How To Use The Worsening Labor Shortage To Your Advantage?

[BizyDad]

This post is me mostly sorting through some thoughts that have been kicking around in my brain for the past few months. Forgive the stream of conscious nature of this, and I would love any feedback the forum has on this. Poke holes in it. Tell me where I'm wrong in my thinking.

The people of my generation had a lot of benefits on their path to wealth. But I see the world changing. We're not going to have low interest rates anytime soon. The internet was our world changing/business changing opportunity.

Losers complain that doing business is getting harder. Please don't turn this thread into "that" kind of thread.

I'm trying to figure out what the opportunities are for that next generation that's just getting started. I'm trying to go deeper than AI iS so aMazIng.

There's a lot of angles to that, but for this post I'm looking at shifts in the labor market.

Most every country has a baby boomer generation.

For most countries, that is a big group of people that is going into retirement. Leaving the workforce.

Most every country has Gen Z entering the workforce. And I believe in most countries, that is a much smaller generation.

At a macro level, boomers are leaving high paying jobs, and there are not enough people in Gen X to fill them. But those new guys at the top of the pyramid are looking at the incoming generation and saying to themselves, there's just not enough.

From my microview here in Phoenix, hiring people is one of the most difficult thing my clients are dealing with.

They can't find drivers. They can't find welders. They can't find roofers.

And they're starting to throw ridiculous money at people just to get jobs done.

Entry level for a welder is 40K. That's with 6 months training. That's not much. But inside two years, switch jobs a couple times, with two years experience you're making 80 to 120K.

So 19-year-old looking to make it could take 6 months to learn, and by the time they're 22 could be making 80k a year.

Can you take a small detour on your fast lane sock away some cash and develop a skill?

But then what?

Well then you've got a skill. And you've got an insight into an industry. You spent a few years seeing what problems that industry has.

One thing you could do is start a company with a slightly different business model. If all your competitors are having trouble keeping employees, can you solve the problem of keeping employees? The companies that are able to do that in the future are the companies that are going to win.

And I think there's something to the idea that young people want to work for young people.

Let's go back to the macro level. The writing is on the wall. People have less kids now. The era of ever growing populations is stalling. Once the baby boomer generation actually begins to die off, death rate will exceed birth rate in many places.

And when that happens, emmigration from those places sets in also.

What will businesses do then?

Turn to automation.

A lot of people try to learn coding. But the factories of the future are going to need more than just coders. They are going to need engineers. Should you consider college?

There is a grand shift taking place in the world. As just one example, thanks to COVID lockdowns, companies are pulling out of manufacturing in China.

Thanks to demographic changes, Chinese labor costs have increased dramatically over the course of the last 20 years.

Where is the manufacturing of the future?

Here in Arizona, for the first time in memory, real estate and construction are not the top job producing industry. And it's not tourism either.

It's manufacturing.

People say America doesn't build stuff anymore. But we're starting to build stuff again.

How can you position yourself to take advantage of this? Shoot I'm in this state and I feel like the opportunity has been passing me by...

Where else is the next up-and-coming manufacturing locations? Latin America? Africa? India?

The other day I saw some textiles and when I did my research it was coming out of an African manufacturer. I'd have to go back and look, I think it was Nigeria. I never noticed that before.

Maybe we should be learning 3D printing? Study CAD? Maybe that's the shift that takes over? Creating your own products and becoming your own supplier?

Going back to my situation in Arizona, I can give myself a little grace because I'm not in aerospace or semiconductors.

Then maybe I should be positioning myself to sell shovels to the companies that are selling shovels to aerospace and semiconductor companies.

With those high paying jobs come into this state, real estate prices go up.

More little businesses are going to be built up. Maybe I should start an accounting firm for those businesses and build a synergy with marketing agency.

Everywhere in the world the basic way of doing business is changing right now. Take a look at your area. Is it growing or is it shrinking?

One of the best things I did was move to Phoenix. So this place has been growing so fast ever since I got here, that it makes my odds of success so much greater.

Look how many people went fast lane just being in this city.

Dear reader, what is your Phoenix?

And it strikes me as strange that this is a place where people are moving to, we continue to build. we continue to grow. And yet my clients are still struggling to hire people. Everyone is complaining that employees aren't loyal anymore.

We are fastlaners. We look at the world differently. How can we use this to our advantage?

A labor costs are going up all over the world, and not just because of money printing, but because of basic supply and demand, what are you in for if you're starting a high labor business?

Can you innovate a high labor business to achieve greater efficiencies? Out hustle your competition?

Anyways, I don't have the answers. I'm not here to tell you what you should do or how you should spot opportunities in your region.

I'm hoping to spark a discussion. I'm hoping to get somebody's brain going. Maybe you can look at the world a little differently and spot some or create some opportunities of your own.

 

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[machinistguy]

I'm of the opinion that manufacturing isn't a sunset industry, it's an untapped economic boom waiting for the right entrepreneur to light it up. We just stopped innovating. To compare it to the tech world, we got to the IBM era and then stopped in terms of innovation. There are massive industry changing opportunities with nobody trying to tackle them.

Very Simple Example: Gene Haas became a billionaire with a very simple value skew: machining centers that are actually easy to use and everybody knows how to use. HAAS controls are user friendly compared to the industry standard FANUC controls. Haas has youtube videos giving tips on how to use their equipment. They basically give them away to schools so everybody going into the field knows how to use their controls. He has plenty of other very basic value skews that wouldn't even be considered competitive in other industries. Now he blows his billions on Formula 1.

So many manufacturing and physical automation opportunities out there...

 

[Antifragile]

Immigration can help add labour. Problem is matching skills missing to skills that are available.

What is the “fastlane” opportunity with this? Maybe it’s in bridging that gap, providing training and maybe licensing of some sort for a value skew. How can one disrupt parts of existing training requirements for labour that’s in high demand and low supply? Like trades?

I imagine a future of more “Lego pieces” like pre-fab buildings. Labour required is less, but skills required are more. There’s a massive opportunity there.

Under a factory setting, prefabricated concepts can continue being built. Like Lego pieces… but typically a house is built on site is subject to weather conditions. From a local factory it can be shipped and assembled at record pace. Same applies to some 3-D printed products.

I imagine abundance of opportunities!

 

[BizyDad]

I'm of the opinion that manufacturing isn't a sunset industry, it's an untapped economic boom waiting for the right entrepreneur to light it up. We just stopped innovating. To compare it to the tech world, we got to the IBM era and then stopped in terms of innovation. There are massive industry changing opportunities with nobody trying to tackle them.

