Looking for an opinion about my equipment and if at all practical for studio 4 hire

[anppilot]

Ive been recording for years, since I was 18, now am 26. I'm not a pro, just have the time involved. Ive worked in and out of a freinds home studio for about 5 years, and all he has is a Yamaha v-50 workstation, Quadraverb, Shure mic, reel to reel, and a 4-track Fostex Cassette deck.
And he is charging $15-20/HR.

This is what I have:

COMPUTER:
Pentium-3 500/256 Meg RAM/7200RPM 4.3G UIDE/7200RPM 4.5 SCSI, D-Man PCI Audio card

SOFTWARE:
Cubase VST 3.71r2
Soundiver

STUDIO EQUIPMENT:
Sony 4x4x20 CD-R/RW
Fisher Dual Cassette (Mixdown Deck)
Sony Stereo Mic
Tascam TM-D1000 16 Channel Dig Mixer (vocals mostly)
Event 20/20 Nearfield Monitors
Haffler 50W/Channel Amp
Unitor8 MIDI patch bay
Alesis 32 Band Graphic steeo EQ
Alesis Nano Compressor
Mackie 1202 (For Mixing Modules, Keyboards and samplers)
Roland S-330 Sampler (W/External Video mon.and Rem.control)
Roland JV-1080 (Dance card,Tekno card, 2100 other patches)
Roland D-110 Sound Module
Roland U-110 Sound Module
Yamaha FB-01 Sound Module
Alesis DM5 Drum Module
Roland JW-50 as a Master Controller

I used to own a car audio/alarm business, and know how to run a business well. Believe it or not guys, but my wife is the driving force behind me starting the business. She thinks that we will do well with it (plus she says that she wants me to make a return on my investment in equipment). Im just not sure if I want to start my own business, or hint to him to let me add my equipment to his studio and merge with him to bring him up to par (although hes making money with just a Yamaha V-50 workstation, Quadraverb, Shure mic, Tascamreel to reel, and a 4-track Fostex Cassette deck. I'd hate to lose a friendship because I started my own business.

Give me 'yalls advice as what else we might possibly need.

Thanks a bunch,
Mike and Amanda

 

[jamiecer]

I was given an opportunity several years ago to buy into a local studio. For a period of months I thought about it. The only thing that I was brining to the arangement was more capital to expand the studio. I think that the relationship suffered by going my own way but I am a firm believer in creating my own destiny. If you want to be in the business and know how to run a business, what is there to gain by including your friend. He is happy making 15 bucks an hour and that's fine. It sounds like your wiife wants you to do better than that. Are you going to be able to more than double that rate without a substancial increase in equipment? Your wife said she wants you to recoup your investment, right?
As for the friendship I think that there was a big difference in where we each wanted to be. In the time since I have left the area, I have moved to Los Angeles, worked with some of the biggest names in recording, even been nominated for an engineering Grammy. His goals were drasticaly different than mine. I don't think that the partnership would have lasted because I wanted to get out of the town where we lived and he was happy there.
I guess if you want to be in a partnership with this person think of it like a marrage, are you guys on all the same pages.
As for your equipment, get some bigger hard drives. For my system I have 27 gigs of drive space and back up to both CD and DVD ram. I am thinking about switching to a tape-based back up system as they are much faster than dvd.
Good Luck,
jamie

 

[anppilot]

Thanks for your opinion. Do you think that all of the other equipment I have is fine and all I should do is get bigger HD's?

Having my own business in the past, I know that image and the way that you present yourself is part of the key to your success. My friend runs his studio from his 2 bedroom apartment. My wife and I have a 2 bedroom apt also. For the longest time (2yrs) it had no curtains, computer was on a big ugly desk (that could double for a torture rack). Well, my wife bought some curtains, and got new furniture for the studio. Now it looks professional.
I found a "computer" desk at Montgomery wards that is perfect for the home studio.

http://www.bushfurniture.com/html/computer_32.htm

Perfect for your computer,monitors, and master controller.
It has a nice "pro" look without taking up alot of space.

Having a Digital studio with the equipment that I have, can anyone give me a clue as to what studios of my nature are charging?

Thanks,
Mike and Amanda