'Market Analysis' Articles for Business Plan- Bloomberg, etc

[UptownSport]

Situation is I need to complete a business plan, perhaps manufacturing accessories for entry level machines.
Would anyone have links to a market analysis of the US metalworking machine sub industry?
I did find the IBIS report
Something like a Bloomberg article, or similar article you may have used for market analysis in your business plan.
Demographics?
I'm also interested in how many lathes, mills are sold in the US at the home machinist/small shop level.
I did discover eBay has a 'Sold' button, so one can see how many AXA-#1 Toolholders were sold, for instance, not a lot of lathes sold thru eBay, tho.
Thanks, I'm sure there's a lot of business plans that went thru PM's users, and thought someone might have had an article they ran across.

 

[implmex]

Hi UptownSport:
I'd be really surprised if you can find useful reliable statistics on this that you can use to create a credible business plan.
Most just dive in and see if their fantasies will work out.
Mostly they don't.

The machine tool accessories game is fraught with peril; from overseas knockoffs, to cheapass customers.
A few have done not too badly...A2Z CNC is the one who springs most immediately to mind.
They made accessories for the Sherline line of hobby machines.

They started out with a couple of Haas entry level machines a couple of decades ago but they seem to have closed their doors too.
They were apparently a popular source of goodies for the hobby guys but still couldn't make it I guess.
Cheapass customers, too much hand holding, too much overseas competition...the usual stuff.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com

 

[UptownSport]

Most just dive in and see if their fantasies will work out.

LoL, You REALLY understand business plans!

They're Grimm Brother's Märchen written with a patrician tone.

But things aren't easy, if they were, everybody would be doing it.
Believe me, I don't have ANY illusions here, just looking for some data.

I thought of calling [Unmentionable] marketing dept and seeing if they'd give me numbers.

 

[memphisjed]

The machine tool accessories game is fraught with peril; from overseas knockoffs, to cheapass customers.
A few have done not too badly...A2Z CNC is the one who springs most immediately to mind.

They made accessories for the Sherline line of hobby machines.

They were apparently a popular source of goodies for the hobby guys but still couldn't make it I guess.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com

A2z made some neat stuff, the market was depending on a sub section of a subsection of a small market; Sherline is a high end of the mini lathe / hobby market. Your customers already are a very small pool.

Machine tool market is massive, mtba/ sme trade group will sell you the realistic values of the market and sub sections of it (painting, bending, machining, additive, etc.) Likely not to the level of hobby/commercial lathes of 9 inch 1 hp spindles.

 

[UptownSport]

Interesting! Aluminum extrusions with LOTS of accessories.
They spec their chucks as being made of ... 12L14.
Lipstick ...

mtba/ sme trade group - SME=Small Medium Enterprise, but
Machine Tool Business Assoc?
Got a MACHINE TOOL TRADE ASSOCIATION
and Machine Tools Industrialists and Businessmen Association
I'll look for the group, can't seem to get it up in a search,
Overall I think you're absolutely right, it's a little above my plans.

I'm looking to keep it a one man operation, and the gov't will give you money (for tooling) if you find the magic words ...

 

[memphisjed]

Society of manufacturing engineers- the umbrella group with machine tool builders and America welding society. The trade shows are IMTS, fabtec and some robotics shows.

 

[Joe Gwinn]

For hobbyist transactions regarding used machines and tooling, I would look at Craigslist. This is where all my machines came from.

There is a uber-craigslist website that will scan all local craigslists and summarize. Don't recall the name, but someone will chime in.

 

[henrya]

The other way is to make a batch of your wonderful widgets and offer them for sale at the lowest possible price in the channel you desire to use. If they move out, then the next step is to raise the price and try again. The numbers just need to be manageable within your financial position. Don’t refi the house quite yet.

Someone else’s history is not really that useful in terms of really finding out.

 

[UptownSport]

If I fill out a business plan, The gov't says they may give me a grant- money.
I appreciate your profound words of wisdom, but I'm looking for someone who's done a business plan and may have articles they used in them.

 

[henrya]

I don’t know that quoting articles from consumer periodicals is going to be particularly impressive or useful. You seem to be chasing a grant but without a purpose in mind other than getting funded to make “something”. This is not uncommon now-a-days but its not from the mold of innovators who started with an identified need and a way to fill that need and figured out how to get the two together.

I think you need a little spark of genius as much as you need anything to make a new business. And it seems that discovery of niche products/markets is often done by stumbling into it by dumb luck and having a mind open to all kinds of answers to the problems you stumble into.

Hobby woodworking might be a field to look into. Lots of potential customers there compared to metalworking. Plenty of competition for the dollars too. An example there might be a plane blade maker. Who would have ever thought an obsolete tool like a hand plane would need a new fine steel blade?

In the metal working field maybe you could become the source for scraping tools? Small scale finishing solutions? Polishing? Real fundamental stuff but maybe hard to find all in one place and at attractive pricing. Most of the above obsoleted by industrial processes that do the job at large scale but out of reach by smaller customers.

Writing a grant proposal for any of the above would be pretty straight forward, once you had an idea of what your grant paid for tools would be making.

 

[PackardV8]

FWIW, the most profitable business plan is to watch for an invented/developed niche tool or product to become successful, then send one to China and have knockoffs on the Alibaba market within the year at half the price.

jack vines

 

[UptownSport]

Thanks for your replies, appreciate the effort

 

[EPAIII]

business plan - Google Search

And, I know there are machines that are not suitable for discussion here. But I didn't know that there were any marketing departments on that list.

LoL, You REALLY understand business plans!

They're Grimm Brother's Märchen written with a patrician tone.

But things aren't easy, if they were, everybody would be doing it.
Believe me, I don't have ANY illusions here, just looking for some data.

I thought of calling [Unmentionable] marketing dept and seeing if they'd give me numbers.

 

[EPAIII]

Another search:

business plan for machine tooling - Google Search

I have given this a lot of thought. I have had a number of ideas for products that should sell, but the numbers just do not work out.

You do need a NICHE product. In practical terms that means one which is just desirable enough so that it will sell at US/world price levels with an acceptable profit for you but will NOT generate enough sales so that the Chinese will rip it off. That is one crazy balance act.

The big problem here is you, in the rest of the world, can not support yourself, much less a family, on the same profit margin that a Chinese machinist can. That is it, plain and simple.

FWIW, the most profitable business plan is to watch for an invented/developed niche tool or product to become successful, then send one to China and have knockoffs on the Alibaba market within the year at half the price.

jack vines

 

[john.k]

You usually find there are specialists in obtaining Govt grants,they deal with the people who hand out the money ,and know what will work,and the format the application should be in.........if you try to go it alone ,you'll be rejected at the very start for various reasons ,not all of them unrelated to corruption.

 

[UptownSport]

Thanks @eKretz for removing the bot.
Situation stands, the VA will supply tooling if I can provide a business plan.
>>> Respectfully, it's not a call for opinions.
Thanks to @memphisjed and others who have given sources for outlook on the US metalworking machine sub industry