Couldn't agree more with you and also of course, there's only one person to blame when things don't go according to plan which even speeds things up because you don't have to endure the blame culture, just grin and get on with it, well done you. The big downside is, and it can be a real big one this, yes you don't cant beat the commute each day, but then you will find that you will working all kinds of hours that most people would not put up with. The reason being that the work is always there, the pressure to meet deadlines etc increases tenfold when you work for yourself and at home. You need to have discipline for it to work effectively.
1k posts! Cool.
Time management is easily the biggest challenge. Overall, I have worked out a sustainable approach although it is still too many hours. Sometimes - I just turn off the lights and leave. Consequences be damned.
My little business peaked at about 13-14 employees and we had about 6k square feet of space - I became a manager at that point. I learned that we needed commodity products or I needed to shrink if I wanted to do the specialty stuff. At least at the time, business was really unstable. Over the last few years, I have been able to stabilize and get some more predictible work. Now, I am not sure I want to go back to having a full size business. Small is good for the life I am after. It does have some serious drawbacks, but I think I can put a cork in those issues over the next few months. If successful - I should have some time to live life a little. I want time more than I want money.
Thanks for the great video, following on from the first three.
I have just moved house and have a tinkering garage for the first time, which is located beneath the house, so should be nice and cool in the summer.
When I saw your first few Factory 400 TM videos, I thought "Damn, that guy has a lot of space, albeit crowded"
Got the tape measure out today and found I have about the same square footage.
Just need to find a way to produce the funds, to fit it out with all the nice kit that we all drool over.
I'm pleased that you are producing these videos and, as stated already, you have a knack for them, please keep it up.
Best wishes for your future endeavors.
When I started this current iteration of the business - I had ZERO money. Negative, in fact, with some non-trival debt. Just as I was going to shut the whole thing down and get a day job - I purchased a Rigol scope with a credit card and got crackin' on a new product. Sold a few, purchased little bits, here and there.....soldiering, microscope, SMT oven, shelves, etc.etc. I really wanted this to work and spent nights and weekends manually assembling PCB's to earn enough money to buy more gear. Each purchase has been critically examined to be a money generating item - every single piece. Lot's of eBay too buying fixer-uppers like my pick and place - that baby took 6 months to revive into a working system. One of the big turning points was winning the big scope from Keysight. That event provided a stunning opportunity for me to jump into a whole new level of electronics that have more commercial value. I chased a few jobs and got them because I had the gear to make it happen. Of course, I spent countless hours studying high speed digital design and experimenting. I built a few new designs that are making money so I decided to round out the capability with the new CNC machine. The Keysight scope win is directly tied to the expansion of my skills and business. A stunning stroke of luck that I hope will make all those that helped proud.
I already spent 10 years owning and operating a few CNC machines, so this project does not have much of a learning curve. With that said, starting from scratch is an insane amount of details and decisions. The machine is the big part that is easy to see, but the little bits and pieces are what makes it useful.
With all that said - it starts with tinkering and a desire to do something cool. If it is not obvious - I love what I do and especially love learning new things. It took years to build up a marketable set of skills and equipment commercially but remember I sold relative trinkets in the beginning to make some tracks.
@rx8pilot: First of all I like the style of your videos. IMHO you have a talent for it just like Dave has.
More on-topic.. I definitely see the advantages of being able to do a lot of stuff yourself at your own place. I've spend the last couple of days in the shed milling & drilling to put some (very low volume) products together. Still I'd like to keep the manual labour stuff to a minimum. I'm an engineer and not a worker at a manufacturing plant so if I can outsource then I outsource. I usually have 50 lasercut front panels made even if I only need 10 immediately.
For sure - I fully expect to use the milling maching to make a pilot run while I outsource a larger batch than I want to make in the garage. All machine shops are too slow for me and when I give them mroe time - the price goes down. Also - if I mill the first 50-100 parts I can optimize the design and approach to manufacturing so the outsources parts are streamlined for production.