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Vendor List, What does it take?

LilMachinist

Plastic
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Location
North East, USA
Hello,

I help run a small general machine shop in Western Mass., we don't have any employees, just me and my grandfather. Our shop has been in business for many years and has been through the highs and lows but was ultimately undermined by a dishonest partner. I have been working here since my mid teens and I have been attempting to take us up a level. I have solicited many buyers, built a website but over the last years I have only managed to make the vendor list of one company that every once in a while will send us their "pain in the butt" jobs.

Frankly I am just wondering, how do you go about contacting a company to make their vendor list? The most success I have had is in boring/honing cylinders and rebuilding small engine components but I really would like to continue growing the "parts production" side of things. We do have just a few serious customers that get us by but even to support 2 independent people, it would be a real stretch.

Any thoughts? I would like to work towards some quality certs. but it would be a HUGE leap for us and that's never minding the financial investment, probably too early for us. Regardless I know the work is out there, it just seems very tough to get your foot in the door.

Thank you all very much and if interested, check out our website millandturn.com
 
Doing the stuff nobody else wants is usually how every small job shop starts. But after 15yrs you should have some word of mouth contacts in industry that could be good leads.

When B2B customers see that you are willing to solve problems and bend over backwards for them, then you may get some repeat business from them. Or they are just looking for the next cheapest supplier and will constantly rotate the work around to the infinite supply of shops trying to get a foot in the door.

Without a bunch of employees, I think the quality certs will only help you with gov't work, and that's a much longer road to go down than just ISO/AS.

I try to sell a service as opposed to just parts to print. That can mean vastly different things to different customers.

I'm certainly not a master salesman, but I think it's harder than ever to pick up new customers since nobody wants to let you in their building.
 
I would put the capacity of those machines on your website. A website is pretty much going to just verify your legitimacy, it isn't likely to pull in business with a small shop that doesn't have any unique abilities. Quality certifications that cost time and money to implement and time to maintain make zero sense for a small shop unless a nice existing customer requires it to do further business. If you run across the claims of awesomeness of AS9100 by a member with the same name here the guy is nothing but a BSing conman who disappeared from here when outed.

Are you knocking on the right doors and leaving something to remember you by? It has been kicked around here numerous times on leaving something more than a business card and line card. A need to try out a new vendor may not arise for quite sometime. Not in the same field, but a 12" ruler made an electronic repair shop a couple thousand dollars with me. That is one of those business we hope to rarely use. I had fortunately went a long time between needing board repairs or replacements. Finally after a gap of six years I had a pair of spindle drives blow out on separate machines within days of each other. I could not remember the name of the place I was more than happy with on the last repair as it was out of state, I also did not want to dig through old receipts. Fortunately for them they gave me a small screwdriver and a 12" ruler with their name on it that I put in my office desk drawer. I did let them know their handouts made them a sale.

If something is useful and I get it, I will keep it, some guys seem to hate coffee cups, I have never thrown one away. Not only can you drink coffee from them, they make great holders for ink pens, Sharpies, and 6" scales. I have also received scratch pads, calendars, T-shirts, and used them all.
 
Yeah what Dualkit said. Leaving something useful to remember you by.

My father had a batch of pens done in the early days - flip side was after that supplier kept bombarding him trying to buy more!!!

But yeah caps, beanies (if of course it gets cold in your parts), coasters etc... The spend isnt huge, but its getting the name out there.

Old boy even got into sponsoring some signs at a couple of local sporting clubs, which we have kept up. Your net may need to be cast wider than that, but yeah get that name out in front of the required audience. Instant results - probably not.....

Honestly tho some of the better clients we have scored along the way have been by what I would describe as by accident. No one else wants to go out your way & check out one of their cust who is having a prob. Fixed a simple prob for this city based mfr and now our most consistant decent client.

Been to events (govt contracting out a large project needing various types of companies) with a heap of the big fish where you get a few funny looks (u know whats a "backyarder" doing here). but others where, "hey we once started out like you", and will talk to you. Always a busin card in the back pocket.

