Blacksmithing: forge business plan. Necessary equipment and calculation of costs for the start. How to open a blacksmith shop and make money on it

Blacksmithing is a very ancient craft. Now forges bring a lot of income to their owners. This is due to the increased demand for blacksmithing products - forged decorative elements. To open a forge, you need to choose a room. Perfect option workshop at the enterprise or part of it 10-15 m2. Since its designs meet all fire safety standards, etc. Otherwise, you will be dragged to the authorities and you will spend a lot of time and money on signatures.

The next question will be the selection of equipment and tools. In the smithy, a distinction is made between supporting, percussion, laid on, punching and paired instruments. Anvils belong to the support. Large and small. Them just like the other blacksmith tool, you can buy used ear. They should be free of dents and perfectly flat. What is a percussion instrument is clear from the name. These are all kinds of sledgehammers and hammers. An overhead and applied tool is used for cutting or notching metal. Paired tools include all kinds of clamps and potholders.

Now about the heart of the forge. As you may have guessed, this is a bugle. There are a lot of furnace designs. Basically, they differ in the type of fuel. There are furnaces on solid fuels - these are coal and charcoal, coke, in extreme cases, you can use simple firewood. There are ovens for liquid and gas fuel, but they are mainly applied to large production... True, at present the English company EFM has established the production of small stationary and portable blacksmith forges working on liquefied propane.

There should be containers for slag, coal (if your furnace is coal), oil and water near the furnace. It is also necessary to allocate a place for welding work.

You need to find a good smithy from the staff. The first time you can work helping him. This will help you get involved in this business. Then you can hire an assistant. It would also be nice to establish cooperation with the artist. He can not be accepted into the state, but simply buy his ideas from him. Artistic forging is highly valued.

If you have sufficient funds, you can automate almost any process in the forge. There is a lot of literature on this issue on the Internet. The business idea of ​​blacksmithing is very profitable. This niche has not yet been filled sufficiently. In addition to starting your own business, you can buy a ready-made business.

History of the discovery of blacksmiths

Moiseev Vladimir Ivanovich, was born in 1952 in the Poltava region. Graduated from the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineer road transport". Since 1995 - general manager LLC "Horn".

- Vladimir Ivanovich, entrepreneurs often complain that it is much more difficult to engage in production activities than in trade. You have been managing a rather complex production for over ten years now. Have you, like many, had a desire to give up everything and go into trade?

- No, I didn't have such a desire. Perhaps because our production, despite the existing difficulties, is developing very successfully. Or maybe because my entire previous, so to speak, pre-entrepreneurial work path was somehow connected with production. Judge for yourself. Immediately after graduation high school worked as a turner at the Kalugapribor plant. After serving in the army, while studying at the Tyumen Industrial Institute, he worked as a driver. After moving to Moscow and continuing his studies at the All-Union Correspondence Polytechnic Institute, he worked at the Mosvodokanal emergency base. There I was first the head of the column, then the head of the repair shops.

In 1992, when state enterprises began to fall apart, he organized Avtostroyservis LLC. We were engaged in both transportation and wholesale. But the business of the company was not very successful. Apparently, because service and trade are still not my vocation. A chance helped to open production. There was a free smithy at the motor depot of the mechanization department, with which we then collaborated. We rented it and started doing blacksmithing, which turned out to be very exciting and highly demanded. So, in 1995, having liquidated their previous enterprise, they opened a new one, calling it "Horn". Soon the rented smithy was not enough for us. And we arranged our own production workshops.

- In your premises?

- Well, what are you! We rented for a long time now one room, then another, then a third First - on 4th Magistralnaya Street, then in Tsaritsyno. From Tsaritsyno our production moved to the Entuziastov highway, then to the Pyatnitskoe highway. In parallel with these memorable addresses for me, they located part of their production either in Elektrostal or on Dmitrovskoe highway. Why did they move so often? Yes, because we were either denied a lease, or the price was raised so much that we were forced to look for new areas, willy-nilly. All this our migration across Moscow and the region created serious difficulties for us. After all, each time we had to transport not tables, but machines and other production equipment. In addition, every next move had a negative impact on the composition of the team. Many employees quit just because it became uncomfortable for them to travel to a new place of work. But five years ago we were, one might say, lucky. Our production has settled in earnest and, I hope, for a long time in the village of Yurlovo, Solnechnogorsk District, Moscow Region.

- Do you have your own production facilities there?

- Part of the space is now our property, since we bought them out. We continue to rent a part. As for the office, it is still located in Moscow, in the premises rented from the city. Here, in particular, our highly professional artists work, who constantly come up with something new. In many ways, it is thanks to them that the work of our company is approved, and often admirable, even by the most demanding customers.

- What is the system used to work with clients?