Very Simple Example: Gene Haas became a billionaire with a very simple value skew: machining centers that are actually easy to use and everybody knows how to use. HAAS controls are user friendly compared to the industry standard FANUC controls. Haas has youtube videos giving tips on how to use their equipment. They basically give them away to schools so everybody going into the field knows how to use their controls. He has plenty of other very basic value skews that wouldn't even be considered competitive in other industries. Now he blows his billions on Formula 1.

So many manufacturing and physical automation opportunities out there...

That's the thing. A normal person just starting out won't see these opportunities.

Unless you get a job working in a machine shop, or the world starts providing more guidance to young people on developing trades, these
kind of opportunities are being missed because everybody thinks they need to be a doctor or an engineer or mini celebrity or athlete or entrepreneur.

I had to Google half the stuff you said just to understand what you're talking about.

I've been around long enough to understand in concept what you were talking about, but I wouldn't checked out the YouTube channel. And I never even heard of this billionaire.

Thank you for your contribution.

Immigration can help add labour. Problem is matching skills missing to skills that are available.

At the local level this is true. But that's kind of my point. Everybody's immigration is somebody else's emigration. People need to look around themselves to see are they in a growing area or shrinking area?

You can build a Fastlane business in either. But each situation has its own challenges and opportunities. And there are more opportunities in a growing area...

What is the “fastlane” opportunity with this? Maybe it’s in bridging that gap, providing training and maybe licensing of some sort for a value skew. How can one disrupt parts of existing training requirements for labour that’s in high demand and low supply? Like trades?

I imagine a future of more “Lego pieces” like pre-fab buildings. Labour required is less, but skills required are more. There’s a massive opportunity there.

Under a factory setting, prefabricated concepts can continue being built. Like Lego pieces… but typically a house is built on site is subject to weather conditions. From a local factory it can be shipped and assembled at record pace. Same applies to some 3-D printed products.

I imagine abundance of opportunities!

See, this is good stuff here.

But for someone with no building experience, how can they get to the point of imagining and turn that into actually doing the building of prefab buildings.

That's the riddle I want to help new people solve.

I think your post about people getting a job in the industry is at least part of the solution.

 

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[Stargazer]

Good thinking and thanks @BizyDad

There was an article I cut out of the paper a few weeks ago which I will pick a few things from.

South Korea has 932 robots per 10,000 workers. UK has 101 robots per 10,000 workers. SK: UK ratio is expected to be 10:1 very soon.

In terms of productivity UK lags all G7 countries. We simply rely on importing cheap labour which is unsustainable. It is not the answer to increase productivity

In manufacturing, annual staff turnover is running at 40% which is the equivalent of a manufacturing facility having to re-hire it's entire workforce every 2.5 years. Simultaneously the number of people wanting to get into manufacturing is declining so they wont even be able to re-hire to the same numbers.

US has the same problem just scaled up due to population being 6x larger. 760,000 factory jobs unfilled and this is gold for you Americans; someone called Jay Timmons, head of National Association of Manufacturers, a Trade Body representing 14,000 factory owners in the US said the Number One problem for 99.9% of his members is finding people and his typical factory member has an underutilisation of between 50% to 70% due to this acute labour shortage.

So these small to mid sized factories are going to need automation and robots fast to do the repetitive things so what little staff they can attract and retain they can use on higher end things.

The reason I cut the article out last month is I was wondering what robots small factories in South Korea were using that they have 10x the number of the UK and how can that be applied to small UK manufacturers.

If John in Sunderland who manufactures widgets can see a similar sized company in SK doing the same with robots, he can see how it can help him.

That's the sort of thing I am pondering.

Dan

 

[Andy Black]

Maybe it’s in bridging that gap, providing training and maybe licensing of some sort for a value skew. How can one disrupt parts of existing training requirements for labour that’s in high demand and low supply? Like trades?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

There's a shortage of people going into trades. Governments will know this and provide incentives (grants?) to entice people into it. Seems to me there will be cash flows here. Can I help countries spend that money to help colleges and busineses spend that money to help people get into the trades and other high-shortage roles?

As a bigger trend, I think lots of folks want to work remotely, and maybe not for just one boss. Instead of doing lots of different things for the same company, are more people going to do the same thing for different companies? I don't want to use the "F" word but I suspect more youngesters will go that way and more businesses will be more amenable to hiring people in that capacity.

It's like we're going back to when the majority of people were self-employed craftsmen ... such as blacksmiths, shepherds, thatchers, carpenters, etc.

Money is going to flow differently. How could I help improve or even increase that flow? How can I get some of it to flow through me?

 

[Lyzmin]

Great topic @BizyDad, in the Netherlands this is ongoing as well.

A big challenge for companies here is the language gap (Dutch). To learn it people take 3-6 months at best to have a basic vocabulary. A friend of mine is working on a 20 day crash course to teach somebody C1 level and is having 10 first clients at the moment he’s ready for it (also gave him TMF last week). Possibly this is also an valueskew in other countries?

As I’m writing this, I am in the process of finishing The great Rat Race escape and training my valuechasing mind.

Coming summer I will move to Eindhoven (silicon valley of The Netherlands) and work with a robotica expert who has worked in the slowlane for too long. (FTE happened for him)

Our plan is to build robots for certain jobs on finance/ hr/ data to fill the open positions where companies can’t find the people for. We now have 3 test cases where he’s building the first robots to see what works and what can be automated. I’m the sales/ marketing guy.

These robots will fill the positions, won’t get sick etc and will cost a fraction of what a parttime/ fulltime employees cost. In my mind this is a real possible CENTS business. Curious about your opinions.

 

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[Aristoss]

Great topic @BizyDad, in the Netherlands this is ongoing as well.

A big challenge for companies here is the language gap (Dutch). To learn it people take 3-6 months at best to have a basic vocabulary. A friend of mine is working on a 20 day crash course to teach somebody C1 level and is having 10 first clients at the moment he’s ready for it (also gave him TMF last week). Possibly this is also an valueskew in other countries?

As I’m writing this, I am in the process of finishing The great Rat Race escape and training my valuechasing mind.

Coming summer I will move to Eindhoven (silicon valley of The Netherlands) and work with a robotica expert who has worked in the slowlane for too long. (FTE happened for him)

Our plan is to build robots for certain jobs on finance/ hr/ data to fill the open positions where companies can’t find the people for. We now have 3 test cases where he’s building the first robots to see what works and what can be automated. I’m the sales/ marketing guy.

These robots will fill the positions, won’t get sick etc and will cost a fraction of what a parttime/ fulltime employees cost. In my mind this is a real possible CENTS business. Curious about your opinions.

