natenaaron

Mullsmith,

You have been given really good information.  You have a job, enjoy this as a hobby until you get ALL of your ducks in a row and have a solid plan with all of these answers you have asked answered by YOU not someone else.

This is all stuff no one knows about.  In the unexperienced mind you hang out the shingle or set up the website and that is all you need to do.  My first two years as an unprepared business owner just about killed me.  Imagine my shock when the tax man said all of my inventory, sitting on the shelf, not making any money, needed to have taxes paid on it.

Very well done.

Will do

Thanks.  A friend has access to lots of old bearings.  He gives the balls to another friend for paracord stuff, but the races will come to me if i want them.  I also know where there are two 55 gallon drums of old rock crushing bearing balls. 

Really?

When people talk about bearing steel are they referring to the Race, the ball or both?

Dude, I LOVE depreciation.  Depreciation on the buildings is Awesome. 

We have had some beginning business questions lately that I am afraid show how little folks know.  I mean no disrespect.  Unless you went to college for a business degree and have an MBA there is a lot we as normal folks have no idea about and don't know where to begin.  This leads to questions being asked here that are vague, and ultimately unanswerable.  In the last 8 years I have learned a heck of a lot and baptism by fire would be a gentle description of what I went through.  If it were not for a few really rotten people I would have given up.  I hope my experience will help folks starting a business.

Let me preface this by stating that I am not a professional blacksmith.  I own a business that I was thrown into, that I knew nothing about, that was struggling, and this was all at the beginning of the recent global financial unpleasantness. 

I am a teacher.  I had no plans to ever work outside education.  I was on my way to a PhD and had my eyes set on being a superintendent.  I never made it.  I never stopped being a teacher but I had to take over my father-in-law's business after he suddenly passed away.  The manager did his best to run the place into the ground by telling customers the new owners, me and my wife, did not want them as customers.  Customers will believe what they are told.  He tried to sell part of the property without our knowing and was a general jerk.  He quit with no notice leaving us having to uproot our lives and move to where the business was.  We were obviously glad he left after we found out what was going on.  The business I took over was a boat repair and storage business.  I knew nothing about boats besides they were supposed to float.  Flash forward 8 years. We are still in business, and I am still teaching. We closed the repair business after three years and are busier than ever in the storage area. 

Am I rich, no.  Am I in love with my business?  God no.  Do I wish everyday that it would blow up and I could collect the insurance money? Yep.  Alas, we do what we have to do and I refuse to fail.  Several folks said I would not last that first summer. Their words will keep me going until we sell this albatross.  I'm a stubborn SOB.

If I can stay in business with my attitude you surely can, because you want to be in your business. You need to do the work though. This is where you need to start.

Make a PLAN. 

The Small Business Administration, is a great place to start, especially the section about business plans. Write one.  Sit down at the computer or the table with a pencil and notebook and go through the process.  The whole process.  Not just the parts you think you need.  Don't rush and don't try to do it in one sitting.  It took me a month and my business was already running.  This is where you think about your business.  As an SBA counselor told me, if you are not willing to do the plan you are not willing to be in business.  This plan will force you to think about all those things you folks are asking about: Cost, price, market, all of it.  No one can answer these questions for you because they are not you, and are not in your market.

Talk

There are lots of people who work with the SBA and they are a wealth of information.  It does not matter that they are not blacksmiths.  There are fundamentals to running a business that are the same in every business.  I did not talk to anyone who had a boat business.  Use these people.  They like talking about business.  Take notes, ask questions, clarify what you do not understand,  If you don't like what one person says go talk to another.  Treat them with respect they DO know more than you.  I know someone who decided he knew more than the people he talked to.  He is no longer in business.  Total failure.  Lost everything including his house, and ultimately his family.  If there is an SBA class being held in your area ATTEND IT!  Be a good student, sit at the front, take notes and do your homework.  I wish there was one here when I going through this.

The Tax Man is not on your side.

