as I sit here getting ready to do another weekend of work I start missing my old job at the wood yard/logging operations. I miss running the equipment and I always keep thinking I wanna start a company and go out on my own and try it but how much experience did yall have before you went out on your own and I know some of yall where born into it so you got a lot of experience early on unlike some who had to wait till they could get a job later in life doing it. so my question is how much experience is needed to go out on your own.
Wow .. That's a tuff one.. You have to have enough knowledge to get the job done & not get sued..Lol You have to have SOME knowledge of Bookkeeping & Accounting, You have to be an Operator, a Mechanic & a Salesman.. THEN find the time to go & chase the "bid jobs".. & GO OUT & "look" at the land clearing portion of the biz.. OH & juggle your "life" around all of THAT.. I had 15 years exp. before I even THOUGHT ABOUT IT.. THEN, waited another 15 to actually do it. Wish I had done it when I "thought about it"..
One thing we did several years before I got started was keep our personal finances on the computer in detail for several years. If you are going to run a business you need to know how to keep your books every day and keep them correctly. Then you can tell if you are making money or losing it and you can have accountants look in on you occasionally and help you out. But I agree with TPG, start when you can, and you will gain experience as you go. Just be conservative, do what you can afford to pay cash for, make sure your jobs all stay in the positive and that you are getting paid for all the hours you work one way or another.
well I went to school 3 times now once for welding once for business management and then recently I went for operations and just finished that very annoying process I did logging for almost 3 years I dint do the logging I mostly did road building for them and unloading log trucks and pulling stumps never did to much grading just kind off eyeballed it and it worked everyone was happy then I did the purchasing of new equipment for the company as well and some other stuff when need so I have about 4 years running equipment if you count the 1 year in school and then a lot of damn time welding then almost 4 months at Walmart that isn't gonna help me at all here because I mean Walmart
yeah ive read somewhere it takes a company 5 years before they know if they are profitable and then if not there already in debt and have to shut down ive thought about going at it in about 2 years then just renting till I see money coming and feeling comfortable to take on actual debt
I make it a policy not to take on much/any debt. I know the conventional business wisdom is that debt is fine but my experience is that it is just a millstone requiring constant attention. Rather be the bank myself.
i have a payment on my car then other then that debt free had to get some credit going but other then that if I gotta have it I buy it or use my credit card and pay the card off every month
Well, I would get rid of the car payment to start. Credit cards are very good, they free you from vendors sometimes lame terms. Their terms are usually better (longer) but I agree, pay them off before the interest hits. They are there to float until customer checks come in and nothing else.
the answer to the question is different for everyone. i was born into it by the time i was out of high school i knew all about the business witch meant at that time i wanted no part in owning it at the time. 10 years later i have come back to the family business and after a year and a half of making it go i am not looking back but being born into it doesnt even prepare one for what it really is. TPG is right about juggling you just figure it out. like yesterday left the yard before 5 work all day at 4 in the afternoon one of the transports lost a ujoint 50 miles from the yard after getting it bandaided and limped in and got the parts it was after 8 when i got home last night and was out early this morning to fix it and do about a dozen other things. my dad has apologized more than once that he is not a banker cause this type of living is not for the faint of heart and it can be at times taxing on the home life. if you know how to do the work and run the jobs there is not a whole lot more experience to be gained while working for someone else cause you wont see the ownership side of it and the stress that can come from it. people skills is what i find to be them most difficult and customers can suck as bad or worse than employees if a business cant figure out witch way is up in the first year they wont make it to 5 and what eats most business in 5 years is a slow down with low cash reserves cause they have never been slow. debt can be useful this week and break you next week cause there is no guarantees for jobs and getting paid can be a real trick sometimes. all the debt i have are in leases and i have the cash to pay it off i finally had to buy some newer machines and was not sure that with all the electronics and emissons would be worth owning in 4 years time will tell sounds like your asking the right questions and have the right ideas use your head grow slowly it sounds stupid but you can sell more work than you could ever hope to do before you realize it. look for steady not big money high overhead work and no job to much to walk away from i wish i learned that earlier only you will know when your ready it wont be comfortable but it shouldnt fell like a world ending decision sorry got a little long
I think that helps me a lot in my quest for this because I went to school to learn grades because log yard I eyeballed it and it worked i enjoyed the machine minus the motergrader ran it twice broke it twice but i think i want my foot in the door
next year ill be done with the car payment ill never buy a new anything again after this experience
Great answer! It should be carved in granite somewhere for future business owners to view. It is important to have passion for what your doing. That passion or love of craft if you will is what keeps you moving forward on those days when you really just want throw in the towel. You will most likely need to be more financially savvy then at least I was. I based my outfit on punctuality and quality employees. That is when I told a customer that iron was going to land somewhere at a particular time it was there come hell or high water. I was blessed with outstanding people and very little turnover. If you have employees it matters very little what you do on the phone or in person with your customers, if your crew is not on board with you. Your employees in the field either operators or truck hands are you in the eyes of your customers! We worked very hard to provide the truck hands with premium trucks. I couldn't keep good hands with "less than" trucks. I expected you at times to spend very long hours in that truck so I strived to provide you one to be proud of. I payed well for the same reason. I needed those professional prideful guy's to make us collectively successful. They were more than truck drivers and operators... they were the living fabric of the company. Lastly when we had gotten to a point where I was shoving a pencil around and had a phone or two at once semi attached to the side of my head... I would go out and turn a working shift myself on a Saturday about once month. Mostly as a reminder to myself that what happened on my desk was going to have to be done in hours spent by one of our hands. My advice would be to hone those people skills they were way beyond the gear and trucks our biggest assets. I would fire that outfit up again if time were on my and my guy's side.
My dad worked extremely long hours to run his one man business. He'd come home after a full day from the main lab then work for a couple of hours till dinner in his home lab, eat and then go back down and work often till 1 in the morning. He did that for forty years. When he died back in February we shut it all down because I never learned his craft beyond the basics before I went to seek my own career. It's insane what a business owner has to go through to run a business even if you aren't working crazy hours like that. Not to mention the deck is stacked against you by the .gov.
When customers would rather talk to you than your boss.......
I agree with everything that has been said. To start, I think it helps to know the author and the audience - I am 47, was self employed at 20 with a welding "job shop". I have a BBA in management, 7 years in aerospace plastics and machining, 2 years in plastic machinery sales, and then went back to self employment as a welder/mechanic, managed a small hydraulic shop for a time then went back to self employed mechanic. I don't think I will ever work for anyone again. Things that I think are important: Passion in your field and/or in having a bank account. I have seen both passions work in successful entrepreneurs. And have seen both cause businesses to fail. A plan - "Failing to plan is the same as planning to fail" - if you know the business, then where are you going to get customers. If you have customers, then how will you profit from operating.... Learn how to use the basics of Microsoft Excel and use it to help see numbers to make decisions and organize your thoughts. No or little debt - you have to be able to survive little or no income for a period of time - it will likely happen. Get a good CPA to help with your taxes - taxes will force some kind of proper bookkeeping weather you want to or not. A GOOD CPA will know where all the write-offs are and direct you from quarter to quarter. They should be able to free you up to run your business. I think, of all the things I took away from business school one of the best things is - "identify your barriers". What will keep you from making it. Some think this is negative thinking, but to me it is simply part of planning. If you are going to be an employer - as mentioned above - your employees are you most important asset. They, unlike most single assets, can make you or break you, because they are unpredictable. If you hire the right ones and manage them correctly they will be more predictable and then you can plan accurately. And be prepared mentally for hiring, firing and a little turnover.
that is very helpful lot to take in but is a good point