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I am doing a questionnaire for a business startup program and am looking to ask people in the trade for mobile welding and thought this would be a great place to do it so here it goes all answers would greatly help me thanks!I am doing a quistionnaire on business start up for school and my focus is mobile welding so if any one has time to do this it would be a huge advantage for my report thanks and any other tips would be great too!1. What are some of the keys of success in this business?2. What are the most common problems in your business? and how do youovercome them?3. What was your most successful form of marketing or advertising?4. When are the slow/busy seasons? and how do you survive when it is slowand cope when it is busy?5. How did you determine your rates?6. What guarantees/warranties/discounts do you offer?7. What barriers ( legal, regulatory, financial or other) did you face inthe beginning?8. In the first 6 months what was your marketing strategy?9. From being in business, who are your most typical customers?10. Do you have any other advice for someone starting out?
Reply:A search on this forum would be a great place to start. Have you done this? The questions referring to barriers as in  license insurance or other governmental requirements vary state to state and city to city.  They should not be viewed as barriers but more like the gates that one must navigate to operate a business. It helps to assure the public and other business owners to know that you are not a fly by night hack. My state requires a 1 year warranty on all labor and materials, this is backed by me by my bond, held by the state.  Keys to a successful business, make a profit and grow. As to marketing that depends greatly on the budget you have for marketing.Rate determination, many volumes have been written on this subject. In a nutshell, determine your expenses, add a profit and you have a rate. Where it gets convoluted is in the calculation of the expenses. Too many new businesses either do not include items or simply no not know they exist. Common mistakes is not allowing enough for insurance, maintenance and other expenses not directly attributable to a single project. If insurance costs $1000.00 per year, then that cost is amortized against all the projects for that year.  If you know going in that you will only have 10 projects in that year than the calculation is simple. The bugger is when at the beginning you have no idea how many jobs you will have to spread the load of that fixed cost. Going on the old thought of looking at others in your area charging and using that as a baseline is reasonable only if the business you look at are well established. Any other advise? Sure be honest, honest with your self and honest with those you do business with. Business works best when entered into with a WIN / WIN goal. Cheating your self or others is the failing of most businesses. You will not undercut and survive, you can not buy work and survive.
Reply:great advice thanks