Interesting thread. I am only a consumer in the Hot Road world, but have made a career in the recreational marine industry, which has many similar issues, so with indulgence I will add: - Making a living at your hobby is a wonderful thing. I have loved boats since I was a kid, raced them, built them, sold them, and dealt with the components. I love being around them all day. But I do not lose sight of the fact that this is my job. People who dream of making a living with their hobby often have issues separating work from hobby - instant disaster. It's business - pure and simple dollars and cents. - Like boats, hot rods are a luxury market world. I would think a little guy would be well served to have some more mainstream arm (or at least capabilities) of the business. When the economy reaches the down side of the roller coaster (and it always does eventually) having something more mundane for cash flow is a wonderful thing. - Upholstery is an attractive choice. It is also a very tough learning curve. Good ones are worth their weight in gold, mediocre ones not so much. My preferred canvas / upholstery guy is worth his weight in gold - works from a 34' box trailer at your dock or driveway. Always, always booked far in advance. - I always thought Chrome / Annodize would be a great biz, but all the EPA regs and rules scared me off. I think a lot of paint related stuff would be like that as well. In today's world I think you have to look down the road at what the regulatory horizon looks like for your company. Too many people ignore it on the premise that they are small and can run under the radar . . . then they become successful and find they've not prepared for the costs / logistics / timelines necessary to stay legal.
Kind of surprised no one has mentioned powder coating. Guess its just the Hamb crowd. Last time I was at the local powder coater, he had a new sign. It read $75 minimum charge. I only had a few brackets that would have been $20. He said, he doesn't have time for the small stuff. So, I bought a high end gun, a small oven and am doing my own stuff. It's gritty work, but there's tons of customers. Harley guys,hot rodders, fence builders, furniture makes. The list goes on. Powder is cheap. prep it, shoot it bake it. I expect I will do some side work when I get some extra time. Some work:
I agree on upholstery because you can set up shop in a relativively small space (home garage to start) with minimal tooling costs (sewing machine, etc) compared to the tooling and equipment required to do mechanical work. If you're ambitious, consider paintless dent removal. Some of those guys do pretty well. And you can work out of your home as your shop is your vehicle.You'd do well if you could work your way in to being on call for dealerships and used car dealers to take care of dings and hail damage. If you have the hands and eyes and are willing to practice until you're an expert; pinstriping and hand lettering. Top notch pin stripers charge bucks. Broken down by the hour, they make more than high end lawyers. The top dogs that travel to shows are booked all weekend. Payment is usually in cash too. Though vinyl lettering has virtually replaced the sign painter, there is still some demand for hand lettering on race cars, etc.
The hottest trend I see now is "Dipping". If you don't know what dipping is, it's like a tinted,rubberized paint-type coating that's sprayed on, most is water based clean up and water soluble when wet. When it dry's it's durable, and removable. Seen a lot of these one man shops popping up around and they are chargin good money to have your car or truck "Dipped".
I had a good friend who made a fantastic living doing up upholstery. He was very much in demand . Be the best and you will make a great living. By the way my friend was Tony Nancy.
dirt t has hit the nail on the head about the employee / employer gig. If it just "real" money that has your interest I would suggest taking a look around your area and determine what it is that no one else wants to do that is a needed service , quiet often this is dirty work of some kind. You will be able to charge top dollar and there won't be a lot of compeation trying to cut you out all the time. Then you can ease into your car passions on your off time should you ever have any. Last but not least "when you work for yourself you will be working for the meanest most demanding SOB you have ever worked for", if you are going to be succesful. I wish you the best at whatever you decide to pursue
Seen a local dip shop with a big booth, at the local indoor bike show. Their stuff looks decent, from a distance. Up real close, it looks like low rez computer printed*****.
If you are a good business person any of these, if you're not a good business person none of these! Shops? New parts, vendors and suppliers? Used NOS or parts cars? Skilled Labor? Advertising? Insurance? Home Builders? Writers...press coverage? Flippers...Salesmen? Shippers and freight brokers? Accessories If the business in non-internet I'd focus on what has worked and what hasn't worked in your local community. If you're thinking of an internet based, that opens a whole realm of possibilities!
The age old saying is: If you want to become rich, figure out what rich people want or need and do that. Rich people always have money, and if you have goods or services they want or need, they usually pay well for it. The people that have money and are into cars, are usually not interested in what someone just starting out is doing, unless it is exceptional or unusual. On the deal of employee and employer, there is a huge difference between $30 an hour when someone is paying you to work for them, and when your working for yourself and all your expenses have to come out of it first. If you don't understand the differences, don't become self employed, you will go broke. Also, don't buy into the fantasy that every hour your at the shop you will be making shop rate per hour, it just doesn't work that way. In fact, if the self employed are honest, probably 1/2 the time your "at work", your not making any money at all. Gene
none of the above. The real money is in owning a forum. If this forum has 200,000 members and only 10,000 pay $50 for Alliance, thats a half a million a year plus all those ads
One other "deal" comes to mind. Soda, Crushed Glass, Media blasting. I have a friend that has one of these businesses and he stays very busy. His rate is $ 125.00 per hour. It is a bit "dirty" but always busy and in high demand. They now have the wet blast process that takes the dirty factor out of the equasion. VR&C.
