El Dorado Inc. is a 17 year old design company in KC that started in 1997. They started out as a triple threat, being an art gallery, design studio, and fabricator in equal parts, but now they are primarily a design studio. Their love of system-based furniture lead them to the existing buildings in KC, and they started out renovating buildings in the crossroads. Their primary clients are small entrepreneurs, makers, artists, and start up businesses.
Their shop is pretty outdated in terms of equipment, holding a scroll saw, drill press and a couple other tools, but they outsource most of their production currently, and they are really a design firm, so it's not a big issue.
Their primary materials include tube steel as the main focus, with stainless steel and sheet metal as secondary materials.
I got quite a bit out of the business and working advice of our tour guide, he talked about the differences between working for yourself and working for someone else. Working for yourself, for the first 10 years after schooling, you're going to be living a "thrifty" life, and you'll have to sacrifice all of your time and effort for your work. That being said, you shouldn't try to start your own business if you're not in love with your work, because otherwise it won't be worth it.
Also, ALWAYS be on time.
-Randa
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