About Bryan and His Entrepreneurial Journey… Bryan Brown began his entrepreneurial journey growing up in East Central Nebraska in the community of Shelton1 (2020 population of 1,034). He attended Shelton High School and started college. Finding traditional college not a great fit Bryan explored attending Southeast Nebraska Community College’s Milford Campus2 and after spending some time “thumbing through SECC’s course catalogue” Bryan decided to focus on land surveying. As it turns out, both Southeast Nebraska Community College and surveying proved to be a great fit for Bryan and his career, and eventually, his startup business.
After graduation Bryan took a job with Olsson3 in Grand Island near his home of Shelton. For a decade while Bryan worked for Olsson, he learned the land surveying trade and business. He shared Olsson was a great employer and work experience. At Olsson he undertook surveying work from Ogallala toWeeping Water meeting clients and learning how this industry works. When asked about his reason for leaving a great job with benefits, Bryan responded that he had been thinking about going out on his own for several years conducting analysis into costs and markets.
While attending surveying industry professional development conferences working for Olsson, he observed that “…that surveyors was an aging out industry.” When asked to explain, Bryan noted that professional surveyors in the Great Plains were getting older, approaching retirement, and feeling there was room for new blood. There was both motivation and opportunity laying the foundation for Bryan’s eventual decision to create Brown Surveying Services. But taking this step to go out on his own and become an entrepreneur he faced hard decisions with family responsibilities including a wife, six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. He spent time doing his homework and talking expensively with his wife making sure of their decision. Taking time to talk things through with one’s spouse and family is critically important advice for other entrepreneurs thinking of leaving a great job to become a business owner.
Brown Surveying Services… In March 2024 Bryan, as sole owner-operator, launched Brown Surveying Services based in Shelton, focusing on surveying work in Central Nebraska. He was a licensed land surveyor providing multiple lines business including boundary determination, ALTA4 surveys, property line surveying, and construction work. Now 18 months into his new entrepreneurial venture Bryan has found that there is lots of work with relatively few other service providers. He has learned to work with clients fine tuning his skills with bidding, doing the work, and billing for work… critically important business skills!
Early on he struggled a bit with how much to charge including setting his overhead amount essential for establishing hourly billing rates. With experience he refined his billing rates and now jobs come to him by “word of mouth” focusing more on when he can schedule the work versus the likely cost. He has established a strong reputation for good and fair work. His biggest challenge now is the volume of possible work driving his consideration to hire help and expand.
Bryan has traditional Nebraska values rooted in building a reputation for doing good work generating customer loyalty. He does not spend much time on marketing as former clients are referring him to new clients. He believes in “relationship” versus “transactional” business. Being known as someone who owns his work and provides it at a fair price is important to Bryan and is rural Nebraska’s business model! Bryan does not get all bids. With more work than time, he can lose a bid because he cannot get the work done when the client wants it completed. In those cases, he recommends other surveyors demonstrating his client focus.
Bryan is off to a great start and provides important lessons for other individuals considering going into business for the first time. He is planning to grow by adding another surveyor to his business.
Helping Hands… When I asked Bryan “who has helped him on his entrepreneurial journey,” he paused and then began to list folks. He shared that his wife was an important sounding board giving him 100% support. His family, including his in-laws and friends, have been helpful as well, including Rich and Amy Anderson, his wife’s aunt and uncle, they both provided him with a lot of support, encouragement and confidence to go back to school after dropping out of UNK5 and not having a clear career path figured out. Bryan also noted that he and wife agreed to cut back spending that allowed him to pay down initial startup business debt quickly. This sacrifice means that Brown Surveying Services is debt free and positioned for growth. Another important lesson for other entrepreneurs.
He also spent time talking about Olsson and his three individuals (e.g., both bosses and colleagues – Grant Miller, Jai Andrist, and Jesse Hurt) who taught him the surveying business and trade. They were mentors and while disappointed he was leaving Olsson to go out on his own, they supported him. Ten years of experience provided Bryan with foundational positioning for taking this giant step of creating his own surveying business.
Bryan also noted his experience at Southeast Nebraska Community College and Milford’s faculty and fellow students. He appreciates the great education he received that allowed him to become a professional surveyor.
Finally, Bryan received financial support from the Nebraska Small Business Assistance Act (NSBBA) Program6. He employed his grant funding to purchase additional surveying equipment essential for hiring a new employee enabling more work. Having an employee will allow Bryan to focus more on the business end, including finding additional jobs. Bryan shared that Starr Lehl with GROW Nebraska was most helpful. He had never applied for a government program before, but Starr helped him through the process. When he first applied for the Program in 2024, he was not eligible, but Starr reached back in 2025, helping him acquire essential expansion funding.
We wish Bryan and Brown Surveying Services our best! At 35 Nebraska has another professional meeting critical needs in agriculture and construction.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelton,_Nebraska
2 https://www.southeast.edu/about/locations/milford-campus.php
3 https://www.olsson.com/
4 ALTA is the American Land Title Association.
5 UNK is the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
6 https://grownebraska.org/nebraska-small-business-assistance-act/
