What machine business have you operated?

[P. Waller]

A local lawn service contractor brought me one of his trailers that was heavily damaged, it was full of mangled equipment, mowers, blowers, edgers, rakes, shovels and so on, the common equipment that suburban lawn technicians carry, I asked him what happened.

His crew was cutting a lawn on a 2 lane street, this street has white lines down the center and a white line on each side delineating the full width shoulders. The truck and trailer were parked on the shoulder, along comes an ancient geezer in a Crown Vic driving along the shoulder like it is the right lane, as they do. He perfectly nails the beaver tail ramp like a baseball pitcher throwing a strike, a 10 from all of the judges, this destroys everything that wasn't in use. No one was injured, the airbags kept the old codger safe. A picture would have been taken today but this was pre-smartphone in the ancient year of 2001.

 

[samthedog]

I own 2 businesses and have run my metal-shop for paid work in the past. The problem with being a small job shop is that it isn't scalable. It has a high up-front cost and the skills required to conduct the operations take a considerable time to master. Where I have made my money is on jobs that large companies needed done immediately and the lead time for their regular supplier was too long. In these situations, I generally make $180 an hour plus material costs and do these after hours - if I feel like it.

I generally don't deal with small clients or back-yard repairs. I help out my friends but I always keep things clearly differentiated as a paid customer or friend and never mix the two. What is unusual is that I work in subsea oil and gas, own a business consultancy and software company and do paid machining jobs from time to time. If you want to make money, then your goal needs to be finding a niche, good customers and focus on scalability. The product or service is figured out after the customers needs, pains and goals are established.

Paul.

 

[Janderso]

I don't know if this applies, back in the early 1980's, I was hired as a manufacturing and distribution manager in Benicia Ca.
The Company name was Westar. We manufactured, Incrediball. It was a soft polyeurethane ball stitched with a nylon cover. The owner purchased some baseball winding equipment down in Port-Au-Prince Haiti. We closed down the plant and I set-up the equipment and overhauled the baseball machines. The, "Reach Brand" machines were heavy iron made in the 1920's. That was my introduction to heavy iron.
We made baseballs of all quality levels, we also made 12" (softballs). Rawlings, Spaulding, De-Beer (sp?) were all down in Haiti at that time.
I was always very mechanical and was known to be able to fix just about anything. I still do ok.
Easton Sporting Goods purchased the company and moved production to Taiwan. It looks like they are still for sale!!
Anyway, that was another life ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Easton-SoftS...pID=51fbqkLJhuL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[KBeitz]

I worked at a Textile factory and over heard the boss saying they paid $$$$ for a yarn rack.
I told the boss that was outrageous... He said do you think you can do better? That started
my business. I made all kinds of textile machines until textile left the good old USA. Now
my shop makes money going to the junkyard and bringing home things people trash because
they could not find anyone that could fix them. It's just unbelievable what people trash today.
I also make wood working machinery.

 

[Bob Korves]

My dad advised me as a teenager never to turn a hobby or other pastime into a job. Not only is it difficult to make money that way, and possibly lose money instead, but it also tends to take away the joy from the things you do for fun. I don't know if I totally agree with dad's advice, but I have followed it all these years and it has served me well. I always worked for an employer I could put up with, doing interesting work, and who paid me decently and regularly, and I played with my hobbies and sports on my own time, strictly for enjoyment. I still follow that path. People ask me to make them something in my shop for money, and I tell them I only do my fun stuff for fun... YMMV...