Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO Semi-OT: small home shops and profitibility

> From: Jon Anderson <janders@...>
> Every worthwhile customer I've picked up came from either just walking
> in the door looking for work, or by referral.

This has been my experience as well.

1***

> Tell everyone you know that you are interested in doing some side
> machine work.

2***

> Hit the local shops and offer to take on the little dink jobs when they
> are busy. Helps here if you can bring samples of work to show you can
> actually make parts.

3***

> Pay attention to the business districts in your area. Anyone
> manufacturing is a -potential- source of work.

4***

> You will most certainly have more success dealing with small companies
> that themselves are not far from their garage roots.

Re-read the previous comments until they are burned into your cerebral
cortex, especially #2.

> You don't have to make your living at this like I am. I had to chose
> between doing it full time or moving to where I could find a decent job.
> Keep it a side thing, and let it build up your shop.

I did this for seven years before going full time.

At present I am a consolidator and expediter of machine work. I get
blueprints, buy material, subcontract the actual work, add my egregious
markup and deliver the finished job. The past few months have been very
rough, but I think things are about to pick up (if they don't I'll have a new
career saying, "You want fries with that?"). Here's a short story:

I wanted to get some work from a large company near me that was itself a
machine shop. I had a guy's card who was in charge of production, but I
couldn't get past the receptionist to speak with him. I phoned, I went there
and left several of my cards and nothing happened. My old partner Kevin said
that many people had tried, but no one could get in this place to get work
out of them unless they had some inside connection. I finally hit upon a plan
that worked. A friend of mine was working at Domino's Pizza near this shop. I
called him and ordered 20 assorted pizzas and a bunch of canned soda (almost
100 people worked at this shop). I then called the receptionist and told her
to tell the guy I wanted to speak with that I'd be by at noon with lunch for
everyone, and that I'd like to have 5 minutes of his time. I got a contract
to countersink about 3000 holes in steel plates (I think it was $0.70/hole)
which paid enough to cover the pizza stunt and pay me a decent hourly rate
for the work. I might have gotten another job or two, but they never turned
into the kind of steady client I really like, and the relationship faded
away.

About 5 years pass...

I was in the office of another company talking to a guy about doing a cnc
control system on a Minitech mill that they could use to demo their WinCE
based industrial automation software at trade shows. The guy I was talking
with said he used to work at the shop where I brought the pizza. I told him
the story and he remembered it immediately. It turned out that his boss had
also worked there and he yelled over to his office, "Hey, you remember that
guy...". This helped me develop my relationship with this new company, and I
got the cnc control job at a time when I really needed the work.

Matt