several about and although they are not as good, they are useful. There are also people out there who will do the hard stuff for you (Constraints plans, Tree Protection Plans etc), if you look on my linkedin profile you'll find most of them.

 

Home working is great, if you can get an office even better. Kitchen table or sofa will do for most reports while you are setting up.

 

With insurance you will need indemnity as a basic. They will offer £500K or £1m, look at the costs of both as there is only a small step up between the two and £1m will get more work with other consultants. If you work freelance you will need to protect yourself, the companies that you work for will only protect them and their workers.

 

Websites are useful as they will pull in customers for yourself. Speak to your current employer and see if they want to use you. Speak to others and try and get your name out there as much as possible.

 

What are you looking at doing? pushing it to go to consultancy or just staying at the surveying level?

 

Thanks

Reuben

[Island Lescure]

Cheers for the advice Reuben! I am not sure what I want to do as yet. A bit of everything that I can do at this time really. I suppose it depends on what is available. Is there anything you would suggest to begin with?

I definitely want to keep progressing into consultancy and see where that leads me.

 

Cheers!

[ReubenHayes]

If you are looking for a good grounding of surveying then large baseline surveys will be your best bet! It will soon teach you if you still enjoying looking at trees when you are inspecting 100+ a day. There is good money if you get it all right and keep to your system. Have you seen that AEGM are looking for tree inspectors (I think down south, so if are willing to travel and stay somewhere it would be a good start). Otherwise have a look at who does the tree work for the LA in your area. Give them a call and see if you can do the inspections for them.

[Island Lescure]

Cheers! I have contacted AEMG recently and I am going to do some inspections in Ecclesall woods tomorrow with the LA.