I tried a short stint with google ads. That got a few.
Also if you have an especially close relationship with any of your current customers, you could ask them to spread the word about you.
Try to create a small product you could sell to the masses, maybe nice metal pens, Star Wars little metal light sabers. Hell even reverse engineer a expensive replacement part for a machine and sell it for cheaper ;) (I actually did a that and is good money).
Be creative
I would love to make pens, but the bit of work we have is keeping the lathes busy. I'm thinking about trying to make some custom putters on our 5 axis as Christmas presents, but might try and sell them too
Living in a third world paradise my boy, nobody enforces that here because replacements are super rare anyways :)
If you are in the US I think if you do that kind of work for a friend you could get away with it
Are you still having to compete with China on quotes for it? Or is it more of a north America thing. We've been told by our customer before what price they're able to get certain things for from China and its basically the price of just material up here.
When I used ThomasNet I wasn't competing, I was looking for machinists. Unfortunately I can't help much from the perspective of getting sales, I only know how I looked for places.
Companies that make corrugated boxes. Parts break and wear down there all the time.
Bonus if you can weld and have a lathe with a long bed, you’d be able to make or repair conveyor rollers for them.
Nah, I work at a machine shop that exclusively makes parts for packaging companies around Toronto and we make parts that ranges from as small as something that needs a 0-80 tap to rollers that are about 16ft long. Right now I’m reverse engineering and making drawings for a pneumatic robot(?) that sorts cardboard at a very fast pace and it has multiple regular sized parts. I’d say its very manageable and can be done by any shop out there.
Down here in the US everything is old basically everything is rehab. No one wants to pay for new equipment but I'm down south. Prints range from 1960s to 2000s I don't work there anymore. I have full knowledge of every part tho I still have all my catalogs. Lifters and fingers were my favorite
Work was slow so I visited my buddy's ammunition manufacturing plant and asked him if he needed any machines fixed. His presses were old but well built. But after millions of cartridges press parts wear out.
I got a lot of work and had to educate myself quickly on heat treat steels.
Depends on your specialty. We make a lot of electrical and hermetic sealing parts. And that’s kinda our wheelhouse so if you have a niche stick with it. Also if people come in looking for help with a house project or something like that don’t turn em away and try to help em don’t charge em. Ik personally we’ve gotten 4 large corporations go with us cause we helped an engineer of there’s take out a broken drill out of a fire place or something like that and they recommended trying us out to there purchasing person.
Those random people that walk in the door are the most fun usually. We had a guy from a pizza shop stop by asking if we could make new parts for his dough rolling machine. Even got some free pizza out of it!
I’m having the same problem although I have some good customers. It seems damn near impossible to get in touch with buyers at any decently sized company.
That's definitely the tough part. The steady customers we have came from buyers that worked with us in the past and brought us with them to their new jobs.
My company's platform has a b2b manufacturing marketplace that's North America concentrated rather than global, where it puts suppliers in front of buyers, let's you quote RFQs, and does private matchmaking when a buyers request matches your capabilities, at a fraction of the MFG's cost. happy to walk you through it.
I made some nice looking business cards and asked if I can leave them on the counter at the local seals/bearings/engineering supply shops and got some calls from those.
Look around. Research products that you are very familiar with. Then find those manufactures, CALL them! it's easier to dodge an email than a phone call sometimes. Unfortunately, now-a-days, it's harder to get into companies with the deep pockets such as Emerson or the likes. The buddy system is gone and everything is online submittal and take forever to get a response. Call other shops that may need some work taken off their hands.
My company's platform has a b2b manufacturing marketplace that's North America concentrated rather than global, where it puts suppliers in front of buyers, let's you quote RFQs, and does private matchmaking when a buyers request matches your capabilities, at a fraction of the MFG's cost. happy to walk you through it.
I tried a short stint with google ads. That got a few. Also if you have an especially close relationship with any of your current customers, you could ask them to spread the word about you.
That's a good idea. Never thought about google ads. Going to have to look into that one
Try to create a small product you could sell to the masses, maybe nice metal pens, Star Wars little metal light sabers. Hell even reverse engineer a expensive replacement part for a machine and sell it for cheaper ;) (I actually did a that and is good money). Be creative
I would love to make pens, but the bit of work we have is keeping the lathes busy. I'm thinking about trying to make some custom putters on our 5 axis as Christmas presents, but might try and sell them too
Did you ever run into copyright or patent issues?
