David Michaux — He Quit Project Management to Build a Welding Business

God. I lost my ass on my first project over a thousand

Ha ha ha.

dollars. I like I I wanted that job.

I don't even know how I'm gonna pay him.

I don't really pay myself anything.

But it it you kind of just adjust and figure it out as as you

Yeah, I think I thought I was smarter than I am.

I I've definitely been humbled a bunch of times.

going from going from managing trades to being a trade,

~

Mm.

it looks it looks easier than it is.

Welcome to From the Ground Up Show.

Honest conversations with people who have built their lives,

careers, and businesses with heart,

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acquired and scaled his family's roofing company,

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Join Erick and his guests for the hard-earned lessons behind real success.

Today I'm excited.

you

Our guest is David Michaux

Founder and owner of Michaux Metalworks,

a Charleston area company providing mobile welding,

equipment repair, and custom fabrication.

you

As a Raleigh native, Eagle Scout,

former former automotive shop technician

and one time junk removal entrepreneur,

David earned a degree from the University of North Carolina,

Wilmington before spending three years in general contracting.

In early 2025, he attended

you

Arc Labs Welding School and earned his AWS certification.

He then launched Michaux Metalworks with the goal of turning his passion

for welding into a company of his own.

Since then, his work has ranged from equipment repairs

you

and structural modifications to gates,

railings, outdoor structures, and one-of-a-kind metal projects.

He has already begun the transition from working alone to building a team.

Today we'll explore what it takes to learn a skilled trade,

take the leap into entrepreneurship,

earn customers' trust, and build a blue-collar business from the ground up.

David Michaux, welcome to From the Ground Up Show.

Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I think we're gonna have a lot of fun.

So ~ we'll dive right in. ~ we like to start going clear back to the beginning.

So David, can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up

and what your childhood was like?

Yeah man. ~ so I grew up in Raleigh and I was always hanging out with my

dad and at a young age, when I was young,

he got into restoring vehicles.

he bought an old h international harvester and all the floor pans were rusted out.

So he kind of just got into like welding by necessity.

and I just learned with him from there.

and then I didn't really weld for a while after that until college.

I went to UNCW and I got a job doing I was doing cross base work under houses like

vapor barriers and stuff, and it was awful.

And I got a job offer to do like diesel mechanic stuff for a sitework company,

and that sounded way more interesting to me.

So I took that opportunity and it was me and two older mechanics,

And they did not like to weld,

so they just gave me all of that.

They were like, you just figure it out.

And and that's where I guess I fell in love with it.

and then that so that was like junior,

senior year of college. And then I went out and got I moved out to Raleigh

and got like a a real job in project management for general contractor.

And I hated it. And then

I was like, I gotta get back to working with my hands.

And that's kind of like fast forward.

I moved to Charleston and I did that for another year.

And so that kinda brought that that drive to get away from that and

and and start start back working with my hands kind of brought me to where

we are now.

y you said the ~ the car restoration was kind of a hobby of your dad's.

What did your parents do for a living?

Yeah, so my dad owned a printing business,

like promotional products, branded apparel.

he still owns that. He's done that for probably twenty years and ~ so he

he I always have like business questions for him.

~ and my mom's a network recruiter,

so she just places people in jobs,

yeah.

Okay, that's probably not a bad asset to have in your pocket.

No, not at all. She helps

me with with hiring and interview questions and stuff like that.

That's great. So when you were growing up,

what did you imagine doing? ~ did you always wanna be a welder?

Did you always wanna be an entrepreneur or what what did you imagine your life like

as a kid?

like you said, so my first job was like in a auto shop,

changing oil, changing tires. And so I guess from that point on,

I always knew I wanted to own my own business and I thought I was gonna

do mechanic work. and so so that that's what I knew.

I knew I wanted to own my own business,

but I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a mechanic for forever.

So

~ yeah, it took me a while to figure out that I liked welding.

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you said you got a a business degree.

how useful do you find your business degree now that you're

an entrepreneur and running your own business?

Man, that's a great question. I think I did not get a ton from

my college experience and that's like to my own detriment,

my own fault. I was just more socializing and going on the boat and

~ and hanging out with friends and kind of just getting by.

So I almost dropped out of college to start a business that I'm s glad

I didn't and I'm glad I got that degree.

But

That more so helped me get jobs after college,

I think more than it's helping me now,

if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. So if you were advising a high school senior or if you could

go back and advise yourself when you were at that stage,

do you think ~ getting a formal education,

going to college was still a a valuable thing,

or would you be better off gaining education and skill through

non traditional tracks and ~ diving right into the workforce

or entrepreneurship or something else?

that's a great question. ~ I think this the the four year typical degree,

it shows that you can finish something.

You can start something

Mm.

and you can finish something, and that's important.

But ~ I was fortunate enough that my parents paid for that.

And so I think anyone in my situation,

if if the funds are there to do it,

then do it. but if you're coming out of pocket.

However much it is to go to college for four years now.

It it may be for me as an employer,

I think it's just a trade degree,

like a two year degree at a community college is I think holds just

as much weight in today's world,

at least in my field.

~

Ha ha.

like it just shows, okay, they they got out of high school,

they went and completed something,

and they probably learned a little bit.

~ if that answers your question,

I I don't know

Yeah.

that I don't know that the four year like when I look at people's resumes

now when they're maybe gonna come on with me part-time or full-time,

I don't even like look at education really.

I mean I do, but I really try and figure out what have they done.

And so what they've done tells me what they know for the most part.

I can relate to that. That's kind of been my stance as well.

I I did get a formal education,

but similar to you, I had scholarships and things that funded it.

I wasn't ~ taking student loans or coming out of pocket for it and I thought

it was a valuable experience, but I've learned a lot more

in practical applications than I think I did in school.

So y you know, if you if you do well in school,

if you're more on a

professional career track and you can go to school for free or for cheap.

I think you know I wouldn't tell anybody not to do that,

but I don't think it's the the one track solution for everybody that ~

was kind of beat into my head when I was growing up.

There's a lot of opportunity and

Yeah.

if you're a guy that doesn't do well in school or if if you don't have

a a real great to career track that you're this is what I'm gonna do,

this is where I'm going and and you're gonna have to

take student loans to do it. Man,

there's a lot of opportunity that does not require that degree.

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And it it's hard too when you're ~ I mean we could talk about

just this topic the whole podcast,

but like it's when I was eighteen,

I did not know what I wanted to do.

You know, I didn't know what I wanted to do until two years ago.

and so to to to to go to a hundred thousand dollars

in debt and maybe know that you want to do that is

Is h is hard to agree with. But then on the other

Yeah.

side, how are you gonna figure out what you want to do without just doing it?

If that makes sense.

Mm. Yeah.

So yeah, there's there's like I look at it both ways.

And school can tell you that you maybe don't want to do that thing before

I don't know if that makes sense.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I get that. I I wouldn't ever tell anybody not to go to school,

but I think there's a lot of opportunity for somebody that that doesn't seem like

the best option. So Well

Yeah. In my case I've

learned everything I know outside of school and just by doing it.

So

Yeah.

Yep. so Michaux Metalworks was not your first entrepreneurial endeavor.

you started and ran a small junk removal business.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, so we started doing that.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the app next door.

It's like a neighborhood app. So me and my buddies started doing like junk removal,

moving assistance as soon as I got my license,

basically.

Okay.

so we I would borrow my dad's pickup truck,

we'd go pick up a couch or whatever for fifty bucks.

And then none of our trucks had decals on it,

so we could take it to like the Wake County dump and dump for free.

Which was like a big deal to us,

not pay the five dollars or whatever.

