Looking for a bit of advice

Armourer

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Hey all, hope this is the right forum for this but here it goes!! I was laid off work in June due to COVID after 11 years in the energy sector, I never really enjoyed the work as the stress was extremely high and the business I worked for was hard to please but money was good. I had thought of quitting last year and going back to school for my passion which is machining. How ever, once again with COVID I am not wanting to go to school right now for a Machinist course, as I don't want to go to a large centre right now(I live in a small community of about 1,200) and risk the posiblilty of getting sick and passing it on to my family. So I have come up with a idea of a few products that I can make with my lathe and mill to offer for sale on the internet. Some of them I can make cheap, and have a good mark up. So I was thinking of starting my own business making these parts. I was just looking for a bit of advice, and guidance as to start up. I plan to list some of the items on eBay to sell, and also start a website eventually to sell from as well. First of all I am not looking to be a millionaire (well not yet :chunky:) but looking for enough money to help out in the house till COVID clears up and I feel comfortable going back to school, or even if my business takes off I will keep doing it which is my goal. What advice would you give to someone just starting up? What mistakes did you make if you started up a business?
 
Keep up with the paper work at least by the month. If you wait until the end of the year it can be overwhelming. Liability wise take a good look at your product and risk. You may want to form a LLC for protection. There are several here who market products made in their shops. Hopefully they can provide some good guidance.
 
I cant remember exactly but in Ontario you can make up to $30,000 before you have to collect HST. Saskatchewan would be similar. Save all receipts and have a good accountant. Put your income taxes in a separate account if you can’t save money.
I have been self employed for 17 years now. I can’t complain. Very stressful some days. Money is good.
Cheers
Martin
 
Definitely professional help, bookkeeping, accounting, lawyers, etc. are worth the cost.

But, operating a small business is definitely not easy (ask me how I know). If you can use tools you already have, and get product liability insurance cheap it might be worthwhile but doing your homework first is a must. Does your product have competition that will limit profits? Can you scale up if demand increases? How about support, returns, etc.

I'm not gonna tell you not to do it, we have a few members here who have found a good niche and make decent money. But I bet we have a lot more who have spent more than they ever made and turned an enjoyable hobby into something their spouse sees as a money pit.

Now for the advice.

If your passion is machining and you want to make money at it learn CAD and CNC programming. Most modern shops just employ a bunch of parts changers who run the same program all day long. There may be some demand for well rounded journeyman machinists but being a design engineer definitely pays better and you could definitely get an engineering degree in less time than it takes to become a journey level tool & die man.

If you want a career that pays well and doesn't take much to get started in though look into computer networking. An entry level certificate will get your foot in the door and six figures are definitely within reach after a few years. It won't wear out your body like working in a shop too and Covid has only increased the demand. My wife used to work for Cisco Networking Academy which has a bunch of different programs including the free Linux Essentials course I helped author.

It's a career that pays well, is going to be in demand for a long time, and you can often work from home if you like that kind of thing. Best thing, you can start learning about it from right where you are now with no other special equipment.

John
 
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