starting welding repair/fab business suggestions?

[chvojka]

Hello I'm a new member looking for advice about starting my own business.
I have good experience and do high quality work in MIG, TIG, SMAW. I plan to offer small jobs and large jobs repair and fabrication. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

[UP BRETT]

Save some money to keep advertising locally. It will take a while to get going good, unless theres a need for a shop in your area. Word of mouth is one of the best advertisement's, but you need to put a add in the paper to let the locals know that your in business. Buy your equipment as you get the funds from past jobs.

[Robin Hood]

I'll give you some good advice, Don't let any job leave the shop, small or large with out being Paid for, and have a half hour minimum... :sleeping:

I also forgot Welcome..... :waving:

[UP BRETT]

Very good points Robin Hood. I haven't been burned but I use the same policy as you. I started out with a 1/2hr min. but do a lot of $5-$10 jobs, 5-10min. :cool2:

[lotechman]

I worked for a guy who built placer plants for gold mining. They involved hoppers, chutes , shaker tables and sluice boxes. He had a policy of fifty percent down before he started. That way if the miner failed to pay he recovered most of his material costs. Take pictures of everything you do. It gives your future customers an idea of what you can do.

[TxRedneck]

Ha, Ive been burned a few times. My brother in law is really bad for that though. Hes the reason Ive been burned on a few of my jobs, but on a few more it was just the ****ty people he bids work with. Really sucks. Just do like they suggest, get your fifty percent from the get go. Bout all you can do. good luck
CHRIS

[lotechman]

Redneck: being that you are familiar with the Okanagan I am sure you can confirm the nature of cuthroat business in the area. I worked for this small shop and started my first day helping to patch up an old reefer trailer. I never thought anything more about it until my boss comes out of the office a year later and tells me this story about that trailer. The job cost about 400 dollars and someone came buy to pick up the trailer. Normally old Peter only took cash or certified check but this time he broke his rule. Sure enough the check bounced. He knew the trailer was getting refrigeration work done to it up in Vernon half an hour away. He phoned the business involved and confirmed its location. After a bit of thought he ordered the sheriff to size the trailer. The sheriffs arrived at the location and the trailer was gone. A year later he gets a phone call to settle the account for ten cents on the dollar. He still had a mechanics lean on the thing. The debt consolidator was the son of the guy who owed the money. Peter told him to stick it and he left the lean standing. Peter never saw a cent but wasn't going to give in to a sleaze like that.

[UP BRETT]

I get 50% when I'm doing big jobs, that involve alot of material. Thats a great point to bring up.

[TxRedneck]

damn lotech thats a drag. My brother in law lives in Armstrong. He got burned when he did work for this woman. It involved cutting out a patch of concrete near hear business, filling with sand and rock, installing a custom gutter designed to battle the locations drainage system while working with the old exisiting building roofing and gutter system in place. In addition he did some welding repairs to her dumpster and a handrailing that was damaged. He charged her some 30/hr and the total bill was something like $650. She got the bill, and refused to pay. He demanded. She gave him an offer of 300 take it or leave it. He declined and demanded his total bill. Last I heard hes still trying to get his money. It really sucks.

[lotechman]

He will never get his money until he starts a lean on the title. I remember sitting in Mcdonalds in Kelowna with the kids Friday night and an electrician friend of mine told me his tale. He regularly got stiffed so every Friday afternoon he visited his lawyer with a list of leans for customers who stiffed him on his roughing work. The lawyer looks down the list of properties then screams " You can't do that! That's my house!" Ron told him , " I get my money now or you are putting a lean on your own house!" The guy was frantic phoning the contractor and the bank. The general contractor was stiffing his sub trades yet taking his bank draws regulalry. Ron told me it was best time in his life sitting in that office..... That was Kelowna but the whole valley is filled with shysters. he had to include the cost of a lawyer into his pricing.

[TxRedneck]

Lmao that is the funniest damn thing Ive ever heard. Where you say youre at now? the Coast? Were hoping to move back to dallas, but if not then I suppose were gonna go to Alberta. Anyway, either way I guess is ok. As long as I can get some work. Well nice story. Talk soon
CHRIS

[lotechman]

Redneck: Only game in town Armstrong way is that logging bridge and span outfit... they were starting up by contracting different shops in the eighties when I came down to the Vancouver area. Every summer they put out ads for fabricators and welders. ( normal feast or famine) You will find as you go north wages get better. I worked in Enderby for Bill Varner. (Valley Tool) He ran an excellent outfit but I imagine he is long retired. I am not exaggerating when I say his washrooms were as good as a five star hotel. He had some local housewives come in daily and once a week they even did the walls.
There is a mill equipment outfit out of Salmon arm that is a great place to work. They occasionally have used the shops in Enderby for overload. Kamloops always pays well because of the wages at the pulp mill. I was in Edmonton last week. The large shops had huge signs out on the highway: "now Hiring, welders and fitters". The tar sands and heavy oil fields guarantee there will be work for decades.

[TxRedneck]

Say whats the mill equipment outfit you were talking about in Salmon arm?

[TxRedneck]

oh, yeah and I am thinking alberta...but how does calgary compare to edmonton...Angel's friend says edmonton bar none, but then shes partial shes living in peers. Thanks man
CHris

[lotechman]

Newnes Equipment was exclusively machinery and mill construction then went into plastics as well. I am not sure if they even have the same name now. They wre at one time producing complete packages of sorters and stackers.
Edmonton is cold in the winter. Calgary is just a bit colder than North Okanagan but the main action is Edmonton and north. Peple complain that it is more expensive to live in Fort McMurray than in metropolitian Edmonton. As soon as I crossed into Alberta I started to see help wanted signs in the windows of businesses. I suggest you do a job search online to get a feeling of what is out there.

[TxRedneck]

Thanks lotech,
Yeah Newnes is now Coe, but most folks still call it newnes. I worked for a contractor who was doing work for them. He layed me off, said it was due to shortage of work. However, his buddy who worked for him too said his wife hates americans and thought it was more about that. Oh well. Anyway, yeah I dont do that real cold thing too well. Ok thanx for all the info :) have a good weekend
CHRIS