And ~ so actually,

as I was in the auto shop as my first job,

I started doing junk approval and I would make like my week's pay at minimum wage

in like a few hours. And I was like,

Man, I probably just need to do this more.

And ~ so yeah, I took that into college also,

and then I got a dump trailer and like

fully redid it and taught myself some welding on that project and ~ kind

of scaled it up a little bit in college and so I probably did that

for like five years. ~ and then yeah,

I just kinda stopped doing it when I got ~ the contr project management jobs

after college.

~ did you not really see ~ that being a a real business or a full time endeavor,

or what what caused you to give up on that when you got project management job?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think I just wasn't interested enough

in it to pursue it full time.

But ~ I have a buddy who does that and he does great with it.

I mean they have multiple trucks and trailers and I mean it's a full time thing

for him and it's a pretty big business.

So it's it's a it's an avenue for for some people.

I didn't like the landfill, man.

I didn't want to be there every day.

So

Yeah.

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so you you grew up with a a dad that was an entrepreneur.

You kind of started your own business and had an entrepreneurial endeavor starting

at 16 years old. And then when you graduated college went back into

a more traditional job working for someone else before now starting your

own business again.

At what point in time did you decide that ~ entrepreneurship was for you,

that that's what you really wanted to pursue and wanted to do?

so I graduated school and I moved out of Raleigh for two years and

I was kinda having like two thoughts at once.

I was like, All right, you've you've had a good salary now and you've seen you've

seen what it's all about and ~ and I was kinda looking at my path forward

in a business like that. you go from project manager to

senior project manager or whatever.

And then and then maybe further from there.

~ but like two thoughts at once.

One of them was I kind of want to move to a city that's not Raleigh and like

do my own thing. ~ and I know I still want to start my own business.

So that's when I decided to move to Charleston.

And then all those thoughts of like so I got a new job here.

And I was kind of happy with it for like six months.

And then, you know, the newness of it kind of wears off.

I really liked my co-workers there.

They were awesome. It was like my favorite job,

real job. ~ so I was there about six months and I remember calling my mom

and I was like, I don't wanna manage these contractors anymore.

They're they don't wanna be here,

they're not happy to do their job.

I think I can just start a welding business and I'll be happy to be there

and I can do a better job than them.

I remember telling her that and I was like,

and to do that, I probably need to go to welding school and just

get the certificate. And from that that was like December,

and I started shopping around at like the ~ the tech school here and then

one of the other welding schools.

And I ended up in a school in like January of twenty twenty five.

Was there anything that you learned working for a a little bit larger business,

l working for a general contractor and being a project manager that has made

a big difference running your own business?

Yes.

The so ~ towards the end of my time there,

I was in the budget a lot, like studying the budget,

doing PSRs and stu I don't even know what that stands for anymore,

but I learned the importance of like tracking a project from from start

to finish and projecting profit.

I think that's probably one of the my biggest takeaways.

like if you're not making money,

Or you're not pretty certain that like you're gonna make money soon,

you know. Like there's certain jobs where maybe you gotta make a

big investment to do that job,

and then from there on you'll make money.

But I guess if you're not making money,

why are why are you doing it? Maybe you just like doing it and but yeah,

so I I to answer your question,

I learned the importance of like like job costing and and tracking profit.

And then also,

Trying to get a team to work together when there's like 10 trades on one job,

can be s can be super hard. And now I'm on the flip side of it.

And so I just kind of have to work with other trades around me.

So that's super important too.

and knowing when to like mobilize on a job,

like the the the the customer or the contractor might want you there on Monday,

but like if you can

forecast that like these guys are gonna be done by Wednesday afternoon

and we could start Thursday and actually get what you want us to get done.

That's super important as well,

if that makes sense.

knowing how to work with the other trades to accomplish the schedule

so you're not stepping on each other.

Yeah, and then everyone's pissed off and nothing's getting done.

And that happens a lot. So

Yeah. Yeah, it does.

man. I think that's ~ what you said about you know,

look watching cash flow and profitability is huge too.

A lot of new business owners, they they miss the overhead component.

~ i you

Yeah.

know, they start billing themselves out basically at a wage and they forget about

the business side of things that the business should earn a profit and also

pay them as an employee and

And all the overhead that goes into that,

I think that plays a big role in,

especially in the trades, the guys that are in and out of business or

in two to three years, usually they're out of business in the amount

of time it takes to wear out a significant piece of equipment.

Yep. That's right. Yeah.

Ha ha

And then it's just like a easy they're like,

well, it's time to try something else.

As soon as it gets hard,

Yeah.

a lot of guys pivot to the next thing.

Yeah. Yeah, but they they think they're making really good money until they wear

something out and have to replace it and they don't have the money to buy

a new one and they realize that,

no, they they weren't making a lot of money.

They were just ~ y you know, eating on that overhead and now it comes time

to replace that equipment, they can't do it.

Yeah, that's a huge thing. Yeah,

especially with companies that have a lot of machines or like I I'm thinking

of like grading companies when you're talking about stuff like that.

yeah. Yeah.

Like ~ the

skid steer, they're running for a hundred dollars an hour or whatever,

wondering why everyone else is charging two hundred dollars an hour and it's because

Ha ha

of that final drive motor that's twenty grand or whatever,

Yep. Exactly. Yeah.

that's gonna go out. ~

yeah, so.

Yeah, I learned a ton working for ~ I worked for a small contractor

and then I worked for a big contractor and learned a lot from both.

So I'm grateful for it, but I'm glad I'm not doing it anymore.

W was there a specific project or experience that made you realize welding

was what you wanted to pursue seriously?

~

Can't point to anything in specific,

but I was always doing stuff on the side.

repair for other companies, or like I've built my mom a couple tables.

and there's like this moment where like there well,

there's a couple moments. There's usually like a moment where

the project gets really hard and you're like,

this sucks. I want to quit. But then you push through that.

And then you're like, I can do it.

And now that I've done this, I could do something harder.

So that's that's really cool building things for yourself in any trade.

I'm sure a lot of trades would agree with that.

And then the other moment is like towards the end,

where like it it shifts from like the customer is maybe like on edge or

we gotta get this done or whatever,

and it shifts to like, man, this is gonna be awesome with whatever it is.

And I think those like moments that I saw while doing stuff on the side kind

of drew me to it more than building something for someone else,

if that makes sense.

that makes a lot of sense. So you're working a job for a general contractor,

fairly successful, a fairly stable,

well paying job. What did the people around you think when you told them that

you wanted to quit that job to start your own business?

So there's always like the the warning from people who have never done

it that are scared and they're like,

Yeah, well you just gotta be real.

You gotta make sure you get paid and you got and you don't really know what

any of that means yet. So you're just you're ignorant to it.

You're like, Whatever, man, I'll get paid.

Or like and there's like maybe ten other things like that.

I my dad was a little nervous about it.

He was like, I think you're you should hold on a little longer.

and and then when I told my two coworkers,

that I really enjoyed working with,

they were like honestly, they were like shocked at first and then they're like,

Honestly, man, that kind of makes perfect sense.

Like I I think that'll work out in the long run.

That was super that was nice to hear.

But yeah, you you hear a lot of different things.

But like I said, I really didn't know what like when they were like,

Man, you just you really gotta make sure to stay on top of billing

and like keep keep tabs on people who aren't paying.

I didn't know what any of that means and now I do.

Pretty steep learning curve there.

Yeah, you figure it out quick.

So

you you chose to go to a trade school and go get a certificate.

was that n necessary to do the type of work that you do?

Or I mean, could you have started welding pro professionally and charging

for it without that certificate?

Yeah, you can for a lot of stuff.

but there are jobs that I chase and quote that I that I want to

do that require a a weld cert.

And so that's why and I kind of knew that ahead of time.

