Business question

[AVB]

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

 

[bertsmobile1]

How did Sting say it ?
First came the churches, then came the schools then came the authorities then came the rules.

As for where we are it is a good idea to have that in the right hand block.
I have asked for it to be returned because it makes a difference to what we can do.Things are very different in Europe or the UK and massively different down here when the big names have cozy franchise arangements.

As for DIY,
We were dirt poor when i was young so there was no such thing as calling in a plumber, builder or electrician
I am 68 and the only time I have called an electrician is to repair the fuse box that got hit by lightning and that was only because the supply authority had pulled their fuses .
I ran the office & workshop using 3 generators, one hooked up to each phase so an not to accidentially create phasing problems The fuses for all the 3 phase stuff were pulled.
The electrician was amazed at what I had done , He could not understand why I did not want some one to come out & fix it immediately ( on a holiday weekend at twice the price ) .

When we sold our house in the mountains we needed to get an electrical safety check.
The electrician who did this said " you have done a beautiful job on the wiring "
What makes you think I did it ?
"Because it is neater and better laid out than any professional would have done." was his answer.

When I moved into this workshop , it had been rewired before I got here.
The power was always a bit funny so when I finally got around to checking I found
5 circuits with the max allowed 8 GPO's on each one on a single phase
the "b" phase had nothing on it but the stove & lathe
the 'C" phase had nothing on it but the lathe & lights
And this autrosity was done by a licensed professional.

Balancing the load better and my power problems vanished plus the power bill went down around 12%

 

[PTmowerMech]

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

This is what makes me wanna just stay where I'm out. I'm outside the city limits of a small non interventionist town. No codes, not permits. Nothing but me and my customers. Customers are enough to deal with. But most of them pay cash. So all the money I make, is mine. I'll probably make a lot less, than if I were to open that shop in the nearby town. But will have a lot less headaches. That's worth something. In the end, It'll probably work out about the same.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Now it not so silly now. That land is probably looking good now.

Most city dwelling idiots couldn't sneeze without a permit. It like here in a way the county fire department jumped all over me for cleaning a fence row by burning small piles of brush once I move it to a safe place. 60 yrs doing this and now they think I am not able to do safely during dry spells. Small low burning fire are a lot easier to control than ones with all the extra fuel. Its just a matter of common sense but of course they can't drive either without using a cell phone, reading a newspaper, or putting on make-up (guys included on this one).

Several years ago I drove through a local town that had billboards up saying it was illegal to do your own plumbing. Otherwords you couldn't even change out a leaky faucet. Still all the local hardware stores sold the replacements.

Getting way off topic, but for 60,000 years ( some now say 90,000 ) the black fellas burned every inch of this country using nothing but some branches with leaves on the end to direct it.
The did this to burn off the stuff that the animals they hunted did not eat and to encourage new growth because most browsers or graizers prefer fresh young shoots.
Us white fellas who know everything because we have the "right " god and of course are white banned them from doing this and within a few decades nearly every major settlement burned down.
So we learned from them how to manage the bush with fire.
However once we went into the machine age we forgot all that we learned and resorted to our God given right to be here & use the land for our purpose.
Now I am not a religious person but did have a religious upbringing & read the entire King James Bible cover to cover plus a goodly lumps of the Tora.
However in those thousands of pages I can not remember a single world about burning eucluptyus forests.
The end results of this is of course the fires of last season & this season and as we rely on bigger boys toys, next year as well.

 

[Two-Stroke]

There's lots of good advice for a prospective small engine shop owner in this thread. I've never had a shop like that; I'm just a hobbyist. But I suggest that, if there isn't enough business to support a viable small engine business, you could consider another line of business to supplement small engine repair. For me that might be bicycle repair. It's a growing sport and it's less seasonal than mowing. Some of the tools overlap and the basic skills are the same.

Bert, I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with drought and fire. I think you're right about the wisdom of the native people of Australia and I think that applies to North America as well. In the case of the repeated problems with wildfires in California, there are ways known to modern man (native Americans knew 10,000 years ago) to minimize the effect of brush fires. You can create fire breaks and do controlled burns. You'll still have fires but they will be smaller and not catastrophic like the ones we've been having. But so-called environmentalists oppose these measures even though the huge fires that result from these policies are terrible for the environment.

 

[bertsmobile1]

California, Spain & Greece all bought euclyptus from us because they grow very fast for hardwoods,
With that came all of our missinformation about managing them.
None of these places have kangaroos , Wallabies & Wombats to keep them trimmed

 

[jp1961]

Hello,

Why not start your business part time before jumping in with both feet. I tried starting a business machining metal parts during the "Great Recession", and I got very few customers, although most tool and die shops had little work and a lot went under.

Starting any business is about being in the right place at the right time. Give some thought to, I'll come to you instead of you bringing your equipment to me.

Regards

Jeff

 

[PTmowerMech]

The building I was looking at, that still had all the small engine signs on the front, apparently was just opened up. One of my customers from over there sent me a picture of the advertisement.
I was a little disappointed to see it opening up. I get the feeling I should've went for it.

 

[bertsmobile1]

No you did right thing.
If you do not have the capital when you open a retail space you are on a hiding to nothing.
The shelf stock would have cost at least $ 50,000 that you do not have.
If the people who walk through the door find you don't have the part they want, they don't come back .
Next time you are in the area, pop in & have a chat.
Offer your services to the at a discount if they get too busy , that can be very profitable in the long run and you are then getting a lot of exposure to different mowers.
They will give you all of the labour intensive jobs that will clog up their workshop.

 

[PTmowerMech]

No you did right thing.
If you do not have the capital when you open a retail space you are on a hiding to nothing.
The shelf stock would have cost at least $ 50,000 that you do not have.
If the people who walk through the door find you don't have the part they want, they don't come back .
Next time you are in the area, pop in & have a chat.
Offer your services to the at a discount if they get too busy , that can be very profitable in the long run and you are then getting a lot of exposure to different mowers.
They will give you all of the labour intensive jobs that will clog up their workshop.

Hopefully I made the right decision. I feel like I did. I'm starting to get some folks stopping and asking me about the equipment I have out by the road. (3 push mowers, a rider without a deck, blower and a tiller). One guy, a friend of my brothers, is bringing me his zturn this weekend for spindle bearing and a service. And buy a push mower. Another is coming to buy a push mower. And it's the first of Feb.
Hopefully by spring, I'll be too busy to do any work for the other shop. If not, then I'll offer.
And honestly, that shop had very little spacing between the front of the shop and the road. So everything would've had to be done in the back. I want more frontage.