What are the options for a Chemical Engineer to start his own business ?

What can do a chemical engineer if he wants to start his own business ?There are many fields that chemical engineering contains but I couldn’t find so much information on internet. Are there some businesses that can be started with low capital ? Maybe 50k-200k dollars ?

Engineers that work as independent consultants have many, many years of experience to offer.

Chemical engineering in general deals with a lot of things that lend themselves better to large businesses than to small ones. A lot of products made have huge economies of scale, like industrial chemicals that need a whole multi-million dollar plant to process but are relatively inexpensive when they are up and running. Some aren’t really economies of scale but aren’t really done better by small businesses, such as soaps and food production, and are usually not lucrative enough to bother. Big profit potentials exist in something like the biomedical side of ChemE, but I’d steer clear; the capital costs are enormous (so you’ll need investors, who will take most of your profits away), the expertise required is substantial (i.e. you will need people with PhD’s), and the likelihood of success is less than one would like.

If you want a way to make millions, as PrimeMeridian suggested being an independent consultant after years of experience is one way - experience and to some extent pedigree (e.g. degrees and name-brand) are helpful, and you can become a working millionaire this way. There are also plenty of small businesses that use engineering skills - water treatment, piping, HVAC, etc. - that use engineering skills akin to what a ChemE might have (though for some of those MechE is more suitable). Those are just small businesses, not the more appealing idea of “startups” though, which means that they are stable with a small profit but without aspirations of growing and becoming massive.

A lot of ChemE work is very closely tied to large infrastructure, which sort of makes it hard to make money by starting your own business. There are ways, but it’s best to know what you’re doing before you head down that path.

Thank you for your answer. İt was very helpful.
But I have still questions in my mind, when i look to jobs or engineering sectors, all things are related with chemical engineering and chemistry. aren’t there more options ? Maybe like producing dye, coating materials, packaging , fmcg products, environmental issues(water treatment, waste treatment, filtration ) vs…

The field seemed to me very broad, and it is true for searching jobs as a chemical engineer. But when it comes creating your own business, on internet it is said that there is not so many options for small scale. It makes me confused.

For mechE’s , they have options, computer eng has also. But why chemical engineering is a little behind from them ? Like i said, chemical engineering involves many sectors and fields, there should be a lot of opportunity for small scale …

Again, most of the industries that require chemical engineering expertise are either economies of scale, small businesses that don’t really scale at all, or simply done better by large companies due to improved logistics. To be honest that’s not unique to chemical engineering - starting a profitable business is rather difficult by most standards, and it will often require that you stray rather far from where you started with your degree. Even software, which is these days considered to be the “start your own business” goldmine, is plagued with some rather severe roadblocks towards making a large profit. Software has the advantage that the infrastructure costs are minimal - in a lot of cases you need little more than a computer or a server, and labor costs for the founders - an advantage that ChemE doesn’t have. Though incidentally, software is a pretty common, and rather lucrative, direction, that many ChemEs go with their work.

Starting a business that is more than a lottery ticket is difficult to say the least. It’s tough work, requires some useful expertise, and is rarely done by fresh college graduates.

up I am still wondering.