So that's why I spent the money and time to just go ahead and do it before

I got busy with the business.

Gotcha. And on the back side

And it kinda

of that, do you think that was a a good decision?

Would you do it again?

yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I did not spend a ton of money on school.

and I had always wanted to like learn how to well properly.

and so yeah, now that it's said and done,

I'm I'm pumped I did that. Yeah.

Good. I I love the the quotes there properly.

i it aside from just the legitimacy of the certificate,

did trade school give you additional skills that you didn't have already

or was it more just going through the process to have that that certificate?

No, yeah, it it it gave me a t you go through every process in school.

~ there's like three major processes.

And I had only done a little bit of each,

you know, hobbyist level stuff.

and you get to use a bunch of different machines,

you get to kind of feel what it's like in a weld shop.

It's hot, it's loud, it's dusty.

and those were all good things to like,

you know, make sure, like, do I really want to do this?

And so that was good to go through.

And then you get to talk to a bunch of different people about like their experience

in the past and talk to your welding instructors and ask them questions.

and that's all like hard to get anywhere else,

if that makes sense.

Yeah. Okay.

You

you won't get that at like a local coffee shop or something.

So

now, after graduating that program and actually working in the field,

do you feel like you were well prepared?

you know, did you feel really confident coming out of school and taking

on real projects or has there been a significant learning curve specifically with

the the welding skills translating from trade school to real world projects?

~ yeah, d I could speak a lot on that.

~ I guess one of my gripes with welding schools

is they teach you how to do this joint right here.

So they teach you how to weld two plates together and that's kinda

it and and and they teach you how to run a torch and like this,

that, the other. But they don't

Teach you any like they don't teach you how to read a tape measure or like some

of the like the most basic things.

~

Mm.

so they teach you how to weld,

but and you'll hear guys say that welding is like one percent of the job,

and that's that's true in a lot of situations.

and so like fabricating, fit up,

reading a tape, cutting, just like dealing with different types of metals

and how they act and

To heat and distortion and yeah,

it was a very steep learning curve.

I think to answer your question,

I felt very prepared until I got into some of this stuff and I was like,

holy moly, this takes longer than I thought.

and so there's a lot of underbidding stuff and and learning on the job,

and that is less and less each job,

but I still learn something every time I do something,

even if I've done it twenty twenty times.

how long was it from graduating with your AWS certificate until

you officially launched Michaux Metalworks?

I did school, I did night class for I think I did eight or ten weeks.

And it's a longer program, but I just I I I it it's like set up

for someone who's never touched a welder.

so I kinda told them ahead of time I'm gonna run through all the processes,

I'm gonna get the AWS cert and then I'm a I'm gonna drop out or what

or stop the program and they knew that.

and

So from the I think I d I did the cert like s two and a half months after starting

and then I basically started the business,

formed the business like immediately after that,

within a couple of weeks.

Okay. Wow. And so were you still working while you were going to school

and getting your certification or had you already quit your project management job?

Yeah, I was still working. So I was working like seven to four or whatever,

and then I'd go home for like thirty minutes,

play with the dog, turn around and go right back up to school from

six to eleven Monday through Friday.

man, that's quite a schedule that had to be a bit grueling and daunting.

It was gnarly. Yeah. It sucked.

you had to really wanna be there.

You could not you could not leave until the clock struck eleven

or you got penalized. they were like super hard on it.

So which I looking back on Fortunate,

it just forced me to be in there more.

So

we talked a little bit about kind of the voices around you,

the advice that you got and the people speaking into that decision.

what was the conversation in your head as you considered leaving a solid

job to go out on your own? ~ what were some of the fears?

What were some of the excitements?

Like what were you thinking and wrestling with while making that decision?

I think my situation during that time was was unique.

my like overhead, my so I kind of like scaled down my life in preparation for it.

I I had like zero like debt or payments or anything.

So I think the fear was somewhat minimal because I wanted it so bad.

I was like, I'm just gonna make it work.

however I have to. ~ and then I looked at like what I

was making per week and I was like,

I know I can do that after a couple just a couple months.

I know I can I'm not gonna profit that much,

but I can get I know I can get by.

and then on top of that, I was so I was living in downtown Charleston.

I wanted to do downtown for the first year just kind of for fun and to meet people.

and it was like super inconvenient to like

Weld. It was like it's the tiniest

Yeah.

little house and everything. ~ but I was moving at

the same time as all this was like coming together.

And so everyone always says like there's not a good time to do it.

But I say my situation was unique because honestly,

it was like the perfect time. At work,

we were finishing up this project that I had started and I was about to finish it.

It was just down to punch list stuff.

And then I was also moving to like a better situation for welding.

~ it was a rental house, but it was just better.

and my rent was going down. So it was like a thousand bucks a month

was like my biggest expense, was just rent.

And I I found a welder used off marketplace that I needed.

and so I think the fear and like the conversation in my head was like,

You just need to go ahead and do this thing.

And

That's kinda what I did. So I it's not like I had a big mortgage or three kids

and a wife. So

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. And so

I and I felt

like it was just gonna keep getting harder and harder the older I got.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You you mentioned a few considerations there that

you kinda intentionally downscaled your life,

you eliminated debt, were kind of living as humbly as possible.

How formal was your business plan that you put together?

Was it just kind of a I think I can do this,

or did you really crunch the numbers on,

you know, what what kind of capital it would take to get into business

and what kind of revenue you could expect starting out?

Yeah, I think it was pretty informal.

I think I wrote something up, but I don't know that I've looked at it since

I wrote it.

Yeah.

I think it was more so like if everything I don't I it was j more like

I just need to f I had like maybe six customers at the time and I was like

I n and they started to kind of call like

more like repeatedly and I was like,

man, if I get like 15 more customers,

like I'm fine. It'll all work out.

And yeah, I just kind of took a took a leap of faith and just I it felt like

I had to do it. I was like, I'm so tired of this other crap.

Like there ain't no other option.

And I think that's how

that is awesome.

you I think that's how you have to look at it when you want to do like that's maybe

some advice I would give anyone wanting to start a business.

You gotta love it.

Because it's like all you talk about and it's all you think about

and everyone asks about it every time you see ~ And if you're not like that

all about it, then I don't think you should do it.

And then on the flip side, it's like if you're gonna like if you're gonna do it,

you need to just be all in on it,

like like s sink or swim type thing,

you know?

Yeah. It it's a real commitment,

man, to to work a regular job seven to four and then go to school five

to eleven and walk away from a a good career,

a a stable career, to take a risk like that.

It that's a big risk. It's a real commitment.

It's it's not for the faint of heart.

Yeah, it can get kinda gnarly,

so you gotta really love it.

Yeah.

So you mentioned that you found ~ an old used welder on Upcycle.

w what did the initial capital investment look like and how how did

you finance I mean, a a truck,

a welder, tools, materials, even things like insurance to get started?

my situation, I already had a truck that would work.

I was making normal money, so I would I would maybe try and like go

out less and spend it more on like getting set up.

I already had a little MIG welder that I still have.

I still use it every week. ~ and then I had I had done some welding side work kind

of

in college and after college. So I had like the basic tools already.

all the Milwaukee batteries and and whatever.

Some of that stuff's expensive.

And then I spent like three grand on a on a generator welder and I kind

of restored it. I like repainted it,

put new decals on it and stuff.

And then I spent as soon as I quit my job,

I spent a thousand bucks on some steel and I built a flatbed for my truck.

So I ripped the bed off and put like a a welding bed on there.

And then it was like, I'm in business.

Like, let's g so I don't know.

I spent I spent maybe five grand and I looked pretty legit.

And I still use that welder and that bed like every day.

So my investment was little. I don't wanna give anyone false hope.

