Starting an Engineering Company Archives - Engineering Management Institute

How to Start an Engineering Company

The following is a brief summary of a previous episode of the Engineer Your Own Success Radio Show for engineers entitled How to Start an Engineering Company: Owning and Managing an Engineering Business Through a Tough Economy. Sorry the show is no longer available but notes are below:

During the latest session of my Engineer Your Own Success radio show I had the opportunity to interview Rick De La Guardia owner of DLG Engineering to find out not only how to start an engineering company, but how to run an engineering company that thrives in any economy.

To give you some background, Rick De La Guardia is founder of DLG Engineering, Inc., a structural consulting firm, whose goal is to educate and raise awareness of the importance of the proper design, review and installations of our nation’s building envelopes. He obtained his bachelors of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Miami and currently serves as president of the University of Miami College of Engineering Alumni Association.

Rick took a job in a very specific field of building envelope consulting out of college and when he realized that he wasn’t being compensated fairly for his abilities he left the company and started his own company.

Below are the questions in bold that I asked Rick as well as his responses directly below the question:

Starting an Engineering Company

This is a guest post by Brandon Lee Walter where he discusses the process of starting an engineering company.

I decided to try to make the move to a company that sounded like they would be prepared to ride out the upcoming recession in May of 2008. After being let go from that company, I wasn’t sure what to do, especially since the company was supposed to have had the type of clients who would not be hit so hard by the down economy. I had always wanted to start my own company, however didn’t think I had enough experience at the time. I had also not known of any single-owner civil engineering firm that had been around for a substantial amount of time. After talking with a buddy who had a government job (public works) as well as other previous co-workers, I decided why not dip my feet into the craziness that is known as the building industry and give it a shot starting an engineering company. I was able to get in contact with a civil engineer who by chance was about to close his shop because of unforeseeable events. The perfect storm brewed which resulted in me starting an engineering company, my very own LLC.