Specifically the US but I guess this could be asked anywhere.

I am not of the assumption it is actually possible for any normal person that doesn’t already have millions. The days of an honest mom and pop seem long dead (since at least the 90s, maybe 80s). Or if there are any, they are struggling to even stay afloat.

Like many, I thought I’d always want to start some sort of good business that actually serves a need. I now see that as impossible. I know people who made small niche software in the 80s, ended up making it a decent size company and retired with millions. I do not think anyone could do that today, especially with how tech is now.

I see plenty of scammy tech startups. This isnt what I’m talking about. Imagine a CNC shop starting today. They largely dont exist because no one does engine work anymore and most things are throwaway. Similar thing for any type of repair, none exist because its all throwaway. The only businesses I ever see are reselling things made by slaves in China. No one makes anything (other than 3d printed junk).

I’d be quite surprised if anyone is living decently off a real, honest business that they didnt get millions from their parents to start and that doesn’t exploit the hell out of others.

  • towerful@programming.dev
    13·
    22 hours ago

    A CNC shop wouldn’t start because someone decides “I want to start a CNC shop”.

    It would start cause some guy has a mill and a lathe for hobby stuff, and does some work for a mate or a local business.
    And then gets more work, and gets work that requires CNC, and gets more work than 1 person can deal with, and then needs more machines and machinists and CAD tech and designers and so on.

    Yeh, a business could get something from PCBway or whatever. But maybe they need it by the end of the day, or maybe they need an opinion on something, or maybe they can’t do the actual technical document production but can provide some measurements and a rough sketch.

    Apply that to anything.
    The UK Army’s L96A1 was made by 3 guys in a shed.

    The Ministry of Defence wanted Accuracy International to submit an entry, but when they won handily, suddenly the three men in Mr Walls’ shed were charged with producing over 1200 rifles and all of a sudden needed to prove they could make that many weapons.

    What they did was rent out a workshop for a day and filled it with all of the guns they had made in the shed up to that point, claimed the rest of the staff were out to lunch and later found out when they went to eat with the requisitions lieutenants that the inspection was purely to ensure the operation was not just three men in a shed.