Awesome idea!
Both your teacher friend and yours.
As an expat in the Netherlands trying to build a fastlane, I now see how closing my language gap could really help. Do you mind putting me in touch with your friend?

 

[Saad Khan]

Gene Haas became a billionaire with a very simple value skew: machining centers that are actually easy to use and everybody knows how to use. HAAS controls are user friendly compared to the industry standard FANUC controls. Haas has youtube videos giving tips on how to use their equipment.

I want to work in these kinds of industries! I guess I'll have to go to China and learn the trade over there since its close to Pakistan haha.

One thing I like most is how almost no guru on the internet preaches this, because losers in their mom's basements are too lazy to spend some years in manufacuturing facilities.

Imagine if you become a trusted 3rd party for buying and selling these machines. For example, buying and selling CNC machines. And who knows, maybe find a simple value skew?

 

[Saad Khan]

But for someone with no building experience, how can they get to the point of imagining and turn that into actually doing the building of prefab buildings.

Please @machinistguy, what do you recommend?

 

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[machinistguy]

Imagine if you become a trusted 3rd party for buying and selling these machines. For example, buying and selling CNC machines.

This is actually a valid business. There are plenty of business that deal with buying and selling used CNC machines. I've seen a few in Europe too.

As for 3rd party. There are lot of business that become distributors for foreign made automation robots and CNC machinery. Your value skew would be securing the partnership with a foreign brand that doesn't have a presence in your region but your region would benefit from having their products. Since this an automation thread maybe you can become a distributor for companies like Universal Robotics or Trinity Automation for your region.

Please @machinistguy, what do you recommend?

Idk anything about the prefab building stuff, but if you're asking about how do you get experience, most people get it from school, apprenticeship, or a job. I got mine from the local makerspace but I don't think you have makerspaces in Pakistan.

EDIT: Also you don't have to move to China I don't know where you got that from.

 

[Saad Khan]

Also you don't have to move to China I don't know where you got that from

I can go to china by road. It's that easy for me. So I will want to see what China has in store for a fastlaner.

2nd reason:
One of my cousins has a trading company and ecom sourcing company over there. He went there totally broke and in debt but when he came back his businesses are doing a turnover of $200k annually. If he can do it, why can't I do better?

I don't think you have makerspaces in Pakistan.

Exactly. This country's economy is fueled by foreign aid. How come they give a damn about manufacturing?

 

[Antifragile]

Canada has a number of prefab manufacturing factories. It’s getting more traction now that labour is scarce and expensive. Prefab needs a fraction of workers and gets done faster on site.

I can see this space growing. Especially if you can design structures that like Lego bricks fit into standard shipping containers. This way I can see shipping from Asia, Eastern Europe etc.

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

I've been contemplating this as well and have a few theories as well as opportunities.

The US Chamber of Commerce has put out a few great reports on what's going on.

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage

Workforce participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. We are missing 1.7 million Americans from the workforce compared to February of 2020.

www.uschamber.com

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries

American businesses are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, yet a significant number of positions still remain unfilled, especially in the professional and business service sector.

www.uschamber.com

As a bigger trend, I think lots of folks want to work remotely, and maybe not for just one boss. Instead of doing lots of different things for the same company, are more people going to do the same thing for different companies? I don't want to use the "F" word but I suspect more youngesters will go that way and more businesses will be more amenable to hiring people in that capacity.

It's like we're going back to when the majority of people were self-employed craftsmen ... such as blacksmiths, shepherds, thatchers, carpenters, etc.

I'm starting to see this too, and take this labor market shift as a reversion to what's existed for most of time. It's a de-consolidation of labor and a return to a potentially less-efficient but more competitive general labor market.

It's pretty simple. Just think about it...

There's no sense in working for someone else to do the same work you do, and make way more.
Now, that's just on the labor's side. As a potential employer, here's what I'm thinking...Even with my wife & I's event business, it doesn't make sense for us to hire anyone else to help. We have very tight systems and cut working hours down so we can make greater margins and not need to hire.

Yeah we can't take as much work, but who cares?

We have a great life, and my other business is the one with scale built in.

I wouldn't knock tradespeople from thinking this too and wanting to go independent.

The cut in pay you get by working for someone else is the commission you pay for a flow of work.

People have woken up and it's just not worth it for a lot of people now. Wages and benefits haven't been able to compete with the prospect of entrepreneurship. As of this year, it is officially less risky to be an entrepreneur. You can take care of everyone you love and have a great life being solo. You only pick the best jobs when you want, especially if there's real demand for what you offer.

Scaling/Consolidating labor and creating a big service business may be going out of style for the time being, until more labor supply is introduced. After all, it presents its own challenges, both on the side of retaining labor and what profit you lose from hiring labor.

As for opportunities, here's what I see..
— Immigration Specialist/Lawyers to help introduce more labor into a market.
— Staffing Companies for High-Churn industries (which at this point is every industry). Offer to stay on retainer because retaining labor in this market will be a challenge and needs to be an ongoing function of every business (hmm...isn't this called HR? idk).
— Any software or business consulting you can offer to make a business operation more efficient, thus requiring less labor. Implementation of AI systems if it's necessary but let's be honest, we aint there yet.
— Any type of labor marketplace.

I may have more to add, but that's it for now.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

This post is me mostly sorting through some thoughts that have been kicking around in my brain for the past few months. Forgive the stream of conscious nature of this, and I would love any feedback the forum has on this. Poke holes in it. Tell me where I'm wrong in my thinking.

The people of my generation had a lot of benefits on their path to wealth. But I see the world changing. We're not going to have low interest rates anytime soon. The internet was our world changing/business changing opportunity.

Losers complain that doing business is getting harder. Please don't turn this thread into "that" kind of thread.

I'm trying to figure out what the opportunities are for that next generation that's just getting started. I'm trying to go deeper than AI iS so aMazIng.

There's a lot of angles to that, but for this post I'm looking at shifts in the labor market.

Most every country has a baby boomer generation.

For most countries, that is a big group of people that is going into retirement. Leaving the workforce.

Most every country has Gen Z entering the workforce. And I believe in most countries, that is a much smaller generation.

At a macro level, boomers are leaving high paying jobs, and there are not enough people in Gen X to fill them. But those new guys at the top of the pyramid are looking at the incoming generation and saying to themselves, there's just not enough.

From my microview here in Phoenix, hiring people is one of the most difficult thing my clients are dealing with.

They can't find drivers. They can't find welders. They can't find roofers.

And they're starting to throw ridiculous money at people just to get jobs done.