I would say if you don't have a truck,

I mean, I don't know, you can just kind of start with what you can start with,

you know. Like a lot of customers don't care when you're starting out what

you show up with, as long as you do good,

honest work, that's

That's like the biggest thing.

You you can get away with pretty little sometimes.

That's awesome. It's such a cool story.

I love the ~ the the grit, the commitment and just diving in and getting it done.

Was there a piece of equipment or a purchase that you've made since starting

out that was kind of invaluable,

that helped you turn a corner and become more legitimate,

that helped you scale up, or really make it happen?

Yeah, my fab table is basically a welding table and it's got holes drilled in it.

and that that fabrication takes so much time without that.

and then you invest in tooling to like speed you up on the table.

So it's a flat perfect surface and then you have like fixture it's called

a fixture table. You can fixture to it.

That's that came to mind immediately when you asked that.

So ~ you can

Yeah, okay.

get into for f semi cheap. ~ and that's been a huge help.

So

we talked a little bit earlier that a a common mistake a lot

of entrepreneurs make is not getting their head wrapped around overhead pricing

things properly. ~ when you're just starting out,

how do you go about pricing your first project?

How do you figure that out?

God. I lost my ass on my first project over a thousand

Ha ha ha.

dollars. I like I I wanted that job.

It was like a job that was gonna fall right into my first month,

you know, and I wanted it so bad.

And I was like, man, I bet I can do this for like twelve hundred bucks or something.

I I don't I don't know how I

Priced I probably said like this will take two days and two hundred bucks and steal.

And I mean there was a million things I needed for that that I didn't have.

I pricing is so so challenging.

and I try and pick everyone's brain I can on that.

I'm I'm that's something I'll I mean,

~ welding in general I'll never stop learning on,

but pricing is is hard. I think for any business it's it's hard.

So I don't th I don't think I'm qualified to fully answer that one,

but ~ I've definitely changed a lot since my pricing since I started to now.

So

Okay. So y you

Hmm.

mentioned that that first big job your first month was kind of a loss.

You went backwards on that. what did things look like financially your first

few months and and how do you push through that?

Yeah, I had a little bit of cushion.

and I I mean I had like I had money saved up to buy a house,

but I told myself I wasn't gonna touch it.

and I didn't. And so I think that first couple months it's good to maybe have

a few grand to float back and forth on.

and that was fine for me. And then yeah,

I mean, you learn quick when you finish a job and you're like I didn't

It's not like I lost money on it,

but I lost so much time. It's the same thing,

right? So you you learn that quick and then you just adjust on the next one.

You might not hit it perfect on the second one,

but you're gonna be a lot better off.

yeah, so I mean you just learn by doing it,

I guess. I don't know. I'm still learning

Okay. So can you identify a specific moment or point

in time when you realize that like this dream could actually happen?

That that instead of just chasing a wild hare or dreaming about it,

you had the makings of a real business and you could really do something with it.

Yeah, so I started in March.

Started the business. It was slow and I did it March of twenty twenty five

to August twenty twenty five. I did it on the weekends.

And

Okay.

And then so from August to the end of 2025 was like I I

was I went full time for myself and I was like,

man, there's like some stuff here and there.

There's some promising things going on.

And then towards the towards the end of December,

it got a little slow, which I think is typical.

and then the second week of January of this year,

it was just like a like a switch went off and

And I I guess that's when I felt like we were we were doing something then.

Like it was we we were getting real busy and we started saying no

to things and that's probably when I saw that that hope like you asked about,

I guess.

you said you're just kind of doing it on the weekend,

so you were continuing to work your project management job.

Is that what you're doing during the week?

What what was the switch or the indicator where you felt comfortable

or needed to quit your day job and make this your full time gig?

So I was kind of used to working at night because of welding school.

So I'd do a lot of stuff after five.

And what I found out actually is that a lot of guys preferred that.

So they would like run their trailer or whatever during the day,

but maybe it needed some welding,

but it wasn't immediate. And so I would be like,

Hey man, I I still have a I'd just be transparent.

~ I still have a job.

And I'd like to do this after hours or on the weekends if you don't mind.

And almost all the time they were like,

that's better for us. And I was like,

All right. So so that that worked out for a while until I

I got some jobs past like a repair job,

you know, maybe some just like slightly bigger jobs.

And I was like, When am I gonna do this?

Well, it was two things. So it was that it was it became a scheduling issue

to where I couldn't do what I really cared about as opposed to my job.

they started conflicting. And then also like normal hours of the day,

like picking up steel and stuff was hard because I was doing everything at night.

So th there was two things that made me realize like it was time to

I'm not gonna give up these jobs I want just because it's

I was like, I just need to quit and just start doing them in the normal time

of the day, I guess, to answer a question.

Were there any moments going through your certification,

kind of building that business up,

this first year that you've been in at full time where you questioned your decision

and thought about giving up?

I don't think so. I think there's I I lo I love it.

So I think there's just maybe like little moments here and there.

Maybe I'm like where like we didn't get everything done we needed to,

and so I come in and I do it late at night or whatever,

and I'm like, what the hell is going on?

Like I thought this was gonna be fun like fun and here I am having to do this.

There's like moments like that,

but like

I don't think I've ever wanted to quit,

you know? I I I really enjoy it.

So more so just like moments where I'm just like laughing like you're an idiot,

you overbooked yourself, and it's it's it's on you.

Like just I have this playlist I put on when I'm like working late,

and it's just like all these songs that are like just freaking get it done,

quit bitching about it, and just do it,

you know. So that kind of helps,

I guess.

~ I understand your business has kind of two departments or or different ways

to go about things. You do both mobile welding and shop based fabrication.

are those two kind of distinct divisions or do they have to be handled differently?

~ how do you how do you distinguish those?

Yeah. So the mobile stuff is typically something that does

not make sense to bring to my shop or it or it can't be brought to the shop.

and like ~ take like a gate, for example,

Charleston has like really pretty gates.

~ it makes no sense to make that at the customer's house and then install it.

you would just make it at the shop and then install it.

Take all your measurements or whatever.

and then the shop's more of like a controlled environment as well.

You can kind of start and stop things.

and and then there's some things that just make kind of more sense to do mobile.

That's just what I call mobile.

where I kind of bring my truck that's kind of a shop to you.

Yeah. And so they are different.

my business is so small, it's just me and another guy.

So sometimes he'll be in the shop and I'll be doing mobile stuff,

or we'll both be in the shop, or we'll both be mobile.

It really just depends on the job,

the nature of the job.

Yeah. When when you started out,

was there one of those that you thought was gonna be the majority

of your business or did you plan on doing both from the beginning?

yeah, that's I think I when I started out,

all I had was the truck at first.

I didn't have my house with it.

I have a shop in the back of the house.

and so that's kinda all I did was mobile stuff for a while.

just to kind of get that's how a lot of guys start because it's kind of

a low cost thing to do. So I kinda did that for a while until I

got asked to do like a

Like some gates or just like random stuff.

and I would just I just started doing ~ in the carport of the house I

was renting at the time. So and then that kind of started that side

of fooling and buying all the stuff to do like in shop fab.

Is there one of those that you're focused more on that you hope to move

the business in a single direction,

or do you want to keep doing both?

Man, that's a good question. I I struggle with with like specializing.

I I've heard of shops specializing and it going really well for them.

And then I've heard of shops specializing and they run out of business

and shut down. and so I was kind of a yes man for the first year.

I've started to say no to some stuff,

but I I

My main goal is to like is just like convenience for the customer.

So if it if it makes the most sense for us to build

it in the shop, prime and paint it in the shop in-house,

bend it or press break it or whatever we gotta do without sending it out to someone,

and you know, that ups the cost always and it makes it more complicated.

