This is a long ways down the road for me but I was curious about the decisions surrounding the purchase or lease of shop space. Do you lease or buy? How much does it cost, if you could do anything differently what would you do?
Currently I’m limited to a small section of a lab at school or my dad’s garage but someday I hope I can afford to buy an industrial warehouse to house CNC machines, welders or anything else I need for a fabrication business.
Thanks in advance
It all depends on what you are going to make. (read: what you can find a customer for). This determines the machinery you need, thus the floor space.
Depending on the size of your company, I like to see things split up in:
-long term warehouse (stores all the materials)
-preparing (cutting of fabrics, cores, vacuum materials, etc)
-molding (laminating, infusion, etc. Also holds all active molds, including demoulding and waxing)
-post-processing (cutting, drilling) Dust extractors are a must here. This would also be where any routing or CNC equipment would be. It is a good idea to have this close to or partly sharing with the preparation area, as you can share dust extraction and (CNC) cutting of foam. A seperate area is for sanding and diamond trimming.
-spray booth and oven (this oven can be used for postcuring as well, so again, keep this near to / share with laminating area)
-assembly (where parts are made into (sub) assemblies. Hardly any dust is generated here. Mostly positioning jigs, methacrylate glue, MS Polymer glue, etc.
-QC and packaging
This does not neccesarily fit into your business, and not all should be separate, but you get the idea. I also must say that the new companies over here that are succesful in these difficult days, all make high quality stuff, and all have their shop clean and sorted.
One other thing: I like the resin to be as much separate from everything as possible, for obvious reasons. A lot of shops I see have created a “resin bar” where they can tap what they need, without the need for dragging barrels through the working area.
Just needn storage area; for clean molds keeping them clean, a paint and finish area, equipment must not exeed floor weight concrete capacity.
I wouldn’t ever get less than 1000 sq ft shop area. Too crowded otherwise. Leasing is good for me, costs less and I am not responsible for keeping up outside the building, roof repairs or parking lot repairs. No property taxes to worry with. Leases can be negotiated usually.
It all depend on how much capital you have (can you guess… I’m an accountant )
Don’t over extend yourself, a lot of people put too much $$$ in their equipment or building only to realize that the revenue stream takes longer to materialize than they initially expected.
Usually banks will finance almost all of your equipment value through small business loans. Here in Quebec, Canada it’s called a PPE (prêts aux petites entreprises) or SBL (small businesses loans). They are loans that are back by the Government. You may have something similar in the state. You need realistic financial forecast though… So that takes care of your equipment. Make sure to try and synchronize your financing with the expected life span of your equipment (meaning an equipment that is expected to last for 10 years should not be financed over 2). This will ease the pressure on your cash flows when you start off.
I would personally rent at the beginning. This will give you a “feal” for what you actually need in term of space. Rent in an area where you can expend. Industrial condos are great for that. Choose one with vacant spots to either sides, and ask that they include a “first refusal right” on one or both empty space in your lease when you rent. That way you can take your time setting up your shop (at a reduce rent cost) knowing that you kept the right to rent the empty spaces first if you need to (at the price offered by a potential renter).
Then when your business is established and that you can more precisely determined your expected cash flows, you can now decide on buying a building…
BTW, I’m French so sorry for my English