First let apologize for the long winded diatribe. I had a meeting with a customer that got rained out so I had a little too much time to kill.
So back in Dec. '08 I left a good job, nope I didn't get laid off, I chose to leave the security of a regular paycheck to open my very own welding/ fabricating shop. This is the realization of a life long dream to own my own business, and be my own boss. Of course, as you contractors and subs know, all I really did was trade one boss for many bosses.
This decision was driven by, among other things, my independent nature. I've always been a self starter, and tend to motivate myself with little outside influence. Through the start up phase of this venture I found lots of resources to help make sound choices. Of course there's lots of stuff out there to help formulate a business plan, figure out start up and operating costs, etc. There are also several sources of self evaluation questions that help you look honestly at yourself to see if you have what it takes to run the show on your own. One subject that came up several times, and several ways is "success". Questions like "how would you define success for your business?" or "what would your business need to accomplish before you considered it a success?"
At first my answers were simple ones like, "uh, make money" or "support my family". But as I traveled down this rocky, rutted, washed out road to self discovery I noticed a subtle, but fundamental shift in my attitudes and answers to this question. Things like independence, security for me and my family, the need to be top dog began to take on a smaller part of my mindset. It was these soul searching times that began to make me look at the bigger picture, which made my pieces to this puzzle a smaller percentage of what drives me to leave the security of employment for the challenges of entrepreneurship.
To really explain this I need to share a little background. I have lived in Madison County, NC for a little over 10 years now. We're in the western NC mountains not far from Asheville, which is in, adjacent, Buncombe county. If you've ever been to this lovely region you'll probably have noted a couple of things. First; this is God's country, stunning scenery and good people are the norm. Second; economically, and culturally Asheville and Buncombe county dominate western NC. For example Asheville's population in city limits is around 70,000. Buncombe county holds about 230,000 people. Compare this to Madison county's total population of around 20,000. In square miles the two counties aren't very different, about 450 sq. miles to 650 sq. miles, Buncombe being the larger. Madison county only has 3 incorporated towns, none of which have over 1200 residents inside town limits. The U.S. census even lists Asheville as the major metro area for Madison county. I can't find my sources, but I remember reading that out of our total work force, estimated at 16,000, almost half leave the county for employment.
These numbers do bear witness to my own observations. While I'm no demographer, after a couple of years working at 2 of only 4 retail auto parts stores in our county, I've had plenty of exposure to a large part of our work force. I believe these estimates are pretty close. Those facts and figures are part of what precipitated this shift in attitude that I mentioned earlier. Couple that with the fact that I've been fortunate enough to stay employed in the county for most of my time here. So living here, and working here, as well as the nature of some of my employment has allowed me to get to know a large part of our population, even if only by face. I have become very rooted here.
So all these numbers aren't just facts and figures, they are faces and people I know. People who have struggled, like so many of us, to tough it out in the face of a dwindling economy. Even before the current recession hit we have lost large numbers of good jobs to offshore manufacturing. For example when a large electrical component manufacturer closed operations near Mars Hill (one of the 3 incorporated towns) the number of jobs lost equaled almost half the population of the town, that's just one plant closing. And there have been at least 2 other major closings that I can recall, all of them happened well before the current down turn.
All of these facts are the major source of the change in attitude about my definition of success. So here's where the rubber hits the road. What will my business need to accomplish for me to consider it a success. Simple, very simple, it has to support my community.
If, through hard work, perseverance, pride of craftsmanship, quality of service and some good luck too, I can grow this little seed of a business into the vision that I can't get out of my head, the idea that waits for me every morning when I get up and kiss my girls goodbye, the goal that awaits for me, then Appalachian Ironworks L.L.C. can be a good influence for my community. I see no reason that it can't become a major player in the economics of my (adopted) home county.
