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!