And then if it also makes the most sense for us to install it and it's like a

It's a turnkey solution for the customer.

That's what I try and do most of

Hmm.

the time.

So it sounds like you you just mentioned when you started the business,

you kind of said yes to everything.

You've just now started saying no.

what are the projects that are most interesting,

most fun for you? And what are the projects that are most profitable?

Are are certain products or types of projects more profitable,

more fun than others?

Yeah.

High profit for us is typically repair.

There's minimal material. it's just labor,

basically, and know how. and cheap abrasives.

So that can be high profit like repairing cracks,

cracks and welds or broken things at warehouses,

hotels, stuff like that. and then

sometimes the high profit stuff is kind of I don't want to say boring,

but I've like the repair side of things,

I've just done it a million times,

you know? So ~ it's kind of like monotonous,

maybe, but you're making money.

And then sometimes the the super interesting,

like the really big decorative gates or whatever,

you might not

make as much money, but it's like the last gate we did was large

and it was like I took that job on to build a portfolio more

so than make a ton of money on it.

And

Mm.

and that's how it went. ~ it it turned out beautiful and we didn't make

a ton of money, but we in we enjoyed it.

~

I I hear that from a lot of contractors that ~ often the the jobs that they would

put on the front of their website or ~ that really kind

Yeah.

of help them level up, step into a a new a a new level of business are

not the jobs that were the most profitable.

No, not yeah, yeah. I'm I I completely agree with that.

It's like ~ like you'll get a job and and you'll start looking at how

you gotta do it. And basically how you gotta do it is to buy that piece

of equipment you've been wanting anyways.

You're like you're not gonna make any money on that job.

Or you're you like there's one coming up where like the piece of equipment

I had to buy for it,

It didn't cut all the profit out of it,

but it it cut a big chunk out of it.

But basically that one job will pay for that press break and then I don't have

to use someone else's press break now.

So

Yeah.

it it's like a little hard to chew on,

but it's always worth it to do that.

It's always worth it.

Yeah. Yeah. Now every project you have in the future,

you've got that press break.

Yeah. And we ca and I don't have to work around someone's schedule or like

beg and plead to use it and and stuff moves around.

It's just always like me personally I like to bring it in house and just

do it ourselves.

Okay. W what has been the strangest request that you've received from a customer?

Let's see.

think the one that comes to mind was is about a year ago.

~ someone called and they said I'm a manufacturer of like fire like high

end fire pits. and we had like a it was like a warranty claim and they were like

the only thing is you can only get there by boat.

So I the customer came and like picked me up on a boat.

That was fun. ~ it was like it's called Goat Island in Charleston.

That's probably the weirdest one,

I think.

That

had to be interesting, getting all your welding gear onto a boat and

~ not just being able to take your truck over there.

Yeah. So we just loaded it all up and boated over to this private island

and welded up a fire pit. Yeah.

Ha ha ha.

I think that's that's probably the weirdest one.

man, that's awesome. Well, we we've talked

Yeah.

a a little bit about ~ pricing,

setting your pricing. ~ what are some of the lessons that you've learned

in your first year of business regarding,

you know, pricing your labor, pricing projects,

and explaining that to a customer who they might only see the

few minutes that you're there on site,

especially if you're doing a repair,

but there's a lot more to it than that.

Can you walk us through the lessons that you've learned and and

how you're figuring out your pricing models?

Yeah.

God. Yeah. So many things. the first thing that comes to mind for me personally

as a business, ~ is if someone leads with the question of how

do you price your jobs, I'm typically not interested in working with them.

and that's not always.

True, but a lot of times. So I'm not the cheapest in town.

I'm not the most expensive, but I'm like on the on the upper end,

maybe. ~ and I think my quality backs that.

So if someone wants like the cheapest solution,

then I'm not the best solution for them,

right? So just kind of knowing that.

and then another big lesson I've learned is like if you think it's gonna take a day,

just

price it as two and and you can go from there if that if that makes sense.

Like it

Okay.

always takes longer than you think.

At the stage of business you're in now,

if you suddenly had a hundred thousand dollars to invest in your company

and that was all that you could do with it,

where would you put it and why?

That's an amazing question.

I would so right now I work in I have a shop in my backyard at my home

and that's that's convenient but it's it's we're limited on space,

so

The and I say no to a lot of work because of that.

We can kind of only do one project at a time.

Or we could do like one in the shop and one in the field.

so the first thing I would do is probably rent a bigger space or put

a down payment on a bigger space and hire like two more guys.

And then I would put the rest of the money.

I would maybe buy like ~

A lot of guys are starting to use laser welders.

So I would probably and that's supposed to save a ton of time.

You make your money back quick on that.

So I'd probably buy one of those.

and then I've never paid for like ads.

I do a ton of social media, but I've never actually paid for it.

So I would probably put some money into that and just see how that goes.

Like targeted marketing ads.

I think that's one thing that's maybe not talked about enough amongst like trades

is like the importance of showing people what you do.

They're never gonna find you if if they can't find you.

So yeah, a hundred grand, that'd be awesome.

I hope at the end of this interview you have a hundred grand for me.

I wish. I wish.

So that list came pretty quickly and it it's evident that you're trying

to grow and build your business and kind of have a vision for

~ making it significantly larger.

W what is the bottleneck to your growth?

Is it funding? Is it just having the money to invest in those things

you rattled off? Is it finding customers?

Is it finding employees? what what's the biggest bottleneck to the growth?

I I'd be curious to what you hear ~ when you ask that question to other guys.

~ but for me it's capital,

not taking out loans. I'm trying to build it organically with the money

I make through it and finding good help.

Yeah. There's the two biggest things hands down.

Well, I'm I'm a hundred percent on board.

I agree with doing things with cash and and not leveraging debt,

but can you explain the thought process there a little bit more for our listeners?

Why are you so committed to doing it on cash and not taking on debt?

Man, that's like that's just how I've always been.

if you can't afford to pay for it cash,

maybe you can't afford it. I don't know.

there's there's so many ways to look at it.

And my dad always says I need to like get over my fear of that and like like borrow

money and leverage debt. ~

But yeah, I don't know. I it's there's like a peace of mind thing

to like buying something and just owning it as soon as you buy it.

And like no one can tell you differently.

And like yeah. And there's so much so much value in that to me.

but then on the flip side, like if I don't know,

like in a business you buy something secondhand,

you gotta go through that cycle of like

Fixing whatever is the reason you got it for cheap or like and it's

not making you money and downtime's super expensive.

~ there's like a balance to it,

I think. I don't know. I just haven't really borrowed money yet,

I guess. Like I have like a credit card and that's it.

But yeah. There I I I guess

one thing worth

mentioning is like you don't get ahead of yourself too much because you're

so like you you think about it so much before you buy it,

you know, because you work so hard for that money.

It's so important to you. And so as you grow,

your purchases get bigger, but you're not like a slave to anyone.

I don't know. That if that does that make sense,

I hope I'm kind of tying that back a little bit.

absolutely. I'm I'm a hundred percent on board.

I always built our business with cash and didn't like borrowing money either,

but that's rare in business today.

So I was just curious to get your thought process there and yeah,

there's a lot of people that talk about owning stuff and they don't actually own it.

The bank owns it and they're renting it from the bank.

And paying double. Yeah.

Yeah. Yep.

Yeah, so I think it it takes longer to make the money back when you borrow

it versus just maybe staying like ~ you're getting too big for your britches

or whatever that saying is, you know,

like like when you say if I gave you a hundred grand tomorrow,

I'd probably spin it in dumb ways because I'm not ready for that amount

of money because I haven't gone far enough down the business path of discernment.