- First, preliminary sketches are made. After their approval by the customer, working drawings are created based on them. They, in turn, go to our production. There, blacksmiths forge blanks, and assemblers and welders assemble forged structures. Finished products are sent for painting, and then for installation. In order for the ideas of the artists to find their adequate embodiment in the material, every Monday we definitely arrange meetings at the production site. We release the railing flights of stairs, visors, lattices, fences, interior items, etc.

- Probably, like in any enterprise whose activities are related to creativity, you have a portfolio of your work

- Of course. We definitely demonstrate it to our customers.

- May I have a look?

- Yes please.

- And you so prosaically call this indescribable beauty railings, bars and interior items? After all, these are real works of art, made in classic style, and in baroque and modern styles, constructivism!

- Well, for us the design and manufacture of all this, as you said, indescribable beauty is already a familiar thing. And we produce really very interesting, and what is important, exclusive products. As a rule, we create something new for each customer. Whether it is a spiral staircase for a residential building or a fence for a cottage village, chandeliers or candlesticks, pieces of furniture or fireplace sets, unusual benches or lamps for lots country houses... By the way, this carriage that interests you so much is nothing but a gazebo stylized as an old carriage. It was ordered for one of the cottages near Moscow. The artistic effect of our forged products is often achieved by the fact that in many of them metal is organically combined with glass, majolica, wood, stone and even textiles.

- Are there any problems at your enterprise?

- As in any production, we have our own difficulties. In particular, with personnel. Workers of practically any profession, as they say, cannot be found in the daytime with fire. Nobody just wants to work with their hands. And we need qualified welders, painters, assemblers, fitters. Of course, not without effort, but a team of workers (and we have about 50 of them) managed to form. And in order to keep them, we take them every day on our buses from Moscow to Yurlovo (production, as I have already said, is located there) and back. One bus carries our workers from the Tushinskaya metro station, the other from Zelenograd.

Novice blacksmiths learn from our experienced craftsmen comprehending the secrets of the profession in practice. As for the artists, there are, of course, a lot of them in Moscow. But they also had to look for those who also knew all the features of the metal. In general, we have formed a good team, but this did not happen immediately.

- One of my acquaintances, an entrepreneur engaged in the manufacture of designer porcelain, told me a story about how an employee who worked for her suddenly took and organized her own similar company. And besides, she also stole a solid customer from her former boss. Have you ever had such cases?

- Were. Two artists, a production manager and my deputy, organized four independent firms. In general, in the image and likeness of ours. Moreover, one of the listed comrades (he worked for us as an artist) also "stole" a rather large order from us. How did this business end? Yes, nothing. As far as I know, having become an entrepreneur, this artist took an advance payment from the customer, but he could not start production and fulfill the order. After all, it only seems from the outside that everything is easy and simple. As a result, both the firm of this artist and three other firms organized by our former employees, simply fell apart.

- But do you have any competitors?

- Let's just say: there are firms that are also engaged in artistic metal forging. But our paths practically do not cross. We always have work. This means that none of the competitors bothers us.

- And ideas do not steal?

- It happens. Once, one of our employees, who leads a group of artists, was working to identify plagiarism on the Internet. And what do you think? I found several companies that have photographs of our products on their websites. One company even managed to place a gate of our production on its website. Right along with our brand name! What do we do in such cases? We call, trying to reason. It usually helps.

- We have our own website. From time to time we advertise in specialized printed publications that are read by architects, designers and builders. We also use our flyers. Along with new ones, our regular customers, who, having completed the construction of one object, begin work on another.

- I wonder if you go on vacation every year?

- I haven't had a rest for 15 years. However, this year I am still going to take a vacation. It was just that earlier it was somehow not up to it. And, frankly speaking, I am not very good at rest. But I'm used to working and I love it.

Conversation ledMarina Maslyaeva

We live in an age of actively developing technology. And gradually folk trades and crafts are being ousted from our life. And, perhaps, forging is almost the only craft that not only has not disappeared in the course of technical progress, but on the contrary, has recently become more and more popular. What is the reason? In demand. Now forging is firmly connected with the design of residential premises and offices, with garden and park design. With an increase in the number of suburban and suburban settlements, which are difficult to imagine without wrought-iron gates and gazebos. Forging is still in demand in the funeral business.

Forging is not only large street products, but also items that decorate interiors of different styles.

Forging is a synthesis of craft and art that makes every thing unique.

And therefore, the business of manufacturing forged products is very promising now.

Which to choose: cold and hot forging?

Hot forging is an ancient blacksmith's craft. Since ancient times, in forges throughout Russia, iron was heated on fire, and then the craftsmen gave the softened metal the desired shape.

Such forging takes a lot of time and effort, but the products forged in this way are truly unique.

Today there are more modern version metal processing - cold forging. Basically here, when creating a product, ready-made forged elements are used. This is a less labor-intensive method for the master and cheaper for the customer.

