How to Establish and Grow a Welding Business

Once you have reached the stage of being a master welder, with years of ‘paying your dues’ as an apprentice or journeyman behind you, it is possible that you would like to venture out on your own. Maybe you have one specialty within welding that you’d like to focus on and as it’s your passion, you want to start your own welding business. While you are an expert in all types of welding and with all the various supplies and materials you will ever be asked to work with, you may not know the first thing about what it actually takes to fund and start a business.

Here are a few pointers to get you started.

The Actual Process of Starting a Company

The one thing you’ll need to really focus on is the actual process of starting a company. There is much to do in this respect. You’ll need to write a business plan, whether you need financing or not. This will be your roadmap for operations as you go about running your business. If you need funding, you won’t get it unless you can show a lender or investor your business plan. They want to know the company they invest in is going to turn a profit. Then tick off these items that are of vital importance:

• Enquire about business licenses.
• Buy proper insurance cover.
• If not working from home, find the right location.
• Buy any equipment or tools needed to run your own welding shop.
• Hire employees in other areas (i.e. secretaries, bookkeepers, apprentices, etc.).
• Market – do you need to hire marketing pros?
• Network with similar businesses to increase B2B traffic.

These are just some of the routine tasks you’ll need to take care of when opening a welding business. They are very broad categories.

How to Keep Your Welding Business Growing

One of the things in the UK that has become extremely important to consumers is quality. In survey after survey, cost was second to quality so always make sure you are using suppliers such as Foster Industrial for high quality welding and safety equipment. Also, customer loyalty programmes go a very long way in retaining customers. Remember, you can continue getting new customers but if they are just replacing old ones, you’ve not grown at all, have you? Keep the old ones while you also search for new ones and that is the only way to efficiently grow your business.

Now that you’ve worked for years in the business, there is no one who needs to tell you how to weld. That is your passion and what you are good at. Get help setting up the business end of your company so that you operate at a profit and not a deficit. It’s always the paperwork and administrative work that comes back to bite you in the rear end, so get help with that and you will be on your way to a lucrative business doing what you love most, welding.