We recently connected with Matthew Hawk and have shared our conversation below.
Matthew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.
I believe family businesses are great! Although, a family business has to start someplace.
Ive been lucky to grow up with a couple of family businesses as examples. My Grandpa Started an electrical construction business when my dad was a child and he eventually took it over. Most of the family worked at the business at some point or another. I worked there in the summers growing up and for the most part it was hard work in the Arizona summer sun. This job showed me its not always easy to work with family. You can say a pitfall would be if dynamics are not working, it can be harder to let someone go. Sometimes it’s hard to know whose opinions weigh more and there can be a lack of respect for the positions in the company. Other times, employees can view favoritisms from how you treat family versus regular employees.
Another example i’ve had is my Uncle, who started his business selling circuit boards and small LCD screens. He worked with my other Grandpa, until my Grandfathers passing. It was nice to see a different philosophy on how his family business was ran.
I started my first business with my brother when I was in high school. The process of starting this business taught me a-lot. To name a few things, it taught me how to actually start a business, how to run a business, to know what business to start, how much capital is needed, is there a need, and what markets will we serve.
I started my current business with a life long friend from college; Sean who is basically my brother, and now for the past 7 months I have been lucky enough to have my Girlfriend work with me. Currently the pit fall i’m seeing is that it can be hard to separate work from regular life, but I’ve always liked the idea of having kids grow up in the family business; teaching them how to weld, machining, and general fabrication. I would want my children to learn and understand hard work, values, critical thinking and how nothing in life is free.
I would want my children to join the business, it seems like it would be a great way for me to teach them practical life experiences and/or lessons, Whether they stay with the business long term or they leave for something else, I’ll be comfortable knowing that I have taught them the lessons they won’t learn in school.
We have spoken a lot of the pitfalls but there are just as many positives. When running and especially starting a business having a support group is very encouraging and helpful. Family can be difficult to work with sometimes but with good communication, a common goal, and some understanding it can be the best support group you can ask for. There can be more flexibility working with family who understand how each other operate. It’s great to know each others strengths and weaknesses and leverage the best way to complete the tasks. For us most of the time we enjoy doing the work we do, but there are always the tasks that you dread and don’t want to do, but it is encouraging when we come together to get the job done.
Matthew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up always building and making things. From a solar powered hot dog cooker, to a tree fort, building a go cart, to rebuilding my first car at 15, a 1967 Mercury Cougar. I received my Mechanical engineering degree from ASU. After that, I started working in various sectors of the engineering industry (electrical, automotive, mechanical, nuclear) I realized for the majority of engineering there wasnt alot of creating. There was alot of copy and paste. I left the corporate world and joined the military. I served a total of 10 years, 5 years in the US Air Force and then 5 years in the Army. While in the military I was exposed to how the government purchased different commodities. I started noticing several things that I knew I was able to make, and I always had an affinity toward creating. So, I teamed up with my best friend and built HF FABRICATION on the foundation of a life-long friendship paired with a shared passion and love for creating just about everything and anything. Both “Tinkerers” at heart, both of us set out to start their own shop that could deliver products to the commercial and government markets. From my mechanical engineering background I knew that I would feel more comfortable with metal work. So, Sean and I were watching the website bidspotter.com and purchased our first piece of equipment, a 1950s press break and a 1950s welder and thats how it all started. We immediately had to find a home and shortly after we purchased a Haas FV-3 mill. Since, then we have upgraded our welder and purchased a large waterjet. From there every thing has been growing incredibly fast. The core of our work comes from the government side. We have made 50′ trailers, weather instrument shelters, trusses, attachments for military vehicles, ect. We also provide manufacturing services for the commercial market through manufacturing brokers such as Xometry. We think one of the main things that sets us apart from other manufacturers is the pride we have in our work. Knowing that from the individual, to the team, to the whole company, everything we do is quality and and a source of pride. It is similar to a legacy that could be seen for a long time. Some other things that set us apart from other small businesses include, our ISO 9001 certification, numerous welding certifications, and our 3D scanner that is accurate down to 0.0004″ to verify the quality of our work. Along with our encompassing in house capabilities to include sheet cutting with the waterjet (anything from 8″ thick steel plate to 0.015″ plastic), all our welding processes (SMAW, GTAW, GMAW, pulse spray), Vertical milling, tube bending, and our 180 ton break press.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
On the topic of clients, Id recommend giving the government a chance. It isnt as much paperwork or hard to do as some make it out to be. Just start by going to SAM.gov, its free. The search function isnt that great but they usually need just about any product and service you can think of, construction, manufacturing, photography, videography, counseling, musicians, engineering basically anything. The good part is you can submit your quote and if you win the contract great, if you lose great because you can see what the amount someone else is doing the work for and you will have that little bit of price feedback. There are some other features were you can look up what previous contracts went for. For me this helps starting out because a big question is how do you know what to charge. Its a good feedback tool. It may take a bit to feel comfortable getting into it but its a great way to start because its free and depending on your business model you dont have to wait for someone to come to you.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
When I was younger “rich dad poor dad” had a big impact on my entrepreneurial thinking, but “The obstacle is the way” by Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite books. I highly recommend it. It is more of a practical approach to stoic philosophy and a nice introduction to stoic philosophy. It has helped me shape my thinking and i know im a much more positive optimistic person because of it. Its applicable to life in general but also starting a business. Starting and running a business is hard, it seems like it is every day, all day and there always seems to be issues or something isnt going right something breaks ect ect. This book goes over how you want these obstacles, because they make you better, they are an opportunity to grow and learn. I know I cant do the book justice and there is an audio book if that works better for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hf-fab.com