Chad82GT
12-13-2006, 06:26 PM
Happy Holidays to me!!! :retard:
Our company announced a month or so ago that our region would be laying off 50 or so "support" personel by the end of the year. You can imagine my thoughts when I walked into the confernce room the morning after the congratulatory dinner for the 10-11 year emloyees and saw my manager and director sitting there. Turns out, our new VP decided my position wasn't "essential" and is being eliminated.
Your 1st thought might be "oh man, that sucks!!" but quite honestly, it doesn't. I've been increasingly unsatisfied with life in a cubicle and have been putting forth less and less effort while trying to figure out how I could make a career change with minimal risk to my (and my family's) ecconomic situation. This is the perfect vehicle for this change. I'm receiving a generous severance for my 12 years of dedicated work (if they only knew! :rofl: ) and a business opportunity has presented it's self that I just can't pass up...
Background:
The owner of the former Hawaii Raceway Park had an automotive machine shop back in the 80s and 90s. When he took over the track in 1990 his focus slowly went from the shop to the track. Business declined becasue of this and he closed the doors in the late 90s. His son took a stab at it for a few years but for varrious reasons (primary being his customer service skills are n/a) he hung it up about 2 years ago and got a "real" job. Since then the place has been mainly a "hoby shop" for the old man and his son.
The son is an EXCELLENT machinist and has worked in Detroit for names I've heard of but can't remember right now... L-something... did a lot of Pro Stock Truck stuff... as well as others. He wants to machine but doesn't like to "sell". The old man just wants to see the shop get some use, his legacy I suppose... and a few bucks to off-set the rent he's paying to maintain an office upstairs wouldn't hurt either.
The deal before me is that I come in, under my own business name, and establish a performance machine shop using their equipment. The son wants to machine (and teach), the old man "says" he doesn't want to be involved in the teaching but so far he's been showing me around too. The part that makes this hard to turn down (aside from the whole "building motors is fun" deal) is that during the startup phase I'll have minimal overhead. Long story short, I only pay rent if I make money. If things really take off the way I hope, a buy-out of his equipment is also an option that's been discussed.
The shop it's self is somewhat small... 1400 sq ft with a 1000 sq ft or so mezzanine/office/storage area. The machines are all older but in working order. There are small things here and there that need to be maintained but the big ticket items like bore, hone, rod, balance and head machines, hot tank, surfacer, hydraulic press, air compressor and blast cabinets are all there and functional. Most need very little to be at 100%.
All in all I'm pretty excited about this. There's a lot of work to be done but I'm really looking forward to doing something I enjoy. It's not really "work" if it's fun. Hell, even bead blasting the old paint off an iron head beats the ho-hum office BS I've been dealing with... lol!
I was a little worried about the performance market with there being no track but people I've talked to in the industry say things haven't slowed down much. The VAST majority of "racers" were guys out there beating on their street cars, and that hasn't changed much. And who knows, when a track finally opens (I'm confident it will) I'll have established myself and that will be all that much more business.
The fun starts 1/2/07... wish me luck!!! :woot:
Our company announced a month or so ago that our region would be laying off 50 or so "support" personel by the end of the year. You can imagine my thoughts when I walked into the confernce room the morning after the congratulatory dinner for the 10-11 year emloyees and saw my manager and director sitting there. Turns out, our new VP decided my position wasn't "essential" and is being eliminated.
Your 1st thought might be "oh man, that sucks!!" but quite honestly, it doesn't. I've been increasingly unsatisfied with life in a cubicle and have been putting forth less and less effort while trying to figure out how I could make a career change with minimal risk to my (and my family's) ecconomic situation. This is the perfect vehicle for this change. I'm receiving a generous severance for my 12 years of dedicated work (if they only knew! :rofl: ) and a business opportunity has presented it's self that I just can't pass up...
Background:
The owner of the former Hawaii Raceway Park had an automotive machine shop back in the 80s and 90s. When he took over the track in 1990 his focus slowly went from the shop to the track. Business declined becasue of this and he closed the doors in the late 90s. His son took a stab at it for a few years but for varrious reasons (primary being his customer service skills are n/a) he hung it up about 2 years ago and got a "real" job. Since then the place has been mainly a "hoby shop" for the old man and his son.
The son is an EXCELLENT machinist and has worked in Detroit for names I've heard of but can't remember right now... L-something... did a lot of Pro Stock Truck stuff... as well as others. He wants to machine but doesn't like to "sell". The old man just wants to see the shop get some use, his legacy I suppose... and a few bucks to off-set the rent he's paying to maintain an office upstairs wouldn't hurt either.
The deal before me is that I come in, under my own business name, and establish a performance machine shop using their equipment. The son wants to machine (and teach), the old man "says" he doesn't want to be involved in the teaching but so far he's been showing me around too. The part that makes this hard to turn down (aside from the whole "building motors is fun" deal) is that during the startup phase I'll have minimal overhead. Long story short, I only pay rent if I make money. If things really take off the way I hope, a buy-out of his equipment is also an option that's been discussed.
The shop it's self is somewhat small... 1400 sq ft with a 1000 sq ft or so mezzanine/office/storage area. The machines are all older but in working order. There are small things here and there that need to be maintained but the big ticket items like bore, hone, rod, balance and head machines, hot tank, surfacer, hydraulic press, air compressor and blast cabinets are all there and functional. Most need very little to be at 100%.
All in all I'm pretty excited about this. There's a lot of work to be done but I'm really looking forward to doing something I enjoy. It's not really "work" if it's fun. Hell, even bead blasting the old paint off an iron head beats the ho-hum office BS I've been dealing with... lol!
I was a little worried about the performance market with there being no track but people I've talked to in the industry say things haven't slowed down much. The VAST majority of "racers" were guys out there beating on their street cars, and that hasn't changed much. And who knows, when a track finally opens (I'm confident it will) I'll have established myself and that will be all that much more business.
The fun starts 1/2/07... wish me luck!!! :woot: