I recently wrote this email to a group I belong to, in response to one GIS professional’s problems with a client. I’m publishing it here to provide some extra dialog about my consulting philosophy.
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Hi [name removed],

So sorry to hear about your difficulties with this client. The best type of client is someone who appreciates and wants to support small business, period. The other type of client does not appreciate anything. Is there anything in between? I’m not sure.

I am so thankful for all the wonderful clients I’ve had over the years who truly appreciate my contributions, and I try to return it tenfold by keeping them informed of all kinds of things they might otherwise have not paid attention to (recently I made a friendly suggestion to one client that they should get a twitter presence and helped them w/ some tips on how to get started). Thankfully I’ve only had two truly difficult clients in 10 years of having my own business. I won’t go into the details on those but my first principle is to always finish the work that I said I would do as I feel that is implicit even if there is no contract in place. After that I simply don’t do more work for them. Obviously you should not do more work for anyone who doesn’t value your time. You might also read up on workplace bullying and/or consultant bullying because it can and does happen. Establishing and maintaining a friendly relationship with your clients is also well advised because it is just much easier to deal with miscommunications and create a healthy amount of mutual respect. Always remember that you are your client’s peer and not your client’s subordinate. A subordinate stance will be death to the project and cause disrespectful feelings all around.

There’s a really great book called Crucial Conversations.

Some people will disagree with me concerning logos but I do not place a logo on maps that I make for people. They paid for it, it is theirs. I always furnish all files that the client requests and try to furnish everything up-front without them needing to request it. Including AI files. Your value isn’t in the AI file but in the skills that you have to create custom solutions so you aren’t giving that up at all. Giving them all the files is important because that’s what they paid for and I have found it increases my credibility (i.e., I’m going to give them as much value as I can). Personally, then, I would take my logo off and send them the AI files. I would then never work for them again because there’s a bad vibe going on there. But you’ll feel good about wrapping it up in a professional manner.

So basically only work for people who seem enthusiastic about you and seem to respect your expert opinion. In return, you’ll be enthusiastic about them and the project! I’ll bet this is just one little bad experience and that most of the rest will be much better. Most people are a pleasure to work with.

–G

This morning I was thinking about some seemingly disparate topics. One is that there are an awful lot of companies doing holiday themed maps, presumably to both have fun and show off their software capabilities. For example, here’s a turkey map just in time for Thanksgiving, from Esri:

There was also a Halloween themed map showing scary place names, a map showing the best neighborhoods to trick or treat (from the Census questions pertaining to neighborhood walkability within one mile), and so on. There are non-map examples of this too. Merriam Webster often has special articles showcasing words applicable to certain holidays.

Another one of my thoughts this morning was about the fact that there is a lot of geo data right now. It used to be that most of the GIS project work was focused on collection of data and analysis was almost an afterthought. But now, with many government organizations collecting more and better data and sharing it with the public in easily accessible ways (Census, USGS, etc.) and more companies putting together data in ways that make it easy to have a basemap or to analyze all kinds of data (Urban Mapping, GeoCommons, Esri, Natural Earth to name just a few), we are at a great place to start analyzing that data in more meaningful ways. I’m not saying the era of geo data collection is over. That’s still going to be going on for a long time. I’m just saying that there’s now a bunch of data out there that is just begging for some sense to be made out of it.

These two thoughts were turning around in my head, leading to this idea: we’re going to see people focusing exclusively on geo data analysis in the future. Perhaps they will be called cartographic statisticians.

These people will no longer concern themselves at all with collection of data or spending time finding data. They’ll be working with existing data catalogs full of variables that need to be examined in minute detail. These people will need both analytical skills and cartographic skills so that those results are effectively illustrated. Up until now most GIS jobs included GIS data collection and analysis. Sometimes they also included cartography and development (web development, software development). But this new niche that I really think will start to become more mainstream will focus only on analysis and cartography! Perhaps some would be turned off by the advanced statistics that would be required but some would embrace the challenge, I think. And, I do believe companies will hire for this type of position. We’ve already seen a bit of it in the marketing world (see tweets about turkey maps for example!) and we’ll definitely see more of it in government when this treasure-trove of data and its possibilities become more apparent.

One thing is for certain, it could be a very fun job. To have the creative freedom to just mash data together and determine correlations and perhaps even make a difference to any number of pressing social and environmental issues would make for an enjoyable career. Or maybe that’s just me. What do you think?

What things are you doing to share your knowledge with the cartography, GIS, or developer community? Everyone, even the newest professional, has something that they are adept at and that the rest of us can benefit from learning. What things are you doing that help create community, involve people, and allow for flourishing networks? Things you should consider doing are listed here. Feel free to chime in with any list items that I’ve left out.

