we are facing now the crisis time and most of the manufacturing areas suffer a lot. this is the crucial period to focus on eliminating your wrong business strategies and costly expenditure.

In the present technological and Information world anyone could make the part similar to what you manufacture in your company. I suggest you to concentrate on marketing, sales and customer satisfaction. cheers

It is hard to give precise advise without knowing more of what you can do and where you are based. You have obviously gained work in the past in particular fields, which you think are your strengths. Play to these, look for related industries. I have run a small engineering workshop and I know the dangers of relying on one customer (or one industry) too heavily. I am happy to help in more detail, if you can give me more information.

I can help you in giving some tips but before that please tell me your location, products/services offered by you, nature jobs done by you, machines available with you and organisation strength.

Regards,

S.J.Sharma.

Great and thank you. We have cnc turning up to 42 inch in length. Cnc milling cube size 60-x, 30-y, 36-z. We do have some smaller faster cnc mills. The general compliment of manual equipment. We do some surface grinding not much. The only materials we will not work with are the unsafe ones. Our objective is not to become huge however there is a magic number of employees to spread out the over head. Currently we are at 5 employees and would like to be 10-12. You thoughts are welcomed and appreciated. THanks Ryan

My guess is that you are not involved of an industry trade association. Trade associations are thought of as providing benchmarking and technical support and lobbying mostly, but the one that I work for delivers quite a bit of networking, marketing info, and 'business intelligence.' We wrote about hybrids in 2003 (we called it 42 volt technology back then) and a few members thought we were smoking banana peels. They made power steering fluid power components However , a few other members now are selling into that market and drive by wire. We have similarly produced reports on fuelcell market, and put together an annual market forecast showing markets served ( leaving the inference of markets underserved...to the recipient.) You can look at our site here www.pmpa.org

Our members say that the biggest benefit that they get is networking with their peers.

I can be reached via the online email by clicking my name above. drop me a line privately. No hard pressure sales. I promise.

milo

I run a small research & development company, and faced a similar problem. I realized there are 6 or 7 business skills required for successfully running a business enterprise. Few individuals are competent in all these skills. Some of the skills are technical, such as those learned in a course of study on engineering or chemistry. But others are more business or financial in nature.My skills lie in the technical areas of organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, emulsions etc., but I can hardly balance a check book. I found it vital to find partners who have business skills that don't MATCH mine, but COMPLIMENT mine. My main partner and I worked together many years before we got laid off. I was in R&D and he was in sales & marketinig. We worked well together as a team, I developed products and technology and he found markets, customers and applications. We do now pretty much what we did then, but now do it for ourselves instead of "the company". I suggest you do an honest assessment of your company's strengths and weaknesses, and consider skills like engineering knowledge, engineering areas, fabrication/manufacturing equipment, market analysis (who's your customer? what do they need?, how do we meet that need?), purchasing/accounting/inventory control, sales, customer support, information technology.In some areas,(such as your core business) you need top caliber skills. In other support areas, you only need adequate skills. You don't really need top caliber skills in ALL areas. From your post, I suggest you need a marketing person who can find new areas and customers for your services. When this person finds such areas, a technically competent salesman can further explore the opportunity and (hopefully) bring back an order.

I see what you are saying and will give it serious consideration. I had never thought of hiring people with a range of caliber, but this is a good idea. Thanks again Ryan

I read your reply to this person and it caught my interest, I have a patent that is in the technology field basically it is an inkless pen which records your hand movement. I would like to speak with you regarding developing my patent concept and make it a reality. [Please respond], if this is not your field thanks anyway.

Hi ryanm, You may think of identifying your own product. Use your existing expertise to develop a Quality product.If necessary, find an expert who can help you out. Rangasamy

Hi Ryan,

Offhand, I'd advise you to designate someone in your organization to be the Sales and Marketing Department. Then send him/her to every trade show you can find in your region. You don't have to have a booth (costly) but you do need to get out of the house and meet your market. Don't just go to engineering machine shows; go to toy manufacturing shows, shoe manufacturing shows, chicken farming shows, any and every show that is available to you. You go to these other "non-engineering" shows because you gain insights into their businesses and industries. And your name,face and company becomes known to hundreds of company reps from all over the world.

Ever gone to a business and seen about a thousand things that your business could offer them that would improve their productivity, efficiency, or safety? That's what you can offer people who perhaps do not enjoy the sweet pleasure of their own engineering department. If they work with organic farming or molecular biology or nice smelling bath products for a living, they might appreciate the insights of an engineering firm that could fill in a few information gaps in their processes that could lead to benefits for them.

It's also a great place to steal ideas . . . I mean find inspiration.

Be sociable, be helpful, make relationships, and follow up. You will come home with sacks full of business cards and product literature. Many of them could become your customers. Get famous. The inquiries will follow.

One last word: Times are tough. The designated sales and marketing person will need support. Give it to them, and be patient. The growth curve is upward, but it usually isn't a skyrocket.

Top o' the day !

RYANM,

More technical oriented means that you are a fabricator to customer's choice. Your interest is to grow further, getting more orders. My views are the following.

*The new customer needs an introduction of your capability, quality of work and cost aspects. You got to show case your past/ on going works with specific permission from your clients, so as to impress upon your service. Product samples, photographs,highlights and possible customer appreciation can better facilitate presentation to new customer.

*An album should be of good use for presentation.

*Make use of your present customers to spread indirect advertisement for your concern.

*You got to make improvised new products as part of your R&D , demonstrate and fetch orders.

*Sensing market pulses and competitiveness in quality and cost is to be practised on a regular basis.

*Deliberate marketing visits though painful will pay for the pains by gains.

*Never disclose product design/ specifications of one customer to others and maintain trust worthy reliability.

I would like to ask if your team is able to develope and manufacture an inkless pen, bringing it from concept to reality, there is no prototype developed at this point, it was patent in 2000, and I am seeking help for my product.