Machine Shop Owner

Hello my name is Joseph,

I own a machine shop in Corona, California and have been in the machining industry for the last 30 years of my life and this last year I decided to go out and open my own shop. I currently have Mori Seiki Mill and Lathe machines and have been down on my luck recently and things are slow so I am currently spending most of my days behind a computer sending e-mail after e-mail in hopes of getting some work to do. Now I turn to Practical Machinist, hoping that somebody will be able to help me out somehow because i'm stuck in a rut and do not know if i can afford to be stuck any longer.

You also just posted about hiring a sales guy with potential to make up to 100K a year?

Correct, as posted commission based.

Welcome to the wonderful world of self employment.
If it was easy everybody would do it.

You have "a" mill and "a" lathe, and you think that you can turn enough product to pay a rep?

That is bait/switch if I ever seen it!



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

yoke said:

You also just posted about hiring a sales guy with potential to make up to 100K a year?

Click to expand...

I just saw this also and was like .

Anyways, B&J Engineering, make a widget everyone needs. Only way to make a lot of money with the smallest capital investment.

Do you have an add on Craigslist? If not, do it. It is free. (don't laugh, two of my better customers found me on Craigslist)
Do you visit machine shops in your area looking for overflow work? Emails will almost always dead-end. You have to make a physical presence.
My absolute best customer came from the RFQ section right here on this site.

By all means, forget about the salesman. If you do not have any work, YOU are the salesman.

Craigslist advice:
Short, and to the point verbiage. List your capabilities, experience, and sound confident and proud. But, don't over-do it. It worked for me (in the beginning).
Pictures! Lots of good pictures. Clean the shop up, and show it. And show pictures of finished parts that you have made.
Whatever you do, don't steal pictures off google, and use them in a Craigslist add.

Have you tried Twitter, I hear that is how all the bestest, brightest and richest folks
communicate now a days...

Seriously, E-mails? You need to network... Meet people, let people know what you do..
I met one of my really good customers(COD(his choice, I've offered terms) and
low/NO tolerance work) in a BAR!! He even buys and cuts the material for me, and if its high qty, I don't
even have to deburr it, he has one of his guys do it.

Model railroad clubs, historical society, VFW, RC airplane club... ETC... MEET
people and let them know what you do.. Not pain in the ass style like Amway people,
but let them know what you do.

Knock on some doors... The problem could also be FINDING those doors, maybe do a
CAGE code search for local companies that you don't even know exist doing government work.
Since you have time, pull up google maps and start going through the industrial park(s),
try and figure out what they are doing, and weather or not you may be able to "Help" them.
I've made a few bucks here and there doing oddball repair work. Ag processing facilities
are ALWAYS breaking shit.. At one point, at another shop, I generated quite a few dollars
from a local office supply/printing place making parts for their old outdated mechanical printers.

If you don't want to knock on doors because you're fat (hey, I'm Fat too), or you lack self
confidence, or you get nervous, go see a shrink.. After a few years in business, you'll
probably need one anyways.

In the time that you aren't making IN PERSON visits to local companies, or researching companies
that may need your services, make widgets, and then sell the widgets.. What kind of stupid shit
have you made for yourself or wanted to make for yourself???? Make it and sell it.

My Dad's truck has one of those stupid hard covers over the bed.. The hinge is a bolt through
thin wall aluminum tubing.. Guess what happens??? They woller out.. I made him some repair
pieces, super simple and they have been going strong for almost 10 years now.. Its one of those
ideas that "hey I could sell these on E-bay", but I've never got around to it.. If my Dad had that
problem, others have had that problem...

All kinds of random widgets you could make and sell.

Maybe this will get your brain flowing.

Drawer pulls, I've got 'em on my Kennedy.


Self explanatory.



Blank pulleys were like $9, engrave and sell for $45.


RC car rims. Flooded market, but you may be able to do something "custom"
These are '81 280ZX turbo wheels.

I believe this is also an untapped market.. Custom Stainless/Billet shitter handles.

ICP billet shitter handles.
Brilliant

Booze Daily said:

ICP billet shitter handles.
Brilliant

Click to expand...

Make a matching billet plunger and you're golden!

B&J, if you've got any universities near you, introduce yourself to some of the MechE professors and offer very discounted work for student and research projects. Not free, make sure you can make a small profit, but schools can offer a huge opportunity towards meeting future customers. And the MechE profs can make introductions for you to other areas of the school that are doing research where custom parts need to be made, including physics and medical research.

Just be timely, work well, and make sure the billing end is handled quickly. This last may be an issue because some schools love the "late payment" game, that's something you have to stay on top of without getting rude about it.

I would highly recommend that the shitter handles be made out of EcoBrass for the germa'phobes.

