How to Start an Engineering Firm

Engineering has long enjoyed a reputation as a distinguished profession. Like doctors and lawyers, engineers find tremendous benefit in partnering with each other and forming a firm to support their practice and drum up business. Starting an engineering firm ranks as a challenging endeavor, but the benefits of going into business as a firm instead of a lone freelancer engineer make the process well worth the effort.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• State license

Obtain Your Professional Engineer's License

1. Finish the necessary schooling in order to be an engineer. You cannot be licensed without the equivalent of a college degree. In some states you can procure a license without a BS in Engineering or even a related science degree. However, obtaining an engineering degree does shave several years off of the licensing process.

2. Take the necessary licensing exams as set forth by your state's Board of Professional Engineers. There may be more than one test required before you can obtain your license.

3. Complete the licensing process by working for a licensed engineer. The years of experience required to meet the minimum licensing requirement varies among states.

Build Your Engineering Firm

1. Develop an idea for an engineering firm. Evaluate your own specialization--petroleum, electrical, mechanical--and the specializations of potential partners you can find, then figure out an idea for a firm that meets a current need for a specific market.

2. Draw up a business plan for your engineering firm. Before you can raise capital and start your business, you need to write up your idea in a concise and persuasive presentation. The process will clarify your thinking as well. You should establish your marketing strategy as well as legal and financial structures at this time.

3. Fund your engineering firm through selling your business plan to investors who are willing to give you money in exchange for your debt or in exchange for equity in your firm. Lawyers and accountants will expedite this process.

4. Hire employees for your engineering firm. You can typically find qualified employees through ads placed in trade publications. Personal contacts also come in handy, as well as online resources.

5. Market your engineering firm and start to find projects you can service. You will need to develop business through cultivating relationships with project managers and government officials. You can also advertise in trade publications.

Tips & Warnings

• Most states require an engineering license of anyone starting their own firm, though not everyone employed by the firm needs to have a license.

• Engineers can be held legally responsible for projects that go wrong. It is required to invest in insurance.