Let me go deeper to show why I do not believe this is just a pie in the sky dream. The only job I've had out of the county, since moving here, was in Asheville at a successful family owned fab shop. It was started by one man in 1924. It, to the best of my knowledge, is still a successful, viable business. They are one of 4 or 5 major players in the metals industry in WNC. During my employ with them, a staff of as little as 4, and as many as 6 fabricators and that many office staff had monthly gross sales of over $300k on average. That number was split, pretty close to 50/50 between steel sales, and drainage product sales. That means 4 to 6 skilled metal tradespeople were producing near $125k a month. Of course this was a few years ago, so I'm sure the numbers are down, but I know they're not rolling over and playing dead, even today. And credit needs to go to the sales/admin staff, too. Without them there'd be no fab jobs to turn out. So to bring this home I see no reason my shop couldn't do the same thing.
Yeah I know baby steps, first let's get established and profitable. then let's grow. Grow smart. With the right people, and the right resources why couldn't my shop grow to employ that many. 4 or 5 trades people equals 4 or 5 families that get to earn a good living using a skill set that will always be in demand. You cannot, and I will not, outsource custom steel work very easily. It's not practical.
Now stop and think of how many different places and ways welding and metal joining technology are used. Think about it on your next drive to work, or to the store. How many examples of metal products did you just drive by, or drive over, or under? It's everywhere. By no means am I trying to belittle any other trade, but I find it impossible to not to feel a great sense of pride and awe to be a part of this industry.
So take those 4 or 5 families and look at the impact they can have here. What's the average family now? 2.7 to 3.5 persons? So my staff of 5 could support, lets say 15 to 20 people directly. Those people will be able to go out and do business in my community and help support 10 times that many. And those 150 to 200 people do the same. before long my little dream could become a driving force in my local economy. We've hypothetically already hit 1 % of my county's population. And that is not even taking into account the suppliers my shop buys from. This is my idea of multi-level marketing.
Well do you reckon it'll stop at those 200? Ideally, of course it wouldn't. It would continue to snowball. Sort of like the old double a penny every day for 30 days and see how much $$$ you'd end up with in a month. Or how about this example from way back that sort of ties to my beloved trade, In ancient times samurai swords were made from folded and forge welded steel. It wasn't unusual for a master sword maker to take a month per blade. Heat, fold, forge weld, repeat 30 times and you'd end up with a blade with a million layers, less than 1/4" thick.
That is how I define success.
How about you?
So back in Dec. '08 I left a good job, nope I didn't get laid off, I chose to leave the security of a regular paycheck to open my very own welding/ fabricating shop. This is the realization of a life long dream to own my own business, and be my own boss. Of course, as you contractors and subs know, all I really did was trade one boss for many bosses.
This decision was driven by, among other things, my independent nature. I've always been a self starter, and tend to motivate myself with little outside influence. Through the start up phase of this venture I found lots of resources to help make sound choices. Of course there's lots of stuff out there to help formulate a business plan, figure out start up and operating costs, etc. There are also several sources of self evaluation questions that help you look honestly at yourself to see if you have what it takes to run the show on your own. One subject that came up several times, and several ways is "success". Questions like "how would you define success for your business?" or "what would your business need to accomplish before you considered it a success?"
At first my answers were simple ones like, "uh, make money" or "support my family". But as I traveled down this rocky, rutted, washed out road to self discovery I noticed a subtle, but fundamental shift in my attitudes and answers to this question. Things like independence, security for me and my family, the need to be top dog began to take on a smaller part of my mindset. It was these soul searching times that began to make me look at the bigger picture, which made my pieces to this puzzle a smaller percentage of what drives me to leave the security of employment for the challenges of entrepreneurship.
To really explain this I need to share a little background. I have lived in Madison County, NC for a little over 10 years now. We're in the western NC mountains not far from Asheville, which is in, adjacent, Buncombe county. If you've ever been to this lovely region you'll probably have noted a couple of things. First; this is God's country, stunning scenery and good people are the norm. Second; economically, and culturally Asheville and Buncombe county dominate western NC. For example Asheville's population in city limits is around 70,000. Buncombe county holds about 230,000 people. Compare this to Madison county's total population of around 20,000. In square miles the two counties aren't very different, about 450 sq. miles to 650 sq. miles, Buncombe being the larger. Madison county only has 3 incorporated towns, none of which have over 1200 residents inside town limits. The U.S. census even lists Asheville as the major metro area for Madison county. I can't find my sources, but I remember reading that out of our total work force, estimated at 16,000, almost half leave the county for employment.
