starting a business

admin

so this isn't going to happen anytime soon because i still have a lot to learn but i'm curious, i was wondering if anybody who's ever owned or owns there own shop had any advice on opening a shop? any and all information is appreciated.thanks.
Reply:Call your insurance agent now. As a matter of fact, call 5 or 6 of them. Be ready to answer ridiculous questions. Fill out applications that have more pages than applying at the CIA.Wait, Wait some more. Wait longer. Call them...get voice mails and secretaries. Wait more. Swear and spit. Wait more. Get called with a quote. Laugh loudly because crying is for girls.Finally after about 3 months have 2 offers. Reasonable offers. One is 4 times as much as the other. Call first guy tell him can't take his policy because of price. Hear him cry.Other than all that (sorry), I've had pretty good luck with the local SBA. Pretty helpful and free.Most important thing is have something to offer. A lot of welders/fabricators out there. Some good, some not so good, some great, some not worth the stuff I drag up in the cattle lot. Be ready to be 75% business man and 25% fabricator. Whatever you do has to be better than the next guy. Or you can compete on price and learn to really like peanut butter sandwiches. Best of luck, AlA man is judged by what's between his legs...always ride a good horseMiller DialArc HFLincoln Classic 300DThermal Arc 181iPowermax 45Scotchman Ironworker(2) BridgeportsOkomota Surface GrinderAutoCAD 2010
Reply:Be willing to work twice as hard for half as much.Expect no pay the first year.Dealing with public is a PIA.More people than you believe will try to stiff you. It's just business you know.Start out fly-by-night, and as things go solidify your position. Get permits, insurance, hire accountant, ect. That way you won't lose your shirt too bad if you have to bail. You will find out soon enough if this kind of life is for you.Being a small business owner has little rewards and lots of headaches. You will always be considered a target. Good luck, but be willing to walk away if it does not work out.Last edited by shovelon; 03-16-2012 at 10:26 AM.Reason: tiredWeld like a "WELDOR", not a wel-"DERR" MillerDynasty700DX,Dynasty350DX4ea,Dynasty200DX,Li  ncolnSW200-2ea.,MillerMatic350P,MillerMatic200w/spoolgun,MKCobraMig260,Lincoln SP-170T,PlasmaCam/Hypertherm1250,HFProTig2ea,MigMax1ea.
Reply:Do it for fun and free and eventually you may find out it has turned into a paying business. It helps if you can get an income from say a working wife or welfare while you build the basic structure of relationships and word of mouth advertising that it will take to be self supporting. I've been success-full at starting a lot of small businesses.  They all failed within the first year.  Mac
Reply:Originally Posted by Tool MakerDo it for fun and free and eventually you may find out it has turned into a paying business. It helps if you can get an income from say a working wife or welfare while you build the basic structure of relationships and word of mouth advertising that it will take to be self supporting. I've been success-full at starting a lot of small businesses.  They all failed within the first year.  Mac
Reply:Originally Posted by Tool MakerDo it for fun and free and eventually you may find out it has turned into a paying business. It helps if you can get an income from say a working wife or welfare while you build the basic structure of relationships and word of mouth advertising that it will take to be self supporting. I've been success-full at starting a lot of small businesses.  They all failed within the first year.  Mac
Reply:Originally Posted by turkHow were they successful if they failed in the first year?
Reply:Originally Posted by turkHow were they successful if they failed in the first year?
Reply:Harlee,If the area you're going to work needs a welding shop or welding services (?) and you're decided to 'give it a go' (?) then I have a few pointers that I learned from starting a welding business sometime ago that I think may help your business.I was pretty young and energetic and thought the welding and building aspect of the work was 90% and all the other aspects  like working with people/clients/customers and the business and accounting side of things were 10% or less.It took some hard knocks to realize that the percentages I thought were  100% wrong.  It turned out I needed lessons in working and communicating with other and lots of business lessons. So like most small business owners I paid to learn these lessons by not profiting from my work for a while. Then when I did make profits, I spent them learning about the business aspects that I didn't know.Overall, I'd say that good communications with customers is most important because the quality of those communications usually controlled the quality of their experience with my business.If I did a poor job of informing them of every detail/cost/time/result then they went away unhappy and didn't come back.  When I finally learned to do a good job of communicating, I found that only the 'real' customers stayed and they returned.  Good communications put off those customers who were coming to a new, young, inexperienced builder to get an advantage- not to pay market value.Clear drawings, plainly worded contracts or simple 'work order forms' with drawings and description, and clear cost estimates all formed the basis of my learning to communicate well.Without these items in place, I would constantly get into confusion about what the client expected versus what I was building for a given price.If you have a failure to communicate you and the client don't have a valid agreement and you should NOT take the job.  I was inexperienced and thought getting the work was the 'best thing' but it turned out that most of my headaches were self induced- once I learned to communicate well (fast, accurate drawings, binding agreements, deposits for work, 'sharp clauses' in  contracts, and accurate BOM's ) business became profitable and enjoyable.Before that, well.... not so much; most of us paid, in more than one 'coin', to learn these types of things.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Very well said Kevin.AlA man is judged by what's between his legs...always ride a good horseMiller DialArc HFLincoln Classic 300DThermal Arc 181iPowermax 45Scotchman Ironworker(2) BridgeportsOkomota Surface GrinderAutoCAD 2010
Reply:Kevin,Very well stated.  Thanks for sharing your input with the rest of us here.  I'm seriously considering starting my own business in the near future... and I'm paying close attention to what you are saying.   (Not in welding.. another direction for me...) Originally Posted by Kevin Morin...once I learned to communicate well (fast, accurate drawings, binding agreements, deposits for work, 'sharp clauses' in  contracts, and accurate BOM's ) business became profitable and enjoyable.
Reply:As the saying goes . . . Being in business for yourself is great! You get to work a lot of half days . . . Just pick any 12 hours of the day you want.Best advise I can give is go to work for the kind of shop you want to start and be a sponge. Learn every thing you can about how they run their business. From paperwork, suppliers, bidding, get exposed to as much as you can. Find an outfit that has a good reputation for knowing what they are doing and you will learn good practices and procedures. Find out which equipment is required to be efficient at different types of fabrication. What kind of work is jobbed out? What type of work has the best profit margin. After 2 or 3 years quit and do the same with a different company, they will have different ways of doing things, some better, some not as good. Work your a$$ off and be the best employee you can, this is your college education. Learn everything you can about all you can. All this time you should be saving money and collecting equipment you will need to start your own shop. After a while you will start to see what it takes to run your own business and see if you really want to run your own show. Having employees can be a real headache, but if you can keep them busy and they are good workers it's the best way to make real money. You only have so many hours in the day and it's the welding, fabricating that brings in the money, but it's the estimating, bookkeeping, insurance, purchasing, payroll, phone calls, marketing and 1000 other things that suck up your time but have to be done, but those activities don't pay any bills.A lot of people have a romantic notion of how great it would be to start their own business, be their own boss etc etc. Yes, it can have it's rewards, but if the part you enjoy is welding and fabrication, you won't be doing as much of that as you think unless you are the sole employee. At least go into it with your eyes wide open and a fat savings account to get you through the first year or two.Good luck