Entry level for a welder is 40K. That's with 6 months training. That's not much. But inside two years, switch jobs a couple times, with two years experience you're making 80 to 120K.

So 19-year-old looking to make it could take 6 months to learn, and by the time they're 22 could be making 80k a year.

Can you take a small detour on your fast lane sock away some cash and develop a skill?

But then what?

Well then you've got a skill. And you've got an insight into an industry. You spent a few years seeing what problems that industry has.

One thing you could do is start a company with a slightly different business model. If all your competitors are having trouble keeping employees, can you solve the problem of keeping employees? The companies that are able to do that in the future are the companies that are going to win.

And I think there's something to the idea that young people want to work for young people.

Let's go back to the macro level. The writing is on the wall. People have less kids now. The era of ever growing populations is stalling. Once the baby boomer generation actually begins to die off, death rate will exceed birth rate in many places.

And when that happens, emmigration from those places sets in also.

What will businesses do then?

Turn to automation.

A lot of people try to learn coding. But the factories of the future are going to need more than just coders. They are going to need engineers. Should you consider college?

There is a grand shift taking place in the world. As just one example, thanks to COVID lockdowns, companies are pulling out of manufacturing in China.

Thanks to demographic changes, Chinese labor costs have increased dramatically over the course of the last 20 years.

Where is the manufacturing of the future?

Here in Arizona, for the first time in memory, real estate and construction are not the top job producing industry. And it's not tourism either.

It's manufacturing.

People say America doesn't build stuff anymore. But we're starting to build stuff again.

How can you position yourself to take advantage of this? Shoot I'm in this state and I feel like the opportunity has been passing me by...

Where else is the next up-and-coming manufacturing locations? Latin America? Africa? India?

The other day I saw some textiles and when I did my research it was coming out of an African manufacturer. I'd have to go back and look, I think it was Nigeria. I never noticed that before.

Maybe we should be learning 3D printing? Study CAD? Maybe that's the shift that takes over? Creating your own products and becoming your own supplier?

Going back to my situation in Arizona, I can give myself a little grace because I'm not in aerospace or semiconductors.

Then maybe I should be positioning myself to sell shovels to the companies that are selling shovels to aerospace and semiconductor companies.

With those high paying jobs come into this state, real estate prices go up.

More little businesses are going to be built up. Maybe I should start an accounting firm for those businesses and build a synergy with marketing agency.

Everywhere in the world the basic way of doing business is changing right now. Take a look at your area. Is it growing or is it shrinking?

One of the best things I did was move to Phoenix. So this place has been growing so fast ever since I got here, that it makes my odds of success so much greater.

Look how many people went fast lane just being in this city.

Dear reader, what is your Phoenix?

And it strikes me as strange that this is a place where people are moving to, we continue to build. we continue to grow. And yet my clients are still struggling to hire people. Everyone is complaining that employees aren't loyal anymore.

We are fastlaners. We look at the world differently. How can we use this to our advantage?

A labor costs are going up all over the world, and not just because of money printing, but because of basic supply and demand, what are you in for if you're starting a high labor business?

Can you innovate a high labor business to achieve greater efficiencies? Out hustle your competition?

Anyways, I don't have the answers. I'm not here to tell you what you should do or how you should spot opportunities in your region.

I'm hoping to spark a discussion. I'm hoping to get somebody's brain going. Maybe you can look at the world a little differently and spot some or create some opportunities of your own.

You've opened a lot of doors here!

Can't wait to see you next week. Expect a long lunch

1. There is an insane opportunity/crisis with boomers. 45% of all privately held companies in the U.S. are owned by solopreneur boomers who are a.) retiring, b.) have ZERO plan for sale/succession. The numbers are a little shakey but it's something like 12 MILLION businesses THIS YEAR are up for sale and nobody to buy them... you could pick them up for pennies on the dollar.

2. During Economic Winter... QUALITY wins. Edwards Demming is one of my heroes. After WW2, the Japanese economy was DEVASTATED. Honda, Toyota, Sony -- nobody could get the resources they needed to compete and here's this white dude who comes in and says "quality always wins in the long run" -- and he was right.

I would say the REAL struggle for businesses currently and in the near future is that they just suck at what they do. It's been so easy for so long that people have gotten lazy. Yes, there is a shortage of trade workers... but there's an even bigger shortage of SKILLED trade workers.

And I mean REALLY skilled. During "winter" blame culture in companies skyrocket, the "good enough" disease persists, and the amount of stuff that falls through the cracks is insane.

I've personally got story after story of businesses I've tried to PAY this year who just dropped the ball... and didn't seem to care!!!

3. On a macroeconomic scale (especially here in AZ)... I'm a big fan of Peter Zeihan. I think he's right about a lot of things. Manufacturing in Mexico is going to be a very popular thing. Not that it hasn't been... but imagine all products made in China now being made in Mexico. That is a MASSIVE shift in American manufacturing/purchasing.

Here we've got some interesting things going on with Tesla, Amazon, Intel, and all the supporting businesses. But for one client I'd like to move their manufacturing from China (current) to Mexico. I think it's the play for the next 10 years.

 

[BizyDad]

I've been contemplating this as well and have a few theories as well as opportunities.

The US Chamber of Commerce has put out a few great reports on what's going on.

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage

Workforce participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. We are missing 1.7 million Americans from the workforce compared to February of 2020.

www.uschamber.com

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries

American businesses are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, yet a significant number of positions still remain unfilled, especially in the professional and business service sector.

www.uschamber.com

I'm starting to see this too, and take this labor market shift as a reversion to what's existed for most of time. It's a de-consolidation of labor and a return to a potentially less-efficient but more competitive general labor market.

It's pretty simple. Just think about it...

There's no sense in working for someone else to do the same work you do, and make way more.
Now, that's just on the labor's side. As a potential employer, here's what I'm thinking...Even with my wife & I's event business, it doesn't make sense for us to hire anyone else to help. We have very tight systems and cut working hours down so we can make greater margins and not need to hire.

Yeah we can't take as much work, but who cares?

We have a great life, and my other business is the one with scale built in.

I wouldn't knock tradespeople from thinking this too and wanting to go independent.

The cut in pay you get by working for someone else is the commission you pay for a flow of work.

People have woken up and it's just not worth it for a lot of people now. Wages and benefits haven't been able to compete with the prospect of entrepreneurship. As of this year, it is officially less risky to be an entrepreneur. You can take care of everyone you love and have a great life being solo. You only pick the best jobs when you want, especially if there's real demand for what you offer.

Scaling/Consolidating labor and creating a big service business may be going out of style for the time being, until more labor supply is introduced. After all, it presents its own challenges, both on the side of retaining labor and what profit you lose from hiring labor.

