New guy here looking for some words of wisdom

I’m a new guy here on the forum but have been doing a lot of reading and see a few guys own and operate their own rigs. I’m 35 years old and have been a certified crane operator for a few years. Mostly lattice boom crawlers over 100 ton and some 60ton AT work as well. My long term plan is to get a 40 ton truck and work for myself,but I’m not sure on how hard it would be to find the work/ get started with customers, I understand providing quality work at a fair price will get me return customers, but getting my foot in the door seems like it could be a process. Any tips from you veterans out there are greatly appreciated. I’m in Michigan, and I have 3-4 larger cities less than an hour in each direction. This also seems advantageous. Being mechanically inclined,I should be able to to most of my own repair/service as well. Anything you guys think I should really learn about or understand about chasing this dream let me know I’m all ears

However hard you think it will be double that and prepare to be disappointed ones own buissness ain't for the faint of heart cause your never really working for yourself you will have given up having one boss to having 30 that are all the more important than the others

How much you got saved up there's equipment and insurance for starters and fuel sure adds up quick plus its completely normal to wait 60 days for money

Probably depends how many other crane companies are around. Hard to compete with big companies, but sometimes there are small jobs that the bigger guys don't want. Young fella here started with a bucket truck, eventually got a boom truck. He is busy, but he runs 7 days a week. Once the 2 paper mills shut down, the large company moved out. There are only 2 boom truck companies in town, and the other one seems to prefer to keep their trucks for their own projects. As a business owner, you have to put the time in, and you need to put money aside for big repairs. See so many that start businesses, and once things get good, thy start spending on themselves. Fancy cars, lots of toys. Something breaks, oh I'll just put it on the credit line. Suddenly work dries up, and they are overspent, and can't carry the payments.

This has been discussed here before, here's a couple threads that go through it. I would also look through tradesman and natman threads, they show a lot of typical work for a one man crane operation.

Read these first, and then feel free to fire away with more questions.

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/start-up.75888/

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/getting-into-rigging-and-crane-ownership.64965/

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/insurance.83113/


https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/working-the-national-1300a.64861/

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/new-ride.35645/

And just as a aside. Running crawlers on long term jobsites, is a whole different animal than working "taxi" rental. Long term jobsite- you don't generally move around a lot, and the guys you are working with usually have a idea of what they are doing. Same kind of thing most every day.

Rental is a new place everyday, rarely does anyone know hand signals, sometimes no one knows english. They will have no idea how to rig whatever you are picking up, or where you need to set the crane. No safety officer, no supervisor to come over and say "maybe its too windy". Its all on you. Some guys like that, some guys don't.

I appreciate the feedback, Ill read up on those threads, I have been reading through the daily work threads of a couple of the guys on here and can see the struggles of working with inexperienced help. Like I said it is a long term goal of mine and for now I just save every dollar I can for the future.

I'm 61 years old and started out 2 years ago with a 35 ton Grove. Didn't take very long to realize that it was too small. I've got a Link Belt HTC8665 now and it's a better fit for most of my work. I do mostly ag work plus some commercial air conditioners and generators. Most of my lifts aren't really that heavy, just long radius. Trying to save some money and looking for a 90 ton machine. The 140' boom on a HTC8690 would save lot of swinging the jib.

Just remember one wrong move in business will wipe out a lifetime of saving every dollar,

And, when you break down, you are 100% out of business. All my eggs are in one basket, having just one machine. Then again, that's about the only time I can get a few days in a row off.

Sounds like I better have some major coin saved up before I’d ever be able to contemplate such a venture