Skip to content

Comment on Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”?parent

Comments

I suspect you mean "owned" by ran.

Trades are a decent entry into owning a small business with higher barrier to entry than say a restaurant but still pretty straightforward and can be made revenue stable with a small team (sometimes no permanent team, e.g. some builders). Especially if you grind when you and the business are young, you can end up in a good place fairly predictably.

But mostly people are financially successful here mostly by being business people, not trades people - with all that implies. Sure, there are some people who do well in a strong union, but it's a small fraction of the market.

Many people actually working a job the trades are more likely to end up with health problems and a sketchy retirement outlook.

In many places if you run a (small) business _well_ that does craft stuff like plumbing, electricity and similar, you're going to have people lining up for your services to no end.

I don't know why that is. But I assume that the combination of excellent trade/craftsmanship and organizational skills is very attractive.

I always hear the same story from my friends who have been working in small service businesses, whether they are gardeners, carpenters, electricians or cleaners etc:

When it's bad (fairly typical) it's the boss being stretched too thin between too many responsibilities, or its a person that has no clue about the actual trade. They are the both the bottleneck for solutions and the cause of compounding issues.

It ends up in overworked, stressed workers, missed deadlines and mistakes that snowball into more such problems.

A trade/service business that is run well, treats their workers well (which is their major asset) and does good work can charge more and will never run out of work. It seems there is no simple formula for this so you end up with a lot of what you describe above.

"I don't know why that is. But I assume that the combination of excellent trade/craftsmanship and organizational skills is very attractive."

This. I'd say at least 25% lack one or the other. So many end up so over budget, very behind schedule, and do substandard or sloppy work.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.