As for opportunities, here's what I see..
— Immigration Specialist/Lawyers to help introduce more labor into a market.
— Staffing Companies for High-Churn industries (which at this point is every industry). Offer to stay on retainer because retaining labor in this market will be a challenge and needs to be an ongoing function of every business (hmm...isn't this called HR? idk).
— Any software or business consulting you can offer to make a business operation more efficient, thus requiring less labor. Implementation of AI systems if it's necessary but let's be honest, we aint there yet.
— Any type of labor marketplace.

I may have more to add, but that's it for now.

Good stuff here Mike.

The only thing I quibble on is this, not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur.

My one thought on solving the labor thing is a newish kind of corporate structure where you're cutting people in more often than normal. I know tech startups will do this kind of thing with stock options, etc. It used to be that pensions would tie people to a company.

But that model should be brought out again to a wider audience seeking to retain talent.

It doesn't have to be stock options. Maybe you take 10% of your profit and create an employee bonus pool.

Just something to incentivize employees to thinking like the owner, without having to take the risk of going solo. Some people just like working on teams.

You've opened a lot of doors here!

Can't wait to see you next week. Expect a long lunch

1. There is an insane opportunity/crisis with boomers. 45% of all privately held companies in the U.S. are owned by solopreneur boomers who are a.) retiring, b.) have ZERO plan for sale/succession. The numbers are a little shakey but it's something like 12 MILLION businesses THIS YEAR are up for sale and nobody to buy them... you could pick them up for pennies on the dollar.

2. During Economic Winter... QUALITY wins. Edwards Demming is one of my heroes. After WW2, the Japanese economy was DEVASTATED. Honda, Toyota, Sony -- nobody could get the resources they needed to compete and here's this white dude who comes in and says "quality always wins in the long run" -- and he was right.

I would say the REAL struggle for businesses currently and in the near future is that they just suck at what they do. It's been so easy for so long that people have gotten lazy. Yes, there is a shortage of trade workers... but there's an even bigger shortage of SKILLED trade workers.

And I mean REALLY skilled. During "winter" blame culture in companies skyrocket, the "good enough" disease persists, and the amount of stuff that falls through the cracks is insane.

I've personally got story after story of businesses I've tried to PAY this year who just dropped the ball... and didn't seem to care!!!

3. On a macroeconomic scale (especially here in AZ)... I'm a big fan of Peter Zeihan. I think he's right about a lot of things. Manufacturing in Mexico is going to be a very popular thing. Not that it hasn't been... but imagine all products made in China now being made in Mexico. That is a MASSIVE shift in American manufacturing/purchasing.

Here we've got some interesting things going on with Tesla, Amazon, Intel, and all the supporting businesses. But for one client I'd like to move their manufacturing from China (current) to Mexico. I think it's the play for the next 10 years.

I don't know who on the forum introduced me to Zeihan but yeah, I've been consuming a lot. What hooked me for some videos he did 8 years ago, that have sounded like veritable prophecy. Dude predicted the year interest rates would start going crazy? I mean...

I don't agree with everything he's saying though.

To point 1... My challenge so far is boomers over valuing what they have. Even the ones that don't list their company. The ones I I have talked to, and at this point it's maybe a dozen in the past year, but they seem to be willing to shut their company down completely, rather than selling it for less than what they think it's worth.

On the one hand I understand it. It's pride.

On the other hand, it's a shame because people will lose their jobs. But they seem to want to value their company based on what it was five years ago, before they got in a retirement mindset and let things start to slide.

Admittedly, I have a small sample size, and I don't have a ton of time to focus on this. I'm sure there are good deals to be had all over the place.

To point 2. Homie preach.

I've been thinking the companies of the future really need to focus on on the job training much like they used to.

We got away from that when things got easy. When it was easy to replace people.

To point 3. Colombia and Mexico. And I have family in Colombia. How am I missing out on this boat? I gotta right this ship bro, and I reached out to someone who can help thanks to your post.

I get the feeling that you and I see things similarly, but you play at a much higher level (i.e. more zeroes) than I typically have.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

I am in a blue collar, manufacturing type industry. We are a people-heavy business. We hire welders, engineers, apprentices, folks with technical education and folks who learned by doing, both college grads and people who never finished high school. Some of those guys have been there for 40 years and some we are just now hiring at the age of 16-18. Heck we have a guy who's in his 20's and is already one of the top guys (a supervisor).

It's possible. Everything is possible. You just figure it out.

But yes, lots of people retiring, and lots of people immigrating who are hungrier for those jobs.

Although, people don't realize that top welders can earn more than the majority of white collar jobs... they get overtime and full benefits, great insurance. And I know this for a fact, because we are the ones paying that...

And same for plumbers, electricians, HVAC guys, etc

 

[BizyDad]

Here's another thing to think about.

Labor shortage is a factor of there being less people in the workforce.

If you're in real estate, and your country has an inverted population demographic, How long before your country has stories being written like this one in Japan?

Japan Has Millions of Empty Houses. Want to Buy One for $25,000?

With a shrinking population and more than 10 million abandoned properties, the country is straining to match houses with curious buyers.

www.nytimes.com

I have seen similar stories about Italy, Spain, Portugal.

Here in the states everybody assumes that real estate always goes up.

I remember reading a story in Ben Franklin's autobiography about his friend waiting to buy a home. The friend kept expecting the Philadelphia real estate market to crash. He was going to buy on the dip. There was always a reason it wasn't a good time to buy. He waited like 20 years and by the time he bought the home it was three times what he would have paid if he had just bought it on Ben's initial advice.

If the United States has stories like this going back to our colonial era, safe to say this is woven into the fabric of our country.

ReAl estAtE AlwaYS goEs UP.

But what if it doesn't? Over a long enough timeline all investments go to 0.

My dad bought a condo in Pennsylvania 32ish years ago. The neighborhood is well kept. Quiet. Out of curiosity, I recently looked up the value.

He's made $20,000 on it. Before you take out real estate fees.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Good stuff here Mike.

The only thing I quibble on is this, not everyone's cut out to be an entrepreneur.

My one thought on solving the labor thing is a newish kind of corporate structure where you're cutting people in more often than normal. I know tech startups will do this kind of thing with stock options, etc. It used to be that pensions would tie people to a company.

But that model should be brought out again to a wider audience seeking to retain talent.

It doesn't have to be stock options. Maybe you take 10% of your profit and create an employee bonus pool.

Just something to incentivize employees to thinking like the owner, without having to take the risk of going solo. Some people just like working on teams.



