Engineering 60 Second Pitch II - Pile Relief

Another racy little 60 second elevator pitch for those Engineers out there, who are still looking for ways to connect with non-engineering businesses.

Note: This post was inspired by Richard Salmon. Please follow him on Twitter :-)

I hope you have success with it, and please let me know how it went!!

Good morning my name is  [insert name] , I'm a structural engineer and we are  [insert company name] . 

As a follow on from last week’s request for chimney breast removal referrals, this week we are doing a special run on pile relief for our clients.

It sounds amazing, but some of you may not be aware, that the majority of soil upon which foundations are built in the area of St Albans [and in general Hertfordshire], are clays. Surprising is it not?

The combination of naturally formed clays and nearby trees means that sometimes, traditional mass concrete foundations are so deep that they become impractical to construct. Therefore, painfully expensive piled foundations may have been specified as the next best thing.

Not necessarily. One of the weapons in our arsenal to help relieve our clients of their piles, is a concrete raft foundation. This effectively spreads heavy loads across the whole footprint of the building.

If you hear of anyone having trouble with piles, then please prescribe them a meeting with [insert company name] .

My name is [insert name], and we make the pain of piles disappear, for good :-)

Engine[er]

6 Golden Rules for Structural Engineering Start-Ups

We are rare beasts. Why aren't structural engineers as common as architects?

Firstly, the law of supply and demand suggests that since engineers spend less time on construction projects than architects, and that we need several architects to keep us busy, then logically there will be less of us out there to fulfil what the market needs.

It makes perfect sense to me. How about you?

Therefore if we follow this line of thought, perhaps we can draw some further conclusions.

Firstly. To win enough work to keep ourselves and/or our employees busy earning money for the business, we must try to be on as many architects, contractors and developers short lists as possible. This will give us more project opportunities.

Great. How's this done? Lucky for us, some golden rules do apply.

When I left my last employer and set out on my own, I was not intending to move to a different area, I wanted to live and work in Hertfordshire. The difficulties began when I took the decision to remain outside of my previous employers client base. This was tough, but i am still managing to do it. In fact I recently refused some work, passing it on to a fellow engineer because I felt it to be unethical to accept it. It is especially tough for us first time business owners who have not yet nurtured a network of business colleagues in our geographical areas.

Very tough indeed.

I've been self sufficient [8 months], built my client base up from zero, and I have enough work to keep myself busy, and 2 part-time subcontractors.

How did I do all this?

The very short answer is - lots of hard work raising my profile. The longer answer follows on from here.

Even though I am still very busy building an exciting new client base, I am also managing subcontractors, gazing into my crystal ball, predicting where the next few weeks of work will come from, and somewhere in between - I personally complete enough work to keep my business running healthily.

With that in mind, I am happy to share with you 6 Golden Rules to help you get started becoming a self sufficient structural engineering entrepreneur. Please bear with me here, as I am assuming that you are ethical, and do not intend to directly OR indirectly subvert work from a previous employer.

So here goes.

1. The amount of work out there is FINITE. No matter which way you look at it, if you are not doing work for a particular architect/contractor/developer, then someone else is. THEREFORE, if you are winning that work, then your competitors are not. You have to be absolutely clear on that fact. I hope you are now beginning to understand who you need to compete with to remain in business. DO YOUR HOMEWORK ON THEM! You know who they are.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Try not to undercut your competition. Out perform them, make yourself available and provide a great service.

2. Market research. Yes, horrendous isn't it? We spend 10-15 years at university and in consultancies, building up the necessary knowledge and confidence to strike out on our own... and just as we do, we then have to assume the identity of a flouncy creative marketing type, just to pull in some work. How embarrassing.

NOTE: you could employ a marketer here, if you have the savings available. But trust me, only you will understand your business aspirations and technical strengths. The marketing strategy you employ should be centred around YOU, and not just what you are capable of delivering.

Ask yourself searching questions about what kinds of work you will be comfortable with. Do it now before it's too late, and for Gods sake - write down your conclusions. Sorry to disillusion you at such an early stage, but we are a technical resource. We are not special in anyway... but you as a person... well let's just say there's only one of you.

TOP TIP: Cold call potential clients. Prepare for the conversation with 10 questions, and grow a thick skin. Write everything down. I said that already didn't I?

3. Your third realisation must be that by simply setting up a stall called 'structural engineer for sale' will not get you any meaningful work by itself. An effective strategy would be to get a notepad, and fill it full of your access passwords to freely available online classified websites, social networks, and professional profiles. It is seriously important in this age to get your net presence as pervasive as possible. MAKE EACH AND EVERY PROFILE ENTRY CONSISTENT. This will help the search engines identify you.

Be a tart, be you. Find me at @AvatarEngineers. I'm a tart.

4. Architects are well know for being fussy and only referring to their clients responsible professionals. Quite right too. This means that you must be a fully paid up member of the institution WITH insurance. If you cannot afford to buy yourself professional indemnity insurance then forget engineering [full-stop]. We may personally enjoy taking on a risk or two in our line of work [educated risk obviously], but if you were to fall foul to a heavy claim, and subsequently found to be negligent, then you could be saying good bye to your car, or your house as a result [or both!]. Not to mention your career and possibly your freedom. PII will not save you against the latter 2 unpalatable but rare outcomes.

5. Be natural and consistent. This has been touched upon previously. What this does for you is any potential business referrers will see you as predictable, reliable and a safe bet as a result. Being natural is just about being you, enjoying your work and not stressing too much. You should also be striving for this 'feel' with your marketing voice. The up and coming generation are a social networking generation. If you fancy working for and with them on cool projects in the foreseeable future, then get an online mojo and flaunt it.

One of the best compliments I have ever had was from an architect friend of mine. We met up just after I had started up my company. She had read my blog and commented that my whole online persona was identical to my real life persona. She congratulated me on a job well done. We all should strive to deliver our personal message as best as we can.

6. Network. Yes yes and yes! Tart yourself about a bit. Learn from other business people, ask questions. BE INQUISITIVE. Early on I managed to find a great networking group local to me who are doing fantastic business with one another. It is a great way to raise your profile, and be known as a team player. Life's a team sport, sign up and stake your claim.

In this post I have avoided talking about the lists of essential engineering skills which you will need to master in order to survive as an engineer in the real world, but you will already own these - because you are thinking about setting up on your own, aren't you.

We all have a responsibility as engineers to raise our profiles, even if we do not yet have the fantastic honour of working for ourselves. Our engineering community is a small one, and the faster we get noticed as creative, industrious, and reliable professionals - the easier it will be for us, and all of our fledgling engineering entrepreneurs.

I am constantly telling everyone how great we are. More often than not though, I have been informed that I do not fit the 'template' for a typical structural engineer.

This is disappointing. But the way I see it is, the more people who I meet that have those preconceptions about us structural engineers - the better. You see I can help change that particular mindset, one client at a time. With everyone's help that is.

Could you do the same? If so, contact me.


Engine[er]

Location:The Peahen, St Albans, Hertfordshire