How To Find Work for Your Shop | Machine Shop Talk Ep. 10

The latest episode of our Machine Shop Talk covers a fundamental topic in the life of any machine shop owner: how to find jobs. Tune in to hear Ian's recommendations!

How do machine shops find clients and jobs to keep their business active and profitable? There's no ultimate answer to this million-dollar question as many factors are likely to affect the strategy that any machine shop should adopt to market their business and services.

The first place to visit when trying to find work is your existing customers. This might sound like a silly recommendation but existing customers are likely to be constantly in need of parts to be done and the chances that your shop is taking care of 100% of their parts are pretty minimal (if not zero). Reaching out and letting them know that your shop has the capabilities to take up more work for them is a good place to start.

The second venue to explore when looking for new jobs, according to Ian, is old customers that your shop worked with or quoted before. Following up, even a year later, and keeping the relationships open with prospects that didn't convert before is always a good way to potentially find more work.

The last option is cold calling. Cold calling is not the easiest way to get new customers but it's one of the most common ways to introduce your business to prospects and take on new projects,

How does your machine shop find new customers and projects? Share your experience with us in the comments.

Stay tuned for more machine shop talks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Practical Machinist is the largest and most engaged #metalworking community across the web. With more than 160,000 registered members and 250,000+ social media followers, Practical Machinist is the easiest way to learn new techniques, get answers quickly, and discuss common challenges with your peers. Visit Practical Machinist today to join the community and start connecting with your peers.

#machining #machineshop #metalworking

[jeffreyfine]

Brand new to the space. I really liked your educating customers on your full breath of capabilities and essentially inactive to active! Very worthwhile use of my time. Thank you!

[brianb]

How do you go about identifying companies to reach out to and getting contacts for cold calling and cold emailing?

[ericamundson]

do good work with customer service and your customers will find the work for you>. this is true in any industry

[D]

If I get a good machine and I design parts as well as manufacture them, do you think I can make money on odd jobs?

[armstrongbbwoo]

Hi, I am a new entrepreneur and I am planning to startup a micro factory. I am in need of a machine. How do I get across to you?

[Prahitinc]

Hey i started company in canada last year, we do precise job work, i have cmm lab as well, i am looking to get work from us, and i am on the border of Detroit, does any one have hint how i can achieve that. Do any one have any contact, please share me

[leacp]

now tell a small shop how they can get some small batch one off jobs

[marvbush]

I find cold calls are best done in person.
Emails are for after first contact.

[ICON.Engineering_]

The only way to find jobs is keep investing into advertisement in Google. Sending your technical proposals to appropriate companies is the waste of time. All production companies are already have business relations with CNC machining subcontractors and the only way to get into business with them is the price factor. But if your main concern is the way you can find customers then probably you are beginner and you cannot be competetive with the price which comes from more advanced companies because they already had invested into machines, tooling and fixtures. So the only way for beginners is to spend some extra $$$ to get on top of the search list for the most relevant search requests and start working with small companies and individuals on tiny batches (50-100-200 parts). Concerning search request - do not even think of spending top-of-the-list bid for such requests as "CNC machining", "CNC milling" etc. - you must think as an employer of the companies who need to order goods and in most cases they are not familiar with our trade, so you must use some specific phrases as "production of aluminum chassis", "manufacture steel tank", "boring of gearbox" etc (i'm not so good in English so the above search requests may be not so proper)

[phillhuddleston]

1: existing customers
2: former customers
3: cold calling (last on list)

[Jhihmoac]

This is where it's going in the US these days... Independent small 1 or 2 man micro operations on a contract limited run or prototype basis... If clients want large scale production, they take their prototypes and mostly go offshore where the labor is cheap...

[jaybeezy]

I think it would be more effective if you revealed how you acquired existing customers. Great stuff tho

[sunsetusa]

If its possible (maybe not from a liability standpoint?) I'd make my formal LLC general, my shop name specific. "SUNSET USA LLC" isn't what I'd put on my shop sign or in the phonebook. It'd be "Sunset Pattern" or prototype, EDM, tool and die, casting. Whatever my main duty trending over say a decade. I've cold called for construction and you literally have to ask "Kalin Construction" what's your trade? Come to find out they're the biggest regional pulling 3mil in profit a quarter building heavy highway and you need a Lowes built.

[griffithguns]

If anyone wants work, i have it 😂
I manually machine beretta compensators and i cant keep up with demand. I need a cnc shop

[Birender]

Thank you very much. It is really helpfull. Best Wishes from New Delhi, India

[scottbz]

The best way is to design and manufacture your own products.
The next best way is to get on a Q.S.L. list with the D.O.D.
The way we pick up most work now is from other customers telling new people what we do.

[dirtboy]

Xometry constantly underbids my customers and they go that route. I hate it

[ddburdette]

What about advertising? What about having a sales rep?

[firebirdclonefirebird]

introduce yourself to any manufacturing facility in the area, (ESPECIALLY if they have older equipment) leave your card, offer a free evaluation.

After your first few jobs, bring in Chick-fil-A biscuits for the maintenance staff.

[wilsonandsonsprecision]

Glad to see you making videos again ;) id love to hear your thoughts on finding work through the interwebs?