I don't know who on the forum introduced me to Zeihan but yeah, I've been consuming a lot. What hooked me for some videos he did 8 years ago, that have sounded like veritable prophecy. Dude predicted the year interest rates would start going crazy? I mean...

I don't agree with everything he's saying though.

To point 1... My challenge so far is boomers over valuing what they have. Even the ones that don't list their company. The ones I I have talked to, and at this point it's maybe a dozen in the past year, but they seem to be willing to shut their company down completely, rather than selling it for less than what they think it's worth.

On the one hand I understand it. It's pride.

My dad was one of these. He had a machine tool business and was a consultant of sorts. Honeywell CNC machines would break and they'd hire him to come fix them, program new machines, etc...

But when I said "there's no way in hell I'm getting into that business" he got sad but started looking at how to sell it...

... Unfortunately there was nothing to sell. Just a customer list.

And I think that's MOST of the boomer generation. They don't have a real business, they have a self-employment situation

To point 2. Homie preach.

I've been thinking the companies of the future really need to focus on on the job training much like they used to.

We got away from that when things got easy. When it was easy to replace people.

I mean if you even just do what you say you're going to do you're light years ahead of most businesses!

To point 3. Colombia and Mexico. And I have family in Colombia. How am I missing out on this boat? I gotta right this ship bro, and I reached out to someone who can help thanks to your post.

There's gonna have to be a shift in work ethic but I mean the Ford plant and others are in Juarez. They work themselves to the bone.

I get the feeling that you and I see things similarly, but you play at a much higher level (i.e. more zeroes) than I typically have.

"Higher level"

Bro we're all in the same arena. I've had a couple of 8 and 9 figure **clients** but I didn't personally create that from scratch. I just talked a buncha shit about what they need to fix

Biggest I can brag about personally is only 3.6mm. Certainly not your level!!

 

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[BizyDad]

"Higher level"

Bro we're all in the same arena. I've had a couple of 8 and 9 figure **clients** but I didn't personally create that from scratch. I just talked a buncha shit about what they need to fix

Biggest I can brag about personally is only 3.6mm. Certainly not your level!!

Mental note...

We should talk RE marketing for brokerages. And I have this app I want to show you...

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Mental note...

We should talk RE marketing for brokerages. And I have this app I want to show you...

I've got a bagillion of those... But God do I hate agents...

 

[Kevin88660]

This post is me mostly sorting through some thoughts that have been kicking around in my brain for the past few months. Forgive the stream of conscious nature of this, and I would love any feedback the forum has on this. Poke holes in it. Tell me where I'm wrong in my thinking.

The people of my generation had a lot of benefits on their path to wealth. But I see the world changing. We're not going to have low interest rates anytime soon. The internet was our world changing/business changing opportunity.

Losers complain that doing business is getting harder. Please don't turn this thread into "that" kind of thread.

I'm trying to figure out what the opportunities are for that next generation that's just getting started. I'm trying to go deeper than AI iS so aMazIng.

There's a lot of angles to that, but for this post I'm looking at shifts in the labor market.

Most every country has a baby boomer generation.

For most countries, that is a big group of people that is going into retirement. Leaving the workforce.

Most every country has Gen Z entering the workforce. And I believe in most countries, that is a much smaller generation.

At a macro level, boomers are leaving high paying jobs, and there are not enough people in Gen X to fill them. But those new guys at the top of the pyramid are looking at the incoming generation and saying to themselves, there's just not enough.

From my microview here in Phoenix, hiring people is one of the most difficult thing my clients are dealing with.

They can't find drivers. They can't find welders. They can't find roofers.

And they're starting to throw ridiculous money at people just to get jobs done.

Entry level for a welder is 40K. That's with 6 months training. That's not much. But inside two years, switch jobs a couple times, with two years experience you're making 80 to 120K.

So 19-year-old looking to make it could take 6 months to learn, and by the time they're 22 could be making 80k a year.

Can you take a small detour on your fast lane sock away some cash and develop a skill?

But then what?

Well then you've got a skill. And you've got an insight into an industry. You spent a few years seeing what problems that industry has.

One thing you could do is start a company with a slightly different business model. If all your competitors are having trouble keeping employees, can you solve the problem of keeping employees? The companies that are able to do that in the future are the companies that are going to win.

And I think there's something to the idea that young people want to work for young people.

Let's go back to the macro level. The writing is on the wall. People have less kids now. The era of ever growing populations is stalling. Once the baby boomer generation actually begins to die off, death rate will exceed birth rate in many places.

And when that happens, emmigration from those places sets in also.

What will businesses do then?

Turn to automation.

A lot of people try to learn coding. But the factories of the future are going to need more than just coders. They are going to need engineers. Should you consider college?

There is a grand shift taking place in the world. As just one example, thanks to COVID lockdowns, companies are pulling out of manufacturing in China.

Thanks to demographic changes, Chinese labor costs have increased dramatically over the course of the last 20 years.

Where is the manufacturing of the future?

Here in Arizona, for the first time in memory, real estate and construction are not the top job producing industry. And it's not tourism either.

It's manufacturing.

People say America doesn't build stuff anymore. But we're starting to build stuff again.

How can you position yourself to take advantage of this? Shoot I'm in this state and I feel like the opportunity has been passing me by...

Where else is the next up-and-coming manufacturing locations? Latin America? Africa? India?

The other day I saw some textiles and when I did my research it was coming out of an African manufacturer. I'd have to go back and look, I think it was Nigeria. I never noticed that before.

Maybe we should be learning 3D printing? Study CAD? Maybe that's the shift that takes over? Creating your own products and becoming your own supplier?

Going back to my situation in Arizona, I can give myself a little grace because I'm not in aerospace or semiconductors.

Then maybe I should be positioning myself to sell shovels to the companies that are selling shovels to aerospace and semiconductor companies.

With those high paying jobs come into this state, real estate prices go up.

More little businesses are going to be built up. Maybe I should start an accounting firm for those businesses and build a synergy with marketing agency.

Everywhere in the world the basic way of doing business is changing right now. Take a look at your area. Is it growing or is it shrinking?

One of the best things I did was move to Phoenix. So this place has been growing so fast ever since I got here, that it makes my odds of success so much greater.

Look how many people went fast lane just being in this city.

Dear reader, what is your Phoenix?

And it strikes me as strange that this is a place where people are moving to, we continue to build. we continue to grow. And yet my clients are still struggling to hire people. Everyone is complaining that employees aren't loyal anymore.

We are fastlaners. We look at the world differently. How can we use this to our advantage?

