Sunday, July 12, 2009

CNC and the Entrepreneur

What does learning CNC have to do with becoming an entrepreneur? I believe that when you learn CNC programming, set-up and operation you open up yourself to the world as an entrepreneur. The skill and art of CNC programming and machining is very valuable to you, employers, and businesses.

· The value to yourself is that you will be opening up options for your future. You can work for yourself, work for others, or both.

· The value to employers is that you then will have multiple skill sets at work. It makes you worth more as an employee.

· The value to other business is that you can offer your services as an outside contractor especially now since a lot of countries are outsourcing their skilled trades.

Last month I looked up CNC programmers in the US Department of Labor stats and it showed that there were only about 200,000 programmers nationwide. I was shocked and disappointed but it did show that demand for these positions would be going up due to the lack of new people learning these skills.

How does this help you as an entrepreneur?

  • You can offer your newly learned skills to others once you gain some confidence and experience. I think most job shops today get $50 - $120/hour.
  • You can start performing your own R&D machining work. I saved a ton of money by not outsourcing all of my R&D work.
  • You can start manufacturing your own products and product lines.
  • I think most importantly your time to market with a new product can be reduced drastically.

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