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Kirk, I don't know what exactly you want to do for a business. It's obviously something along the lines of cnc work. I don't have any experience in that business but I can offer some general thoughts about finding work and maintaining it. Networking, word of mouth and referrals are best. Ask all of your friends if they know of anyone needing work. Talk your business up. Get business cards and hand them out. Even if it is to someone wanting your phone number. One job will, in time, lead to another. Ask every one of your clients if they can give you a referal to someone else needing work. Treat every job (and customer) as though their job is the first of many more to come. Because sometimes it is, and they won't always say that. Otherwise, it is because their recommendations to others are the main way for you to get further work. If there are problems on a job, bend over backwards to fix it. Even if it ends up costing your profit. Your reputation is everything. Showing goodwill can go a long ways toward another referral. It's golden when a customer says that there were a few problems but that you went the extra mile to get it right. Advertising will also bring in work but I find that you will get all kinds of responses. A few will be good jobs. A lot of others will be time wasters, such as, people shopping for that second bid or the cheapest price (not always good if you get the job). One choice will be as to whether you want to do custom work, on a job by job basis or manufacture a product. Each will lead you in a different direction about how to go about getting work or making sales. Sometimes in a job shop it can pay to have a product to manufacture in between jobs coming into the shop. Or in a manufacturing shop, to take in a few custom jobs. Either way it can help the cash flow. There will be jobs that no one else wants to mess with (that can be good though). There can be a lot of reasons others don't want to do certain jobs. Sometimes it can be a can of worms where if you touch it you become responsible for the rest of the problems. It can also be that it is too small to be profitable for a larger shop. Or, you are the one who has the expertise or means to do the job. As a small shop there is no way you can compete with a large production shop. But the unweildiness of a large shop can work to your advantage too. There may be jobs that a larger shop doesn't want to take on. Find a niche or a specialty. Concentrate on what you can do the best, at the most profit. Let others do everything else. Since you are only talking of cnc machining, there may be jobs where other trades or specialties are needed. Like welding, sheet metal fab, sand blasting, painting etc. Find some good people that you can work with to increase your capabilities to get a particular job done. Make sure you have good suppliers that will work with you. Get written quotes from them even for jobs that you are only bidding on. It hurts when you get a job only to find out that the price of the materials that you counted on has increased for any number of reasons. Limit the amount of time your bids or quotes are good for. Be careful about the work that you accept. Make sure that you understand what the job entails. Get all of the details in writing. I hope I'm not rambling too much. Good Luck, Chris Kirk Wallace wrote: The reason I allowed myself to convert my machines to CNC was to try to make a living with them. Now that I am close to completion, I need to pursue getting jobs. The problem is that I don't have a clue as to how to go about it. If anyone has advice, please let me know. If this thread is inappropriate for the list, please reply to my e-mail address. Personally, I tend to want to share information with everyone. |
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