Under the table is not an option.  File your business with the state.  invest in a book keeping program and hire an accountant.  Mine is worth everything I pay him and more

Suck it up

You cannot neglect any part of your business just because it is not fun, or it is boring, or you do not see the purpose, and my favorite excuse "I don't have time".  That one has bit me in the butt way to often.  Your business is a living breathing entity that will consume a lot more of your time than you want it to, especially in the beginning.  Closing shop at 5:00pm just means you have a couple hours more work nurturing the business, instead of the customer.

Insurance is necessary if you value your quality of life

Finally

Employees are a pain in the ***

I hope this helps people and steers folks to the right place to begin building their business properly.  It is tough, a lot of it sucks, but, as much as I dislike my business, there are rewarding moments

If this is not appropriate please delete

Anyone want to buy a boat storage business?

Hadn't thought of that.  I just figured I had enough floors to last a life time.

Showed up on my doorstep actually.  A friend whose wife was heavily into ceramics for many years saw the piece of kiln shelf I have as a floor in my forge.  He brought all of this stuff.  I think I have plenty floors now, but what else can they be used for in the blacksmith hobby?

You are very fortunate.  enjoy it.  All of my grandfather's tools were sorted through by my uncle, What didn't sell was thrown away.

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

 

Note when I go to the next page on a multipage thread it will often come up blank and I have to click on the refresh button to see what's on it.

I do that too.  It said Error file does not exist.  Obviously it is back.

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

More IPS weirdness, this is a reply to Nate's shim stock acquisition.

What did the sparks look like?

Frosty The Lucky.

Looked like regular sparks to me bright yellow orange.  The pic is with a flapper disk

I asked and he said they looked like sparks.  I will hit it with the grinder today to see then describe it.

Hey you are on pg. 188.  I guess it does exist.  Unless you are a figment of my imagination.

This is weird.  I tried to post about another person's found treasures.  and it disappeared.  That is not the weird part.  Page 188 showed up but when you click on page 188 it is not their either.  I think someone stole page 188.

These came to my doorstep

A friend works for the dam and they were replacing shims on one of the "units".  I assumed it means the outer casing of a turbine.  He brought 10 of the cut offs and a couple dead reciprocating saw blades.

He thought the shims were mild steel but we were both scratching out heads after I pointed out that one of them had a break where it was ground off.  So I will leave it up to the experts here. Will mild steel break?  Picture one shows the break.  Not well I am afraid.  Once the shims were all set they ground them to size.  This one broke instead of grinding clean.  All of them ground clean with no burs which I thought was strange.  All of my grind ends have burs and all I have ever used before is mild and stainless steel..  I asked it they had bee cleaned up and my friend said no; there were no burs.  I haven't done a file test yet to see how soft they are. 

Pardon my ignorance but what is Can Welding.  Google keeps bringing up different kinds of cans and Aluminum welding.

JWS, you looking to make Senior Curmudgeon?  Based on my research JWS is right, though.  I'm currently saving my money to do it right, unless I man up and build one.

The guy I got it from make a lot of tank bells.  Has sold them as soon as he finishes.  I think the plugs are why he did not want to make a bell. 

Compressor tank.  Not sure what to with it though. Couldn't turn it down though. It would have gone against my "ooo I can do something with that" nature.

It didn't follow me home because I had to carry it, like a baby, and it was heavy.

D=16 inches (rough measure)

L=36 inches (rough measure)

My grandfather had two farms. One was near the main road into town. Some developer brought in a tightly packed group of condos right next to one of the pastures. The "city folk" who wanted to move to the country started complaining about the sound and smell of the cows.  he and the county laughed at them.  they moved into the country and country is what they got .

Not sure how Canada handles these things but check on your zoning. You have a working farm and farms make noise. There might not be a reason for you to worry about noise and the neighbor.

Just got back from the welding/gas shop.  I didn't need CO2 or Argon so I have no idea how much the cost is.

Oxygen-$25.65 Large bottle

Acetylene- $69.35 145CF bottle

Tank rental 6 dollars a month.

I think when this acetylene bottle is done I will look into the propane.

I did not buy my bottles.  I probably should now that I am using them a lot more.