It was a Very Big Forest Inventory Deal that was No Big Deal
We learned long ago that with government clients we need to document Everything and never do anything without a Written Contract, and when you challenge them, they will freely admit that they do not need to honor their word because it “wasn’t in writing”. And even with a strong contract, they far too often refuse to pay using many of the weasel clauses that you often find in government contracts, and I have seen other companies go into bankruptcy fighting to get paid on these contracts.
This is not always the case, we have had a few good government projects, which worked well but they do not override the reputation of the other commies in the government who feel that it is ok to screw over a contractor while saving a dime for the government to waste somewhere else.
But for our corporate clients, Honor is a very big thing, and everyone knows that their reputation is constantly on the line, so our agreements with them are not generally written until we have fleshed out the project and the agreement is more of a list of expectations than a contract. And these are seldom small projects, rather they are generally five or six figure projects which involve a lot of time and expertise.
And the corporate clients Always pay us well for a job well done.
A while ago, when I got a call from a fellow that I had met on Linkedin from a state that we had been trying to make a presence in for a while, I was excited. 
He spoke about an inventory project that would morph into a long term contract on several hundred thousand acres.
After a half hour on the phone with this fellow from a Quasi Corporation, I set out to do my research for our call scheduled for the next week.
I researched the former inventories on the land, the accessability of the land, and many other important issues and I had a good idea of what we should see when our boots hit the ground out there.
I also researched what it would cost for the inventory, since even corporate folks need to know what they will have to invest in a project.
It was going to be a little expensive since our crews would be dependent on airplanes and helicopters to get into almost all of the parcels of this forest. Our crews are frugel and do a lot of camping out so our flight cost would be low compared to others but is still expensive to drop off and move crews and gear once a week to various remote parcels.
After spending a week planning the project I called the client back and discussed the project plan with him for a while.
Then my DIY radar started to go off, and I asked him a few essential questions before he admitted that they were not really interested in hiring us, just needed some ideas on how to do the job, and they would be getting a government grant to pay their own people to do the work.
I quickly changed gears and suggested that he hire us as advisors to plan the project and train their members in how to do the work, this would allow the project to be done well and provide local wages.
This did not seem to interest him too much but he did offer to take it to the council if I would write up all my recommendations and plans and send them to him.
By this time my radar was firing quite well and quasi corporations were leaning a little too much toward being classified as government agencies than reputable corporations.
I did not spend another week polishing up the blueprint for his project, just wrote it up as A Big Deal that turned out to be No Big Deal.
picture credits
- Woodland Management Service
- Morgue files
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