Don't just compare the two types of forging. Hot forging - uniqueness and grace, cold - durability and reliability.

Imagine a situation: you decided to start a forged goods business. The first question: what kind of forging to do? Hot forging requires, above all, skill and skill. And this takes time. Therefore, having really looked at things, we first turn to cold forging and start creating a business step by step.

Sales market and competition

Any production is consumer-oriented. Therefore, first you need to study the demand for forged products in your area. Are there cottage settlements nearby, individual construction, are orders from the municipality possible?

Get to know competitors, real and possible. These are not only business colleagues, but the production of this direction, which is located nearby. Blacksmith shops, which are now being opened by large metallurgical enterprises; imported forged Turkish products, which are very cheap compared to custom-made ones made in a small workshop; products from Europe, which are more expensive than Turkish ones, but also in demand.

Even a funeral agency with its own small workshop producing monuments and fences will also compete.

Creation paving slabs today it is more relevant than ever: more and more people want to ennoble appearance your garden, yard and just adjoining territory... Read in our how to realize yourself in this business.

The basics of the betting business:

We start production of products

Exists standard product list which all blacksmiths start with:

• openwork lattices and gates;
• fences of all types and purposes;
• visors for winglets;
• garden furniture and gazebos;
• bars on the windows;
• fireplace accessories and so on.

Over time, you can switch to the production of exclusive products. This requires experience and individual orders. For example:

• knightly armor in the interior of a country house;
• unusual lamps (garden and indoor);
• details for furniture, etc.

Video: do-it-yourself metal forging as an art

Do-it-yourself forged elements: where can we go without advertising?

Any business, large or small, needs advertising support.

You can use the local media for this purpose, posting there photos of products, your interview, customer reviews, a large article about your business.

Use the Internet. For example, at least just submit ads to Avito.

Many cities and towns on the City Day hold festivals of folk crafts, including blacksmiths. (For example, every August such festivals are held in the ancient city of Ustyuzhna, Vologda Oblast, where blacksmiths even come from abroad).

The profitability of the blacksmith business

Let's take as a basis the situation that you made the first trial product in your garage and have not yet registered as an entrepreneur:

• a set of the most necessary equipment for cold forging - 400 thousand rubles.

Now let's calculate the cost of producing 1 meter of garden trellis with a height of 2 m:

• metal - 500 rubles;
• Anti-corrosion coating - 15 rubles;
• electrodes - 20 rubles;
• electricity - 100 rubles;
• miscellaneous expenses - 400 rubles.

Total 1035 rubles.

One meter of forged product costs on average 3000 and more.

It will take more time if you have built a workshop. But this is already a more serious investment in business.

Paperwork

Starting any business starts with. Without it, it is impossible to draw up the relevant documents. In many regions of the country, you can get a good business plan.

Further registration must take place in accordance with the law "On state registration legal entities and individual entrepreneurs dated August 8, 2001 No. 129-FZ ".

Metal forging is a promising business area, and with correct organization it will flourish successfully.

The blacksmith business seems to be something long forgotten, but a good blacksmith is still worth its weight in gold, and forged products are valued as works of art. It is pointless to advise a random person to open a forge, but if you have mastered the craft, consider working for yourself.

The blacksmith business is a rather rare business and professionals take on it. If you have sufficient knowledge and decide to open a smithy, start with paperwork:

• registration of a legal entity;
• permission of the local administration, sanitary and epidemiological station and fire department.

After completing the formalities, you can buy equipment and recruit personnel.

How to choose a room

The best option for the premises is a free smithy. Many enterprises refuse from auxiliary production, and it will be easier for you to settle in a suitable place. If you have not found a ready-made site, select another suitable premises at the enterprise and rent it. It is convenient to work at the enterprise, since it is quite possible that the production will be able to load you with work. Over time, with a successful course of affairs, you can build your own workshop and expand your business.

Enter into a lease agreement for a time sufficient to reach stable production volumes. Too short a lease will lead to a forced relocation, and this - problems with the transportation of bulky equipment and extra costs... If the financial condition allows, you can buy out the space and invest in equipment. The lease must be legally correct.

Staff recruitment

There are seasonal features in the work of the forge:

• In the warm season, they usually order cold forging - gratings, gates, fences, etc.
• WITH late autumn until early spring, hot forging was loaded - interior items and things according to original sketches.

For the enterprise to function without interruptions, you need the appropriate equipment and craftsmen who are able to perform different types works. The staff should have diverse masters:

• cold and hot forging blacksmith;
• a highly qualified welder who knows how to produce complex seams;
• a painter for preparing products for painting and creating desired effects, for example, aging.