You know what I mean? ~

Hm. Yeah. Yeah, there's a good point

there too of maturing, learning,

gaining the wisdom, the knowledge to be able to do it properly,

~ versus you know, a kid being turned loose to to blow it.

So

That's what I am. Yeah. So like

if you gave me a hundred grand when I first started the business,

God knows what I would have bought,

right? And then it like me looking back a year ago or whatever,

you give me a hundred grand now,

maybe that ~ and then a year from me now would say like cringe,

be like, no, don't do it that way,

like because you've learned

Yeah.

so much. So I think that's my fear with like.

borrowed money is is like I don't know,

just like those hard lessons learned with my own money is fine,

you know?

I i if you make a mistake, it's a mistake.

It's not one you have to pay for for ten more years.

Yeah. You just kinda it just stings a little bit and you learn and you adjust.

Yep. Yeah. Good stuff. Well,

you brought up you know, if you had that hundred thousand dollars,

you'd spend part of it on marketing.

You said you do a lot with social media.

tell us a little bit about that.

What is your approach to social media and and what have you seen the returns

on that look like?

Yeah,

so ~ I think it was like October or November.

So I've been posting for almost a year.

Well, when I started I would just post pictures,

like I had a a camera and I would take like these really nice photographs,

like a photographer, and no one cared.

So I started post and then I realized what do I watch on social media

and it's reels. I just I watch reels and reels and reels and everyone does and

So I was like, well, I just need to be posted like that if it's and it that helped

a lot. I started getting like more like likes or whatever through videos instead

of pictures. So that's been all my efforts.

I try and film everything I do.

I try and post one video per day to Instagram and Facebook and and then

how it helps the business is when I'm quoting a job.

I can be like, y'all check out the page and you can kind of see how I do things.

You can see finished products.

they kind of see my workflow and maybe they're like,

This is the guy for us, or nah,

this is like we'll go elsewhere or whatever.

~ so it's like full transparency.

And then the other side of things is when I started gaining a little

bit of traction on social media,

I noticed I would get more calls through Google,

through my Google page. So it's all kind of like linked together.

You

know? ~

Yeah.

so it's like relevance in your city or whatever.

and it just shows that you that you're working every day and it shows what you do.

what do you try to make ~ like do you try to build content or are

you just showing your process?

Like do you do you try to use humor,

kind of put some storyline behind what you're posting or is it mostly just videos

of kind of what you're doing and what your finished products are?

Yeah. Yeah. So I I hate my voice.

So I typically don't talk much.

I kinda like I do like twenty to thirty second clips.

and I just show like building this and I'll just do like real quick like point four,

point three second clips. it's kind of just like what I did today,

you know? It's like a little

Okay.

mini vlog and I try and tell like a little setup process finish,

like a little

hook or whatever through clips.

And ~ yeah, I don't do a ton of talking.

Sometimes I do, but ~ it's usually just like like on on on one project,

I might have like eight videos related to that project.

I don't do a lot of start to finish stuff.

It's more like today, now, here's what we're doing.

Here's how we do it. and I I just like showing that a lot of guys comment.

And they're like, What are you using on that saw and why or whatever?

And I tell I set up and that helps someone.

So like I had like a million questions when I started.

I didn't know how to get answered.

So luckily I use Chat GPT a lot now.

But yeah, just trying to like help other guys.

Like, here's how I did this. and like it it went well because of this tool

or it sucked or whatever. So

I imagine that's a great benefit to a lot of people that would watch.

so you're you're still very much in the field.

You said you're you're one of only two employees,

so you're a big part of your own production.

You you're also doing all the estimating,

running the business. How do you find time to do social media on

top of everything else that you have going on?

Yeah,

I so I film during the day, during the project,

and then I I edit from like eight PM to ten PM and then I post it at night

and I just repeat that.

Wow, that's ~ quite a commitment to spend your evening,

every evening doing that. And d how do you remember to take

the videos throughout the day?

I think every time I think about doing something like that,

I I get busy working, I put my head down and all of a sudden I'm done

and I don't have any pictures or videos.

Has has that been difficult trying to carve out time or reminders to stop

and take a video of what you're doing?

at first it was and now I'm just so used to it.

It's just part of it. Like every job.

I I I just twenty dollar tripod off Amazon and I got my phone and that's it.

I keep it real simple. I don't use any fancy cameras,

mics, anything. Just if I go like if I I don't even use an editing app.

I just crop it down, put it in Instagram and edit it in Instagram and post it.

I I dumb it down to like where a five year old could do it.

Ha ha.

That

works that works for me. So everyone's a little different.

Well it it sounds like you're a a pretty small operation that's probably competing

with some larger, ~ more established businesses.

You do big projects, real projects,

not strictly just the small repairs.

It what does that look like? I mean,

what what is your value proposition that you can bring to a customer for hiring

a a small shop like like you have versus a a larger,

more established company?

I think ~ two things come to mind.

I answer the phone when people call.

They like that. you know, they're talking to the business right away.

I text. and then I go meet with them in person so like they s get to meet

me and see that I'm like a real person.

that's helpful. And then ~ like and then going back to like handling

Stuff

in-house. Sometimes big companies take different parts of the scope and

sub it out and it draws out the schedule and it runs up the price.

So that's probably the two biggest things,

I think. ~ everyone's always like support your local business or whatever.

I don't know. People some people care about that,

but not everyone. Most people care about how much is it gonna cost and when

can you do it?

Yeah.

man. So with that model, i you know,

it's probably easy to kind of get the reputation or be put in the box of kind

of the the smaller guy that's cheaper priced.

How do you avoid being trapped in that category and ~ i you know,

growing out to being ~ raising your prices a little bit or taking on

the more unique larger projects?

So ~ some of the unique custom stuff,

there's not a lot of guys that'll do it anyways.

So you're not

Mm.

sometimes sometimes you're not bidding against anyone.

So price is not as big of a concern.

And then not getting stuck in the cheap guy box is ~ I try

not to do anything cheap. So

Mm.

Then if you don't do anything cheap,

then no one's telling their buddy,

guess what? I found a cheap welder.

You should call him for cheap work.

So

Yeah.

that helps with that. I I'll do cheap stuff for like repeat customers that know

my value, you know. If or like if I'm already on site and they're like,

Hey, could you also just do this real quick?

I'm like, Yeah, dude, of course.

You've given me twenty jobs this year.

I'm more than happy to help you out,

you know? And that goes

Yeah.

a long way.

But that's different than saying I'll do something for two hundred bucks

for a one off customer I'll never see again or whatever.

So you're pretty disciplined in your customer selection and ~ not take

on projects that really aren't gonna be worth it.

Typically,

yeah. Sometimes the smaller projects are more of a pain in the ass than

the bigger projects that pay. And you

Yeah. Absolutely.

start start to see those red flags kinda early on,

you start to recognize them and it just goes off like a bell and you're like,

Yeah, you you should just call this other guy or whatever.

So

Yeah. So y you mentioned that now you're a a two man shop,

you've brought on an employee.

it's ~ helping you growing the business,

moving in a new direction there.

Walk us through that process that had to be a little bit stressful,

y you know, figuring out do you have enough work to support a second person

and and being responsible for ~ another family,

another income?

walk us through that process of how you knew you were ready for an employee

and and maybe what you felt going through that process.

so I think like anything, it's kind of scary at first until you do it

and then it's like whatever after that.

~ the responsibility and like the the f like I am responsible

for someone else's income now providing it,

that is something not to be taken lightly.

Like this guy's got to be paid.

He's got to be paid on time. so yeah,

I mean I mean making sure you've got cash flow to pay him is important.

