Not all rig jobs are away from home. I've been building drilling rigs with my truck at the same yard since May and it's only a 1/2 hour drive from my house. Most of the jobs are away from home though depending where you live and what type of work you do. As for the loseing your wife part, if she's that sketchy she was probably going to leave anyway.
Just some thoughts of mine,
"Love the security" doesn't jibe with self employment. There just isn't any security in being self employed. There is risk, but with the risk comes the potential for reward. Bigger risk = possible bigger reward, or possible bigger failure. People with a high tolerance of risk, and an actual enjoyment of it, are properly geared for self employment.
You can be the best welder to have trod the planet, and fail quickly in your own business. But you never know till you try, this is America, land of the free and home of the brave! Everybody has the oportunity to take a shot but people skills, money management skills and the ability to work in a highly motivated manner with NO supervision are just as important as welding skills when you are the owner.
You mentioned you were a shop IW, hopefully you have previous field experience. Starting a business is in itself a steep learning curve, I can't imagine starting a business in an area I had no experience in as that means two very steep and harsh learning curves simultaniously.
I believe there is a pretty good market in SoCal for an LA certified structural mobile guy, just as an example the standard In-N-Out Burger building has about 10 moment connections that will require an LA cert and special inspection. Not a job Bechtel is interested in but the type of job that the small one man operation can thrive on. But again you would really need extensive field experience to have a great grip on what the work calls for.
Price liability insurance and workmans comp closely before setting prices, and understand the cost of maintaining a California contractors license.
Get a solid understanding of your tax burden. Don't listen to an accountant, get your own mind wrapped around what is and isn't a deduction (learn what a deduction REALLY is), learn what business decisions can save you tax penalties. It's YOUR money, you should understand where it's going and why. This is relativly easy in a small service based business.
Also a basic understanding of maintaining your own books is very good. You only know what's really going on if you do your own books monthly in a small operation. I've watched several people start up, and confuse cash flow with income. Putting YOUR eyes on YOUR books every month means you know what's actually left over at the end of the month and tells you where you can whittle more profit out of the operation.
Pricing skills will make or break you. Work that can be billed out at premium rates is FAR FAR preferable to run of the mill jobs that any guy with a mig can do. High end welding jobs can be billed at high end prices. The fewer people that can do the work you do, the better off you are and the more you can bill. Being in a high seismic zone, and the requirement for LA certs helps you here.
High productivity let's you make very serious money on quoted work. Customers that know you well, and what you can produce in an hour, have no problem paying high hourly rates but hourly rates are absolutly worthless in my opinion without attaching a productivity rate to it. ie, a potential customers current welding vender charges $100/hr and produces 5 repair free welds per day, you charge $150/hr but you produce 9 repair free welds per day. You are a far better bargain, but the potential customer doesn't know that, he only see's that you charge more. Quoting by the joint, linear foot, ect. lets you actually make quite a bit more than the competition IF you're efficient and productive.
Just a few things I'd consider. I started my welding business in '92 and I really enjoy it, but I've never needed the security of a steady job, and I enjoy depending on myself to find the work, bid the work, complete the work, bill out the work and actually collect on the work ; )
JTMcC.
"and actually collect on the work" - is by all means the key , but that pertty much spells it out good reply JTMcC.
Hey JTMcC,
Thank you kindly for that answer! That was the kind of feed back I was looking for! (the other one's about fleeing house wives was making me think I asked a welding question on a Dr. Phil forum!) but anyway I appreciate it! I figured The replies about being out on the road and such were from men in more rural states or at-least smaller cities.
As you are aware the LA cert is in great demand in socal and is many times a sticking point for a lot of great welders who just don't have it out here. Some times the whole LA cert thing can seem as a bit of a bureaucracy... for example, I went to school first and got my cert but when I got it I couldn't get a job in structural because I had no experience so I had to start my welding career running mig at a fencing company. A few months in I happened to over hear a foreman bitching that he needed a cert welder for an awning job they got for a brand new housing tract. Right as they were gonna track down a rig welder I opened my big mouth... needless to say the next morning I was in a crappy work truck on my way to weld for the next few weeks on those damn awnings!
now do you think they payed me as an LA cert welder?
They saved tons of money and I... well I got to eat free off the catering truck!
thanks again
Mario
Iron worker. local 509
figure out what kind of welding you want to do, structural, pipeline, rig work, whatever new or repair. the ins is all different, most all drill pads require 1mill min on you and your truck just to get on the pad. equipment depends on what you are doing also.hope this helps. been there my self
I have guys in me shop asking this questions everyday. So I too would like to give them more insight: ie insurance, start up costs, etc. Not to mention paying your own taxes, truck weight concerns from state to state.
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