I'd like for y'all to pray for me to find a little wisdom and guidance here.
A business opportunity has presented itself and it's something outside of anything else I've ever done. Also something I've never much thought about before. A man I know runs a farm construction business and he knows where we could pick up an extra tractor with a blade and a backhoe for cheap. It needs some engine work which he could do fairly easily and it isn't very expensive. I could pay for it probably in the next couple of weeks.
The problem is that I don't know anything about heavy equipment at all. Not how to operate it or how to maintain it. No problem, my friend says. He says he has to turn down so much work because it's a two man operation and he's only one man. And there's a lot of jobs that only require a backhoe and he could just turn those over to me. He has more work than he can do already and he's fairly old and would like to slow down a little.
This is farm and ranch work, not roadwork. I would be my own boss with my own equipment and not someone's employee. It wouldn't take much time away from the farm and could provide a decent income that augments all my other revenue streams.
I'm trying real hard to see if this is an opportunity the Lord wants me to pursue and has put in front of me for that purpose. It's a strange, out-of-the-blue thing so I'm really puzzled. It's not something I ever thought about doing but then suddenly the opportunity to do it and a ready guide on the how-to has shown up in my lap.
5 comments:
Running a backhoe or blade is a lot easier than you'd think. You also have some land to practice on right? Maybe practice by digging a larger pond, blading the driveway, trenching the sides of the driveway, etc?
IF there's work and it won't break you to go in on this I'd suggest you go for it. If nothing else you may end up with a free tractor, and free equipment is always welcome right?
Also, I thought I should add that the education may be worth the price of admission alone. It's a skill that will always be in demand after all.
My two cents worth is that you never know unless you try. And if you end up not liking it you could always sell the equipment.
I've never run a backhoe, but we used to pick up a few bucks each winter plowing snow with a tractor blade. Plus, we used to do a lot of brush-hog work. At that time (25 yrs. ago), the going rate was $15 an hour. I'm sure it's much higher now.
Go for it! My brother and I do exactly this. We have a dozer, scraper, grader, backhoe, dumptruck, etc. In addition to our ranch work, we have done work for our neighbors, the State, and Game fish and parks. To confirm an earlier comment, it is a lot easier than you think. Operating a backhoe is very intuitive, after a while it becomes an extension of your own hand.
Most of what I do with my backhoe is repairing farm and ranch water lines (at our latitude, everything is buried 6 feet deep). On the plumbing end, the guys at my local supply house were very helpful when I got started. They don't want one sale, they want a repeat customer. If you have someone willing to teach you, that is a golden opportunity. Step out in faith my brother! :)
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