machinistguy
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I'd never even heard of a machine shop before I started one. I just talked to everyone I could looking for a business and customer and someone mentioned trouble he was having with a local machine shop. Did some research at home, it checked all my boxes, so I told him I could make his product for him.As an outsider these businesses seem great but impenetrable. On my list of gaps
1. No product idea
2. No skills to make them
3. No capital to start (may fix this one with another venture though).
Are there any business on industrial entrepreneurship you guys could recommend to build my base of understanding and begin to form plans (or a starting idea at least)?
I then spent 6 months convincing the local makerspace to let me use their manufacturing equipment, and spent all six months watching others who had permission work and asking as many questions as they'd let me. That's how I got started with no training or capital.
Then when I needed to pivot from contract work to our own product line, I drove around every single industrial business park I could, looking up every company and seeing if I can make something they need or compete with them. Once I found a product that checked my boxes I spent a week making a prototype with the skills from the past 1-2 years of intense self-teaching, made a post of 4 skus on reddit and immediately made $2k. Bingo. We're staring year 5 and I'm hiring for employee #7 and growing.
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