small business in L.A (custom home, neighborhood, construction)

[weldingfireman]

A While back I had posted that my wife and I had always wanted to move to L.A. I had recived some good advise, so Im back with another question. Im curently a fireman/medic in the southwest for the biggest city in our state , i looked into other FD's in the L.A area some are hireing.
I currently own and operate a small welding business here on my off days from the fd. I do everything from custom car and bike work (metal Fab) general welding and fab, my main money maker is Wrought iron gates, fencing handrail ect. Business here is slow VERY slow due to the economy . A good part of my business relies on construction industry custom homes mainly and I know construction is slow across the country, my question is roughly how many wrought iron shops in and around L.A is there. do they seem to be working (do you notice) ? We travel to L.A often and i see wrought iron all over that area. seems everyone has it either for decoration or security.
Another Question how hard is it to get a small business going in the L.A area? taxes red tape ect, some cities are harder than others. Seems CA in general is stricter than other states with business is this true.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[+Lofty]

Zoning and licensing will be headaches for your kind of business. Also, inspections from county, city, etc. It's very hard to start and run a small business in LA, unless you do it illegally in a sketchy neighborhood where all your neighbors are doing the same thing.

[londoner1]

"my question is roughly how many wrought iron shops in and around L.A is there"

Why don't you call one and find out? Seriously, I know this is going to sound weird, but a great many small business owners don't mind helping out someone who's starting out.

[impala666]

Originally Posted by weldingfireman

A While back I had posted that my wife and I had always wanted to move to L.A. I had recived some good advise, so Im back with another question. Im curently a fireman/medic in the southwest for the biggest city in our state , i looked into other FD's in the L.A area some are hireing.
I currently own and operate a small welding business here on my off days from the fd. I do everything from custom car and bike work (metal Fab) general welding and fab, my main money maker is Wrought iron gates, fencing handrail ect. Business here is slow VERY slow due to the economy . A good part of my business relies on construction industry custom homes mainly and I know construction is slow across the country, my question is roughly how many wrought iron shops in and around L.A is there. do they seem to be working (do you notice) ? We travel to L.A often and i see wrought iron all over that area. seems everyone has it either for decoration or security.
Another Question how hard is it to get a small business going in the L.A area? taxes red tape ect, some cities are harder than others. Seems CA in general is stricter than other states with business is this true.

Thanks in advance for your input.

If you have the money to set up,support yourselves in the early days and can produce work like this:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD7t4UjkEmc


Then will survive a probably do quite well as you mentioned there is a big demand, however if you aim to produce basic stuff,forget it because you will be competing with hundreds of illegal operations and almost all bodyshops who will do this kind of work on the side.


If you have very high level skills and can weld magnesium/titanium/stainless to high standard then plenty of work exists in the development and engineering experimental areas.


Good Luck.