Training Service Business starting?

[mayseprogramming]

So, I have thought about creating my own Business for the last few years. With this business I would go shop to shop/factory to factory teaching anywhere from Basic PLC programming to HMI design and integrations. I love to share any bit of my Knowledge/experience with anyone and I have learned this more when at my first engineering job they had me train several guys on how to start up Servo Motor jobs with PLC and HMI's. I really enjoyed helping others learn and get over the hump of intimidation and lack of experience with electronics and such. I have had a lot of different experience from being an Electrician for 5 years to Engineering 10+ years now- (Design, Software, Startups, Service work, Installs, and Management)

I then started a career of being a PLC Instructor (part-time for 1 year now) for adults and this too help me with my idea of starting my business. At my instructing school we would get a variety of people anywhere from fresh out of High School to experienced Maintenance guys that want to specialize in PLC and HMI's. 

With all of this being said, does anyone think there would be a great amount of need for someone to come your work place and teach Allen Bradley, Omron, and Mitsubishi PLC and HMI and maybe one day down the road Servo Motors and logic for them too? I think that more one on one with a couple trainer lab stations, I could really help not only workers advance themselves but also companies benefit both? I have gone to training for my previous employers, sometimes traveling far away for a week at a time and costing my employer a lot of money where my rate would be much less and on-site of the customer/trainee's.

Starting out I have bought several used pieces of PLC's, Input Cards, Output Cards, (Only Allen Bradley for now). I have also bought cases to make my training units more safe and portable. Looking at creating a business name and logo as well as possibly creating a (LLC). It has been a slow but steady process though.

Feel free to add anything or comment anything to this with ideas.

 

Thanks!

Edited December 5, 2019 by mayseprogramming

[Joe E.]

If we have an engineer or two who need training, we will probably send them to off-site training. When we wanted to train our electricians, we brought the trainer to the facility. The first time around (for Siemens PLCs), we brought in Siemens with their trainer and hardware. The second time around (for Rockwell), we brought in a local guy with a LOT of experience to train our guys. We had one of the electricians build trainers using spare hardware of the different platforms and used our laptops.

So...bottom line...yes, it would be useful. And actually preferred to bring in someone local who knows what they're doing and is more likely to be able to customize the training to match our systems.

[lewsy]

If you want to be sure that you are starting a business right, this is not enough! To be honest, I was always thinking that it's enough to have a good business analyst in order to make everything work like a gimmick, however, it's never enough, believe me. In order to start your business right and avoid being afraid of every phone call, it’s better to get professional legal assistance. A place like legaloutsourcingservices.co.uk would be enough for you to start. I really think that having a strong lawyer next to you is the key to success for every business project!

Edited July 2, 2021 by lewsy

[BobLfoot]

@TimWilborne has made the journey you're describing over the past 15 plus years.  If he's available and would care to share I'm sure you'd learn a lot from his journey.  His site twcontrols.com is one of my current goto resources.

[Crossbow]

I considered this many years ago, and decided against it.  I have been in automation for 23 years, and for the last 15 focused on training, also worked for many vendors and with many brands in my time.  I have always worked for someone else, and have written over 30 training classes.  My biggest problems were the start up cash and the number of vendors you have to teach. 

I figured to keep busy I would also be teaching 3 brands as you mentioned.  I would have to buy 6 or more demos for each vendor, plus laptops, software, projector, cases, etc.  I estimated about 200k to get that started.  Software licenses for certain vendors are very high.

Second, all of the training manuals I have written are the property of my employers.  I would need to start over writing new materials for all of the classes.  That would take years.  I could not legally use material that belongs to a different company.

The last reason for not doing it was customers.  I know for a fact that I can go back to many of my former customers and offer my services, and that they would likely pay me based on their past experiences with me.  But in doing so, you become a competitor for those vendors and their own training departments.  Try getting them to give you a good deal on software or hardware when you are taking business from their own training departments.

[pturmel]

I've been a business owner for 18 years now.  (Systems Integrator.)  I refuse to compete with my distributors on training.

[elizabethjohanson92]

Thanks for the knowledge