Let me suggest two very good books on this:

1/ "How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer" which deals with many of the more mundane tasks of being a one-man-show. Being on my own now for almost 7 years, I can attest that at one moment the majority of hours is spent elsewhere: administration, acquisition, hand-holding, crisis-management, finance ... anything, but not the core of the business. But one only get paid for "core" work, and that means that after having spent most of the day on other things, you spend a good part of the night trying to make money.

2/ "Getting Real" by the inventors of Ruby on Rails. This is about managing things. Although targeted at software development, I find that the quintessentials work on other businesses equally well. A fast-paced, fascinating read about good business practice.

Together these two cover what small businesses should know. But they won't tell you if you are made for this. If you don't have the stomach, you will fail being solo. That is no judgement, but an observation over the years.

Good luck!

I started my business almost four years ago. Its hard work, don't ever let anyone tell different. When you're employed you go to work, do your job, go home. When you're self-employed you do everything. And a lot of it has nothing to do with what you actually want to do i.e. design. Book-keeping and taxes, administration, advertising, deliveries, meeting clients, buying and setting up new equipment, the list goes on and on. You want more headaches? Go get your ISO9001 certification, BEE certification, auditors, etc. Then look at the costs. CAD software is not cheap, neither is the equipment. Websites, business cards, brochures, printing. And I'm on the phone a lot. This is kind of scratching the surface but I think you get the idea. I'm not trying to put you off either, just being realistic. I thought working for myself would give me more free time to do what I want when I want. Boy did I get the wrong end of the stick... I am busier now - and work longer hours - than ever before. I wouldn't trade it for anything though. The most rewarding experience of my life.

Where do you start? With a business plan. Write exactly what you want your business to be and where you see it in 2, 5 and 10 years time. Be specific. Write down all the steps you intend taking to get to each individual milestone. Then implement it. You might not see any fruit the first year (you probably won't) and maybe not the second either things will happen. Just stick to your plan and be prepared to make sacrifices.

Good luck :)

As a consumer of 3d modeler skills recently and more coming up, here are a few thoughts from the customers end.
I started a at home, part time wood working business a few yrs ago to bring in a little extra cash to fund other projects. Well it took off and last fall I was 4 months behind in filling orders. I bought a cnc wood router to speed things up so I was not in the shop all the time I was home. Well, I was soon 5 months behind since I was spending so much time trying to learn how to use it. So I hired a modeler from a request for help post on this forum. How he did it so fast is amazing.
What would really be nice, is if a modeler was also familiar with the follow up programs taking the drawing to machining (cut3D in my case). I know there are a bunch of follow up programs. But, if other customers are like me and need help with the first program to create the model, chances are they, like me, will also need help with the next program as well. Stating you are familiar and able to help with these other programs would be a plus.
Take or leave, just some thoughts from someone who was very glad to pay someone who had taken the time to learn how to use Moi.

Tony

>> What would really be nice, is if a modeler was also familiar with the follow up programs taking the drawing to machining (cut3D in my case). I know there are a bunch of follow up programs. But, if other customers are like me and need help with the first program to create the model, chances are they, like me, will also need help with the next program as well. Stating you are familiar and able to help with these other programs would be a plus. <<

This is a good point. I design predominantly for the injection/blow mould industry and have found that being a qualified toolmaker along with having years of CNC/CAM experience go a long way to helping clients through their projects. Toolmaking is the next step after design after all. Adding FEA to my services was done for the same reason. However the OP was asking about where start building a business. In the early stages it really is best to see the bigger picture before zoning in on specifics. Just my opinion... ymmv.

Hi Shaun,

I am in a very similar position as you. I am a CAD Design draughtsman and have a day job currently as a draughtsman for a local building contractor. Yet I have been working freelance since 2007 and aiming to eventually go solo full time, its just taking longer than planned.
As mentioned the work really is feast or famine and personally I have not got enough clients to go on my own yet, also in the past 5 years the competition for CAD services etc has increased greatly, just google CAD services, CAD outsourcing and you will see.
One thing is I am not an artist, more of a design engineer so you may have a wider client base compared to me and the CAD work.
For me it is very frustrating at the moment, when the work is plentiful I'm working all the hours available and think is this the time, then the work just tails off.

I admire Sebastian and follow his work on the Alibre design forums, by providing that extra service following the design/CAD stages is a great advantage. My career started of as a CNC programmer so I am going to look into developing my skills further in order to provide a wider range of services, like Seb does.

I guess this is not helping your decision much but thought it would help you a bit.

Good luck.

Alexander

>> As mentioned the work really is feast or famine and personally I have not got enough clients to go on my own yet, also in the past 5 years the competition for CAD services etc has increased greatly, just google CAD services, CAD outsourcing and you will see. <<

This is so true Alexander. And the reason for this is that the market is rather saturated, regardless of what country you live in. But there's hope in this... as a client of mine put very succinctly:

"There are about 2000 'CAD guys' in Cape Town but you can count on your two hands those that actually know what they are doing and are prepared to offer a professional service. The rest are a bunch of chancers that are holed up in their living rooms with a pirated copy of whatever."

I think his point was that if you want to be taken seriously then go the distance. Start a registered company, use legitimate software, keep proper records, get professionals to do your advertising, etc.

Interestingly, all the people I spoken to reckon the biggest put-off is a @gmail or @yahoo email address (as opposed to @companyname)...

Perhaps try finding niche markets that previously you never thought of, for example Lawyers and scene recreation exhibits. Perhaps go to local hospitals or any business that has the public filing through its building and offer isometric building floorplans that designate emergency exits routes. If you give yourself a couple of small goals that might be overlooked by a very saturated talent pool you could in essence test the water. There are lots of people who don't need 3d art, but your new job is to convince them otherwise. Oh and one last thing, make friends with the parks and rec department head in your city, offer him/her some free renderings of the project concepts they often are required to create but don't have the budgets for. You can inform yourself of the projects they have ongoing by searching the city's webpage. It might lead to connections that pay off down the road.

Your new job will be modeling 1/2 the time while the other half is creating working relationships.

Good luck