No quick fixes here to improve your fortunes, but thats how we improved ourselves to the point where we can pick and choose for the most part.

Still dont have any fancy bits of paper yet. Maybe down the track a bit. How big do you wanna get?????

Good luck with it,

Jatt
 
I'm not seeing a shop that can handle much "production".

And...your "gallery" does not show a single pix with more than (2) parts, not
a dozen of something.

So PA's are seeing "I doo one offs".
 
I'm the guy at a big company whose list you want to get on. I send out work regularly.

I have never gone outside soliciting a new vendor.

Every vendor I use came from word of mouth from one of my tooling reps who I see regularly. Those are the guys you want to show your capabilities to. They're the ones who walk into the big shops regularly, and when they get asked "Hey, do you know anyone who could make XXX for me?" they're they ones who will talk about your shop, and the quality of work they've seen from it. They're the ones I'll listen to.

That's the best advice I've got.
 
If you want to make the trip up my way sometime you can pick my brain all you want. I am 45 min up rt 202 from you.

I essentially re built my fathers company after a bad spine injury took me out of the game for some good years. Trying to get my dad to do things differently is hard. Cant teach an old dog new tricks. No cell phone, no web site, no email address, only a fax machine.

I had to separate the 2 businesses so I could show him how business is done in the 21st century.

A few trade shows later and a ton of emails and follow ups I ended up on about 20 vendor lists. Most companies I already knew about or have dealt with over the years but havent worked with in ages. Due to my dad not staying in touch with them, they all thought he was retired. They didnt know he had a son to take things over either.

Word of mouth gets around very easily, google has been my friend. I get 1-2 rfq's a month from it and every 3-6 months I get a serious customer out of it. 3 years later that is 6 new steady customers. It builds up slowly over time.

Confidence is the most important thing. When people talk to you they need to feel assured you can handle the task. Make sure you dont over sell yourself. Always under promise and over deliver.

The trade shows are going to be happening again in the near future. Design 2 Part trade shows are the best for job shops. You dont need to pay them anything either.

Like I said earlier, come up anytime and see my shop running. Ask questions and gain some knowledge. PM me if you want my info.
 
Doing the stuff nobody else wants is usually how every small job shop starts. But after 15yrs you should have some word of mouth contacts in industry that could be good leads.

When B2B customers see that you are willing to solve problems and bend over backwards for them, then you may get some repeat business from them. Or they are just looking for the next cheapest supplier and will constantly rotate the work around to the infinite supply of shops trying to get a foot in the door.

Without a bunch of employees, I think the quality certs will only help you with gov't work, and that's a much longer road to go down than just ISO/AS.

I try to sell a service as opposed to just parts to print. That can mean vastly different things to different customers.

I'm certainly not a master salesman, but I think it's harder than ever to pick up new customers since nobody wants to let you in their building.

We do have a solid foundation of customers that we have worked with for a long time. Providing a service in rebuilding small engine components is what has worked out best for me. I would like to build a job shop moreso than an engine repair shop, considering it would make more sense to do alot of these cylinder/valve jobs on dedicated machines but I take what I can get right now.
 
I would put the capacity of those machines on your website. A website is pretty much going to just verify your legitimacy, it isn't likely to pull in business with a small shop that doesn't have any unique abilities. Quality certifications that cost time and money to implement and time to maintain make zero sense for a small shop unless a nice existing customer requires it to do further business. If you run across the claims of awesomeness of AS9100 by a member with the same name here the guy is nothing but a BSing conman who disappeared from here when outed.

Are you knocking on the right doors and leaving something to remember you by? It has been kicked around here numerous times on leaving something more than a business card and line card. A need to try out a new vendor may not arise for quite sometime. Not in the same field, but a 12" ruler made an electronic repair shop a couple thousand dollars with me. That is one of those business we hope to rarely use. I had fortunately went a long time between needing board repairs or replacements. Finally after a gap of six years I had a pair of spindle drives blow out on separate machines within days of each other. I could not remember the name of the place I was more than happy with on the last repair as it was out of state, I also did not want to dig through old receipts. Fortunately for them they gave me a small screwdriver and a 12" ruler with their name on it that I put in my office desk drawer. I did let them know their handouts made them a sale.

