I work in a commercial shop and commute about 75 miles to get there. I have my contractor's license and i actually used to have my own small shop doing commercial stuff. I was thinking about trying to get side jobs doing residential and hoping that would turn into my own shop where I could quit my job and have my own shop again.Is having a felony something I should worry about? Should I not waste my time? It it white collar stuff and has nothing to do with drugs or being violent, but my experience is that people watch too much TV and jump to the conclusion I'm some tattooed up motorcycle gangster. I appreciate your input.

Public sector crime?

I think landlords mostly just check your credit rating.

"Making a false statement to a government insured agency" officially........and, luckily, I own my home so I won't be renting from anyone. But that's what I was wondering, would someone that wanted a kitchen or mantle or entertainment center do a background check on a licensed contractor?

I doubt it

Was a GC for 30-ish years. I cant fathom why having a felony would be an issue across the board and especially for the type of work you reference. In that world the work usually is what speaks for itself. I cant say Ive ever had a residential or commercial customer ask about my personal life.

If your a little rough around the edges you may just have to polish yourself up a bit. Im tattoo'd to the wrists both arms, nothing nasty or offensive but there are always long sleeve shirts which I wear regardless of season and temperature to meetings, job site visits, and so on, just out of professional courtesy to anyone involved but I think those days are fading for most now. I stick to the old world business/professional I learned when I was apprenticing and a teenager.

As an aside I thought (if your the same one) in a past post you said you were making like 75K a year or some insane amount of money wherever you worked. If thats the case, I would think long and hard about going it on your own. Not that it cant happen but your likely looking at far less than that for a long while, late nights, long days, vacations and weekends may be a thing of the past. Retirement, etc..

Hate to poo poo entrepreneurship but it can be a very tough row to hoe.

I kinda doubt it to. Take a look at some of the construction crews, they are tattooed up and drive their motorcycles to the job and are trusted to build peoples homes.

Just go above and beyond to be honest in your business. Good luck

Depending on the state you are in the only thing I can come up with is , you may or may not be able to get bonded ?

Best of Luck

There are two possible issues
1) Make sure you can get liability insurance and insurance for your customers home while you are working there.
2) some commercial and residential jobs require security clearance sometimes based on the type of work and sometimes based on the funding source. Don't know how to approach this other than be aware if job site rules / entry / delivery require security clearance. ( we see security clearance all the time in office buildings)

No one ever did a background check during the 8 years I owned my own business, of the 6-7 years I did work part time out of my basement. But I will say that interior designers were very good for my reputation very early on. It can be a blessing or a negative working with a middle person, but they can sell you and your quality before you ever walk into the door. That's huge when you ask of a 50% downpayment and they have to write you a $10,000 check with nothing showing up for 6-8 weeks when you get busy.

Around here, there was a huge growth of self-employed workers when drug testing became widespread. So many, they all had to work for almost nothing until it sorted itself out.

Yes, I make pretty good money and i go back and forth thinking "Do I really not realize how good i have it?" to being tired of the nepotism and favoritism that goes on at the place I work at.

Not to get too personal or sound pius, but your personal pride is the source of your displeasure with nepotism and favoritism. This same pride will have to be reigned in if you’re going to run your on show in an effective manner as well.

You couldn't be more clueless.

Keep your day job and hammer out mantels etc or custom items that you can do without all the automated equipment.

Being punctual and following through is 2/3 of the battle not your record

eventually Kiip hit the nail right on the head. Struck a chord....forget about your pass and move forward. If someone does do a background check and are afraid of using you.....then so what. Move on to the next. Determine that you will rise above your past and focus on the future. Do the right thing and produce the best product that you can. Treat others with respect. The past is behind you, focus on tomorrow and forget about the ones that want to judge you. You are the only one that can change your reputation.

I'm a little surprised to read you previously owned a business. Some of your questions about taxes and profits are pretty basic. I've had to explain again to our 43 year old daughter this year that lower expectations and an optimistic outlook are the keys to happiness. It's a lesson I learned by experience. I had a two part career at the same corporation. I was one of those guys with zero business experience that everyone told him to start his own business. I did it for 8 years and became miserable. At the start, having a new boss with every new customer was okay. But with no business knowledge I scrapped out just an okay life for my family, but I hardly ever saw them. I closed the shop and went to work for a woodworking magazine, then back to the first corporate job. Now I'm retired with a pension and am incredibly lucky I swallowed my pride and went back. Just because you can make something, doesn't make you are a businessman.

"clueless"

Mauricio,
I too think Kip's post is pretty much on point. How much it pertains to you is only up to you but in that short tidbit of information he/she bundled a sh(tstorm of information. Key point being.. no matter where you are, YOU are where you are.

We can all piss and moan that we could, should, whatever blame game you want to play. But in the end you are where you are.

My own situation at the moment is a perfect example. I knew early on (like 16, 17, 18) I didnt play well with others. So I went it alone. Made the decision that I was not suited for being part of a crew, desk job, fixed hours. And Ive plowed it out for 30 plus years to a full custom shop. Along with that shops is all the stress, all the worry, all the frustration of staff and the worry to keep their money flowing, no nights off, no weekends, rare vacations. Likely at a cost of 20+ years off my life. At 53 I could likely drop at any time in the next 5 minutes or 15 years and it wouldnt be of any shock given the stress of it all.