• Submit a map to a conference map gallery
• Give a talk at: a conference, a university, a community college, your organization
• Start a brown-bag series at work
• Start a lightening talk gathering (Ignite Spatial, perhaps?) in your town
• Write-up how you did something and submit the how-to as a guest-post on a blog
• Make a screen-capture movie of your map or analysis process and share it on YouTube
• Write a book or manual and publish it (if it isn’t graphics intensive it is relatively easy to self-publish these days!)
• Submit an analysis or technique write-up to a GIS journal
• Submit an article idea to a GIS periodical
• Give an online workshop, webinar, teleconference , or google+ hangout on a subject you are passionate about
• If you have a question, post that question somewhere so others can benefit from the answer(s) too
• Be interviewed by a publication about your job duties, requirements, and accomplishments
• Teach a class
• Be a visiting speaker for a local community college’s GIS class
• Be a conference exhibitor
• Host a breakfast meet-up with colleagues

haakon_d Håkon Dreyer
@PetersonGIS Good post; could a mention of gis.stackexcange.com be an idea?

It is a great position to be in: you have made some profit in your business above and beyond what you need to survive. Congratulations! Now, would you like to go to Aruba or continue expanding your business? Hopefully you have made enough profit to do both, but in the event that your choice is to continue to expand – as it should be if this is the beginning of your business – here are some ideas on what to reinvest in.

To shore up your reinvestment willpower, remember that Alan Weiss of Summit Consulting Group and writer of the popular business blog ContrarianConsulting, says,

“My advice to solo practitioners and boutique firm owners in the professional services business is to never cease increasing your value and seeking out prospects, while solidifying current client relationships“in Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

ON FEAR: Do not be afraid to grow and expand your business by reinvesting profits. While it seems like everyone would naturally reinvest profits for future expansion, it is often not done because the business owner is afraid to spend their hard-earned money on activities that may or may not result in financial gain. However, the uncertainty of gain is a part of business itself and profitable enterprises have very little future if these types of maneuvers aren’t undertaken.

The issue then becomes, which one(s) to choose?

Improving Business Processes via Service Professionals

A lot of solo consultancies use accountants and attorneys, employing these people at the outset. The accountant can get the books started in a proper way, which is preferable to transitioning later from an ad-hoc system to something more efficient. An attorney can look over contracts that you are signing from your clients as well as help you develop your own contracts. The attorney is also used to protect your intellectual content on the internet and to provide you with valuable insight into procedures for successful business as well as referrals to local professionals who can assist you in other matters.

At some point you may also decide that it is time to start hiring sub-consultants to help you with your projects. There are entry-level freelancers who can take over routine tasks, allowing you to focus on the business or advanced work. There are peer-level consultants who you can swap work with when there’s too much to do or too little to do. There are subject-matter experts who you can hire to formally review your work or do a particularly high-level task that you don’t have experience with.

I’ve used sub-consultants in all three categories with great success. It is true that to do so you must give up some of your total revenue. However, it is very much worth it. A few years ago I had some tough analytics to work out and I decided that I needed a statistician PhD to go over everything and make sure it was sound. The few hours of time was worth the peace of mind that I was, indeed, delivering a quality analysis, and I learned several techniques in the process as well.

In the course of my 10-year old business I’ve hired on a contract basis a web developer, graphic designer, two entry-level GIS technicians, and many peer and expert level GIS and cartography professionals.

It is essential to reach out and get help on projects when needed. The aim is to always provide a superior level of service.

Improving Infrastructure

Computer hardware, especially memory and graphics cards, need to be top of the line in many organizations, GIS firms included. You may be stingy on your laptop purchase but go high-end with the desktop if you only need the laptop/netbook/tablet for Web work while on the road. You may need high-end laptops for client work on-site.

A larger firm may want to invest in a centralized server with which to share data and projects as well as disk space for backups. While I put this is the “infrastructure” section, these items can be virtual, of course, in the sense that the server, backups, and other items can be purchased as cloud services.

Whatever you need, this is something you can’t be stingy on. A company without the tools it needs to do its job is a company with a downward outlook.

Improving Software

This is a tough one. Many are turning to free and open source solutions. I have, in the past, used open source as an alternative to buying expensive add-ons for particular project tasks. If I were to be doing those project tasks on a daily basis, however, I would have purchased the expensive add-on as it would have made sense for efficiency purposes.

Developers can purchase hosting for wiki, source control, and task management software such as trac on various sites (e.g., wush).

When it comes to GIS and graphic design software, there still isn’t much way around purchasing high-end software when you do high-end work. However, subscription programs are now being offered for some software such as Adobe Illustrator that are perfect for consultants who only need that software a few times a year rather than every day.