If something is useful and I get it, I will keep it, some guys seem to hate coffee cups, I have never thrown one away. Not only can you drink coffee from them, they make great holders for ink pens, Sharpies, and 6" scales. I have also received scratch pads, calendars, T-shirts, and used them all.
I really hope the website to be a online business card, moreso than something that generates traffic. Its a background project but machine capability will be the next thing I add, good thought.

I like the idea of a ruler and I will invest in something of the sort. We also have a left over, long, 1.5"dia rod of copper which I have been thinking of making something interesting with but really would like for it to be something more useful than just a token.
 
Yeah what Dualkit said. Leaving something useful to remember you by.

My father had a batch of pens done in the early days - flip side was after that supplier kept bombarding him trying to buy more!!!

But yeah caps, beanies (if of course it gets cold in your parts), coasters etc... The spend isnt huge, but its getting the name out there.

Old boy even got into sponsoring some signs at a couple of local sporting clubs, which we have kept up. Your net may need to be cast wider than that, but yeah get that name out in front of the required audience. Instant results - probably not.....

Honestly tho some of the better clients we have scored along the way have been by what I would describe as by accident. No one else wants to go out your way & check out one of their cust who is having a prob. Fixed a simple prob for this city based mfr and now our most consistant decent client.

Been to events (govt contracting out a large project needing various types of companies) with a heap of the big fish where you get a few funny looks (u know whats a "backyarder" doing here). but others where, "hey we once started out like you", and will talk to you. Always a busin card in the back pocket.

No quick fixes here to improve your fortunes, but thats how we improved ourselves to the point where we can pick and choose for the most part.

Still dont have any fancy bits of paper yet. Maybe down the track a bit. How big do you wanna get?????

Good luck with it,

Jatt

The business we have now was built by my grandfather. While I am getting a constant stream of my own work from the general public, the one "industry" customer I have received was basically just by chance aswell. They saw a post I made on facebook and inquired. I would really like to grow as much as possible but more in the direction of quality and complex capability. Of course now we are a general machine shop but that is my vision and at this stage I take what I can get if it means building industry relationships of any kind.
 
I'm not seeing a shop that can handle much "production".

And...your "gallery" does not show a single pix with more than (2) parts, not
a dozen of something.

So PA's are seeing "I doo one offs".

My bad, what I meant is machining parts to print vs manufacturing something for sale. I prefer challenging jobs where you get to do some problem solving and charge for relative complexity. Yes I know we don't have a mazak 5x but when you don't have any employees and the work is literally yours, you can make alot happen with what you have. Of course the dream is to be able to invest in higher technologies but have to start somewhere.
 
I'm the guy at a big company whose list you want to get on. I send out work regularly.

I have never gone outside soliciting a new vendor.

Every vendor I use came from word of mouth from one of my tooling reps who I see regularly. Those are the guys you want to show your capabilities to. They're the ones who walk into the big shops regularly, and when they get asked "Hey, do you know anyone who could make XXX for me?" they're they ones who will talk about your shop, and the quality of work they've seen from it. They're the ones I'll listen to.

That's the best advice I've got.

I am doing my best to network but besides a few shops it is online(facebook,youtube,linkedin). I know I can do more and I will continue to do so but like you said it does take things to line up a little bit since it seems alot of serious business is already working with somebody. Frankly it will just take a mixture of producing good work over time and getting in touch with the right people. I'm 20 so I cant really say I personally know many people in the industry but it has been a pleasure getting to know the ones I do.
 
I am doing my best to network but besides a few shops it is online(facebook,youtube,linkedin). I know I can do more and I will continue to do so but like you said it does take things to line up a little bit since it seems alot of serious business is already working with somebody. Frankly it will just take a mixture of producing good work over time and getting in touch with the right people. I'm 20 so I cant really say I personally know many people in the industry but it has been a pleasure getting to know the ones I do.

