Starting an Engineering Consulting Firm

[Engr Chris]

I am about to graduate with a masters degree in mechanical engineering and my ultimate goal is to start my own firm. I am currently working for two engineering companies to pay for school. One of the companies is a consulting firm. I love the variety of design challenges that come my way with them. For the last 10 years or so it has been my dream to start my own consulting engineering firm. I want to develop creative design solutions for my clients engineering problems. I have gained plenty of engineering design experience through my two jobs but I have not dealt with much of the business side of it. I have currently taken a job with a very large company that will begin immediately after I finish school as a design engineer. They allow you to have a side business as long as it is not in the industry that they are in. I want to start my own firm on nights and weekends when I am not at work.

My ultimate goal is to start my own firm and hire engineers from all disciplines, electrical, civil, etc. and have a firm with engineers from all backgrounds to be able to take on any engineering situation. I have found that a lot of consulting engineering firms are mainly devoted to and have expertise in only one particular industry. I don’t want to limit myself to just the oil industry or the transportation industry, I would hope that with a diverse background in all engineering disciplines, my company could serve any industry.

I have a few questions on the topic:

1. Is there any benefit to working for a large company initially after graduation instead of jumping into my own thing?

2. I have read that most small engineering firms that start out fail. Is this because small guys just cant get into the business or because the people that start them are not driven or prepared enough for the task they are approaching?

3. What can I do now as a graduate student to prepare for starting my own firm?

4. I am building a small handful of clients through my consulting right now. They have offered me jobs for when I graduate but I prefer go in my own direction but still work with them. If I start my own firm and keep them as my clients, would there be the possibility of lawsuits because they were initially my current bosses clients that he directed to me.

Thanks for the help.

[PearlM]

Did anyone every reply to this post? I was wondering the same thing as you...

[IanWills]

The issue with being an engineering consultant, is that you really have to have a name for yourself before companies, especially large ones, will shell out more money for your expertise than they will to pay an employee. In fact the only consultants I have ever worked with have generally been over 50 and had a very impressive back story. Now take my advice with a grain of salt, because my only experience has been working as an entry level electronics engineer for 2 years (in the industry for 8), but this is an adaption of some advice given to me-

If you continue to work for the company try to choose projects that are "hot" and getting a lot of talk both inside and outside of the business. Especially if it is a project that is in any way public. Then put your name on everything, no matter how trivial. Try to get into trade publications. Make it so that your name is synonymous with the project, that way when questions arise- people come to you. I would build a reputation first, and then market. Anyways, good luck. I would also like to get into the consulting game one day.

[akula]

I have a few questions on the topic:

1. Is there any benefit to working for a large company initially after graduation instead of jumping into my own thing?

2. I have read that most small engineering firms that start out fail. Is this because small guys just cant get into the business or because the people that start them are not driven or prepared enough for the task they are approaching?

3. What can I do now as a graduate student to prepare for starting my own firm?

4. I am building a small handful of clients through my consulting right now. They have offered me jobs for when I graduate but I prefer go in my own direction but still work with them. If I start my own firm and keep them as my clients, would there be the possibility of lawsuits because they were initially my current bosses clients that he directed to me.

Thanks for the help.

ok, welcome!

I'll dispense with the pleasantries

1. Yes there is. By working at an established firm you will gain credibility and other benefits. It would be imprudent for you to fore go these benefits.

2. Yes, there is a high failure rate. Scientifically speaking, the rate occurs because of stochastics. When researchers analyse why nascent firms fail, they cite rational reasons such as "small guys just cant get into the business", but these findings have to be discounted for hindsight bias. Essentially, no matter how many companies you've started, each startup is (scientifically speaking) a craps shot (because startups are complex systems). The guys who win this craps game (scientifically speaking) are either those who persist and throw more shots than others, or those who get lucky (which happens as often as it does in the casino).

3. Good question. The answer is; specialize and pitch. From a strategy perspective, subject to disruption, what you can do to "prepare for starting my own firm" is to become an expert in a specialized field which is overlooked by large firms in your industry for reasons described by Christensen. That's where you will have a competitive advantage. Having specialized, you will need to sign up your possible future prospects to a newsletter. This means; start a blog/newsletter, write about your specialization, start pitching prospects to subscribe to your newsletter/blog. When you start your business, your subscribers will either give you referals, or become your customers.

4. Yes, this legal issue is termed "restraint of trade". To get a clue, read Nordenfelt and onwards

Questions/comments?

[Brees89]

Looking for a potential business partner to help run an engineering design firm that I am starting. I am in the
process of completing my business plan and am seeking $20 mil in funding for a product that I would like to
develop. I have support from a mjor university professor who's research team will R&D a portion of the
system dealing with MEMS. I plan on having my engineering company design the hardware and software as well as integrate and test.

Please contact me if you are interested.

V/r,
Martin Lozano
President - Sensors In Motion
812-320-9389

[Justin901]

I think that starting your own consultant business is an excellent idea. I'm in the IT field and after I graduate, I have been thinking about starting my own consultancy. Once you get enough advice and have done all of your research, then you should definitely go for it. Hopefully one day both of our consultancies can work together some day. I wish you the best of luck. You will be successful!