I have decided to leave the Army and go it alone... I intend to set up a fabrication business as my trade in the army was Fabricator/Welder. I have no experience of running a business or going it alone... Any advice would be greatly appreciated...
Tom, I genuinely mean this. Dont do it. I use fabricators and have friends that are self employed welder fabricators and they struggle. I have 2 businesses. One is my major business and has ran for over 20 years and I can tell you I have not experienced anything economically like we are experiencing now. Your first challenge will be securing business. Then comes the most important GETTING PAID and this in most cases will take from 60 days if your lucky. To 120 days which is the norm. You will mostly deal with people who play with "wooden dollars" Its not there money but the companies therefore they will piss you about cause it has no impact on them personally but looks good in there annual appraisal cause they have managed to keep hold of money for longer. I havent even started on getting taxed on taxed and employing people that think your in business for them. Feel free to PM me and I will take through the things to do if your still considering doing it
I have an opportunity to join a partnership with an established customer base, 7 strong products and lots of room for growth, so the bread and butter of the business and feeding my family is kind of sorted. We only need to sell one more product per month to cover the cost of a 3rd Partner so feeding my family may not be so hard. (Providing I can sell that extra product!) I'll send you a message though Troy as any advice will be well received. I know this isn't strictly speaking going it alone but it's certainly more alone than being a bloke in the ranks.
If anyone works in forestry or farming, here's the website of the company and you can see what they make absolutely rod-all to do with Ducati's though Chalke Valley Engineering Here is the website as I am rebuilding it (It's my old man's business) and there are no photos as yet on the new site. Comments would be appreciated Olive Fabrications (Name subject to change )
