Work for yourself? Post your schemes.

[uNicedmeMan]

Any DGR'ers own there own business and wanna talk about it? Once my gf finishes school I'm going to cut a bunch of expenses and try to support myself in some fashion and wouldn't mind getting some ideas. I've got a bunch of tools and I'm pretty handy so I was thinking about maybe just buying a truck and doing various jobs for folks.

A buddy of mine and I are also working on putting a new course in locally. It would be a sweet side job to drive around and pitch dg courses to various parks then design/build them.

So I'm looking for folks that already support themselves somehow without a "job" / own their own business / know someone that does the above...

[kevind]

I started my own buisness about 4 years ago and its nice sometimes and most of the time it sucks just llike any other job. It really depends on what your doing I guess, I own a wood flooring supply company so as you would imagine I deal with a bunch of crooks and hard to please people looking for their dream floor for a nickle a square foot. I ran another company in the same line of work for 9 years prior to going out on my own and was really forced to do so when it happened. That did give my a good background as to how to keep it going and make some money while doing so. Of course the construction slump has killed my buisness I still manage to take home a check each week and im going on vacation next week also so its not totally bad. The big thing is taking the initial risk, I had to cash in my 401 and go to the bank and open a line of credit to get things going that was a bit intimidating at the least. the other big thing is you are responsible for everything and I mean everything. there is no where to point the finger if something goes wrong. its you taking it on the chin.

[AciDBatH666]

I work for WMD^2. It's just me and my boss. Several years ago he hired me at Forum/Access Oil Tools as a draftsman. A year later me, him (our chief engineer), and another engineer got laid off. He was doing consulting and engineering on the side for a little while, so he took it as a sign to go ahead and go forth with his private consulting with full force.

He got an office area in his father in law's building. I was doing work for him on the side for a few months till he could organize things to be able to offer me a package for full time work. When we got laid off, the economy was prolly at it's lowest and it wigged me the f out.
He finally came to me with an offer that I couldn't turn down. The only downside I could find was making sure he'd have the work to keep us going and man, he's got more than enough work. It's basically just me and him and I love it. It's so relaxed, yet we get a lot of work done. It's nice to be respected and not have to have someone breathing down your neck to get work out. I chill a bunch, but I get stuff done when it comes to crunch time. If something needs to go into overtime to get it done, I have no problems doing it.

It's made me realize that I wouldn't want to start anything myself. I've got my dye website up and running, but I'm not near it being complete or anything. But after seeing all the stuff he goes thru, it makes me not want to open something up that's an all out business that I would have to rely on for my paychecks. He's had to go thru several customers not wanting to pay, and the legal process with that.... And setting up 401K, insurance... All that jazz. It's a lot of stuff to know and learn about. But he's figured 99% of it out. But charging engineering prices, I can see how he can thrive on doing this for a living. We charge hourly, and his contracts state in writing that the customer pays for all hours billed.
Anyways, that's my tid bit of information.

[dgdave]

I've got a really good business plan for some ventures, but not the start up capitol needed.

[uNicedmeMan]

I've got a really good business plan for some ventures, but not the start up capitol needed.

I'm working on getting both of these. I'd say I have more capital than good ideas at this point but hopefully it's just a matter of time...

[peppermack]

I think it really depends on what you want to do and how much money your significant other makes. I am a social worker here in Idaho and my wife is a Ph.D Environmental Engineer, so needless to say she makes more money in one and a half months than I make in a year. So if you are in this kind of situation and not have to worry about making the mortgage payment if you don't do enough business you can afford to take your time and build a business. When I move to West Virginia in a couple of months I am going to apply for all kinds of federal grants so I can start my own Vocational Training program for at risk youth, and there are an amazing number of grants out there for everything you could possibly imagine. I know that because the First Ladies exercise and health initiatives there is a lot of $$ out there for youth programs that involve nutrition and exercise. You could get one of these with DG as a main staple of it and get paid to play DG with kids!