Here’s a note from a reader…

November 22, 2008 - 10:13:37 PM
Ben (lastname witheld)
  
 Hi Tim, I was woundering if you could help me out. I opened a gunsmith shop out of my basement with absolutly no money and no bank account. I was a Union Carpenter and fell 30′ 6 yrs. ago. And was 10 hrs short of getting my pention. Im still fighting for Social Security. I have nothing coming in at all as far as an income. Other than the few guns I get in every once in a while. Because I cant afford to advertise other than business cards I print out. And cant get a loan because of my credit. Can you give some advise on how I can get this business out there & going. And I was also woundering how to get a government grant. Can small business get one? And if so what do I need to do? Thanks a million Tim I appreciate any advise you can give me!

Hi Ben,
 
First of all, congratulations for starting your own business. Believe me, I know exactly what it feels like to start a business with nothing. I can remember when the banker laughed me out of his office when I REALLY needed a loan.

Heck, I had a 6 month old son, a wife with no job and absolutely no cash. But I guess I should go find that banker and THANK him, because he go me so pissed off that I vowed that I’d do whatever it takes to make my engineering business work. Ben, it wasn’t pretty, but I eventually figured out a way to bootstrap the dang thing myself. And you can do this too.

What? You want ME to give you money for your little engineering business Tim? Sorry kid, I'm not giving you a dime!

Ben, if you look hard enough, you’ll realize that there are lots of people out there that will be willing to help you. You just have to go and ask for the help.
 
You say in your email that you can’t afford to advertise. You’ve got that wrong my friend. You can’t afford to NOT advertise. Now don’t misunderstand me, I realize that you don’t have money to advertise. But there are OTHER ways.
 
Okay… enough of the “Tony Robbins” motivational crap, now I’m going to give you a real concrete thing to do.
 
1. Convince ME that you are a good gunsmith and good person. I’m not sure how you’re going to do that, but you’ll have to come up with a no-cost, creative way to get this done. I only ask that you respect my time as you figure this out.
 
2. Ben if you can get #1 done, I’ll give you a plug in one of my USCCA newsletters. And if we do this right, you’ll have more business than you know what to do with. (It is HARD to find a good gunsmith!)
 
Why would I do this? Because you ASKED for help. I admire people who asked for help. It takes guts to ask for help.
 
I can remember ten years ago when I was sitting across from that banker. I can remember the way he smiled at me like I didn’t know what the hell I was even talking about. I remember being scared and mad.
 
And then I remember how I asked for help. I called a guy who had NOTHING to gain by helping me. Heck, this guy had eveything and I had nothing. But when I asked him, he didn’t even bat an eyelash. And what he did for me literally changed my life.
 
All because I asked.
 
Ben, I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Take care,

Tim Schmidt