~

And then yeah, I mean I think in terms of like knowing when,

it's kind of just a gauge of like if I'm saying no to too like if I start saying

no to stuff I really want to do,

that bothers me. ~

Mm.

and so that's when I like decide to bring on another guy or bring in more part time

or whatever. if we want to do something.

And then once I hired someone and I realized stuff was getting done while

I was doing stuff, that was a great feeling.

~

Yeah.

like it doesn't completely revolve like around me.

So when I go pick up steel or whatever,

that's obviously not a money making activity.

But there's still whoever at the shop building something.

So that was a pretty cool like realization on my first hire.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You can be getting overhead tasks done and making money

at the same time. that makes a big difference.

Yeah. And then it's like all of a sudden Yeah.

So that's cool. And then when I realized that I was like,

I need to keep keep someone around for that reason and grow from there.

So

W what has been the scariest part of building this business?

When were you most afraid?

man, sometimes it gets hairy when like invoices are not being paid in in 30 days.

That sucks. and you have bills to pay that can get scary.

and I think when I first hired a guy,

I was like, How am I? I was like,

I don't even know how I'm gonna pay him.

I don't really pay myself anything.

But it it you kind of just adjust and figure it out as as you go,

like.

Like when I priced jobs a while ago and it was just me,

that price is no longer really relevant to the business model now.

So you just adjust to cover, basically.

And it takes some of the fear away,

I think.

Straight into the flames. Just walk through and figure it out as you go,

huh?

Yeah,

I think that's the theme of today.

Do you have an opinion ~ that you once held strongly that you've changed based

on your experience over the last year,

year and a half?

Yeah, I think I thought I was smarter than I am.

I I've definitely been humbled a bunch of times.

going from going from managing trades to being a trade,

~

Mm.

it looks it looks easier than it is.

So that was an opinion I have.

Like, why can't these guys just get it done faster or whatever?

You know? And now it's like they need to understand why I can't get it done faster.

Like I

So yeah, that that comes to mind.

All right. Yeah, that's a good one.

Good to see the problem from the other side.

So

Yeah. And it really opens up your perspective.

I mean, things just they take time.

So to do it right, it takes time.

There's no way around it.

So when you face a problem, a question that's kinda outside of your expertise,

I imagine that happens a lot when you're building a new venture.

where do you go to find those answers?

Do you have a a mentor, a resource that you utilize that really helps

you answer those questions you don't know?

Yeah, I have a few different ~ guys I lean on.

There's

like other welders locally that are further further down the path than I am,

and they'll get a call sometimes on specific things that they're good at.

~ that's super helpful. And then on the business side of things,

a few different guys I I work out with,

they're older and they own their own businesses,

and I'll kind of like pose that situation to them and be like,

What do I need to do here?

Yeah.

And I mean, th they've they've they've seen it all,

so they usually can answer it pretty spot on.

What has been the most consequential decision that you had to make since starting

your business?

I I I think it's starting to like I I guess when I decided

to raise prices a little bit and say no to some things,

that was kind of hard. And it's paid off.

So sometimes it's just kind of hard to chew on and ~ until you do

it and look back on it. Like there's certain there's like a one customer comes

to mind, they were kind of like

Hard to get what the job was worth out of and so then you'll be like quoting

a job for that person, and you're like in the back of your head,

like, I know I need to charge this,

but I know they're not gonna go for it.

And I think that like the decision to just send them the price for what

the job is worth is important.

And you might lose that customer,

but it then you're gonna gain a customer like right after that,

probably.

that values your work and then you're not worried about does that does that make

s am I making sense like it's like hard and hard in the time to do it,

you know, and just send that email.

but it's like it's so it's so worth it in the long run to just do what

you need to do, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it's hard to turn down work,

it's hard to say no, and it's easy to get beat up,

but ~ if you keep doing work for less than what you need,

you're gonna i run out you know,

go bankrupt, be out of business,

you know? Yeah. I if you're doing

Yeah, you're not gonna stay in business.

jobs where you don't make more money,

the last thing you need is more jobs.

Correct.

Yeah. More jobs from that type of client.

I yeah.

Yeah. When you're losing money you don't need more of it.

So

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for real. You don't need to lose more.

So

Ha ha

and yeah, everyone will let you do it for cheaper.

So that's like I don't know.

It's so easy. It's so easy to like walk yourself down that road.

Like ~ like I I'm a new business owner.

I don't have a ton of money, right?

So I'll be pricing something, and I'm like,

dang, that's a lot. But that that's a lot to me.

That's not a lot to them. So you gotta remember that.

and just like pull the emotion out of that quote and just quote it how it is,

I think. Or I know.

Yeah. there's some good advice

there. So for a a young person that wants to do what you've done,

that wants to dive into a trade and start their own business

and start building something, what are the two best pieces of advice

you could give them?

just like do it. Don't think about it too much.

Just do it. ~ like if you want to be an electrician or whatever,

just like go do that. Don't like you don't have to talk about it all that much.

tell everyone about it. Like just go do it and then you'll figure out if

you like it or not. that sounds simple,

but it's hard. And then like another thing is maybe just like mental mentally

knowing you're gonna suck at it at first and

Everyone sucks at it at first.

And that's okay. So

Yeah.

if you're able to like wrap your head around that,

it'll it'll push you through that phase faster and ~

And I do have to give a third piece of advice and that's just never stop learning.

Like you're never with welding or plumbing or anything,

you never know at all. It's always changing.

so like I try and remain in that mindset.

Like I could always I can learn I can learn from someone who just started welding

yesterday. Like they they know something I don't.

So yeah, just trying to always always

Remember to keep learning with everything.

All right. Well, I know y you're relatively new,

~ but you are growing. You brought on your first employee.

what's the vision? Where are you headed?

What's the goal? Where do you see Michaux Metalworks in the future?

Yeah,

I'd like to be I'd like to be in a bigger shop with a few more guys

and have someone running the shop so I can run the business.

it's a goal of mine to like get out of working in the business.

even though I love it. And yeah,

I'd like I mean, there's just so many like cool opportunities

in Charleston and South Carolina and North Carolina.

and

It's just kind of a general goal to be equipped to handle some of that those larger,

like cooler opportunities, to have the manpower to do them efficiently

and to have the equipment to do them efficiently and not look like ~

to not look like the new guy anymore,

I guess.

So I know I mean the whole reason you started this business was

you just loved welding, you loved being hands on,

you love being in it. but you say kind of your goal is to to work yourself

out of that hands on job and be more running the business rather than operating

the business. it was that your goal when you started out,

or is that a a new vision that's kind of come since you got started?

Yeah, I it's it's always evolving.

But like I I knew from the beginning I didn't want to be a one man band forever.

basically all as a one man band,

like all all you've really done,

you haven't really started a business.

I mean, I guess you kinda have,

but like you've you've just created a job for yourself,

you know? and then like if you're sick for a week or you want to go on vacation,

like everything just stops. So kinda I've known that since the beginning.

Like

need to learn as I go and and scale as I go to kind of turn it into like

a real business, which it's kind of,

but like not really yet. So yeah.

And it and it keeps evolving.

I like to draw a distinction. It you know,

there are people that are self employed that own a business and there

are s people that are self employed that own a job.

And ~

Yeah.

i th there is a distinction there.

Like you said, when when you leave and all production stops,

you own a job, you don't own a business.

Yeah, but you have to grow through that first phase to get to the second.

So yeah.

Yeah, and it's hard.

Yeah. Yeah.

Do do you think that will

be a difficult adjustment for you when ~ you end up spending more time invoicing,

estimating, working on leadership and less time on a welder?

Yeah, I think so. 'Cause I love like being in the tools and like figuring

out little knickknacks to like do something so simple better or whatever.

I think a lot of guys like me have trouble putting it setting it down,

you know?