Congrats on being an ambitious 20 year old. Hang around, you found a great place to learn from. I wish this place was here when I was 20.
 
I am doing my best to network but besides a few shops it is online(facebook,youtube,linkedin). I know I can do more and I will continue to do so but like you said it does take things to line up a little bit since it seems alot of serious business is already working with somebody. Frankly it will just take a mixture of producing good work over time and getting in touch with the right people. I'm 20 so I cant really say I personally know many people in the industry but it has been a pleasure getting to know the ones I do.

Being 20 is an important bit of info.

I started on my own at 23. I remember how incredibly difficult it was to be taken seriously at that age. I was late 20's before I got much traction, made more that just get by money.

I don't have a job shop though, I make products. I would not want to compete in that realm.

Have you considered getting more specialized equipment? or coming up with products? Is there Bullard or HBM work around you? Hydraulic repair is always in demand.
 
I started on my own at 23. I remember how incredibly difficult it was to be taken seriously at that age. I was late 20's before I got much traction, made more that just get by money.

I don't have a job shop though, I make products. I would not want to compete in that realm.

Have you considered getting more specialized equipment? or coming up with products? Is there Bullard or HBM work around you? Hydraulic repair is always in demand.

I can echo the same sentiment. I started at 19, same sort of issues. Likewise, I'm not a job shop, and I agree, make your own product, or have your own specialty.

Make your own product doesn't have to be selling finished components on Amazon - while I do some of that, most of my stuff is 'custom,' but it's principally all very similar type stuff, that ultimately is a component of the same end use item. When you get to that point, you're no longer 'a machine shop,' being compared to all other machine shops, but you're the 'guy who makes X' and you're only having to compete with other guys who make X, and that's a much smaller field than all the guys with a bridgeport, engine lathe, and a VF2.

There is no way I could have competed as a job shop making the parts I was making with the equipment I had - for awhile early on, I was making small production runs of aluminum panels cutting them with a skilsaw and bending on a hand brake - those customers (and some reasonably large companies) came to me not because I was a sheet metal shop well equipped for that work, but because I was the guy that made {insert finished product that consisted of that formed panel}.

From the sounds of it, you've kinda gone down that road with the small engine stuff. People bring stuff to you because your the guy who who bores and hones small engines, not because you have a bridgeport. Figure out what you've done to be that guy, and direct that same sort of approach into what you want to make (but the what you want to make needs to be more specific than just 'widgets in general').

Now, take this with a grain of salt. I'm suggesting what you should do, because it's what worked for me - there's some level of survivorship bias there. That's not to say you can't make it as a job shop, but it is to say that looking back, I can't see how I would have been able to compete as a job shop, and there's no way I'd want to play that game, even at my current level.

For the job shop line of thinking, though, this thread is required reading. Read the whole thing.
B&A Precision
 
If you want to make the trip up my way sometime you can pick my brain all you want. I am 45 min up rt 202 from you.

I essentially re built my fathers company after a bad spine injury took me out of the game for some good years. Trying to get my dad to do things differently is hard. Cant teach an old dog new tricks. No cell phone, no web site, no email address, only a fax machine.

I had to separate the 2 businesses so I could show him how business is done in the 21st century.

A few trade shows later and a ton of emails and follow ups I ended up on about 20 vendor lists. Most companies I already knew about or have dealt with over the years but havent worked with in ages. Due to my dad not staying in touch with them, they all thought he was retired. They didnt know he had a son to take things over either.

Word of mouth gets around very easily, google has been my friend. I get 1-2 rfq's a month from it and every 3-6 months I get a serious customer out of it. 3 years later that is 6 new steady customers. It builds up slowly over time.

Confidence is the most important thing. When people talk to you they need to feel assured you can handle the task. Make sure you dont over sell yourself. Always under promise and over deliver.

