FarinaMotorsports

Best of luck. The shop looks great, I wish our first shop was that nice.

Not doubting your relationship with your girlfriend or her father, but I wanted to comment on your remark, "I am confident I won't have to deal with a problem of this nature". Just remember that in business the won't/can't happen events seem to always happen. It sounds like you're discussing things with them and that's a great start. Keep everything in the open and plan for as many eventualities you can think of.

Again, good luck and congrats on the new shop!

Agtronic

Thanks again for the advice guys. I've got a lot of reading and preparing to do, along with the actual setting up of the place!

As for going in with my GF and her dad, I understand everyone's concern, and I do agree that you can never say "never", but I have worked with GF at a large corporation in the same dept, and she was promoted to supervisor and was actually my boss. I'm the kind of guy who can be in charge of my own thing, and I don't have a problem with authority. Her dad is a good business man, and he trusts me and allows me to make decisions. I feel like it can work very well, as I know how we work together as team from previous projects etc ... I even helped him build one of his current companies, and we worked hard on that one. Never did we butt heads or anything.

All that being said, I don't think anyone is wrong for thinking it can be difficult, I'm sure there will be difficult / stressful times. I'm up for it!

Now, I'm going crazy, as much fun as the setting up and tooling can be, I just want to be set up and making my stuff, so I can stop worrying about making the rent.

Again, thanks for all the encouragement, I will post pics of the progress!

Later!

turboteener

Watch your billing and hours. You won't be charging enough. I am learning it the hard way.

mcmotors

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Agtronic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

All that being said, I don't think anyone is wrong for thinking it can be difficult, I'm sure there will be difficult / stressful times. I'm up for it!

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Your in for it is more like it! Welcome to the club, the health insurance and vacation benefits SUCK! I don't want to make it sound THAT bad, but it's not easy, good days are REALLY good, bad days are REALLY bad... Good luck!

96supercharged

Just wanted to make another post here and tell you that the shop area looks fantastic! Lot's of room, and a nice office area to get paperwork taken care of.

I have to admire people who get out there and start their own businesses. From the work you've posted I don't think anyone will have a problem with the quality of work coming from you, just make sure all your business skills are as sharp as your fab skills.

Hopefully within a year and a half my brother and I will get our place opened up, but we'll see.

Hope to see you make it!

PolishSasquatch

dude thats sick, shop looks real nice too. great inspiration as well, tig wleds look fantastic too! best of luck!

Agtronic

Thanks so much guys!

Here are some more pics!

Getting ready to build a mezzanine :





Notches for the joists were already cut directly into the cinder wall, but these two weren't. I don't know much about construction, so I'm improvising.





My brother's stang. Putting a cage in as soon as I'm set up, then hopefully going to turbo it.

mattEG

That's a really sweet looking shop.

It seems like you've got a solid head on your shoulders so the only advice that I have for you is this: Don't forget the significant other.

She will be the person you can talk over anything and everything with, you will neglect her, there is no doubt about that. It's just too easy to spend ALL of your time at the shop and forget to recognize outside of a business relationship how important having a goto gal is. Write it on your whiteboard, or setup a weekly appointment in your e-mail client to remind you to thank her for everything she does. This will make your life ALOT easier.

Good luck, and welcome to the business.

808DB1

im to lazy to go back and read but how much are you paying for rent ? i wish i could afford something like this but down here in hawaii rent is crazy expensive . good luck

Finland

Congrats Markku! It's nice to see another fellow Finn in the business. I started my own shop about a year ago, and love it. You have a beautiful location. Best of luck with everything, but you won't need it because Finns are too stubborn to let failure happen

Agtronic

mattEG, your post made my GF very happy. You sound like my long lost brother, because this is exactly the kind of person I am. I always make sure she knows she's a big part of the whole project. She's already impressed me a lot with the amount of technical stuff she has picked-up from hearing me talk to others, and she doesn't just know the words, she really understands what I'm talking about. I think in a few years she's going to know a lot and will be able to handle most, if not all, of the questions and customer requests. She's a smart cookie, and I definitely need her!

808DB1, the price is a lot, especially considering it's a startup, but it's an 8 minute walk from my apartment, and it's super clean. I'm just viewing the high rent as a higher goal to reach. The place is going to have to run tight and efficient to get the bills paid. A little scary, but with the right approach, I'm sure it can work. The online store will be key in this. Thanks for the good luck, I might be needing it!

Speed Industry, thanks a lot! And yes, Finns have OCD in their genes. (OCD comes standard with every model!) :D

Agtronic

Wow, been working real hard on getting the place set up. Thank god everyone is helping, I don't know what I would do without them!

Some update pics!

Wood for mezzanine delivered :




(I added the sign in photoshop) :D


My brother Timo doing some late night electrical work in the total dark.






Tore down the seperating wall in the "showroom" :


Start of the Mezzanine :


Peter (Tamara's Father) and my Dad (right) helping with the mezz :






Peter and I :


Tamara painted the office while we worked on the mezz!






Once we finished the Mezz, I had to test it! :D






Tamara's father, after arriving with the Jigs from VAG Motorsport :


B5 front clip for test fitting custom S4 turbo kits.


Gutted S4 motor for fitup :

Lamchop0000

lookin pretty good to me.

ManBearPig4silly

have you looked into incorporation? Should something happen between you and your gf/her dad it will offer protection for all involved. Talk to a lawyer.


Shop looks kickass. Like the mezzanine and office.

96supercharged

Looking very pimp! How did you score the jigs from your old workplace?

KENetics1

iTrader: (3)

lucky for you that mezzanine was built very well or we'd see a picture of you under it afterwards. JK shop is turning out very nice

weiRtech

yeah, getting incorporated is a good idea, i mentioned it in your thread on vwv.

Agtronic

I haven't had the time to look into the incorporation thing yet, but so far, everyone I have spoken to has said it was the way to go. I will look into this next week when I will get more involved with the business side of things. Right now, all my efforts have gone into the leasehold. I thank you all for the sound advice, and will definitely take a serious look into this.

In other news, I'm really really happy with the way the mezz came out. Especially considering we have never worked with wood before. We made the stairs from scratch, and they came out a million times better than I imagined!


















Modified by Agtronic at 4:40 AM 4/16/2008

turbojeesx

For safety reasons, I would run 4x4's lag bolted on the corners, and one in the middle of the long run of pickets. One hard stumble and those pickets won't be holding back much. Save yourself and the cars below you. Otherwise, looks great!

xfrankx

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RCautoworks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">By the way whats the big square thing in the corner ?</TD></TR></TABLE>


thats a vw jetta

square,boxy,ugly, and slow

Agtronic

haha, that Jetta is actually in my sig. My mother bought it used 1998, and I bought it from her in 2000. It's been the subject of much experiementation and learning. I can't let it go. Haha!

cvp467

Very nice ,good luck

xfrankx

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Agtronic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">haha, that Jetta is actually in my sig. My mother bought it used 1998, and I bought it from her in 2000. It's been the subject of much experiementation and learning. I can't let it go. Haha!</TD></TR></TABLE>

ahh im just jokin. i used to have a mk2 with a g60 swap with a bbm twin screw and corrado with the same setup

then i realized vw's were wayyy too much hassle and i saw the light

SD_Lurker

iTrader: (4)

pics don't work

Agtronic

Sorry, changed hosts, fixed!