Can't stress this enough. You need to have the shop before anybody will send you the work. I got a new customer, sent me a print to make a part, thought cool, I can do this. 2 days later he emails me, he and the plant manager want to do a tour of my shop. 1500SF in an insulated building on the farm. I think they wanted to make sure I wasn't a broker, claiming to be a shop. They came in seen lathes, mills, boring mills, grinders, welders, tooling cabinets, air compressor, surface plate, forklifts, drill presses, saws, etc, and quickly stated it looked like a fine shop and they would be sending more my way, now that they seen what I was capable of.
Also, get the machines, spend at least a year doing hobby projects for cash for your buddies, neighbors, etc. You will find out very quickly where your gaps are. A VMC, 2 axis CNC lathe, or Bridgeport and South Bend lathe isn't enough to do most jobs. Do you have a way to saw material? Measure parts? Load & unload parts or trucks? Chip dumpsters? Work holding? Tooling? Deburring equipment? Oil and fluids? Enough compressed air? Enough power? Storage cabinets? Fire extinguishers? Anti-fatigue mats? Benches? The list goes on and on!
Not to discourage, just being realistic.
