Take a look at this article by I.D. Hammmar on
90% of all Training is Wasted!

http://www.idcon.com/article-ninty.htm

Hey Bud,

I see that you are a retired fluid power consultant. I have a good background in fluid power and would like to expand into the consulting/ teaching community. What would you recommend as a first step?

Mike;
I started in sales with Miller Fluid Power, now part of Parker, and Miller was big on training. That led to training for the local College and local Trade School Adult Evening programs and then to the larger companies Apprentice programs and their personnel in general. This was all on my own, mostly evenings and weekends. I had worked with some of the Instructors and Professors previously as part of my sales job answering the write in cards most companies use to get leads.

Finally the Training and Consulting escalated into Full Time work and I left the sales job. Actually all I did was change the way I got paid since as a Salesman I was already doing all the above to get orders. I just lost the hassle of reporting to a Sales Manager. Never looked back and kept the income level equal to or greater than before with less actual hours of paid time.

That was all possible since the Southern Indiana area and the surounding states are quite industrialized and have some National and International companies in place.

Finally wrote my own training books so I could do Fluid Power training, not just Hydraulics that most of the available books offered. You can see my basic book on the Ebook Link at the home page of this forum. There is also an advanced circuits book that I use for anyone who has a good knowledge of symbols or has been through basics. The circuits book is only partially on the above link. It is being presented a chapter every month or so.

I also have a Trouble Shooting book for Industrial hyraulics that has a different approach to that area of teaching.

I would recommend consulting to anyone with a solid background in Fluid Power. They should be able do well and have a geat time while doing it. I would recommend having enough backup money to be able to go for a couple of years with reduced income. That is unless you are fortuanate enough to be working for a company that will let you work as a Commissioned salesman for awhile and do the consulting work at the same time.

Thanks for the advice Bud. I am currently working second shift in a factory as a maintenance tech to pay the bills. However, on the side I am working in my own small venture providing fluid power solutions to industry. Since I don't have a lot of money I thought it would be a good idea to either sell training from another company such as American Trainco or develop my own content and give my own training sessions. Within the next year my goals are to join Toastmasters and get my fluid power cert through the Fluid Power Society. What else would you do to pursue this type of career?

Get very proficient at reading Flud Power schematics so you can determine how the circut should operate when functioning as designed. That gives you a Head Start on any Trouble Shooing job. On top of that learn how to draw a schematic for the systems you are working on since about 20% of the time no one can find a schematic, the schematics were not changed when the circuit was upgraded or the schematic never was representative of the machine you are working on.

A good schematic will make the correct function of the machine obvious so all you have to do is find the component or components on the drawing that would cause the presenting problem. Again, it has to be a CORRECT SCHEMATIC or it is worse than useless.

Drawing and documenting schematics often takes more hours than fixing the problem so I charged the same hourly rate for that also. No one ever complained about the cost.

As for certification, I had them all and the next time someone ask's for a copy to prove it will be a first. If you have the knowledge to pass the test you get nice certificate to bolster the ego but it's not worth much more. On top of that the price for the Certifiations is out of sight. Anyone you consult for will quickly determine if you know anything without seeing a piece of paper with a Gold Emboss.

Get and READ and UNDERSTAND any and all Fluid Power books you can dig up. Ebay has one or more of about every Hydraulic or Pneumatic offering ever written. They are usually inexpensive since competition for them is not great. I started out with the Vickers Industrial Fluid Power Manual and then went to Womacks Industrial Hydraulics Vol.1 and later to three of their other books. The Vickers and other manufacturers offerings often do not cover components they do not make so I had 120 pages of copied material to add to their books. Of course that is why I finally wrote my own with the thought that sales of the books would add to my Social Security checks. Also, the books follow a pattern I determined would give the class a flow of material that was easy to follow and build on what went before.

You will find that Fluid Power Training is a wide open field and is sought by almost anyone in any company. In Plant classes for the larger companies, evening classes in a Motel setting for persons from the smaller companies is also good but must have the attendee numbers and a reasonable price per student. The last one I had was $475.00 per student. The price included books and a snack and drinks for breaks. They were for 64 hours and were on Tuesday's and Thursday's 6-10 PM. Seldom had trouble filling the classes with 15 minimum and 20 maximum participants and usually got good reviews.

I sent flyers to all the local companies within 40 miles of the motel location. Some of the classes were held in other towns with a good industrial base so only the instructor had to drive very far.

I have to say up front, the Instructor usually learns more than the student, in the beginning, since some seemingly dumb questions are often just something you have not come across before.

As I said before, the Training usually leads to Consulting since the people now have a name of someon who knows, not only how to spell hydraulics, but how to apply it in an efficient manner.