How To Find Work for Your Shop | Machine Shop Talk Ep. 10
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- Опубліковано 22 вер 2020
- The latest episode of our Machine Shop Talk covers a fundamental topic in the life of any machine shop owner: how to find jobs. Tune in to hear Ian's recommendations!
How do machine shops find clients and jobs to keep their business active and profitable? There's no ultimate answer to this million-dollar question as many factors are likely to affect the strategy that any machine shop should adopt to market their business and services.
As the person in charge of running the shop, Ian Sandusky (@LetsMachine ) has figured out a few ways to find new clients and keep his machines up and running over the course of the years and he decided to share his recommendations with us.
The first place to visit when trying to find work is your existing customers. This might sound like a silly recommendation but existing customers are likely to be constantly in need of parts to be done and the chances that your shop is taking care of 100% of their parts are pretty minimal (if not zero). Reaching out and letting them know that your shop has the capabilities to take up more work for them is a good place to start.
The second venue to explore when looking for new jobs, according to Ian, is old customers that your shop worked with or quoted before. Following up, even a year later, and keeping the relationships open with prospects that didn't convert before is always a good way to potentially find more work.
The last option is cold calling. Cold calling is not the easiest way to get new customers but it's one of the most common ways to introduce your business to prospects and take on new projects,
How does your machine shop find new customers and projects? Share your experience with us in the comments.
Stay tuned for more machine shop talks!
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1: existing customers
2: former customers
3: cold calling (last on list)
I find cold calls are best done in person.
Emails are for after first contact.
do good work with customer service and your customers will find the work for you>. this is true in any industry
Brand new to the space. I really liked your educating customers on your full breath of capabilities and essentially inactive to active! Very worthwhile use of my time. Thank you!
The best way is to design and manufacture your own products.
The next best way is to get on a Q.S.L. list with the D.O.D.
The way we pick up most work now is from other customers telling new people what we do.
This is where it's going in the US these days... Independent small 1 or 2 man micro operations on a contract limited run or prototype basis... If clients want large scale production, they take their prototypes and mostly go offshore where the labor is cheap...
Thank you so much for this informative video. You explained so well and I am no longer confused. Thanks for making it so easy to understand.
Thank you very much. It is really helpfull. Best Wishes from New Delhi, India
How do you go about identifying companies to reach out to and getting contacts for cold calling and cold emailing?
Excellent
I think it would be more effective if you revealed how you acquired existing customers. Great stuff tho
If its possible (maybe not from a liability standpoint?) I'd make my formal LLC general, my shop name specific. "SUNSET USA LLC" isn't what I'd put on my shop sign or in the phonebook. It'd be "Sunset Pattern" or prototype, EDM, tool and die, casting. Whatever my main duty trending over say a decade. I've cold called for construction and you literally have to ask "Kalin Construction" what's your trade? Come to find out they're the biggest regional pulling 3mil in profit a quarter building heavy highway and you need a Lowes built.
Glad to see you making videos again ;) id love to hear your thoughts on finding work through the interwebs?
Yes. I would like to know if you or you know anyone else that has worked with sites like Xometry, Orderfox, and Mfg. I've looked into them but I haven't started to do much other than look at job requests to take. I'll do a mock up pricing of tooling, fixtures if needed, material, electricity, and time but I haven't actually started a job. As a hobbyist this would be the ideal platform for a side hustle.
@@commandercody38 I have used MFG. twice, the first time sucked do bad I canceled my sub in 2 hours. However they have made changes to their platform and are a lot better to work with. As far as finding customers good luck. Most of the bids are awarded long before I can get a quote out the prepared.
Forget using it as a side hustle, no way a hobbyist can compete with established shops. Very expensive and most of these companies will look at your lack of experience and never call you back.
Best look around your area and see what is available locally.
@@pvtimberfaller guess I forgot to mention my hobby is also my trade among other hobbies. But yes large companies and massive part quantities would be a problem.
