are you gonna have employees? insurance? workmans comp? you have to pay for the building, youre own insurance, etc. theres monthly costs involved, and if you arent bringing in business its all out of pocket untill you get customers.

it does sound like a good deal, but for someone that has the time to put into it. youre talking about consuming youre life with your full time job and this side business. pretty much no more free time. but who knows, if you have the drive, you could turn it around to be 10 times what it was before you bought it. its a risk, but the bigger the risk the greater the reward.

 

What is the worst thing that can happen? Totally screw up your finances and your credit if its not a success. The city says you can't operate where you are at and your gf's dad hates your guts because ya'll broke up... but I don't want to discourage you or anything. Do proper research with existing companies that are outside of your market. Then plan for the worst case scenario. If you can survive that, then maybe give it a shot. Best of luck to you!

 

I wouldnt try turning it into a business at first. Do it as a hobby/side job... See how the market is for your services in the area, sounds to me like the guy selling this stuff was doing the same thing, with his profit margins I highly doubt he was insured or anything..
No big deal, have to start somewhere...

Who is your competition, what can they do that you cant or vice versa.

Get a list of all the equipment included and research the used value incase you want to sell it if things wouldn't go as projected.
This will allow you to see how much money you would actually be risking in the initial investment, you may come to find that you can sell the equipment for more than your original investment.
You may come to find that you can buy the equipment for less than his total asking price used elsewhere.
His contacts sound like individuals that might have something coated here and there a couple times a year.... This wont pay the bills unless there are hundreds of contacts like this.
You want steady income if you plan on doing this as a business, this usually comes from a steady amount of individual residential type jobs And/or having a good contract/ relationship with other area businesses that will out source their powder work to you.


You can buy the stuff and sponsor this site and offer mail order powder coating services, the options are endless but just take them a couple steps at a time.

Derek