Young Guy Seeking Advice

[RandomIowaGuy]

Well to start off I am 21, live in Iowa, have a son, and am newly working at a local foundry doing parts grinding in the millroom (ah the joys). My job history for being 21 is long, although most of it is manual labor in factories (food processing, machining parts and assembly of gas valves, meters, etc and my current job) and janitorial (was even my own boss working for contractor for a good while!).

So what brings a young guy like me here? I've always dreamed of running my own business. For awhile I figured on starting a janitorial business starting small in residential and then expanding out to cleanouts/commercial. Due to the costs of equipment, PPE, gas, etc. decided to lay it down for now. Although now I find myself wanting to do something along the lines of Kydex holsters and some "novelty" wood items. Don't know why but I love manufacturing and it helps keep my anxiety down once I have a routine. I figured my costs to start making holsters out of home would be around $400 and for advertising use local shops plus online and just do flat rate USPS shipping to keep everything simple as possible.

Anyways just looking to get advice, opinions, etc.

[KristenMozian]

Before making anything, do some research on the demand and who your potential customers would be. What do they care about? What blogs and websites do they follow? Dive deep here and get inside of their heads. From there you will be able take the guessing work out of writing ads, product descriptions, website copy, etc. because you'll using their language that they use. Once you get that, sell pre-orders. Since you know what blogs and websites they go to - spend maybe $100 on ads to direct to a landing page taking pre-orders. This approach minimizes your risk and sets you up for success. This approach is explained in Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Work Week (http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded-Updated/dp/0307465357/). I highly recommend it. Don't balk too much at the title it's really all about working smarter not harder and maximizing financial returns.

[ArtisVision]

Hi,

Welcome among us.
In my opinion you should do some market analysis and see who are your competitors.
You may also check if they have their websites and facebook page, and see how they market themselves.
This will give an idea how you can start.

Looking forward to chatting with you.

[turboguy]

If you think you can make something people will buy and you can make a profit at it then go for it. You may find yourself making an entirely different product line in the future but you really have little to lose. We learn by doing and learn by making mistakes.

I also wanted to be in the manufacturing business for a long time. When I was 13 my dad was sales manager for a garden tractor manufacturer and I remember standing in the factory and watching machines roll down the line and looking at all the equipment and being fascinated and thinking how neat it would be to have a manufacturing business. Well, it didn't happen for a few decades. At the time I started, although I had made some good money in the past I was going through a rough period and had little working capital. I bought $ 1000.00 worth of machinery and put it in my 2 car garage. One drill press $ 169.00. One band saw, about the same price and a mig welder. I took a 4 night course in welding at my local Community College and started in with my first product. It took three different product lines and a few years before we found the right product but we did eventually do that. Over a 10 year period we moved from the garage to a rented 3200 sq. ft. place, and then to a 6000 sq. ft. factory and then built our own factory with 11,000 sq. ft. We are now thinking of expanding and more than doubling our production area.

1. Don't be afraid to try things. The more things you try the more chances of hitting a winner and you will learn from your mistakes.
2. Be patient. Success and progress don't happen overnight.
3. Keep your eyes open. Learn all you can and trust your own judgment. Listen to people. My best ideas have come from listening. Actually the latest hot product for us came from a discussion on a forum.
4. Running your own business takes a lot of different skills. You have to understand the production side, the marketing side and the financial side of running a business. Keep reading, keep learning, keep growing.
5. Even though I suggested listening to people keep in mind that they won't always be right. I have had people tell me that ideas that were duds were great and ideas that were great were duds. People express opinions. In presidential elections the majority of people had the "opinion" the winner would make a good president. Sometimes they were right and sometimes the opinions they voted on were wrong. Trust your own judgment. It is your money to be made or lost.

[Freelancier]

I love manufacturing and it helps keep my anxiety down once I have a routine
Ok, psychology of a business owner time: being a business owner is constant anxiety about everything from cash flow to freaky clients to the tax man knocking on your door. If you need a routine to stay calm, then being a business owner is going to be a stress-filled life for you.

[David Hunter]

So, what are you planning on doing?? Making gun holsters and wood items??

How much does it cost to start a cleaning company?

[RandomIowaGuy]

Thank you all for the responses. Seems like right now its a mixed market. Looks like some companies are making high quanities ahead of time while others are making true custom made to order taking 4-5 weeks just to ship. Also forgot to mention that when I was 16 and dropped out I did buy and sell out of home...seems like some weeks I'd be having back to back customers picking up items and making it big other weeks low and slow.


So, what are you planning on doing?? Making gun holsters and wood items??

How much does it cost to start a cleaning company?

Depends, for what I'd wonna do upwards of $5,000. One of the biggest costs would be getting a cargo van that don't need much work. Other major thing would be equipment. For a standard rug/upholstery cleaner would be around $1000, another $500 for a decent backpack vacuum plus other misc like chemicals, PPE, etc. Iowa business fees around $75. Also another downside would be having to get insured. When I worked for contractor out of NE cleaning gas utility places they were required to have a large amount of insurance plus bonds. Worked for a newer business in town that was small and local (literally I worked under the owners) cleaned some pretty high end houses with them.

[Fulcrum]

I think you have only 2 things left to do.

1) Figure out what the margins will be. Working out of your home will reduce your overhead and give you an advantage. Will you be able to make some extra cash on top of your normal job?

2) Start. Don't worry about efficiencies out of the gate - you will figure these out as you go.

[David Hunter]

Can you start small and grow from there?? Start with smaller vacuums/cleaners where you can fit in a truck/car before moving on up to the cargo van?

[turboguy]

I would assume that carpet cleaning would be something that would be a once in a while thing. We always cleaned our own offices until a few months ago. The people who do our cleaning have one of the backpack vac's and I would have to say that it works great and would be a necessity, not that you couldn't get by with a $ 125.00 Hoover but I think that would be a wise purchase. Other than that for most cleanings you would not need much equipment and that backpack vac would fit in your car trunk along with any other necessary supplies. You could rent a carpet cleaner when you needed one to get started and you could pick up a cheap trailer at home depot for $ 500.00 to haul it when needed. You could also sub out the carpet cleaning for a while. There are lots of people who specialize in carpet cleaning and would probably give you a discount or kickback until you got established. Doing it that way you would not need much more than a grand to get started. You could also do that in the evenings and weekends at first and keep your job. Lots of offices prefer to have the cleaning done when their offices are not open so as to not disrupt business. You might also find one of the backpack vacs on ebay or Craigs List and save some bread. (Actually after writing the last statement I swung over to eBay and the range for backpack vacs is $ 189.00 to about $ 400 with most in the $ 250-325 range.

[RandomIowaGuy]

Just have had time to log in and scroll through the comments lately been busy with work on shutdown for week:)

Feel like right now between my work hours, personal life, and the money holsters/woodmaking out of home would also fit my schedule a lot more. Just having been in the business as my own boss (through contractor), working contractors with huge contracts, etc. I know how demanding it can be do just a "general" cleaning company.

Right now gonna focus on making a business plan and gathering equipment as well as designs. Gonna be ordering a few kydex holsters for my EDC...figure it can also help come up with my own original design. Hope to start late this year or early next year once its all finalized.