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Am I not smart?
- Thread starter Spittingchips
- Start date
- Replies 136
- Views 15,576
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
I can see this thread going nowhere
CarbideBob
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2007
- Location
- Flushing/Flint, Michigan
Antarctica
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Location
- Annapolis, Maryland
F-it. If you're already in, you're in. Sometimes it just takes a big sack to make it. I'll be rootin' for ya.
For the sake of the rest of us, start a shop thread...
For the sake of the rest of us, start a shop thread...
Antarctica
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Location
- Annapolis, Maryland
Oh yeah, at 30, there's still time to recover. So go for it.
Doug
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2002
- Location
- Pacific NW
I say to the OP, go for it. I dropped out of engineering at about the same age for self employment. My circumstances were slightly different, but overall more same they different.
john.k
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Location
- Brisbane Qld Australia
Ive run machine shops and maintenance for 50 years on and off....I also have a bit in the bank at 70.....why?... ,because the industrial land I bought in 1975 sold for $1m in 2020,and this crazy real estate boom has made my falling down shack of a house worth $5 million plus for land value................forgot to mention......all TAX-FREE.
Doug
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2002
- Location
- Pacific NW
Yep, same for me, it's not exactly tax free though. When the zoning was changed on my shop building to multi-unit residential I was swamped with offers. Wanting to retire anyway I decided to sell. To avoid 20% capital gains on the selling price I used the proceeds to buy a rental that provided good income. That was considered a tax free exchange. I can't sell that rental without paying the capital gains from the shop sale.
As my accountant says, defer, defer, die. The kids will inherit the rental and the deferred taxes with be forgiven.
RC Mech
Stainless
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2014
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
Where are you located OP? General region of Ontario is fine.
But I suspect he/she/they are a troll as they’ve yet to answer any real questions in any thread.
Anecdotal story to add any value to this thread as the OP has checked out:
Guy I worked with had machines left over from his father’s shop, tried to start another machine shop in a different building but the same GTA city. Couldn’t hack it and decided the best way to make short-term cash was an agreement to sell the machinery on a finance basis to another person wanting to start their own shop. Buyer gets excited that now he can forego his residential rent and live in the shop. Shows the seller his “custom shower” complete with hose-connection and casters for rolling around the shop. Buyer had a day-job, likely as a button pusher because he too couldn’t hack it and shortly thereafter defaulted on the payment agreement. Months go by, years now, seller is out machines and buyer is ostensibly living and shooting-up in the industrial unit. Somehow the rent is being paid.
Years ago on Dragon’s Den that loudmouth un-convicted murderer Kevin O’Leary said “Starting a business with a loan is the dumbest thing you can do.” Robert Herjavec related to another group of pitchers when they said they put everything they had into their business, had to eat “ketchup sandwiches”. I cannot overstate the sheer stupidity of each of those statements. You need money to start a business. If you’re willing to take on the risk of a lender and understand you’ll likely be personally responsible for the debt, go for it. Nothing’s quite as motivational as getting out of debt.
The ketchup sandwhich thing is pure theatrics. If you have real skills and are even moderately good with money there’s no reason to ever be in that situation.
But I suspect he/she/they are a troll as they’ve yet to answer any real questions in any thread.
Anecdotal story to add any value to this thread as the OP has checked out:
Guy I worked with had machines left over from his father’s shop, tried to start another machine shop in a different building but the same GTA city. Couldn’t hack it and decided the best way to make short-term cash was an agreement to sell the machinery on a finance basis to another person wanting to start their own shop. Buyer gets excited that now he can forego his residential rent and live in the shop. Shows the seller his “custom shower” complete with hose-connection and casters for rolling around the shop. Buyer had a day-job, likely as a button pusher because he too couldn’t hack it and shortly thereafter defaulted on the payment agreement. Months go by, years now, seller is out machines and buyer is ostensibly living and shooting-up in the industrial unit. Somehow the rent is being paid.
Years ago on Dragon’s Den that loudmouth un-convicted murderer Kevin O’Leary said “Starting a business with a loan is the dumbest thing you can do.” Robert Herjavec related to another group of pitchers when they said they put everything they had into their business, had to eat “ketchup sandwiches”. I cannot overstate the sheer stupidity of each of those statements. You need money to start a business. If you’re willing to take on the risk of a lender and understand you’ll likely be personally responsible for the debt, go for it. Nothing’s quite as motivational as getting out of debt.
The ketchup sandwhich thing is pure theatrics. If you have real skills and are even moderately good with money there’s no reason to ever be in that situation.
- where? (not the address, but general area/town)
- what makes you so confident you can bring in business?
- are you buying a building or a business or both?