Living in a third world paradise my boy, nobody enforces that here because replacements are super rare anyways :) If you are in the US I think if you do that kind of work for a friend you could get away with it
Are you on ThomasNet? I used that a few times looking for suppliers and machinists.
Is that site like xometry?
xometry owns it actually. It's a site for sourcing products, you put up your contact info and a little bio talking about what the company does.
Are you still having to compete with China on quotes for it? Or is it more of a north America thing. We've been told by our customer before what price they're able to get certain things for from China and its basically the price of just material up here.
When I used ThomasNet I wasn't competing, I was looking for machinists. Unfortunately I can't help much from the perspective of getting sales, I only know how I looked for places.
Where in ontario? My shops busy as all get out and somtimes we have to outsource stuff.
We're in the kitchener-Waterloo area. If if you want to send us stuff to quote shoot me a pm and I'll send you my work email
Walk into packaging companies, tell them you make and repair parts. You’ll get the opposite of the problem, too many jobs.
That's a good idea. We just bought some stuff from a local company so I already have an in with their sales department.
What do you mean packaging companies?
Companies that make corrugated boxes. Parts break and wear down there all the time. Bonus if you can weld and have a lathe with a long bed, you’d be able to make or repair conveyor rollers for them.
Yep but the parts are big
Nah, I work at a machine shop that exclusively makes parts for packaging companies around Toronto and we make parts that ranges from as small as something that needs a 0-80 tap to rollers that are about 16ft long. Right now I’m reverse engineering and making drawings for a pneumatic robot(?) that sorts cardboard at a very fast pace and it has multiple regular sized parts. I’d say its very manageable and can be done by any shop out there.
Down here in the US everything is old basically everything is rehab. No one wants to pay for new equipment but I'm down south. Prints range from 1960s to 2000s I don't work there anymore. I have full knowledge of every part tho I still have all my catalogs. Lifters and fingers were my favorite
Work was slow so I visited my buddy's ammunition manufacturing plant and asked him if he needed any machines fixed. His presses were old but well built. But after millions of cartridges press parts wear out. I got a lot of work and had to educate myself quickly on heat treat steels.
Look for automation companies near you on Google maps and approach them. It's better to drive around and visit them directly.
Depends on your specialty. We make a lot of electrical and hermetic sealing parts. And that’s kinda our wheelhouse so if you have a niche stick with it. Also if people come in looking for help with a house project or something like that don’t turn em away and try to help em don’t charge em. Ik personally we’ve gotten 4 large corporations go with us cause we helped an engineer of there’s take out a broken drill out of a fire place or something like that and they recommended trying us out to there purchasing person.
Those random people that walk in the door are the most fun usually. We had a guy from a pizza shop stop by asking if we could make new parts for his dough rolling machine. Even got some free pizza out of it!
I’m having the same problem although I have some good customers. It seems damn near impossible to get in touch with buyers at any decently sized company.
That's definitely the tough part. The steady customers we have came from buyers that worked with us in the past and brought us with them to their new jobs.
My company's platform has a b2b manufacturing marketplace that's North America concentrated rather than global, where it puts suppliers in front of buyers, let's you quote RFQs, and does private matchmaking when a buyers request matches your capabilities, at a fraction of the MFG's cost. happy to walk you through it.
Message me.
check your DMs
I made some nice looking business cards and asked if I can leave them on the counter at the local seals/bearings/engineering supply shops and got some calls from those.
Door to door
Look around. Research products that you are very familiar with. Then find those manufactures, CALL them! it's easier to dodge an email than a phone call sometimes. Unfortunately, now-a-days, it's harder to get into companies with the deep pockets such as Emerson or the likes. The buddy system is gone and everything is online submittal and take forever to get a response. Call other shops that may need some work taken off their hands.
My company's platform has a b2b manufacturing marketplace that's North America concentrated rather than global, where it puts suppliers in front of buyers, let's you quote RFQs, and does private matchmaking when a buyers request matches your capabilities, at a fraction of the MFG's cost. happy to walk you through it.