Education

No one needs a recap on the rapid pace of business change these days. Continual education is your friend. Spending money on lectures, seminars, college courses, workshops, books, and trade journals are all things that should be considered in your profit reinvestment plan.

Karsten Vennemann over at Terra GIS, for example, teaches open source GIS classes in the Seattle area. Greg Babinski of the King County GIS Center teaches a URISA cartography class. These kinds of courses are generally a great return on investment because they are small and personal, with many opportunities to gain insights that you may not hear elsewhere.

When trying to narrow-down your educational focus, ask yourself what your core business is. My core business has always been geo-analytics (though as you know I am also a cartographer). To that end, purchases that I make in education are prioritized around my learning analytics. I have 6 books next to me, for example, that most people would consider enormously boring including Geostatistics for Environmental Scientists (Statistics in Practice) and Statistical Methods for Geography: A Student’s Guide but that are important references in my work.

Advertising

Advertising is a mixed bag. A business associate recently told me about how she did an in-kind exchange of services for a banner ad in a trade magazine. The ad was garnering many hits but not translating into sales. After tweaking the ad’s landing page so that it contained a personal message for those clicking through from the magazine and including “about us” verbiage, more of the clicks were turned into sales. Most of us wouldn’t have figured out that nuance to advertising success, and it took consultation with a marketing expert for her to finally succeed.

Advertising expenses, therefore, may need to include the hiring of a marketing firm to help you wade through the nuanced business of getting business. Depending on your particular niche, you may or may not need this.

The best form of advertising is usually word-of-mouth. How can we achieve the level of trust that is inherent in word-of-mouth referrals? Simple. By becoming an active member of your professional community, your home community, and other places where you can have actual relationships with people rather than a one-way hawking of wares. Often this can be achieved with no financial investment at all, though financial support (such as sponsoring a conference rather than just attending, for example) is a great way to give back.

Hiring

You can hire someone to sort all this out for you.  Remember, fringe benefits can run 30-50% of a full-timer salary. A contractor can often be better because you are matching skills to tasks. Don’t over-hire. Tread carefully when hiring a “double-you” who doesn’t have anything different or extra to bring to the firm. If you hire a “double you” and then double your business you haven’t really gained anything.

PERSONAL STORY: I’ve been tempted so many times to hire an executive assistant. There’s an article on executive assistants in an old issue of Harvard Business Review that I went to town on, highlighting and underlining all the tasks they typically help out with. An executive assistant can take a lot of advanced work off your hands such as editing, billing, research, as well as things like travel arrangements, scheduling, and communications filtering. However, this comes at a high price and you must be confident that the benefits to your efficiency and thereby to your business income will outweigh it. I still haven’t hired an executive assistant but this may be to my detriment.

Travel

There are times when I feel like an in-person client visit is important. In these instances, I’ll usually book a flight, one night at a hotel, and a car rental. I’ve stayed at friend’s homes before, and that is wonderful too, excepting that you might be a bit less rested than needed for the client meeting! Call everyone you know in the vicinity to ask them if they can meet with you while you are there. By booking as many colleague and client meetings as you can comfortably fit, you maximize the return on the travel investment. Don’t wait for a client to request your on-site presence. Take the initiative to build a real relationship (live! In person!).

Travel for conferences and conference fees also fall into this category. I’m not what they call a “professional conference attendee” but it makes sense to pay visits to the conferences that best suit you. If you must save money, I’ve heard that some people buy special “exhibit hall only” tickets. This allows you to visit with friends and colleagues and meet new people without being a full-out attendee.

What ways do you reinvest in your business?

* Please note that this article was originally written for and published in GISUser.com here, on June 15, 2011. Please feel free to add your own ideas on the topic in the comments. Thank you.

Most of us don’t hear much about GIS ethics in our day-to-day work. However, there are certainly moments that arise when we wish that everyone was following the same ethical guidebook that we are. This article focuses on two aspects of ethics that the GIS practitioner needs to be cognizant of: general business practices (important for consultants, non-profits, and government types alike) and GIS data. While it is true that GIS ethics discussions usually focus on data concerns, first we’ll present some of the more general business quandaries that arise. Be aware that neither discussion is exhaustive of the topics, as there simply is not enough space to discuss every potential pitfall.

GENERAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

While it should go without saying that gender, race, and other discrimination should not be present in written job descriptions (and is, in many cases illegal), it is true that our current trend toward informality in hiring practices lends itself to inadvertent discrimination. An example of this is the job announcement sent to friends and colleagues with a request for further dissemination that includes a description such as, “We are looking for an all-around GIS guy.” While the wording has been changed somewhat, this is essentially a true example of a recent email that, hopefully unintentionally, seems to exclude all females from applying for the position.

