Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire If you were 18 again......

My son just graduated high school and is going to start his apprenticeship as an electrician this summer. That being said, he's a smart kid, hard worker and great with people and would like to also have a side-business so I thought I'd put this out for some ideas from those with good experience on what to do (or not to do). He's been mowing lawns since he was in 7th grade so a lawn business would be a gimme-put but he's open to anything that would make him good $$. He can replace toilets, faucets, light fixtures, etc. already and has all of his own power tools, a paid off 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 with only 63k miles on it, a small utility trailer (5x8) and some seed money for startup/equipment ($5K-$7K) so if there's a side-business that makes good $$, I'm sure he'd be all ears. So, if you were in his shoes and doing it all over, what would you recommend??

How much would you take for him? He sounds like a we’ll grounded young man!!

If he is going to be an electrician, that would be the way to go as a side business, maybe his own business later on. There will be electricians doing side work at his job. Maybe he can help them for extra money and experience.

HVAC. Needed seasonally but two seasons a year.

Agree if he’s gonna be an electrician.
Get a side hussle doing the same thing.
Maybe approach home builders to see if they would hire his services for new home construction or even home remodels.
This can be lucrative as I have a hardwood flooring business myself and I make 1/4 of my yearly profits in side jobs alone.

Finish apprenticeship. Save every dime. Start own business.

+1

Start studying Hungarian.

He better be careful owning a business or talking about owning his own business in the electrical field . Many business owners won't hire a person who's '' starting their own business '' because they feel like he's scoping things out and will be in competition against the owner soonish .
The construction industry sucks too much fluxuation in the economy , highs and lows .

I'm not up on ''the new big thing'' these days but I know two people who got into the Trucking industry [separately] and are hugely millionaires . Learn to drive , get own truck , find honest hard working driver hire him/buy another truck . Repeat . Trucking industry is always growing .

He will have to get journeyman license, then masters to start his own business, in Texas an electrical contractor’s license too, I think. For plumbers it’s a responsible masters license. You have to have proof of insurance to obtain the responsible masters license. Most of the electricians where I work do side work. A couple have quit when they got enough to go full time.

Yup. Take on as much work and study as much as he can. Become proficient as he can at all the new media/communication technologies being prewired into residential/commercial construction as well as solar.

Handyman around here will scarcely return phone calls. If he can do carpentry work, he’d be booked for a solid year ahead right now. Anyone doing such work who is not making a profit in these times, should get the hell out of business immediately.

FC

A guy I know makes as much on Saturdays pressure washing houses as he makes all week at his factory job. Course that's only in the spring/summer months but very little equipment expense involved.

Good advice. First things first.

Young guy I know who did an electrical apprenticeship started a side gig doing residential back up generator installations.

Once finished with apprenticeship, find a job and work by word of mouth until he can go independent. Look at what the market needs and then GROW into it.

Entrepreneurship is what pays. Do what you say you will do. Do it when you say you will do it. Charge what you say you will. Call customers immediately if something interferes with the plan.

Sounds like a bright future to me. Stay humble.

Mexican labor is key. Learn to speaky espanol.

I spent my life in the skilled trades. Every place I worked the electrical techs were most in demand and made good money.

Also, if you're a certified electrical tech, you don't necessarily have to spend your life working in some noisy, dirty factory like toolmakers do. One electrical tech I know spent years working for the local newspaper keeping the presses maintained. He made good money and worked in a comparatively nice environment compared to most factories. There's other examples.

The curriculum for industrial electrical technology is a fairly serious study. I looked into it a couple of times. You've got to work at it to get through it. But if you get your certification you won't have to worry about getting a good paying job,..and you can get one about anywhere in the country.

If I was starting out again in the construction field, I would go electrical, get my training, and specialize in low voltage. With computers, communications, video, security, controls, etc. requiring install and maintenance you always have work for the life of a building, not just the construction phase. It is also cleaner and safer than the high voltage stuff.
The last place I would want to end up would be in residential construction competing with the wetbacks.

I would schit can the side business idea.

+2 but with the caveat of being prepared for a housing/building market slow down and have a plan B.

But yes, save every penny, have an open mind and not be afraid to take risks before you start a family. If it happens, failure can be one of the best teachers and motivators for success a young person (any person for that matter) can have if they learn to stuff their egos in the back pocket and break things down based on logic, not emotion. Success is great but can only be sustained if you don't let it go to your head and screw it up.

I've had several failed ventures/ideas, nothing to write home about but I learned more from those events than I would have from any book or class that have helped me through the years to make better decisions.

Also, many successful people I've known weren't all the sharpest pencils in the box. What they did have was tenacity. They just didn't give up. They did the grind and if they couldn't figure how to get something done, they'd hire someone who could. Again that ego thing.

And one more thing to learn: understand and have appreciation for what you want vs. what you need.