@@commandercody38 well I would say I do what I love. Being in business requires a totally different mindset, some people have it but like any business I feel like you have to spend a lot of time in it to truly understand how to make money and manage it properly.
If anyone wants work, i have it 😂
I manually machine beretta compensators and i cant keep up with demand. I need a cnc shop
are you still looking for help? I have some CNCs that are not kept busy?
If you haven’t found help yet I’m interested.
Iam interested if you still not found anyone
Xometry constantly underbids my customers and they go that route. I hate it
The only way to find jobs is keep investing into advertisement in Google. Sending your technical proposals to appropriate companies is the waste of time. All production companies are already have business relations with CNC machining subcontractors and the only way to get into business with them is the price factor. But if your main concern is the way you can find customers then probably you are beginner and you cannot be competetive with the price which comes from more advanced companies because they already had invested into machines, tooling and fixtures. So the only way for beginners is to spend some extra $$$ to get on top of the search list for the most relevant search requests and start working with small companies and individuals on tiny batches (50-100-200 parts). Concerning search request - do not even think of spending top-of-the-list bid for such requests as "CNC machining", "CNC milling" etc. - you must think as an employer of the companies who need to order goods and in most cases they are not familiar with our trade, so you must use some specific phrases as "production of aluminum chassis", "manufacture steel tank", "boring of gearbox" etc (i'm not so good in English so the above search requests may be not so proper)
If I get a good machine and I design parts as well as manufacture them, do you think I can make money on odd jobs?
I mean anything is possible! I'll just say there's definitely a different skill set for running a profitable business vs being a good machinist, and it's important to put work into developing those skills when you go into business for yourself. Many, many people have made the leap and been successful, so I'd say you have a good shot!
@@iansandusky417 as a machinist do you read/write code? If so what language?
I am thinking of learning autocad, and whatever other language I need to learn to make me a better machinist. What would you recommend to learn in order to combine designing and machining into one person's role as an independent creator?
@@D231991 I do know how to write basic g-code, but I mostly rely on my CAM system and post-processors to handle the majority of the coding - but it’s good to know so you can edit on the fly! AutoCAD is definitely helpful - I do most of my drawing in it - I would definitely recommend learning Autodesk Fusion or Mastercam if possible!
Hi, I am a new entrepreneur and I am planning to startup a micro factory. I am in need of a machine. How do I get across to you?
Hey, did you find someone to work with? I know a guy.
What about advertising? What about having a sales rep?
Both are great ideas, but advertising as a small machine shop honestly has a very low ROI - I’ve found learning how to leverage marketing and sales reps are good strategies, but hiring a sales rep can be an expense some new small shops can’t afford - so hopefully these tips can help get them there until hiring a sales team or outside rep becomes feasible! Thanks for watching!
Hey i started company in canada last year , we do precise job work , i have cmm lab as well , i am looking to get work from us , and i am on the border of Detroit , does any one have hint how i can achieve that. Do any one have any contact , please share me
introduce yourself to any manufacturing facility in the area, (ESPECIALLY if they have older equipment) leave your card, offer a free evaluation.
After your first few jobs, bring in Chick-fil-A biscuits for the maintenance staff.
now tell a small shop how they can get some small batch one off jobs
Cold calling... that’s about it. This guy likes it the least. It’s a lot easier to find work when you’ve been in business for 30 years than when you’ve been in business for 1... I’m in that boat... desperately trying to find work during the slowest months in the worst year in my life time... great. Glad I sat through the whole video...
@@shawnhuk Yuppers.
cold call hell, drop by in person. Leave cards, meet and greet the maintenance staff. Bring chicken biscuits or donuts.
@@halcyonoutlander2105 lol, year later? Well, still working a full time day job!
@@shawnhuk To be honest I just called like 30 machine shops and auto body shops and 10 called me back. Glad I went with this approach.
Connections,kickbacks and bribe?
5.00
What a waste of time.