It is vital you know this information before you commit yourself to land subdivision costs and so Engineer or Land Surveyor are very important not only at your investigation stage, but also when you proceed with land subdivision planning application preparation and lodgment with your Local Authority. These guys will do all that work for you.

So what does all that add up to?

Yes, you should go Local Authority in your area of world that handles Town Planning and study their Town Plan.

You may even be able to get a photo copy of that area of plan that concerns your land. Read local By-Laws about type of land subdivision you plan to do.

Next, if you don’t have a recommendation as to which Engineer or Land Surveyor to use, do as I suggest in my e-book, Residential Development Made Easy, go and interview several of them in your area.

Remember, as you are low on experience, interview is your opportunity to find someone with whom you feel comfortable on a personal level.

* Do they ‘talk down’ to you and treat you as though you’re a mug?

* Are they information givers?

* Do they explain things to you?

* What land subdivision are they currently working on?

* Where is their most recently completed land subdivision?

You don’t have expertise in profession, so use you own instincts.

When you find one that suits you, Do Not start off your relationship, by attempting to haggle over professional fees he proposed to charge you.

If you have interviewed several professional you will know range of fees charged, BUT you do not know extent or range of work firm has to carry out.

So to haggle with a professional based on such skinny information, tells professional that they should avoid you by a mile.

I have developed over $1.2 Billion worth of real estate and have never in my life haggled over a professional fee and reason is simple.

* First: I believe everyone is entitled to a profit from their endeavors, provided they do a good job.

* Second: If you land subdivision financial feasibility study is so marginal that you have to save a few thousand dollars by screwing fees of your professional consultants, then either you have a bad development or you are just a bad employer.

* Third: I believe in incentive. I prefer to pay a guy more than he asks. Guess how he performs for me as opposed to clients who don’t.

Author & $1.2 Billion Real Estate Developer, Colm Dillon, Has Written The Best Selling & Only 'How To' E-book, "Residential Development Made Easy," With Readers in All States in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland and 79 other Countries. His independent web site is http://www.realestatedevelopmentcoach.com

To mitigate this problem consider using rights management software to protect your sensitive business data. Content rights management software not only encrypts files, but also serves to enforce access and limit usage privileges such as forwarding, editing and printing. These protections are persistent and remain with your files no matter where they travel. Any business that frequently exchange medical, financial, legal or design data should make regular use of encryption and content rights management technologies

Some established providers include: -Authentica: www.authentica.com -Essential Security Software: www.essentialsecurity.com -Microsoft IRM: www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/rightsmgmt/default.mspx

ESTABLISH A PERIODIC BACKUP STRATEGY

Periodic backups are required to ensure business continuity in case of an accident such as a hard-drive failure or attack. In a networked environment full and incremental data back-ups can be programmed to take place at regular intervals. Small offices environments should backup their sensitive data external hard-drive or cd at least once a week. It is good policy for companies to back-up email as well. Back-up data should be stored off-site in a secure location. Be sure to test your backup processes to ensure that indeed your data can be restored lieu of an operational failure.

Secure off-site data storage providers: -Iron Mountain: www.ironmountain.com -First Backup: www.firstbackup.com -KastenChase: www.kastenchase.com

USE STRONG PASSWORDS

Passwords are used to authenticate identity of an individual user. Unless otherwise protected, once a password is broken your sensitive data is exposed. With free software that is readily available on web, most passwords can be broken in a number of minutes. These programs often use known words and phrases to break passwords frequently beginning with “password” and “admin”. For good password security use a combination of upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols (i.e. eR8>!tJd ). Make sure that your employees memorize their passwords and that these are not written down anywhere on premises.

HIRE A SECURITY CONSULTANT

While tips in this article will help your company to be more secure; every business is different and requires its own security strategy. Consider hiring an independent security consultant to asses your individual security situation. They will be able to help you create a comprehensive security policy that will meet your business needs.

EDUCATE YOUR EMPLOYEES

No security plan is effective unless followed by your employees. Measures can be taken to severely limit their privileges such as browsing internet, reading email, or preventing reading of files from USB drive or cd. However, draconian security measures can interrupt workflow and damage productivity. A better policy is to limit some user privileges while educating your employees about your company’s security policies.

Visit www.essentialsecurity.com