A labor costs are going up all over the world, and not just because of money printing, but because of basic supply and demand, what are you in for if you're starting a high labor business?

Can you innovate a high labor business to achieve greater efficiencies? Out hustle your competition?

Anyways, I don't have the answers. I'm not here to tell you what you should do or how you should spot opportunities in your region.

I'm hoping to spark a discussion. I'm hoping to get somebody's brain going. Maybe you can look at the world a little differently and spot some or create some opportunities of your own.

Smell like an opportunity only for those who dare to hire illegals. Innovation works when the companies who hire illegals are likely to get caught and smacked with huge fines. If not there will not be a fair playing field.

Singapore solves the issue by having a very liberal foreign worker policy. Bangladesh has an ample supply of welders, drivers and roofers.

I have met many small business owners in F&B and transportation companies who insist strongly on not hiring locals. Because locals do not want to work on weekends even if you pay more for the hours.

 

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[Isaac Odongo]

It is a great discussion here. Thanks @BizyDad for it. Thanks all the other contributions. I pray the discussion continues.

Just checked out quite quickly. On Google could only see one prefab service provider in my country. Couldn't see any robots people. Kids make some little robots at school though. But that's how far they go. Seems it is just their pass time.

Keep this up Fastlaners.

Will surely keep reading.

 

[BizBrain]

This is a killer thread.

Let me tell you as somehow who has been the labor for most companies in my career span, you guys have really hit things dead on with some of the comments.

I have almost always been one of the youngest people on or around my job sites, by a long shot.

Most people I worked with were always between early 40's to early 60's. Guys with lots of experience under their belt who have been in the trades for a long time. And now? Now they're all retired/retiring or selling their businesses.

On the flip side, the people I know and have grown up with who are in my age range (early 30's now), have all made careers in a specialized field outside of the labor industry or trades that deal directly with it. Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Software Engineers, etc. I have spoken with all of them about how they would feel switching roles or ever having to go into the labor industry. Their answers have always been unanimous- "No way".

None of them would even consider it. In fact, some have even told me they would panhandle or sell their bodies online for money instead of get involved in any industry that involves getting your hands dirty and earning a fair days wage.

It's crazy.

I have been thinking of ways to capitalize on this as well. I feel like I have a good heartbeat on this type of market.

Honestly, after just being recently laid off and having to do some job searching myself, I can tell you that the labor market out here is stagnate. It reeks of boring. 50,000 word Job listings that ramble, with some ugly corporate buzz words sprinkled in, and when you finally make it to the bottom of the listing, BOOM! You're hit with that whopping "Pay DOE" or "Starting at $15.27/Hr" or "$45,000/Annual".

The younger generation that doesn't have a college degree can earn a better living doing something more fun. We have YouTube now, where people can become "experts" in subjects within a month, then go earn a good living doing something they actually want to do. Or take a short bootcamp right into a six figure career where you get to chill at home and work chill hours. Or even find a site like this where you can learn some valuable skills and get off your a$$ to build something for yourself that pays dividends down the line.


Honesty, the labor industry needs to be shaken up. The boomer way of it's an honest living is outdated. Everyone wonders why we don't have a labor force filling the shoes of all the older guys retiring. It's because its an ugly and boring way of life. It's not yet caught up to our TikTok-y society where people work 4 days a week from home, with stock options, bonuses, have their gym memberships paid for, phone bills paid for, and get unlimited PTO.

I know this is kind of rant-y, so I apologize. I have been thinking (and hearing) about this a lot over the last few years.

If there was a way to make labor fun, or more incentivized, and not so drab. Hell, even just make these companies more fun to work for. Obviously labor is labor is labor, but if the industry seemed more up to date and fun to do, I think we would see more people willing to step into it long term.

 

[Kevin88660]

This is a killer thread.

Let me tell you as somehow who has been the labor for most companies in my career span, you guys have really hit things dead on with some of the comments.

I have almost always been one of the youngest people on or around my job sites, by a long shot.

Most people I worked with were always between early 40's to early 60's. Guys with lots of experience under their belt who have been in the trades for a long time. And now? Now they're all retired/retiring or selling their businesses.

On the flip side, the people I know and have grown up with who are in my age range (early 30's now), have all made careers in a specialized field outside of the labor industry or trades that deal directly with it. Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Software Engineers, etc. I have spoken with all of them about how they would feel switching roles or ever having to go into the labor industry. Their answers have always been unanimous- "No way".

None of them would even consider it. In fact, some have even told me they would panhandle or sell their bodies online for money instead of get involved in any industry that involves getting your hands dirty and earning a fair days wage.

It's crazy.

I have been thinking of ways to capitalize on this as well. I feel like I have a good heartbeat on this type of market.

Honestly, after just being recently laid off and having to do some job searching myself, I can tell you that the labor market out here is stagnate. It reeks of boring. 50,000 word Job listings that ramble, with some ugly corporate buzz words sprinkled in, and when you finally make it to the bottom of the listing, BOOM! You're hit with that whopping "Pay DOE" or "Starting at $15.27/Hr" or "$45,000/Annual".

The younger generation that doesn't have a college degree can earn a better living doing something more fun. We have YouTube now, where people can become "experts" in subjects within a month, then go earn a good living doing something they actually want to do. Or take a short bootcamp right into a six figure career where you get to chill at home and work chill hours. Or even find a site like this where you can learn some valuable skills and get off your a$$ to build something for yourself that pays dividends down the line.


Honesty, the labor industry needs to be shaken up. The boomer way of it's an honest living is outdated. Everyone wonders why we don't have a labor force filling the shoes of all the older guys retiring. It's because its an ugly and boring way of life. It's not yet caught up to our TikTok-y society where people work 4 days a week from home, with stock options, bonuses, have their gym memberships paid for, phone bills paid for, and get unlimited PTO.

I know this is kind of rant-y, so I apologize. I have been thinking (and hearing) about this a lot over the last few years.

If there was a way to make labor fun, or more incentivized, and not so drab. Hell, even just make these companies more fun to work for. Obviously labor is labor is labor, but if the industry seemed more up to date and fun to do, I think we would see more people willing to step into it long term.

If fixing iphone considered one of the “hands on” job?

The boomers don’t know how to do it and they need the service. The youngsters are more familiar with software configuration but not the hardware aspect.

 

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[BizyDad]

This is a killer thread.

Let me tell you as somehow who has been the labor for most companies in my career span, you guys have really hit things dead on with some of the comments.

I have almost always been one of the youngest people on or around my job sites, by a long shot.

Most people I worked with were always between early 40's to early 60's. Guys with lots of experience under their belt who have been in the trades for a long time. And now? Now they're all retired/retiring or selling their businesses.

