My business just got wings

[Janderso]

After a year of retirement, I decided it was time to look into starting a business.
Heck, I’m retired, I have time and I’m getting bored.
My wife helped me to set up a Facebook business page. She made up flyers and ordered business cards.
In other words, the lights are on, the door is open and I’m just waiting for the business to just start rolling in.
I went out this morning with one thing in mind, find a customer.
I did. An equipment rental place near me was my first stop. I went in and said, I’m retired, I’m bored, I’m a hobby machinist looking to help you out.
All of a sudden the questions started flying. Can you do this?, do you have a surface grinder?
I think I have some work coming my way.

They send out their tooling that needs to be sharpened. The carbide cutters go in a stump grinder. I was told, if you can sharpen these every rental place in three counties will be calling you.
The jack hammer tool needs to be reground, then heat treated.

I have some fixturing to do but I know I can perform what is required.

Sorry for the long thread. I’m pretty jazzed!

I’m on my way

 

[jwmelvin]

The rental place was a good idea. Seems like some nice work for you. It’s not clear to me why the jack hammer bit would need heat treating, unless you grind so much back that you get into the unhardened part.

 

[RJSakowski]

My ex used to sharpen jack hammer moil points be heating in the forge and drawing a fresh point with thew trip hammer. After the point was properly shaped, it was hardened and tempered.

Be aware that by hardening and tempering moil points, you will have a liability exposure. Should one break and cause injury the is a possibility of legal action. There was a stupid case a few decades back where someone rented a jack hammer to break up a concrete slab and the point broke through and jammed. The guy went under the slab and was hammering on the pont with a sledge and the point snapped. He was seriously injured and sued as a result.

 

[pontiac428]

Whoa-ho-ho, those stump grinder inserts look like easy money!

I wouldn't harden an impact tool either. Use manganese-bearing work-hardening steel for hammers and bits. You don't want those made of glass.

 

[GT-6 Racer]

Thanks for posting, I’m a few years behind you and plan on small business activities. Did you set up an LLC, get liability insurance, tax numbers and the whole thing?

 

[Janderso]

My ex used to sharpen jack hammer moil points be heating in the forge and drawing a fresh point with thew trip hammer. After the point was properly shaped, it was hardened and tempered.

Be aware that by hardening and tempering moil points, you will have a liability exposure. Should one break and cause injury the is a possibility of legal action. There was a stupid case a few decades back where someone rented a jack hammer to break up a concrete slab and the point broke through and jammed. The guy went under the slab and was hammering on the pont with a sledge and the point snapped. He was seriously injured and sued as a result.

You bring up a good point.
I told the guy, I’m not really set up for that kind of work. He said, I think the other guy use to just use a torch, submerge in water then bake for an hour ir so.
That tells me it is not case hardened, more like 4140.
Decisions to make.

 

[Janderso]

Thanks for posting, I’m a few years behind you and plan on small business activities. Did you set up an LLC, get liability insurance, tax numbers and the whole thing?

No.
I discussed this with my CPA and financial planner. They both agreed a business license may not be necessary, it depends on your employer’s requirements.
I would assume a 1099 would be issued. Then i’m on my own.
I’m kind of in the check it out phase.
I’m concerned about telling the city I’m running a machining business out of my residential garage.
Hey, lots of businesses started in a garage!

 

[benmychree]

local governments usually take a dim view of industrial uses on residential properties, usually they take action on them if the neighbors complain, they don't go looking for them.

 

[GT-6 Racer]

lucky for me I’m out in the sticks, zoned agricultural, no worries about governmental interference here in Ohio. It’s taxes that I’m concerned running afoul of. I’m not making anywhere close to a profit, I buy too much stuff at this point, but later the intent is to have profits.

I’ve done customer work though where it’s difficult to get paid without the proper papers and accounts and state license. So I suppose I’ll need to go see a lawyer. Bye bye $.

 

[Ischgl99]

Laws are different in every state, but here in CT, you would need to collect sales tax on any work you do, so that would be something to do since if they find you were not remitting sales tax, you will owe all the back taxes as well as late penalties. I don’t believe you have to register as a business since any retail sale is taxable, so you might be able to register as your person and collect the tax and remit while keeping your business under the radar.

We also have to pay personal property tax on everything used in the business. For a machine shop, that would mean every tool in your shop, desk you use to do your bookkeeping, computer, pens, etc. The local tax auditor probably won’t believe one micrometer is used in the business, but another one isn’t, so once you start a business, everything related to that business is taxed, so best to stay under the radar as long as you can, but be mindful that they may hit you up for back taxes if found out.

Where I live live, they seem to be ok with a business run out of a home, as long as there are not any customers coming there, or more than normal deliveries for a residential area. For my neighbor, they seem to have at least one per day, so I don’t think they could complain about my deliveries lol.

If you decide to stay under the radar, do not put your address on anything online if you can avoid it. Google searches various databases and adds any company listing they find to their maps. I don’t know if your local town references these maps to find tax cheats, but I do know that is what I would do if that was my job. I have found a previous company I had shown at my home address, but not my current company, so not sure how often that is updated, or how they do that.

It sounds like you have a great first lead, so hopefully it works out for you and you can build a nice side business.