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Not a technical question, but this section gets the most views. Opinions on going into business for yourself vs. working for someone else. I am a troubleshooter for an independent, but have recently been thinking about opening up a small shop in another more business friendly state. Is it worth it?

be prepared to make alot of phone calls and cold calls. Been doing it myself for a couple of months now.

What state are you considering to open shop? My advice would be to team up with one or two other elevator professionals to help share the responsibility. If you don't have a lot of connections, you should team up with a sales guy that is familiar with the area and contracts. There's a lot more to working for yourself than you would think. Just the administrative side alone is a full time job not to mention fixing the elevators.
Just be ready to work long hours and realize that you never get a break. The customers call day and night, 7 days a week. After you do this for a while the 8 hour day starts looking pretty good.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking to start up in Texas. I'm really motivated to do this but the unknown is kinda scary especially with a young family. I know I can do all the field work with no problem, but actually getting out there and selling is the hard part. Being an employee is nice but it almost feels like being a career helper with no aspirations of becoming more or renting an apartment instead of investing in a home. I want to make money for my company and run it in a direction that makes sense. I've worked for the big companies and they sell imaginary services to their customers and some of the independents i'm amazed that they made it as far as they have. I guess its easier said than done. I won't really know until i'm in their shoes.

The Independants in our local do very well. Which we are located in Texas. Now they have a NON union shop around here called RICO and after they go in and destroy the unit we charge extra to fix it. You cannot beat a mechanic who went through NEIEP and had 4 year apprenticeship. Electricans and crane mechanics make horrible elevator men, which most of the NON union shops use. Ill find safety circuits jumped out, interlocks jumped out, door restritors not working. But I guess this terrible work practices can be used by anyone. But the difference is a man with a card in his pocket knows better.

A good lawyer will be your best asset. I wonder how much insurance you have to hold. But good luck

I started out in 133 Austin. Now am in 18 L.A. Theres pros and cons to Ca as compared to Tx. I like the fact that Ca requires you to be licensed by the state. I don't believe Tx has adopted that requirement yet. Not much required by Tx to become a elevator contractor thats why you got a bunch of yahoo's out there trying to fix elevators. I can only imagine the dangerous conditions that some of those jobs are in.

haha im all of the above. sparky,crane mechanic(cranepro/kone 3yrs) and lifty. here we are trained at trade school as sparkies first and foremost then lift mechanics but still do a 4yr apprenticship in lifts. a bloke from my year worked in the states for schindler(or equivelent). he wasnt allowed to work in the field by was a super but he told me our training was considered very good.to the topic at hand i work for a small/medium independant who went out on their own(2 blokes), it was important that the 2 were mechanics as you will need a break from being on call. look for a small company to buy out a service portfolio which is what these guys did. they provided a maintenace service and a mod package but it was in the end not economically viable. what really made the company grow was installation of new lifts. we import a spanish brand(which is in the states i believe) which has worked wonders. the more you install the better. my advice would be is to find a partner you trust, start small low overheads and get into the small install market( against monospaces etc). my owner is a millionaire bc he did just this. good luck.

Yup you are right in Texas anyone can work on elevators and start a company without and state liscensing. I heard talk of trying to change that here in Tx

They do need to change that. The dangers the public faces out there is crazy. One of my former bosses at Amtech/Otis has started up an independent union shop in San Antonio and things look promising. And he is definitely doing it the right way.

even if in texas you dont have to be unionised it doesnt mean you personally cant have union mechanics.you should decide what is best.

You know how to make a small fortune in the elevator trade?







































































Ans- Start with a big one! yuk, yuk!