Quantity Surveying - Professional Construction Industry Services

An analogy I find useful when describing my work philosophy is that throughout human history, the most efficient armies have always been composed of paid professionals. This is not coincidence.

Professional persons paid a premium for their expertise take pride in their work and are also not afraid to take on tasks that others would hesitate to get involved in because ultimately they are better able to judge real risks given that their livelihood depends on their results.

The primary reason I work exclusively in a freelance capacity (and have done so for the last 7 years) is because temperamentally I very much dislike inefficiency.

An employer who is similarly professional understands that the very tiny premium paid to such professional persons pays for itself many times over in the long run. Employers who understand this philosophy and honour it, have invariably obtained the best results from me.

With every employment I had, I have invariably paid for my fees many times over within a relatively short period of time, and I have NEVER lost an employer money. Ever.

A good Quantity Surveyor can truly make a huge difference to a project's financial viability, profit margin, value engineering, asset recovery and many other things.

As an example, in the last long-term project I worked on, which was essentially a claim issue, over a period of some 15 months or so I was paid a total of something just in excess of £60,000 with a very small bonus at the end of it. The original expected target for my work was a return of £300,000. The actual return gained from my work (the claim) was in excess of £1,000,000. Had I been paid only 10% of the amount of monies I generated for the firm in question I would have almost doubled my salary. I have often offered my employers to pay me only a small percentage of the profits I would make them, but funnily enough, they have always refused this option, which to my mind proves my point that what I should be paid for is not my "presence" or my "time", but the results I achieve.

My loyalty to an employer who understand this approach to our working together is beyond reproach, and it also allows me to perform at my best, knowing we are all working toward the same goals as a well-organised team.

You may also wish to note my notes on the way I work here paying particular attention to the items headed in red.