- whats your background? (journeyman machinist, on the job machinist, business management, sale etc)
Its hard to assess sanity without some more context.
Personally I think its over the top bat shit crazy to sell a paid off house to buy a machine shop and 10x crazier to start from scratch (which it sounds like if you have to do the basic rough in work in the unit).
Sometimes a bit of bravado, damn the torpedoes type attitude, can be a good thing....but mostly its just stupid. I've done it and paid the price. To take the romance out of it, what we're are talking about is risk. The smart man, or at least the entrepreneurial smart man, minimizes and manages it especially where his own capital is concerned.
Keep the house, raise a small bit of money (line on the house say) as a down payment to buy an existing business that is mostly vendor financed. Then you can more easily recover if its a disaster. It doesn't take much to be the best option for the vendor, i.e. net out more than the auction.
I'd say come talk to me but I have concerns about the level of rationality present
- what makes you so confident you can bring in business?
- are you buying a building or a business or both?
- whats your background? (journeyman machinist, on the job machinist, business management, sale etc)
Its hard to assess sanity without some more context.
Personally I think its over the top bat shit crazy to sell a paid off house to buy a machine shop and 10x crazier to start from scratch (which it sounds like if you have to do the basic rough in work in the unit).
Sometimes a bit of bravado, damn the torpedoes type attitude, can be a good thing....but mostly its just stupid. I've done it and paid the price. To take the romance out of it, what we're are talking about is risk. The smart man, or at least the entrepreneurial smart man, minimizes and manages it especially where his own capital is concerned.
Keep the house, raise a small bit of money (line on the house say) as a down payment to buy an existing business that is mostly vendor financed. Then you can more easily recover if its a disaster. It doesn't take much to be the best option for the vendor, i.e. net out more than the auction.
I'd say come talk to me but I have concerns about the level of rationality present
Bondo
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Location
- Bridgeton NJ
So the last thread didn't work for you, so maybe you should just sell the house and buy the shop, then burn the shop down for advertising. It's been a long time since balloon family.
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
D Nelson
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Location
- Missouri Ida
It’s like a Indian rain dance it works every time if you never stop dancing. If you got the sack to work your ass off the world belongs to you
Don
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
This...
Would not be my preferred way to make a living, but I think you will popular quick and that would be better advertising then money can buy.
Tiktok&Youtube
john.k
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Location
- Brisbane Qld Australia
Like...."I live in this cool pad with all these old school industry machines for furniture".."And I drive a beatup old truck cause they're seriously cool"...."No.No,dont go,Im not seriously weird!"
If you've pulled the trigger, it's a done deal so you need to NOT be looking behind you afraid of the decision you've made. That will screw with your heart and your head, and you don't want to cause yourself a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Don't be afraid to the point it paralyses you. Be courageous . . . but also smart, in the sense that you need to keep an open mind and understand, if not even list out, where you are ignorant (not meant as a put down). If you are inexperienced, if this is a new venture, without fail there's going to be a ton of stuff you don't at the moment have a clear handle on.
The trick to that is that everyone started that way. Everyone, without fail. Both those that succeeded, and those that failed, and everything in between.
The ones that succeed are those that push past the hard times, have a great deal of personal strength and persistence, LISTEN AND LEARN, and keep at it one rung at a time.
Having said all that: Keep your head up and get educated on running a business, and about PEOPLE and leadership. That's a difficult balancing act to master when the industry is founded on peeling steel to customer specifications. That's how you get paid.
But it is PEOPLE who do that. Ask questions, listen to people that started their own businesses, and don't neglect the "white collar" business and planning side of things. Your biggest challenge IMO is to find people you can trust to not only do the work correctly, but are reliable and trustworthy, and then give them a reason to stay with you. That's just the reality to running any business.
Of course you need to get the groundwork set first and establish some kind of customer and job stream.
Ask questions in this forum, listen sincerely to the replies for good advise and dispassionately discard advise you don't feel fits (depending, case by case basis after careful consideration).
I think it would be fair to say everyone here wants to see a new entrepreneur succeed. Takes a lot of work and grind, and the future is always uncertain. But it can be done, thousands do it.
Best of luck to you.
So what? The OP seems like a smart enough dude, he'll make 3 or 4 more threads before all is said and done and play the odds. One of them will not go nowhere for sure.
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
Ok I'm gonna call it...yes you are stupid
Probably better off taking the money and putting it into bitcoin lol
Probably better off taking the money and putting it into bitcoin lol
Well....the OP will be under huge pressure to get work, and be living sub-standard, so will undercut
all the other shops to get work.....Welcome to the race to the bottom.
That's why I asked what his goals and business plan were because if those goals include quality of life stuff it ain't gonna happen for a very long time.