These numbers do bear witness to my own observations. While I'm no demographer, after a couple of years working at 2 of only 4 retail auto parts stores in our county, I've had plenty of exposure to a large part of our work force. I believe these estimates are pretty close. Those facts and figures are part of what precipitated this shift in attitude that I mentioned earlier. Couple that with the fact that I've been fortunate enough to stay employed in the county for most of my time here. So living here, and working here, as well as the nature of some of my employment has allowed me to get to know a large part of our population, even if only by face. I have become very rooted here.
So all these numbers aren't just facts and figures, they are faces and people I know. People who have struggled, like so many of us, to tough it out in the face of a dwindling economy. Even before the current recession hit we have lost large numbers of good jobs to offshore manufacturing. For example when a large electrical component manufacturer closed operations near Mars Hill (one of the 3 incorporated towns) the number of jobs lost equaled almost half the population of the town, that's just one plant closing. And there have been at least 2 other major closings that I can recall, all of them happened well before the current down turn.
All of these facts are the major source of the change in attitude about my definition of success. So here's where the rubber hits the road. What will my business need to accomplish for me to consider it a success. Simple, very simple, it has to support my community.
If, through hard work, perseverance, pride of craftsmanship, quality of service and some good luck too, I can grow this little seed of a business into the vision that I can't get out of my head, the idea that waits for me every morning when I get up and kiss my girls goodbye, the goal that awaits for me, then Appalachian Ironworks L.L.C. can be a good influence for my community. I see no reason that it can't become a major player in the economics of my (adopted) home county.
Let me go deeper to show why I do not believe this is just a pie in the sky dream. The only job I've had out of the county, since moving here, was in Asheville at a successful family owned fab shop. It was started by one man in 1924. It, to the best of my knowledge, is still a successful, viable business. They are one of 4 or 5 major players in the metals industry in WNC. During my employ with them, a staff of as little as 4, and as many as 6 fabricators and that many office staff had monthly gross sales of over $300k on average. That number was split, pretty close to 50/50 between steel sales, and drainage product sales. That means 4 to 6 skilled metal tradespeople were producing near $125k a month. Of course this was a few years ago, so I'm sure the numbers are down, but I know they're not rolling over and playing dead, even today. And credit needs to go to the sales/admin staff, too. Without them there'd be no fab jobs to turn out. So to bring this home I see no reason my shop couldn't do the same thing.
Yeah I know baby steps, first let's get established and profitable. then let's grow. Grow smart. With the right people, and the right resources why couldn't my shop grow to employ that many. 4 or 5 trades people equals 4 or 5 families that get to earn a good living using a skill set that will always be in demand. You cannot, and I will not, outsource custom steel work very easily. It's not practical.
Now stop and think of how many different places and ways welding and metal joining technology are used. Think about it on your next drive to work, or to the store. How many examples of metal products did you just drive by, or drive over, or under? It's everywhere. By no means am I trying to belittle any other trade, but I find it impossible to not to feel a great sense of pride and awe to be a part of this industry.
So take those 4 or 5 families and look at the impact they can have here. What's the average family now? 2.7 to 3.5 persons? So my staff of 5 could support, lets say 15 to 20 people directly. Those people will be able to go out and do business in my community and help support 10 times that many. And those 150 to 200 people do the same. before long my little dream could become a driving force in my local economy. We've hypothetically already hit 1 % of my county's population. And that is not even taking into account the suppliers my shop buys from. This is my idea of multi-level marketing.
Well do you reckon it'll stop at those 200? Ideally, of course it wouldn't. It would continue to snowball. Sort of like the old double a penny every day for 30 days and see how much $$$ you'd end up with in a month. Or how about this example from way back that sort of ties to my beloved trade, In ancient times samurai swords were made from folded and forge welded steel. It wasn't unusual for a master sword maker to take a month per blade. Heat, fold, forge weld, repeat 30 times and you'd end up with a blade with a million layers, less than 1/4" thick.
That is how I define success.
How about you?
it's not just about the money.
