What to do? Solid advice only please.

[WW_RANGER_X]

This could get moved if it has to, but I’m really in a pickle in life right now. This is going to be a long drawn out post so if you don’t want to stick around I don’t blame you (CSB). Here it goes…

I like my day job, I did love it at one point but not so much anymore. Six years in. A quick description of what I do at said day job; I’m a parts manager/service writer/mechanic at probably one of the most successful shops here in Visalia Ca. My specific position focuses on trailers and RVs. I am a one man band. I set up full services on trailer axles/suspension, all the way up to flat tow and
Supplemental braking systems and everything in between. With that said, a handful of members on here know I’ve been servicing off road shocks after hours for over 10 years. If you’re in the Central Valley, I’ve been the guy. I’m not a tuner but I can make a shock look and work pretty good. The problem is, I’m getting TIRED and stressed. I dont think I can juggle both jobs together much longer. I’m up at 5am and get in bed around midnight to 1am almost every night during the week. It’s putting a toll on my body and the relationship with my family. Something has to give. I feel I can thrive doing shocks full time, it’s just scary as fuck thanking about doing it. I have 9 years left on my mortgage, 2 years left on the Raptor, I pay for my own insurance (shitty covered CA) and I just recently set up my own retirement. I’m 41 years old…Shock work is all under the table. I was told I can’t work out of my garage legally being an LLC/legit business due to the fact that I have a refrigerator and washer and dryer inside of it, not a legit shop. I guess what I’m asking is, is this worth trying to figure out or just quit shock work and keep slaving away at my day job?, or should I quit my day job and try like hell to do shocks full time?

There is some smart people on here. Just looking for more knowledge, advice and maybe some motivation. Thanks dudes!

 

[ntydog13]

it sounds like u need to take a historical look at side work performed over the last 6 months to a year and figure the average monthly income generated from the side work. then also if u can quantify the work turned down over that same period on a monthly scale to approximate potential total average income for the month and see if its enough to cover your montly expenses plus survive off of. if it doesnt add up to survive off of and its putting that much strain on your personal life sounds like you might need to just decline some of the side work to have a more managable work life balance

 

[DialedShockPrep]

Ahhh this is all too familiar. Very very familiar, almost identical lol.
I had other factors that influenced my decision to leave my cushy day job and pursue Dialed full time, the main one being the wages were pretty stagnant or rather falling behind the times there. Combine that with my growing 1.5-2hr commute HOME every day, the personal issues i faced at my day job being surrounded by slugs, and other things and that decision got pushed rather quickly.

Since i am highly familiar with your scenario and can give perspective from one side of the fence i jumped in, my advice is to increase your prices. I have no clue what price point you are at now but looking back, my prices were very low compared to the market average. If you have that much side work piling up where you can consider leaving your day job then your demand is high. With high demand, increase your prices. You might loose some jobs but also you will likely make more money doing less work. It could offset your work life balance enough to have more free time yet still make the same money. Yes it feels wierd as heck to charge more, however nobody batts an eye for a $750 plumbing bill that took two guys 2 hours and $100 in parts to repair.

Also, this gives you the chance to set the offset price increase aside for potential overhead down the road. You can definitely run your deal out of the garage on the downlow, it’s just difficult. I can’t remember if it is California or city regulated but one of the issues i faced is that your home business cannot increase foot or vehicle traffic through your residential area. There’s a loophole there as well but that’s the gist of it.

 

[Giant Geoff]

I would keep doing both, but just adjust everything. Used to run Giant pretty hard working 12 to 14 hour days but what I did is cut some overhead and became more efficient to knock it down to 6 hour days and I’m making the same amount of money but gain a lot of my life back. I used to want to take on every job that came my way and felt that I could do them faster, but I learned to schedule jobs further out and just increase the communication with the customers so they were happy.

 

[marcytech]

So I’m in this same situation with my job and cutless. Kevin is my motivation for this and Someone I look up to dearly.
Here’s my plan as someone with a huge mortgage but no other debt.
I’m stacking cash aside from my usual savings account or retirement or business account for 6 months worth of life expenses and leave my job on good terms. I now have a 6 month trial period to go hard in the mf paint and take every job make every sale do all the shit.
If it doesn’t work out in those 6months I’ll go get a new job or my old job back but at least I won’t grow old thinking “what if”

One thing I’ve realized lately which is helping me a lot with this is guys like you and I SHINE when looked ant by employers and we’ll never be out of work long.

 

[BlackJacket705]

This is just my take, I'm by no means an expert.

I'm burn't out and stressed from my job. I'm in the parts side of the heavy equipment and trucking industry. I work more 6 day weeks than not, doing multiple peoples worth of work.

I think about pitching my keys fairly often, but starting from scratch somewhere new is a hard pill to swallow when id be giving up 5 weeks paid holidays, benefits and a contribution matching pension. I'm 41 and don't want to work any longer than 60.

Is rebuilding shocks your passion?
Is there always going to be the business there to pay your bills and support your family?
What is the Risk vs Reward scenario?

Honestly If it was me, I'd stick with the sure thing (your regular job) and scale back or quit the side gig stuff for awhile. Try to decompress and really figure out what you want to do.

 

[Prerunsilverado]

I agree with both @Giant Geoff and @BlackJacket705. @ntydog13, @DialedShockPrep, and @marcytech made some real good points too!

I work 6 days a week, 70+ hours plus side jobs and I have found cutting back on the bullshit side jobs is what helped. If I'm excited to do the job, then I do it. If my gut at all tells me it could be trouble...I decline. The money doesn't talk to me anymore. A giant headache is just that and an extra 100 on a Saturday doesn't appeal to me at all anymore.