On the flip side, the people I know and have grown up with who are in my age range (early 30's now), have all made careers in a specialized field outside of the labor industry or trades that deal directly with it. Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Software Engineers, etc. I have spoken with all of them about how they would feel switching roles or ever having to go into the labor industry. Their answers have always been unanimous- "No way".

None of them would even consider it. In fact, some have even told me they would panhandle or sell their bodies online for money instead of get involved in any industry that involves getting your hands dirty and earning a fair days wage.

It's crazy.

I have been thinking of ways to capitalize on this as well. I feel like I have a good heartbeat on this type of market.

Honestly, after just being recently laid off and having to do some job searching myself, I can tell you that the labor market out here is stagnate. It reeks of boring. 50,000 word Job listings that ramble, with some ugly corporate buzz words sprinkled in, and when you finally make it to the bottom of the listing, BOOM! You're hit with that whopping "Pay DOE" or "Starting at $15.27/Hr" or "$45,000/Annual".

The younger generation that doesn't have a college degree can earn a better living doing something more fun. We have YouTube now, where people can become "experts" in subjects within a month, then go earn a good living doing something they actually want to do. Or take a short bootcamp right into a six figure career where you get to chill at home and work chill hours. Or even find a site like this where you can learn some valuable skills and get off your a$$ to build something for yourself that pays dividends down the line.


Honesty, the labor industry needs to be shaken up. The boomer way of it's an honest living is outdated. Everyone wonders why we don't have a labor force filling the shoes of all the older guys retiring. It's because its an ugly and boring way of life. It's not yet caught up to our TikTok-y society where people work 4 days a week from home, with stock options, bonuses, have their gym memberships paid for, phone bills paid for, and get unlimited PTO.

I know this is kind of rant-y, so I apologize. I have been thinking (and hearing) about this a lot over the last few years.

If there was a way to make labor fun, or more incentivized, and not so drab. Hell, even just make these companies more fun to work for. Obviously labor is labor is labor, but if the industry seemed more up to date and fun to do, I think we would see more people willing to step into it long term.

Awesome take. And welcome to the Forum.

Here's one thing that I'm wondering. With all these folks retiring, with interest rates going up, capital markets are tightening.

So a lot of tech companies are going to be tightening their belts. They already are. We've seen the layoffs.

But with all these Boomer companies basically just closing, there's going to be less people advertising also.

Which will lead to further belt tightening by tech companies.

Now, there will sadly always be a market for "selling your body online", but how many years can you do that realistically?

And if YouTube starts cutting payouts, and TikTok cuts their already slim payouts, the easy path to revenue gets just a little harder.

Imagine 10 years down the road. These young 30-year-olds will be 40-year-olds. They will probably be too old to want to go into something like roofing. That the former mortgage brokers and real estate brokers that cut their teeth in the era of cheap money are going to have to go somewhere.

And by this point they'll probably have some kids. Having kids as a way of changing someone's opinion on what they will and won't do for work.

Yeah, many will go into entrepreneurship. Which is awesome.

But I think that we're going to have a lot of disgruntled millennials on our hands in about 10 years.

 

[YoungPadawan]

As someone who lives in a very blue collar area and works in a factory as an automation technician, I agree that automation is the future (although I'm pretty biased).

As our factory expands, we are continually automating more and more and we are severely struggling with finding people to hire. We have had an automation technician role open for months trying to find someone. There is a shortage of automation technicians/controls engineers in the US, so if you are wanting to learn a skill that's super valuable and in demand, learn Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programming.

The industrial world runs on PLCs. They are everywhere, from large building HVAC, to wastewater treatment, to oil refining, manufacturing and more. I got hired as an automation technician after taking some Udemy courses, so it's not like you have to go into a ton of school debt or anything.

There are so many things that you can do with this kind of knowledge, it's mind boggling.

 

[BizBrain]

But I think that we're going to have a lot of disgruntled millennials on our hands in about 10 years.

I think you have a great point. It can only last for so long, and with the way things are going the future is not looking so bright and shiny unfortunately.

 

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[BizyDad]

As someone who lives in a very blue collar area and works in a factory as an automation technician, I agree that automation is the future (although I'm pretty biased).

As our factory expands, we are continually automating more and more and we are severely struggling with finding people to hire. We have had an automation technician role open for months trying to find someone. There is a shortage of automation technicians/controls engineers in the US, so if you are wanting to learn a skill that's super valuable and in demand, learn Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programming.

The industrial world runs on PLCs. They are everywhere, from large building HVAC, to wastewater treatment, to oil refining, manufacturing and more. I got hired as an automation technician after taking some Udemy courses, so it's not like you have to go into a ton of school debt or anything.

There are so many things that you can do with this kind of knowledge, it's mind boggling.

I am so glad you responded. Can you give us a little more insight?

I know you listed some already, what other kinds of things can someone do with this training?

What kind of money can someone who finishes these Udemy courses expect to make? How about someone with a couple of years experience?

Lastly, does/has working in your position lead to spotting new fastlane ideas?

 

[YoungPadawan]

So right out of trade school knowing this kind of stuff, there are people making $35/hour. I get paid $27/hour, but I don't have any degree in it (only the Udemy courses) which doesn't seem super great, but its pretty much the best pay in the area and the company has awesome benefits. A common place that people go work for in my area is 3M. I think companies are so desperate for these kind of workers that they are willing to forego a degree if you show that you are eager to learn and show initiative.

If you really wanted to make the big bucks ($100,000+) you could work for a systems integrator setting up automation equipment in factories all over the place. They work a lot of hours though and are constantly on the road. What I do is work for a dairy food manufacturer, which is pretty laid back.

Allen Bradley products are pretty much the major PLC product in the US, so if you wanted to practice programming, you could get an old micrologix 1100 plc off of ebay and program it using rslogix500.

With PLC programming knowledge, there is such a broad range of things you could do that its kind of hard to list them all because they are pretty much everywhere. Amusement park rides run on PLCs. Industrial refridgeration runs on PLCs. Automated conveying/packaging systems run on PLCs. Sawmills run on PLCs a lot of times. Chemical manufacturing runs on PLCs. You could implement machine vision using cognex cameras connected to a PLC and do quality control, like spotting defects in circuit boards.

I've definitely found uses for it outside of work (I farm corn and soybeans) so I'm working on building a system that automatically shuts off our grain dryer when our dry grain bin is full and sends me an alert to my phone. I built a remote control manure pump activator to fill a manure tanker so I didn't have to get in and out of the tractor a million times to manually activate it when spreading manure.

Lots of stuff you can do with this!