The trade shows are going to be happening again in the near future. Design 2 Part trade shows are the best for job shops. You dont need to pay them anything either.

Like I said earlier, come up anytime and see my shop running. Ask questions and gain some knowledge. PM me if you want my info.

I would certainly take you up on that offer, I appreciate it and will be in touch! I can't wait to attend some trade shows, I have only been to EASTEC, which is a great one but the upcoming ones will be the first where I come in as part proprietor/sales person.
 
Being 20 is an important bit of info.

I started on my own at 23. I remember how incredibly difficult it was to be taken seriously at that age. I was late 20's before I got much traction, made more that just get by money.

I don't have a job shop though, I make products. I would not want to compete in that realm.

Have you considered getting more specialized equipment? or coming up with products? Is there Bullard or HBM work around you? Hydraulic repair is always in demand.

Currently I am investing alot of my money, which is tight, into tooling and metrology equipment. I do have a good arsenal of specialized tooling for engine rebuilding built up such as valve seat cutters and automotive hones. We are generally well equipped as a general machine shop but there are still tools and such that come up and I like to buy them just because I know they're good to have. Thing is the space is tight for much more machinery but we are working on that aswell hopefully;)

I do constantly think about coming up with a product but I haven't really come up with anything that isn't already made at bottom dollar and more importantly to me, something I really want to put my heart into. I do always have it on my mind.
 
I can echo the same sentiment. I started at 19, same sort of issues. Likewise, I'm not a job shop, and I agree, make your own product, or have your own specialty.

Make your own product doesn't have to be selling finished components on Amazon - while I do some of that, most of my stuff is 'custom,' but it's principally all very similar type stuff, that ultimately is a component of the same end use item. When you get to that point, you're no longer 'a machine shop,' being compared to all other machine shops, but you're the 'guy who makes X' and you're only having to compete with other guys who make X, and that's a much smaller field than all the guys with a bridgeport, engine lathe, and a VF2.

There is no way I could have competed as a job shop making the parts I was making with the equipment I had - for awhile early on, I was making small production runs of aluminum panels cutting them with a skilsaw and bending on a hand brake - those customers (and some reasonably large companies) came to me not because I was a sheet metal shop well equipped for that work, but because I was the guy that made {insert finished product that consisted of that formed panel}.

From the sounds of it, you've kinda gone down that road with the small engine stuff. People bring stuff to you because your the guy who who bores and hones small engines, not because you have a bridgeport. Figure out what you've done to be that guy, and direct that same sort of approach into what you want to make (but the what you want to make needs to be more specific than just 'widgets in general').

Now, take this with a grain of salt. I'm suggesting what you should do, because it's what worked for me - there's some level of survivorship bias there. That's not to say you can't make it as a job shop, but it is to say that looking back, I can't see how I would have been able to compete as a job shop, and there's no way I'd want to play that game, even at my current level.

For the job shop line of thinking, though, this thread is required reading. Read the whole thing.
B&A Precision

That is a very interesting thread, an entire journey, I will continue reading it. What worked for me is advertising on facebook marketplace and word of mouth does go around. I plan on creating and marketing a separate, performance small engine business. I will create a product if I can come up with the right thing.

Currently I am open to whatever can make me some money because its all small time but my heart is set on one day manufacturing complex parts on 5 axis machines, turning huge diameters. I don't expect to be there tomorrow but its what made me passionate about the trade. If it sounds like pipe dream, oh well
 
Currently I am investing alot of my money, which is tight, into tooling and metrology equipment. I do have a good arsenal of specialized tooling for engine rebuilding built up such as valve seat cutters and automotive hones. We are generally well equipped as a general machine shop but there are still tools and such that come up and I like to buy them just because I know they're good to have. Thing is the space is tight for much more machinery but we are working on that aswell hopefully;)

I do constantly think about coming up with a product but I haven't really come up with anything that isn't already made at bottom dollar and more importantly to me, something I really want to put my heart into. I do always have it on my mind.

You do engine work, are there any vehicles you are passionate about?
 








 
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