Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cruz View Post
Lou, I'm going to sound like a broken record here because I've said this over and over here on the Creek. I could give you all kinds of advice about what I've done, and what I had to change, and what I would "like" to still do... But the best advice I can give you is to visit as many peoples' shops as you possibly can to see what others have done...what will work for you, what ideas you could borrow, etc, etc. If you end up taking ONE thing from 5 shops (not items of course...IDEAS...jeesh, you wouldn't be welcome ANYWHERE if you started taking stuff...) you'd be 100 times better off than if you try to do it alone. Heck, even after visiting other guys' shops, see if you can get any of them to come over and give you their two cents on what they would do for your shop. Most of us are willing to do this sort of thing for a sandwich or beer. If you were closer, I'd invite you over, and if you wanted me to, I'd come over to brainstorm with you. Hope you find some "helpers". At this stage of the game, adding things is EASY. Once the walls are up...not so much.
Thanks for that bit of advice Mike! I will definitely try to get in as many shops as I can. I'll be in Rockville Maryland next week for work... wish I had some extra time on my hands to make a road trip to your shop as that would be fantastic to get a tour. Are you close to Rockville?