Business ideas in structural engineering

[Italo01]

Hello,

I don't know if i this forum is the most appropriate for the question or the forum "Engineer Business pratices and Issues". If you guys consider that i should post there, i'll relocate the question.

I live in Brazil (Northeastern Region) and currently work only in the design of steel structures. Although design of steel structures has its advantages, the profitability is very limited so i think a lot about creating my own company in the steel industry. Today i have not capital for this and the country is experiencing a moment of very high interest rates, which makes it even more difficult to start a business. Even though i have no means to create the business at this moment, i want to develop a long-term plan for it.

I recognize that the first step to a sucessful business is to indentify a market demand and create a innovative solution for this demand. Since i live in an area where the steel industry is not well developed, a lot of services and technologies present on more advanced countries are not present here so i think that i don't have to reinvent the wheel, i.e., i can bring some service or technology already present at USA to solve some market problem here.

My question is the following:" If you had moved to a place where a lot of services and products (Related to steel structures) where not present and you had the opportunity to bring one, which one do you think would be the best to maximize your chances of sucess?"

 

[Italo01]

I know that the question is not simple and that you guys don't know about the particularities of the market, but what i want is not that someone give the exact answer to the question. I just want to hear about services and technologies that had a good impact in other countries so i can study these ideas and see what best solve a market demand here.

 

[Italo01]

Let me give some an example (This example is not related do the whole country, but to my reality):
- Here we don't have a Steel Joist Industry, where you have a Steel Joist supplier which have standard joists and load tables and you can simply order a joist for your design load and span. I think that this is a service that could be very useful.

 

[Lomarandil]

As you say, not knowing the market, some things that come to my mind given experience in other markets:

Shear stud welding for composite structures
Steel form deck products for concrete flooring in steel structures
Galvanizing capability
Design services to substitute cold-formed steel for hot rolled steel in smaller structures
Insulated roof panels

 

[Italo01]

Thanks Lomarandil. When you say Design services to substitute Cold-formed for hot rolled steel in smaller structures, you mean the use of portal frames using W shapes instead of trusses?

 

[Italo01]

I think that this is a good market niche and is something that i think a lot about. The Steel/ Labor cost here is very high so this is not attractive for long-spans, but for spans up to 15 meters, i think that the weight increase is small and the advantages of hot rolled portal frames are very interesting.

 

[IRstuff]

I think the question is too general and the answer too specific to make any useful result. Given "a lot of services and products (Related to steel structures) where not present" the FIRST question that comes to mind should be "WHY?" And there could be a myriad of answers, ranging from "not needed here" to "can't find skilled labor to build such things" and any number of other reasons.

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[ALK2415]

I think you should focus on light weight Housing sector
its demand are larger, and its starting capital is low, its almost same as wooden housing sector

 

[Italo01]

Thanks IRstuff. I know that the question is too general and that is difficult for someone help with too little information.

Thanks adn26. I think that it is indeed a good sector. Recently i attended a course on Light Steel Frame and it is one of my ideas. I think that, since most buildings are made of reinforced concrete and masonry, whoever starts with industrialized construction has a good potential.

 

[milkshakelake]

As others have said, it's just an extremely broad question that is hard to answer without doing a LOT of market research. It's easy for me to give some ideas that would work in my area, but maybe not in Brazil. But it sounds like that's exactly what you're looking for.

I'd start with understanding how other people build structures, and why. For example, in Costa Rica, almost everything is concrete because there are lots of tropical storms. In Eastern USA, steel used to be king because it was cheaper, but with steel price increases, concrete is fighting with steel and I'd say the industry is now 70/30 in favor of concrete. Cold-formed steel used to be a huge thing in my area, but also died because of steel prices. It's important to understand these market forces. I'd start by talking to contractors, seeing what problems they have, and how you could solve it.

Some ideas:
-Modular steel buildings. I worked in a company where we designed large modular chemical factories. They were fabricated in USA and shipped around the world. Erection was easy. Transportation and logistics were extremely difficult.
-Modular cold-formed steel buildings. You make panels and lift them with cranes like steel beams.
-Regular cold-formed steel buildings. I don't know if wood is a common building material in Brazil. Here, it is. But some rich clients want something more "premium" and long-lasting, so they go with cold-formed steel.
-Conventional steel structures? This would only make sense if the price of steel is competitive in Brazil.
-Steel formwork! If everyone is using concrete, you can make a new, simple concrete formwork system like Titan.
-Scaffolding.
-Sidewalk sheds for construction. This protects pedestrians. You could even push some legislation to make it required, like it is in parts of USA.

Smaller scale ideas:
-Stair openings. Let's say you have a concrete building where you want to make a new stair opening. Add some concrete foundations and steel columns. You got yourself a new opening. (It's not that simple, though.)
-Canopies. If a store wants a nice, solid canopy, make a stick-build or prefabricated canopy they can add. Have a few standard designs they could choose from. Support it with steel columns. They might not get a good cantilever design, but at least it's cheap, like way cheaper than concrete plus formwork.
-Canopies for electric car charging stations.
-Carports for people who want to upgrade their parking lots.
-Balconies for existing houses.

 

[IRstuff]

I know that the question is too general and that is difficult for someone help with too little information.

But, I don't think that's the basic issue; the issue, as I alluded to, is WHY the market is the way it is. Are the costs of entry too high, is there a lack of demand, etc. To paraphrase a common adage, you are looking for a solution looking for a problem, i.e., will whatever you chose as a solution, is there even a market for it, in other words, does your solution even solve a problem that might not even exist?

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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