~ so yes, I do think that would be challenging and estimating is

not the funnest thing in the world either.

But yeah, I mean the goal really is to to get every job within

the business handled by people that are better than me at it.

So I can just do the vi the like run the business

and steer the business is really where I'd like to be.

~ and that's so that's such a ways out,

but I think it'll be hard but worth it.

Absolutely. That's ~ it i if I can commend you on that,

that's a very humble position to take for a a starting business owner.

I think most people in the position you're in,

they assume that they will always be the best at everything.

They're they're gonna be the best welder and they hope to hire somebody that

can do it almost like they can.

But to to walk in with the idea of the goal being to hire someone that's better than

you at each step of it, that

That's a very humble approach to take and ~ I I think that's gonna be

a huge piece to finding success as you grow.

Yeah, well I appreciate it. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm definitely not the best welder in Charleston.

There's definitely better ones out there.

Ha ha

And then

I'm definitely not the best estimator either.

Like there's people out there that that's all they do and they'd be

way better at it. And I'd love to bring them in and let them do that,

you know? So

Yeah.

and then sales within welding,

there's like

No

say like I don't sell anything.

Businesses call me and they need it.

So it's like my s my sales skills are little to none.

It's just like

Yeah.

here's a price, take it or leave it.

So

Mm.

but one day we would be big enough to where there could just be someone selling

all the time and that'd be awesome.

You know, there's so much out there.

So yeah, it's exciting.

man.

So w what is the next step? You're you're kind of running the business,

doing a lot of it. you brought on your first employee that's a a fabricator.

What what's the next hire? What's the next step?

Yeah, probably I would hope sometime next year we would be moving into

a bigger space and just hiring a couple more guys,

honestly. ~

Okay.

get get someone running the shop and a couple guys working in the shop.

and then like I I just bought another truck this year,

a second truck. So we're just gonna kind of slowly build that out and

let the new guy

run

around in that and kind of start dividing and conquering,

seeing how that goes. so just kind of baby steps,

you know. but yeah I think the biggest thing will be getting out

of the backyard here and getting into like a real commercial space.

And ~ I think that would allow us to grow quick we would bring we would bring more

in. We wouldn't be so picky. I think it would

Would take off from there. So

I I know we've talked a little bit about being selective with the jobs you take on.

Do do you think there's value in staying a little bit smaller and being

a little bit more selective and taking on only the jobs that you know

are gonna be profitable versus being bigger and and being able to take

on everything but ~ lowering profitability a little bit?

right now you're relatively small.

You're ~ appear to be relatively high demand,

like you said, you you know your worth,

you kind of say no thank you to the low profitability jobs versus being

a little bit larger, being able to take on all of that work,

but that means saying yes to some of the lower profitability jobs.

What what's the trade off there?

When does scale overcome that selectiveness?

so I think now the bottleneck right now is like we with between two guys,

we're just so booked up with not even that much because we can only do so much.

so the thousand dollar or two thousand dollar trailer repair is like I'll do it,

but I'm not chasing it.

But if we had five guys in a shop and one of them is like a younger

guy making not that much money,

you know, ~ I would not mind bringing in that that lower profit stuff

as we scale just to do more at one time.

Well, this is my favorite question that I ask of every guest.

are you a person of a particular faith tradition?

And if so, how does that affect your leadership in your business?

Yeah, so I'm super ~ involved in my church.

and I think kind of like going back to like stepping out at first took

a lot of faith. ~ you know, you don't have a clear you don't have

a clear answer there. and I that's huge to me.

And ~ I think like it's like a lot of times it's like ~ when I'm like d like

come

to like a crossroads or a decision.

~ it's helpful to have the your your Christianity or whatever to l to lean on.

and

Yeah, I d I I don't think I could like I don't think I could do it without it.

so that's that's that's huge to me.

~ and then like there's like it's just kind of like a segue away from that,

not away from that, but like ~ like getting away from work on Sunday to

go to church is just like so important.

Like just that like just that motion or that habit.

~

Aside from all the benefits of it,

like just slowing down for a little bit after like a crazy week,

just like being with your thoughts.

And that's like with anyone for any business and any faith or whatever you worship,

you know, is like slowing down for a little bit.

Like you can work yourself to death.

~ like that's that's important.

But yeah, you just you gotta have a lot of faith to do certain things.

~ so yeah, it's huge for me.

I

guess that was a long winded answer.

That's right.

Well, you y you dropped a name brand earlier,

so I'm guessing I know the answer to this,

but as someone that's in the trades,

that's on the tools doing it themselves,

to either fuel or settle the debate,

if you have a job to do that requires a cordless tool,

which brand do you prefer?

Yeah, I think my answer Milwaukee,

~ they're great. but I have seen like a lot of guys fabricators switching over

to DeWalt I think they've made a good a good stride in the last year or two.

~

Okay.

I don't know. It's pr it's a taste thing.

You can't argue taste. I just I like I like the way Milwaukee looks

and it I've beaten the heck out of my grinders and they s they're still going,

so

I think it's just like pick one and stick with it.

You can't have a bunch of different batteries,

a bunch of different chargers.

So yeah, just pick whatever you like.

They're all good. All the braids are good.

So ~ but yeah, I I come Milwaukee's probably better from like a mechanic standpoint,

and that's why I started with it.

~

Okay.

and a lot of like mechanic and wielding stuff is related.

So that's why I started with it and I still love it.

So yeah.

All right. Well there we go. We're closing the gap a little bit.

Milwaukee and DeWalt are our two front runners there.

I think DeWalt is ~

Yeah.

still ahead by a couple, but you're you're closing the gap a little bit.

~ come on.

So but yeah,

I I agree with you. I think I mean there's the the homeowner brands,

but when you get up into the contractor grade,

Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee, and especially if you're buying their

you know, they even within each brand they all have their different grades

or different levels. If you're dri buying the the top end grade,

they're all they all make good tools.

like you said, some of ~ maybe cater to one one trade or one direction.

I think like the small tools, like little screwdriver type stuff,

Milwaukee definitely owns that kind of segment.

I think they have a lot more tools and a lot more options for the the smaller tools.

personally I think if you're dealing with the big you know,

more framing construction type tools,

I've seen Dewalt hold up a little bit better.

But like

Yeah.

you said, one once you get invested in batteries,

you're locked in.

Yeah. Yeah. You gotta just love it and stick with it.

Yep, that that's the biggest deal is which one do you have batteries for?

And man, the in most cases the batteries cost more than the tools themselves.

So

If you're invested in

Yeah.

some batteries, that's gonna be where you're at.

Yeah. And I d ~ also like the Milwaukee pack out stuff I use

Yeah.

a lot. And and then same thing.

Once you got one thing, it all builds off each other.

and then but I I I will say like as of like the last couple months,

a lot of welders I follow on Instagram ~ have like partnered with DeWalt

or whatever and all the new like I don't know what it's called,

but ~

They look pretty badass. Like it's like a bunch of welding related dewalt tools.

So

Okay.

they've made a jump and it looks pretty cool,

but I just don't have any myself.

Well, David, thank you so much for joining us.

it's been a pleasure just to get to learn about you,

learn about your business and and hear about your story starting out.

we might have to do a follow-up here in a year or two and just see where you're

at and how things have grown. It sounds like you're off to an awesome start.

I'm I'm really excited for you and excited to see where you wind up.

Absolutely, man. I appreciate it.

And ~ your questions were amazing.

I I did not expect someone I mean,

they were like spot on to stuff I'm riding around in the truck thinking about

all the time. So yeah, you are you're good at what you do.

well, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

And yeah, this has been a lot of fun.

I really appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you for joining us here on From the Ground Up Show.

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