Don't cut off the regular job. Stick with that so you have a good foundation and a steady income. The side work of shocks is a fun thing to do, I enjoy rebuilding shocks too. Would I do that every single week and grind on it? No.

Take a break on grinding hard on the side work and clear your head then see what your gut tells you to do. I am 41 now too and I rely on my experience everyday to make decisions all day long running my fathers business and my own life. I am willing to bet you too have a lot of experience that will help you make the right decision.

PS: I have found getting out and riding dirt bikes with the same type of dudes really really helps. We share stories and blow off steam from normal life.

 

[the bodj]

This is just my take, I'm by no means an expert.

I'm burn't out and stressed from my job. I'm in the parts side of the heavy equipment and trucking industry. I work more 6 day weeks than not, doing multiple peoples worth of work.

I think about pitching my keys fairly often, but starting from scratch somewhere new is a hard pill to swallow when id be giving up 5 weeks paid holidays, benefits and a contribution matching pension. I'm 41 and don't want to work any longer than 60.

Is rebuilding shocks your passion?
Is there always going to be the business there to pay your bills and support your family?
What is the Risk vs Reward scenario?

Honestly If it was me, I'd stick with the sure thing (your regular job) and scale back or quit the side gig stuff for awhile. Try to decompress and really figure out what you want to do.

I agree with this. Although I have not been at the busy level with side work that you are, I have been realizing that I don't want to do fab work day in and day out. I am doing what I can to move on up in my career, and hopefully this summer will be the last summer I do any side work. I'm going back to school over the next school year to leave the classroom and get into an administrative position (assistant principal or something at the District Office). I stopped and thought about what I want out of life. I want my wife to be able to stay home with our kid(s?) or at least drop to part time work. I want to have a retirement plan. I want to be done with work when I get home. I want a consistent paycheck. I want to have time at the end of the day to be with my family/do the things I want to do (mountain bike, wrench/fab on my own projects). I realized I didn't want to crawl under vehicles every day, worry about finding new clients, worry about clients not paying, work in hot or cold workshops, not get paid if I take a day or week off for a family trip, pay $1000+/mo for insurance, not feel bad for working on my stuff when I could be making money working on others trucks...

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

I really appriciate all the feed back guys. I don't want to flat out quit shock work, but i think it's smart like you guys have mentioned to keep my day job and cut back/charge more on shock work. Not to toot my own horn but i think my work is pretty damn good for what i charge. My prices are cheap, guaranteed cheapest around unless someone has a buddy that will do it for a case of beer and garage time. I will say the only thing that puts a bad taste in some of my customer's mouths is lead times. I'm not days, i'm weeks. I also have a waiting list that's almost 20 customers long right now lol. Going to get through the wait list and try to start fresh with a new mind set. Less customer intake, quicker lead times. What motivates me most doing both jobs though is having the extra cash flow coming in for fun stuff like truck parts and campng trips, but damn is it tough.

 

[the bodj]

I really appriciate all the feed back guys. I don't want to flat out quit shock work, but i think it's smart like you guys have mentioned to keep my day job and cut back/charge more on shock work. Not to toot my own horn but i think my work is pretty damn good for what i charge. My prices are cheap, guaranteed cheapest around unless someone has a buddy that will do it for a case of beer and garage time. I will say the only thing that puts a bad taste in some of my customer's mouths is lead times. I'm not days, i'm weeks. I also have a waiting list that's almost 20 customers long right now lol. Going to get through the wait list and try to start fresh with a new mind set. Less customer intake, quicker lead times. What motivates me most doing both jobs though is having the extra cash flow coming in for fun stuff like truck parts and campng trips, but damn is it tough.

I think something that is helping you is your location. Although you're pretty far north, you're really the only guy up there doing shock work. That scarcity alone should bump your rates up.

 

[Endless Trails]

I agree to bump up your rates. If you have 20 people on the wait list then the demand is there. If the shocks pay well but not well enough to jump ship at the normal job, maybe try to find a job that also has benefits. Even throwing boxes at UPS part time gets you medical and a pension. Problem it is only 4-5 hrs per day (5:30-10ish I think) with 6 days a week holidays. But that puts you off work and home by 11 with 11- whatever to make your money on shocks.

 

[Mullen]

Like seemingly everyone else chiming in, I’m 41 and have longed for a shop. I quit building trucks for other people 2 years after I finished school as I got tired of working 12 hour days and weekends. I had just spent so many years in school and so much money that I wanted a break.

I thought I would eventually start the side work again and do a shop full time, but now I highly doubt it. In order to quit, I wanted to prove that the shop could do 3x my salary gross year one. When I first started working it was possible, but fortunately (or unfortunately on days that I long to build trucks) my salary has increased such that I doubt the 3x figure is realistic for year one, though certainly not impossible. Think of my 3x salary number as margin - I figured 33% profit was reasonable based on having my shop part time through college. Figure out what that number would be for you and go from there.

I didn’t see a mention of a wife and kids. Having those changes your options. If your wife makes a ton of money and can float all expenses should your shock business turn down, then risk is fairly low. If she can’t or you’re single, I’d proceed with caution. Be prepared for a down turn as shock tuning is 100% elective. While the same could be said for your current industry, rich people will still plan with RV during a down turn.

Another thing is to consider your hobbies. I ride bike, dirt bikes, lift, and other shit that I sometimes get injured doing. If you destroyed your wrist and had to get surgery, could you float your life during recovery? Could you still build shocks?

FWIW, I can nearly check every box that says “quit your job, build cool shit”, but I still don’t plan on starting the shop again. I currently work to live. Having your own business means flipping that saying over for many years.