# Starting a Panel Shop



## Electrorecycler (Apr 3, 2013)

So I've just recently made the move from from the city, north into Ontario's cottage country. I love the area, but the pay for an electrician stinks and the work isn't much better. Over the years I've tossed around the idea of starting up my own panel shop. I'm skilled in PLC's, panel design, HMI's, VFD's and all that other fun stuff. I enjoy the challenge of turning a customers request into reality and being able to design something from scratch. I have a lot of contacts with suppliers but I'm not much of a salesman so I'm not quite sure where to start when it comes to building a customer base.

I guess what I'm asking is if anyone out there has any advice they'd like to share to help me get started? It's something I would very much like to do, but I find it to be a scary prospect with a family and mortgage.


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## oliquir (Jan 13, 2011)

If you have low volume it is better to start with special inspections, it cost a lot less.


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

I can't speak for north of the 49 yard line but here you'd have to get your listing as a panel shop before your work would be accepted in the field.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

Electrorecycler said:


> So I've just recently made the move from from the city, north into Ontario's cottage country. I love the area, but the pay for an electrician stinks and the work isn't much better. Over the years I've tossed around the idea of starting up my own panel shop. I'm skilled in PLC's, panel design, HMI's, VFD's and all that other fun stuff. I enjoy the challenge of turning a customers request into reality and being able to design something from scratch. I have a lot of contacts with suppliers but I'm not much of a salesman so I'm not quite sure where to start when it comes to building a customer base.
> 
> I guess what I'm asking is if anyone out there has any advice they'd like to share to help me get started? It's something I would very much like to do, but I find it to be a scary prospect with a family and mortgage.


Such work follows the industrial economy.

If you are not located in an industrial center -- like Houston or New Jersey or Toronto -- you're too far away to close any sales.

There's a real reason that industrial boutiques are clustered around centers. They have to.

I give you the super car industry that's clustered around Parma, Italy. Virtually every player in that ritzy automobile industry is within a 30 minute drive of each other. 

A panel shop is, by definition, an industrial boutique. It's service intensive, custom work to a high level of craftsmanship. 

Such boutiques can't make a go of it should they set up shop in some tourist mecca, or the middle of corn country, even with free food and zilch rents.


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

I've been involved with 4 panel shops in my career, owning one of them. It's a tougher business than many people think. If I were to do it again, I'd take a tact that I observed in one of my competitors near Seattle. He didn't solicit business from any direct customers, all he did was work with distributors who wanted THEIR components built into panels. So the defacto sales force for him was comprised of all of the local distributor salesmen wanting to get their products into an account, but needed them to be assembled into a panel. Believe it or not he had a rock steady business. Not glamorous nor did he get filthy rich, but he made a comfortable living by keeping his overhead very low. The thing was, he did not promote any one brand over another, even when he occasionally had discretionary authority (which was rare). There was no benefit in it from his perspective because to favor one over the other cut his prospective available market.


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## Tonedeaf (Nov 26, 2012)

You need a customer to build on before you go out on your own. 
You need to hook up with a conveyor company, alot of them don't build their own panels they outsource it.


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## LuckyLuke (Jun 1, 2015)

What Tesla said....

Our panel shop is located dead center of an industrial area and is within a few blocks from our largest customers. The company that does the special inspections is not far away as well to help keep costs down and time wasted to a minimum. 

To sell panels especially custom designed you really need to be a salesman, you have to show them why they need an HMI and not a HOA/Start/Stop station, why data acquisition will save them money, why better safety is key to a productive and happy environment. Sell them on why you went with a larger cabinet that sits 20% empty for future expansion etc etc. So if in the back of their heads they know it's easy to expand there is a better chance of it happening. 

Sadly location and convenience is key.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

LuckyLuke said:


> What Tesla said....
> 
> Our panel shop is located dead center of an industrial area and is within a few blocks from our largest customers. The company that does the special inspections is not far away as well to help keep costs down and time wasted to a minimum.
> 
> ...


Bingo. :thumbsup:

Quality and salesmanship.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

I wanted to do the same thing some years ago. Had all my suppliers set up and had multipliers for each one.
Problem was, I could not compete with a big panel shop in Greenville.
They did so much in house, that I could not do.
They even designed and made some of the special enclosures themselves. They had a paint shop as well.
No way was I going to be competitive working out of my basement.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

John Valdes said:


> I wanted to do the same thing some years ago. Had all my suppliers set up and had multipliers for each one.
> Problem was, I could not compete with a big panel shop in Greenville.
> They did so much in house, that I could not do.
> They even designed and made some of the special enclosures themselves. They had a paint shop as well.
> No way was I going to be competitive working out of my basement.


Ain't it the truth.

Every enterprise moves to create 'separation' from a 'garage based' start up.

Imposing 'certifications' upon any new guys is the classic counter-competition tactic.

Modern business is designed to thwart artisan-craftsmen. 

The intent is to keep them in the corral -- not out on the free range.


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## Electrorecycler (Apr 3, 2013)

Thanks for the responses everyone. I disagree that I would have to be in the center of an industrial mecca, since there are small industrial companies that do quite well in the boonies. Would I have enough work to make a meager living is the question? Probably not. I am not a salesman however, so therein lies the challenge. Who knows, maybe I'll end up stuck working as a contractor, pulling nmd for rich people's cottages. Hmmm...home automation maybe...:thumbsup:


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