Is it common for structural engineers to start their own consulting business after a few years of experience and a PE license? I’m nearing the end of my second year in CE, working at an engineering firm as a project engineering intern, and don’t really see myself working for someone else for the rest of my life. I’d like to have the freedom and flexibility to travel, work the hours I’d like, and hopefully make a lot more money than I would working for someone else. I have a strong interest in entrepreneurship, which led me to getting my real estate license a while back, and would really like to find a way to start an engineering business some day. Is this a common thing for PE’s to do? My ideal situation would be structural engineering consulting while maybe doing some real estate brokerage on the side. Is this viable?
@gfsten, my husband and I did just that! We met in graduate school and moved to Maine in 1986, where we both worked for the same large firm. In 1990, I got my PE license on a Monday and we were both laid off the following Friday! After that, my husband worked as an onsite quality control inspector on a big building on a naval air station near us. I worked for an engineer and learned how to detail precast concrete. About this time, we had kids, so I worked part-time as a detailer. My husband worked at a big A/E firm, designing good-sized buildings. Then he worked for a smaller firm, where he was Director of Engineering.
My husband always knew he wanted to go out on his own. He really wanted to after he was laid off from the A/E firm in 1995 (four days before our second child was born). I told him he didn’t have enough experience yet. I know I hurt his feelings, but looking back, he says I was right! There is SO much to learn, and you really want to have a broad range of experience before you go out on your own. When you work for yourself, you don’t have other engineers to bounce ideas off, at least at the beginning.
We formed our company in 1999. The economy was good then. Structural engineers are nice folks, and several of them sent work our way. For 9 years, we worked out of an office in our basement. In 2008, we built a large addition on our house that included a big office with lots of windows looking out over the woods. I’m watching a beautiful snowfall right now!
Since our kids were still young when we started, I primarily took care of bookkeeping and AutoCAD drafting. That’s one thing to keep in mind - if you don’t have a spouse who can do this stuff, you would probably need to hire someone. We decided at the beginning that we wouldn’t have employees, because we would be responsible for workman’s comp insurance, health insurance, etc. We also didn’t want to have to carry people when the economy slowed down. That happens periodically.
We have found that working for ourselves is more stable than working for others! Big companies tend to let structural engineers go when they are light on work. We managed to ride through slow times, since our overhead is low and we have a business line of credit. It’s not cheap to run a firm like this, though - annual software licenses cost thousands of dollars a year. Professional liability insurance has cost us anywhere from $4,000 to $9,000 a year! And we have to pay unemployment insurance to the fed, even though we can’t collect unemployment benefits.
Let me know if you have more questions!