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After my mother passed away from cancer two years ago. I became consumed with entrepreneurship after finding a business card she must of made for herself having some sort of desire to escape the rat race, a business never executed.... I read MJ's book and was very motivated although I admit I broke the commandment of time, scale and control. After the book I was constantly in search of opportunitys. I decided to follow my trade welding and fabrication . I purposely saved from my day job and got better equipment to grow. Without any knowledge of business I started a llc and business bank account and a awesome logo with a website. Looking back I should have waited to create the llc after I actually had a customer. The following months I finally accumulated all the equipment needed to perform steel work, many never enter this field because of the amount of work needed and capital. Finally my first customer came in (my old boss) had a overflow from his company of handrails and gave me the work. I was set up for mobile welding so I didn't have the overhead to have a shop at this time, my friend at the time had some extra sqft at his shop he said I could use to complete the project. So breaking the commandment of control I said yes to using his shop and told my old boss I would build these railings. The blueprints came in I called my friend to set up in his space and no answer.. Great I thought to myself , I have my a$$ on the line and all my hard earned money out in material and people depending on me. I later called my friend again no response (later to find out he was going through a break up with his girl). Left high and dry I cleaned out my 10x20 garage completely and built a 5x12 steel table for 700$ right in my driveway, wheeled it inside and added a unexpected extra 16 hours to the project... Behind on time I quickly fabricated in a tight space for these massive railings building them in smaller sections to be assembled outside to make the small space work. I got paid for the job and completed it on time after working after work until bed time and every weekend 15hrs a day.
That was my first failure was depending on someone else .
Later I started studying marketing and sales trying to leverage more high pay repeat customers into my business. I got many lead most home owners with small project like making a table or fixing a chair that should have been thrown away years ago. I took every lead seriously however and most of the time as soon as a gave a price which is poverty level for me after paying for materials the customers would almost be offended about the pricing. Very few would make a sale and pay the prices but the ones who did where great customers and understood value.
MY SECOND LESSON LEARNED
(family and friends love to take advantage of your hard work)
After friends and family knew I had a small shop in my garage they started asking for favors one by one
My friends wanted there rusty truck frames fixed for free, my distant family members crawled out of the wood work and wanted fabrication projects done for free that take days of time and labor. After rejecting them they bad mouthed me talking behind my back.
THIRD LESSON LEARNED
I continued to push through working longs weeks at a my very physical day job and the business.
I leaned how to do bids and purposals for bigger contractors . I soon learned the big contractors control the game and the pay. (This also was a violation of control)
I thought I already knew what burn out was I had no idea until this point.
FOURTH LESSON LEARNED
(got to look before you leap)
With a baby on the way I took a offer for a new job union wages $34hr fulltime and to go to school part time for a year
Union schooling is much harder than I thought its a also a conflict on interest of my business.
the job worked me into the ground holding my job over my head everyday demanding to perform faster work because there are 80 guys who would love to take my pay tomorrow.
all the union guys I work with drained and believe there lies. I am rare in the union because I focus on specialty fabrication.
I wish I kept my job that paid a little less as a Forman of a fab shop. I work 10x as hard now and was baptized by fire. The good news is all the money I made from my side business I saved and the extra money from the union wages I have saved. I think I cant grow my business anymore because I am tapped out on time. capital and I'm not ready to quit my job yet. I have about 6 months of living expenses saved.
Its been two years of lots of long nights and pain, I think I'm going to start on another business the risk of losing my job is to high with the side business in the same field
I'm hesitant of stopping now though because maybe I'm one step from the finish line of success and just cant see it yet. I defiantly feel alone and isolated in my journey. I'm in process of reading MJ's book again. I apologize for the grammar its been years since I was in school or had to type anything. I'm heavily leaning toward the idea of starting business in another field. I'm not giving up but perhaps a change in direction something needs to change.
Thank you for taking the time to read hopefully my failure can help someone else
That was my first failure was depending on someone else .
Later I started studying marketing and sales trying to leverage more high pay repeat customers into my business. I got many lead most home owners with small project like making a table or fixing a chair that should have been thrown away years ago. I took every lead seriously however and most of the time as soon as a gave a price which is poverty level for me after paying for materials the customers would almost be offended about the pricing. Very few would make a sale and pay the prices but the ones who did where great customers and understood value.
MY SECOND LESSON LEARNED
(family and friends love to take advantage of your hard work)
After friends and family knew I had a small shop in my garage they started asking for favors one by one
My friends wanted there rusty truck frames fixed for free, my distant family members crawled out of the wood work and wanted fabrication projects done for free that take days of time and labor. After rejecting them they bad mouthed me talking behind my back.
THIRD LESSON LEARNED
I continued to push through working longs weeks at a my very physical day job and the business.
I leaned how to do bids and purposals for bigger contractors . I soon learned the big contractors control the game and the pay. (This also was a violation of control)
I thought I already knew what burn out was I had no idea until this point.
FOURTH LESSON LEARNED
(got to look before you leap)
With a baby on the way I took a offer for a new job union wages $34hr fulltime and to go to school part time for a year
Union schooling is much harder than I thought its a also a conflict on interest of my business.
the job worked me into the ground holding my job over my head everyday demanding to perform faster work because there are 80 guys who would love to take my pay tomorrow.
all the union guys I work with drained and believe there lies. I am rare in the union because I focus on specialty fabrication.
I wish I kept my job that paid a little less as a Forman of a fab shop. I work 10x as hard now and was baptized by fire. The good news is all the money I made from my side business I saved and the extra money from the union wages I have saved. I think I cant grow my business anymore because I am tapped out on time. capital and I'm not ready to quit my job yet. I have about 6 months of living expenses saved.
Its been two years of lots of long nights and pain, I think I'm going to start on another business the risk of losing my job is to high with the side business in the same field
I'm hesitant of stopping now though because maybe I'm one step from the finish line of success and just cant see it yet. I defiantly feel alone and isolated in my journey. I'm in process of reading MJ's book again. I apologize for the grammar its been years since I was in school or had to type anything. I'm heavily leaning toward the idea of starting business in another field. I'm not giving up but perhaps a change in direction something needs to change.
Thank you for taking the time to read hopefully my failure can help someone else
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