give me your advice on what to do with my life

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Originally Posted by disco_mitch

i have a really good mate who has a 3t excavator bobcat s185 and a tipper and ive spent time operating his machines and im not to bad at it, he is in the army reserves and was going to transfer to raaf full time and i was going to buy his buisness but his changed his mind and is sticking with the business this has given me the motivation that hey i can do this, i have done my reaearch and spoken to a local mob who contract out and keep there comission and they will be able to give me 1 or 2 days a week to start and there is heaps of work here ive been talking to heaps of blokes on sites and they are all flat out trying to find the time to take on all the work my mate rekons he could offload a few jobs to me every day so thats why i know that if i got equipment it would pay off

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I would take it very slowly and carefully. Maybe hire your mate's gear and do weekend jobs for a while.

I think you said that your daughter had been pretty sick. The combination of further illness and high financial risk can turn into trouble very quickly. Make plans that take this into account and work out some escape strategies for that kind of situation.

Limited experience, limited to no equipment, and limited client base seems to be where you are now. Of the three, equipment seems like the easy problem to solve, there's always someone who is sick, doesn't want to work weekends, or would rather sit around drinking beer while you hire their gear. The initial income wouldn't be as good but the risk is smaller, and your goals are longer term.

well everything that everyone is saying are very good points
my partner dont work she stays home to look after our girl
our daughter had one of her kidneys removed a few months back but shes one healthy and happy baby now, its the best feeling to come home and have your baby get to you as fast as they can

as far as the rest i know what i want to do but im just not sure which way to get there, i know a local ashpalting company will probably be putting blokes on at the start of the new year and ive been told i could prob get on with them as a labourer/operator so im going to go have a talk tomorow and see what that option holds that way i could learn to operate and save for a little machine start outside work and work my way up its just some thought

well everything that everyone is saying are very good points
my partner dont work she stays home to look after our girl
our daughter had one of her kidneys removed a few months back but shes one healthy and happy baby now, its the best feeling to come home and have your baby get to you as fast as they can

as far as the rest i know what i want to do but im just not sure which way to get there, i know a local ashpalting company will probably be putting blokes on at the start of the new year and ive been told i could prob get on with them as a labourer/operator so im going to go have a talk tomorow and see what that option holds that way i could learn to operate and save for a little machine start outside work and work my way up its just some thought

Lots of good advice in here....one thing to perhaps looking into...is doing a small business course through TAFE or the like. Many people who run businesses are good at the "trade/profession" part....but not so good at the "business" part. For example the person maybe be a great painter, sets up own business but has no clue about marketing, sales, management, HR, legal aspects and so forth. Hence why such a high % of new businesses fail in the first couple of years of operation.

Also something I learnt at Uni from my Entrepreneurship Lecturer..."beware the trinkets"...... quite a few business do quite well when they start so splash out on new cars, a home, equipment etc then come yr 3 it all goes to poop. Instead they should have been re investing the money back into the business.

As for holidays....as I am the business.....I get at best a long weekend here and there and over Xmas off......thats it. I aim to change that once the business is well established and the economy picks up again,

Regards


Stevo

Mitch
RE Asphalt work.
Have a serious think about it.
Is it roads or carparks.
If roads you will be working away alot.13 days on and 4 off is the norm over here,2 of the 4 days gets gobbled up travelling home and back to site again when the job is along way off.
As for machine experience,rollers and tractor brooms,if you are lucky maybe a loader,you will spend alot of time on a man powered broom and man powered shovel.
Look into Local Government for plant experience.Much better conditions,pays are going up to match industry and much more opportunity to learn more equipment.Most now multi skill to make the crew more flexible and productive.
Ive worked for the local Shire for just over 6 years.I was employed to do traffic control (LOLLYPOP),I was recovering from a significant back injury at the time.In the time I have worked here Ive learnt to operate loaders,backhoe,6 wheel tipper,ride on mowers,Water trucks,rollers,Semi side tipper,20T Excavator and the best of all the Grader.First as maintence grader operator,now Im Construction grader operator and leading hand.I made just short of $60000 last year.Gone are the days of a council worker leans on a shovel all day.We are actually pretty well respected in the local comunity.
Andrew

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Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Mitch
RE Asphalt work.
Have a serious think about it.
Is it roads or carparks.
If roads you will be working away alot.13 days on and 4 off is the norm over here,2 of the 4 days gets gobbled up travelling home and back to site again when the job is along way off.
As for machine experience,rollers and tractor brooms,if you are lucky maybe a loader,you will spend alot of time on a man powered broom and man powered shovel.
Look into Local Government for plant experience.Much better conditions,pays are going up to match industry and much more opportunity to learn more equipment.Most now multi skill to make the crew more flexible and productive.
Ive worked for the local Shire for just over 6 years.I was employed to do traffic control (LOLLYPOP),I was recovering from a significant back injury at the time.In the time I have worked here Ive learnt to operate loaders,backhoe,6 wheel tipper,ride on mowers,Water trucks,rollers,Semi side tipper,20T Excavator and the best of all the Grader.First as maintence grader operator,now Im Construction grader operator and leading hand.I made just short of $60000 last year.Gone are the days of a council worker leans on a shovel all day.We are actually pretty well respected in the local comunity.
Andrew

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Andy, It also helps if you're not a bad sort of bloke either....:wasntme:

:D

JC

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Originally Posted by justinc

Andy, It also helps if you're not a bad sort of bloke either....:wasntme:

:D

JC

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Being a Landrover Owner and an AULRO regular, I'd say he has this covered.

Dave.:)

Not sure if anyone else commented on this, but you mentioned one plan to borrow money and pay it off over time to use as a deposit.

This is not a good plan IMO.

The interest you pay on borrowing is always higher than interest earned on savings.

If you aren't going to use the money until you have paid off the loan, then you may as well not borrow the money but rather just put whatever you were going to use to pay the loan into a savings account.

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Originally Posted by adm333

Not sure if anyone else commented on this, but you mentioned one plan to borrow money and pay it off over time to use as a deposit.

This is not a good plan IMO.

The interest you pay on borrowing is always higher than interest earned on savings.

If you aren't going to use the money until you have paid off the loan, then you may as well not borrow the money but rather just put whatever you were going to use to pay the loan into a savings account.

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i know exactly what your saying but thing is the time it will take me to save 20k cash its easier to borrow 20k sit it in the bank yea it will cost me a bit more to have it there but it would only be 6-12 months than you can use it as your first home deposit used to be you could borrow that today and use it as a deposit tomorow than pay it back with first home owners grant but things changed i think ill be better of seeing what happens with the grant first

[QUOTE=LandyAndy;1107339]Mitch
RE Asphalt work.
Have a serious think about it.
Is it roads or carparks.
na its anything and everything asphalt

my mate contracts to them with his bobcat and excavator and his the one encouriging me to try get on with them so i get experiance