We must remember that, in general, ethics are not abused intentionally. Usually, ignorance, underlying good intentions expressed badly, or editing neglect are to blame for such ethics infractions. Sometimes the unethical conduct is due to the source simply not knowing that such conduct constitutes a breech in judgment. Without intent the infraction is not as wrong as if it were intended, but wrongdoing is still present. When something is expressed badly, however, it may be that the source simply did not take the time to properly edit. This also falls under the non-intent category but is still a wrongdoing.

Proposals are another good topic to discuss under the general GIS category. Those who review formal request for proposals (RFP) are generally well-versed in the handling of proposals and cost proposals, especially. Proposals can not be made publically available or distributed to the competitors. One cannot gather good ideas from several proposals, then hire the company that one wanted all along and tell the company to incorporate those competitor’s ideas. Time and cost estimates are, of course, confidential as well.

This concept of confidentiality may seem murky when applied to less formal proposals but it is no less so. For example, let’s say you sent out a statement to an email group saying that you would like help with a project. A company called AcmeGIS emails you to tell you how they could help you with the project. You then forward the response from AcmeGIS about how it would approach the project to a competitor of AcmeGIS without AcmeGIS’s approval. This would be a breech of ethics. There are two important concepts in this example. The first is that if you do want to discuss the proposed methods of a company to another company, it is imperative that the first company’s name be left off the correspondence and that the methods be rephrased such that the first company is not implicated. The second is that if you are submitting a response to a request for help, a better business practice is to be diagnostic in the proposal phase while saving the methods description for the delivery phase of a project.

One way to think about these issues is to consider that if an action is deemed as non-collaborative by anyone in the workgroup, then the action is likely to be unethical. Communication and mutual respect via proper citations, announcements of intent to bring in other opinions, and so on, are good ways to prevent this. Additionally, if you feel a breech of conduct has been made it is also important that this be expressed to the offending party. Letting an unethical action be carried out without an attempt to stop it or to acknowledge it is not okay.

GIS DATA

Moving on to the ethical considerations pertaining to GIS data in particular, one of the most important is to not misrepresent the data, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If your knowledge of the data is not adequate to ensure that misrepresentation will not occur, then you must seek that knowledge prior to data publication. If needed, represent the data in its most fundamental and literal form to prevent this from happening.

All results from GIS image analytical studies should be accompanied by a thorough estimate of error. While methods vary from rudimentary qualitative to highly quantitative error estimation, it is important that some effort be made on this front. Making it known that all model results are prone to error is important knowledge for the recipient of the data, who may not understand that errors of omission or commission will almost always be present in such analyses, though to varying degrees. Error estimates should also incorporate the level of precision and uncertainty involved in such data. For example, a watershed with 10% impervious surface as measured in 30 meter pixels may only have 7% impervious surface when measured via higher resolution imagery. The recipients of the data must understand the implications of these differences.

Another ethical consideration is that results of a GIS analysis need to be delivered regardless of what those results are. As scientists, we must not suppress results even if those results are contrary to the paying organization’s goals. And it should go without saying that the invention of data solely for the purpose of satisfying a client is unethical. If you are hired to provide a list of potential properties for a wealthy client to purchase for the purpose of ranching, for example, and no such qualifying sites are available, then an empty list must be the deliverable.

There are a lot of other topics that are important to GIS ethics but not discussed here, as this is certainly not a complete list. Citations of sources, for example, ought to be present on GIS mapping outputs. Forecasting of any sort must be carefully considered as to its implications (e.g., 100-year flood mapping). Implications toward human and environmental impacts must also be considered (e.g., warfare, oil drilling). The openness of data, whether public or private, is also important. While this article is too brief to discuss all of these issues, it is hoped that it spurs some discussion in the geocommunity at large. While statements such as, “You have a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards” are easy to agree to, they are essentially meaningless until we answer the question of what those professional and ethical standards are.

Okay people. I need to complain this morning. Recently I received a spreadsheet from a well-respected firm that does geospatial analytics and environmental assessments (much like my own firm). This other firm has plenty of employees, a pretty cool office, and so on. I really like them. That’s why I can’t figure out why they put together such a piece-of-you-know-what to send to everyone under the sun having to do with their project.

I’m saying this without even reading most of the content on the spreadsheet because I can’t get past the garishness of the thing! There are black lines everywhere, colored boxes denoting who knows what in ridiculously day-glo 70s colors, and trailing words that go off into never never land. This is not a professional product. This is a travesty! By the way, they even put their logo on it.

I really wish I could provide a sample here for your review. However, I’m practicing my professional restraint. Something perhaps they ought to have done as well?

Everything that comes out of your professional office needs to be in top shape. I mean everything, cartographic products, spreadsheets, reports, and web designs. If it isn’t fit to send to everyone in the world then it needs to be clearly marked as “for your eyes only.”