A trade skill or service or in demand product is only half or less of the equation. As others have suggested, YOU are going to be responsible for the success or failure of any business venture. It requires willingness to work as many hours as it takes, skill not only for the task you perform, but people skills are critical. You also need business savvy. For example, you don't need to to be a CPA, you can hire one, but you DO need knowledge of fundamentals of accounting and keep them in mind always. Also, a familiarity with principles of Business Law are very useful. These things can be learned from books...better yet, Community College courses. In addition to the above......you MUST be self disciplined and accept delayed gratification as one cost****ociated with long term success. We've all seen somebody start a business and very quickly load themselves with debt for non-income producing goods. Nicer cars/trucks....a boat.....better house....all premature and the first hiccup and it's all gone. Long term successful self employed people do exist, we can all point to people we know who are. But it is hard work, mentally or physically or both. But like I have told my grandsons..."you think getting an education is hard work? So will working with poor education. You can expect to have to work hard most of your life. The difference is, the rewards are usually much better when you have an education". Same goes for being a self disciplined person, whether you work for others or yourself......it benefits you in the former....and is a MUST in the latter. Ray
I worked in a race car fabrication shop when I was in college. I loved that job. There was never a bad day and I enjoyed everyday of work. The problem was the pay was*****. Even the experienced people that were there for years didn't make much money. The fact is MOST hot rodders are cheap as heck. They don't want to pay higher prices that would allow shop owners to pay their staff better. I have a friend that owns an race engine business. They live in a large city where the cost is much higher that small town USA. He has to charge higher prices, pays higher wages and still has a hard time finding staff that will even work. Then I have other friends that used to be his customers and they****** because he charges so much so they order stuff online. There is no winning. On top of that there is so many industrial jobs that higher wages so that is what most people are chasing. Then factor in today's younger folks have no work ethic and don't care about anything but their iphone. I don't envy him one bit. Anyways, I found I had to decide whether I wanted to be broke all my life and do what I like or go a different route, make a lot more money and buy the parts/cars I dreamed about when I worked at that race shop. In my case I made the right decision. I think it is a pretty small percentage of people that get rich working in the car industry but rich can be had in different context. If I had to pick off your list I would go the upholstery route as well. There are plenty of business that can redo your couch but every hot rod shop in my town ships their cars out of state for quality interior jobs because they can not get that level of quality locally.
Another vote for upholstery. One additional positive (unless I missed someone else mentioning it) is that it is CLEAN AND QUIET. Maybe it's because my rod shop focuses on the fabricating end AND I work in metal stamping business as my regular day to day job, but quiet is highly under-rated.
I'm an upholsterer, and I wouldn't say it is clean. Stripping interiors and seat covers out of 60 year old cars you find LOTS of mouse***** and nests, sometimes dead ones. It's not a job for everyone, but I think more people my age need to be into it..I am 26 and turning away jobs I am not interested in, or can't suit the customers deadlines because of how busy I am. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Some of the comments make me think of my grandfather. My grandfather opened a garage in 1958, he closed around 62. He was involved in stock car racing and was at the track for The Allison Brother's first race in Birmingham AL. My grandfather had the education and he had the talent. My grandmother told me he had their 51 Bel Air...Right. That Bel Air was her favorite car. When they traded it for a 57 Ford, she heard the dealer tell the guys, "Do not park that Chevy with the other trade ins. Park it around back. That one going home for my son." My grandfather was not a businessman, it was in his nature to please people. His partner charged parts to the shop for his personal use, leaving my grandfather with the debt. Customers would take a advantage of him. A family sent their teenage son down to fix the family car and refused to pay saying he was minor so any bill was not legally binding. The late 50s were hard times, sometimes people would pay with eggs, or quilts...stuff like that, he always fixed their cars. To tell you how good he was, his best customer brought in 3 49-51 Ford Sedans. All three were black and looked like hell. Pop the hood, 3x 2 carbs, 51 Victoria rear axles and 3 speeds with OD all three were tankers, Blockaders. They were set up for the top, 90 MPH and second still had some more. In high, you would pass a mile post every 30 seconds. That fellow always paid in cash. Those guys did not let just anyone work on their stuff. In short he was not a businessman, he closed in 62 and went back to factory work. Another mechanic took over the shop and there is still a shop there to this day. This thread was mainly out of curiosity and thanks for all the suggestions. One thing I'm thinking about is wiring harnesses. I'm thinking about period, not necessarily OEM type harnesses that are vehicle specific, fit and pre tested.
You really want to know where the money is in the Hot Rod business? As a wise man once told me - BUY DIRT, meaning if you want to make the money, buy the land and the building and rent it to those that want to run a business!
That's just this forum. Take into account Ford barn, Garage Journal, Atomic industries as a whole is a mini-empire. If Ryan isn't making money doing this, he wouldn't take it so seriously. JMHO.
My shop does nothing but buy and sell parts. Part out whole cars, buy big lots of parts and sell individually, ect. I never sell stuff for other people and I'm not open to the public. I feel like I make a good living and there's nothing I'd rather do. It's within the hobby but it doesn't burn me out from working on my own stuff, for the most part. I think if you're good at something and willing to put the effort in, you can make money in any field. I don't know anyone who's truly skilled at ANYTHING that's hurting for work. If you're good, the work is there for you, and if you do the work, you get paid. As for the OP and the story of his grandpa, sounds like he was a great mechanic and a caring guy but a poor businessman. When you're self-employed, you're not just the worker and the boss, you're also Collections. A guy I know who used to build custom pickup truck toppers once told me " you can't be afraid to charge people" and another guy I used to work for proved that concept every day. That always stuck with me.
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