Mirror image, my significant other started into state government after college nearly 30 years ago, low pay, bureaucratic BS, politics, chain of command, all stuff I would blow my brains out if I had to deal with. Kept her head down. Persevered. Low pay became advance to team leader, deparment head, middle management, etc, etc, etc... Now at 52 she is 3 years away from retirement. Making about 70K a year. At a job with every paid holiday known to man. Takes every Friday off in the summer. Days of leave to burn around every holiday turns a Monday holiday into a 4-5 day vacation. A retirement portfolio with nearly a million dollars in it after 30 years. A fully vested pension. Enough sick leave accrued to cover her post retirement insurance costs for years and years.

How she got there? Her pride never got in the way of her being a team player and working her a(( off even for a sh((ty state government bureaucratic job. She sleeps soundly every night and will be enjoying retirement at 55 happily with a modest retirement while you and I's tattoo'd asses will be slogging it out til the day we die trying to tell everyone we'd have it no other way.

Get your head straight dude. Im not saying not to do it. But if you cant quantify the gains either in your own personal joy to produce work for yourself at the expense of your income or that you think you can hit the shark tank.. whatever.

But dont cut your nose off to spite your face just because of some perceived brass ba**s.

Mark B - Common, is it really that bad? I mean, if you set out to go it alone, you failed when you hired help. If you are truly meant to work solo, then find your product range and work there.

You seem well aware of the stress and problems that will come of it, like expecting heart disease/sudden death, etc. But you do northing to change those conditions that are going to kill you.

You are where you are by your own doing. If you don't like it, then move. Strip out the stuff you don't like, and concentrate on what you do like. Look at what you would make and how you would sell it. Then just do it.

And no disrespect to your SO, but some say those jobs are so mind numbing that once you retire from that kind of work, your brain is only suitable for watching low grade TV and gambling at a Native Casino.

Hehe.

Well thats what we do on a minute by minute basis. Adjust, make change, and so on. You of all people know you dont just beat yourself against the rocks (unless your a fool). You work to adjust your management style, you realize that your "go it alone" mindset is not lucrative in any other than some unicorn situation. So you manage staff, you evolve, you grow, you propagate social media, you build websites, right on down the line.

To think one can conjur up any type of profitabe solo gig is a fools errand. As you've intimated in your posts... sadly, that type of work is harder and harder to come by and while I'd love to whittle wood in the shed out back and be met with enough to survive on that is simply not realistic.

I would agree that slogging out a bureaucratic life in lieu of a pension and retirement likely on mass can often end in a less than desirable outcome. Maybe I assume too much, but the embedded perspective in the SO's situation is that along with the perseverance, and the planning, and the foresight, and the perseverance, and the... uh.. perseverance... is a next chapter. Some call it "double dipping", whatever. A time to do some "things" at 55, that will earn even a bit more income, as opposed to 62.5, 70, 72, or 80.. completely on her own accord. Not on the tails of a spouses income or benefit package, but in complete autonomy.

To think that Im just sitting here with my heels dug in like a stubborn baby and not implementing lean, not investing in CNC, unwilling to change with the materials of the time, the demands of the time, the economy of the time, and pounding my fists harkening of the days of old in complete refusal to do anything differently or work with any materials Im not "keen on" may be a reasonable assumption but in my opinion that would be a recipe for failure.

Every contractor I feed is active on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Linked-in, and the list continues. You either get with the times, or your get left in the dust.

MarkB - I think it is you can either work the job, or have the job work you. I used to joke: my job was running a small business, but in reality, it ran me most years. Now it did run me - I answered the phone, I made the drawings, I ran it - but it was all in the direction I wanted, or damn close to it. I determined what the product mix will be. I chose the product names, the letterhead, the logo, the everything about the damn business.
And that is where you end up - doing so much for your business, wanting it to be successful, that you feel it is running you. Much like a puppy on a leash at your feet. So small, so inconsequential, but you can't do a thing until you deal with it. So....is the puppy running you? Or are you running the puppy?

Its a cat and mouse game. The build a business or build a job thing is a wonderful mantra. Especially when someone is spouting it from the other side of the hump (not saying you). Its just that its a constant battle. Wonderful for anyone is in an area and finds the unicorn of bespoke work that pays for a man or two with their felted and feathered caps, short pants, and buckled boots, chiseling out profit daily.

Not the norm for the bulk I'd imagine.

But you just keep plowing along making gains where you can. I would have to have a winning lottery ticket to my name, an immensely understanding and well paid wife, or a willingness to live off eating bark and grubs, in my area to ever support a business making what I'd love to make and transporting that love to another location does not solve the equation because I came from the other location.

The point is, and I can only assume your coming to that conclusion from your posts... is that things change. Whether you like it or not, they change. The demand for what you do changes. The supply side of what you do changes.

If you refuse, or are slow, to change.. you get caught catching up and as fast as the world is moving now its pretty much like falling off the back of a ship at speed. There is no catching up. If you fall off... your lost at sea.