Before starting work, it is necessary to explain to employees your requirements for work. Technological process must be strictly adhered to at all stages. It is advisable to carry out a set of works from the creation of sketches and their approval with the customer, the execution of drawings to forging, assembly, painting and installation of finished products.

An artist who makes sketches must be able to satisfy the wishes of the client for the style. There will be much more orders if the craftsmen are able to combine metal, glass, wood or stone fragments in one piece. It is not an easy task to find and interest highly professional craftsmen to work in your smithy, but the success of the entire enterprise directly depends on the composition of the team. If at the beginning of work you can be content with fulfilling orders according to template forms, then in the future you will need artists who can generate creative ideas.

Forge equipment

Approach the selection of equipment responsibly, because your income will not least depend on its quality. In addition to the main equipment, auxiliary equipment will be required. The center of the forge is a pneumatic hammer, which pulls the metal and gives it the necessary shape. You also need to select a high-quality heating furnace to bring steel to a temperature suitable for forging - 1,100-1,500 degrees. Another must-have is a curving circle to create a pattern. The hot metal is held with pliers and must be functional and comfortable. Take care of protective equipment: tarpaulin gloves (2 pairs per week), tarpaulin apron (1-2 per year), earplugs or a mask from headphones and a visor. In the process of manufacturing complex products small parts connected with a weld. You need a welding machine, electrodes and a welding mask. Details are brought to perfection on grinder, and for its operation you will need a compressed air generator.

Careful consideration should be given to the choice of raw materials. There are many types and nomenclatures of steels, mainly alloyed reinforcing bars. The quality of the product depends on the steel grade. Without understanding how steel behaves when heated, to what temperature it needs to be brought, whether scale forms, you cannot be sure of the result of the work. We recommend the golden mean - steel 35XC.

Don't forget about energy costs. The equipment must be correctly positioned and connected. The most difficult thing is to correctly place the hammer and heating furnace, as they will require a lot of communications. Select equipment taking into account energy costs, because the price of a product is formed mainly from energy resources and losses during production

How much does the equipment cost?

We will not take into account the cost of installing the equipment, as prices in different regions are significantly different.

The main equipment costs approximately:

• pneumatic hammer - $ 4,500;
• heating oven - $ 10,000;
• arching circle - $ 1,375;
• sharpening machine - $ 30.9;
• welding machine - $ 121.9;
• air compressor - $ 261.7

Supporting materials:

• hammers (4 pcs.) - $ 5;
• pliers with rounded flat jaws - $ 3;
• pliers with rounded cylindrical jaws - $ 2.5;
• electrodes - $ 2.4;
• tarpaulin mittens - $ 0.5;
• tarpaulin apron - $ 1;
• protective earmuffs with a visor - $ 55;
• welding mask - $ 3.5.

Total: $ 16,362.4

Financial questions

To start, you need $ 20,000- $ 40,000, depending on your plans and capabilities. A room of 100-200 sq. m. can be rented.

If you make 500 small-volume products, your income will be about $ 18,000, but this will require 1 ton of metal. Find a reliable supplier of quality raw materials and try to establish constant contact with him - this is important. Firstly, you will always be sure of the quality and uninterrupted supply, and, secondly, regular customers can count on discounts when concluding a contract.

Develop a business plan for a payback period plus one year. In the business plan, reflect the purpose for which the business is created, what products you will produce. In terms of the release and sale of finished products, reflect on a quarterly basis the real volume and costs, sales proceeds. When filling in the section "Requirements for the organization of production", indicate the area of ​​the smithy, the number of employees, production capacity, type of ventilation. Highlight technological scheme production.

A separate section should be devoted to equipment with an indication of its names and cost. Calculate the price of raw materials. These are your main costs when setting up a forge. When calculating profit, indicate how much profit you expect to receive for a year of work.

If you want to attract funds from investors or loans to organize a business, describe in detail the movement of finance. When developing a business plan, keep in mind that production depends on the season.

Enterprise advertising

The easiest way to communicate your services is on your own website. You will be able to post photos of products that attract potential customers. Additionally, you can order advertising in the media and print flyers. Be sure to build a portfolio with the best works and hot products so that customers can get an idea of ​​your capabilities.

You must show that you can do exclusive things, for example, spiral staircase, chandeliers, table legs, candlesticks, fireplace sets, etc. Wealthy people often prefer to decorate their homes with original and well-executed items, and you must demonstrate your willingness to fulfill complex orders.

“Talking” signs with forging elements work well - such things are remembered and draw attention to the enterprise.

Sales organization

Today the demand for forged products is high; artistic forging is especially popular. At the same time, few enterprises use hot forging, which means that competition in the market is low, and there should be no problems with sales. Your main trump card should be the high quality of work, then good reputation will become the best advertisement... The blacksmithing business justifies the cost and effort when it comes to getting down to business and thinking through all the details.