Are you looking to take that next step toward ultimate freedom by running your own successful company? Well, guess what? It isn’t easy, but anyone can do it with a bit of hard work and perseverance. Today, I have on a fellow Veteran who did just that.

Chet Peters and his brother started a company from their garage, and now have 25 employees at MILSPIN, a metal fabrication to consumer company. Chet and I share our experiences as entrepreneurs and give you some tips and mistakes to avoid along the way to give you a head start on your current or possible business venture.

About MILSPIN and the owners:

MILSPIN is a veteran-owned business. We are Chet and Dana Peters. We run a small metal fabrication shop in Columbus, Ohio, and we run it well.  We found our niche making high-end CNC products for American patriots. Manufacturing is not dead in the United States, it’s not even dying; It’s just been reborn. People are tired of the mass-produced low-quality crap products that started flooding store shelves a couple of decades ago: shipped to our shores in a giant container with a hundred thousand other units, 75% of which have never even been touched by human hands. They want "American made" products like our custom engraved Harley Davidson point covers or the popular stainless-steel slide backplates that are made with effort, with care, that someone put their time into and thought about and looked at with scrutiny; improved and re-improved to the point of perfection. We first started noticing the trend with the craft beer industry which absolutely exploded a few years back. Restaurants started making a shift to offering local organic food as patrons wanted to know where their food was coming from. People are buying their furniture hand made by artists, buying their clothes from online stores that actually answer emails. America has spoken. We are done buying crap goods. We love cutting metal! The sound a good cutter makes when you hit its sweet spot up against a piece of stainless steel puts a grin on our faces. We crave the feeling of a smooth, freshly cut, fine-finished metal surface that’s never before felt the human touch. We are celebrating the rebirth of American manufacturing, we love our jobs, and we love our customers.  When one of our products comes off the table it is either perfect, or it gets recycled. If you find otherwise, tell us: we will send you a new one no questions asked. When we aren’t burning through metal we hunt, fish, hike, shoot, drink beer, and talk about burning through more metal. 

Topics Discussed:

* How Chet transitioned from the military to engineering student* How Chet and his brother eventually came up with the idea for MILSPIN* How to run a business, especially on the beginning on a budget* Chet and Gary discuss some of the mistakes they have made as entrepreneurs* Why being an entrepreneur is not for everyone* Why it is important to get a job in college and not take on unnecessary debt* Why made in America is better and needs to be the focus* Why a lot of American companies are actually influencing terrible labor conditions* Chet gives you some advice on how to start a business and then grow it when the opportunity arises