Bacteria is said to die within 20 minutes (I believe?) on that material, where the same will live for a cpl hours or more on S/S.

"Eco-Brass" or "Green Dot" brass from Chase Brass and Copper.



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Ox said:

I would highly recommend that the shitter handles be made out of EcoBrass for the germa'phobes.

Ox

Click to expand...

I prefer to wash my damn hands (over and over and over...).

I read that as sloppy text for:


No Amsoil reclamation risk.
You are forbidden to meet Svern Ahied* @ the Detroit Diesel plant of Prince George.
As Aryans, we boast envy [till we're] ill.
An ego you sadly got gypped.
Susan, they, and I waxed the wrought [iron].



*His mother was a Rusky, and his father a towel head.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Go to xlforum.net/vbportal/forums and check into the ironhead forum. Decent numbers of old Sportsters still around, lots of parts to be made, the competition is Taiwan Ted and CRAP parts, lots of the pieces are fairly easy ones. Throw up a post saying you are in Los Angeles, not Tai Zhong, and you should get a bunch of suggestions.

Lots of good suggestions above, one other - the single best thing I did was to quit giving terms. I know you can't always do that but getting paid was the biggest hassle I had as a small shop. Cash flow is a killer. By the time your "coming in 90 days" invoices get paid, you are broke.

Also, retailing your own parts is way better. Instead of selling a part to a guy like Ted for $3, you get the full $9 he charges. A bit more hassle to keep track of orders but you get a lot bigger slice of the pie.

Milland said:

I prefer to wash my damn hands (over and over and over...).

Click to expand...

I read recently about rock salt door knobs being considered in public buildings as salt is lethal to most germs. Imagine, machining salt in your machining center

Job shopping isn't exactly commodity, but it's close, and right now things aren't too slow generally. If you're slow, the biggest thing to figure out is why.

If you're getting quotes but you aren't getting POs, then your pricing isn't competitive, which means somewhere in your workflow you aren't as efficient as your competition.

If you aren't getting quote requests from previous customers who are still in business and got work from previously, then you have a quality problem somewhere. Might be in your work output, might be in your front office responding to customer inquiries, might be in inspection or shipping. But if you had work and people aren't coming back you dropped the ball somewhere.

If you aren't getting quotes from new customers, then you have a sales problem.

Until you figure out which aspect is the problem, you're chasing your tail.

Hope that helps.

Hello Joe,
I understand what you are going through, but never pay for work, period. Second, wheelieking and Comeatose may have given you the only constructive guidance so far. Toilet handles? that is a joke pointed at you.
hang in there Joe, you are the only one that can solve this problem.
otrlt

also jn cali

Hang in i was in same shape when open in 01, I had lost hope and had runout of rent money and a company that reject me suddenly called with a rush small job that lasted 3 good years

is Joseph,

I own a machine shop in Corona, California and have been in the machining industry for the last 30 years of my life and this last year I decided to go out and open my own shop. I currently have Mori Seiki Mill and Lathe machines and have been down on my luck recently and things are slow so I am currently spending most of my days behind a computer sending e-mail after e-mail in hopes of getting some work to do. Now I turn to Practical Machinist, hoping that somebody will be able to help me out somehow because i'm stuck in a rut and do not know if i can afford to be stuck any longer.[/QUOTE]

otrlt said:

Toilet handles? that is a joke pointed at you.

Click to expand...

It wasn't a joke.. Certainly wasn't a joke pointed at the OP... I was pointing out that
when you NEED to make money, there is always a way to make money. People buy stupid shit,
that's a fact, and when you have machine time, and real clock time, $20 in the kitty is better than
nothing.

Also along the same lines, if you've thought of something you want and can't buy.. There are 7 BILLION
or so other people on the planet.. Most don't have access to machine tools.. If you've wanted it,
there are at least a couple other people that want it also, might as well make a few for them, and
one for yourself, even if it is a fancy shitter handle.

Quick story about making stupid shit.. A guy I know, him and his dad were screwing around in the garage
and made a widget (fab guys).. Somebody said, hey that widget is pretty cool, I bet you could sell those,
so they made, IIRC 7 or 9 of them and took them to a flea market or a craft fair or something hoping to sell
a few.. They sold them all. quickly.. The last time I asked him how many he had sold, he had been going 5 or so years,
and that was through the Great Recession, and he had sold approx 14,000 of 'em at $350 to $400 a whack, plus accessories..

Who knows how many he has made now, and he's branched out, making other stupid stuff and doing some contract stuff. I
know he just bought a building, so he can't be doing too bad..

So..
Step 1) Screwing around making stupid shit
Step 2) Make more stupid shit and sell it.
Step 3) Profit.

I'm not saying go and make shitter handles, I'm saying that you can make money making stupid shit..