Originally Posted by Soulteacher

According to the term paper of one of my students, her father apparently had the same areas of interest that you have... electricity, plumbing, flooring, stuff like that. He started off working for a subcontractor to become more skilled in the various trades, then began buying cheap old neglected houses and fixed them up for sale (spending nights and weekends working on them). Over time, he bought bigger and bigger houses and eventually began building homes from scratch. He is now a major builder. However, for the longest time, he did not understand the business side of his trade (finance, accounting, marketing, etc.), which slowed down his growth significantly.