Starting Your Shop Again... What Would You Do Differently? | Machine Shop Talk Ep. 76

A question was posed to machine shop owners - if you could do it all again knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
On this episode of MACHINE SHOP TALK, Ian Sandusky from Lakewood Machine & Tool is diving back into the Practical Machinist forums to go through some of the very interesting answers that this question provided.
From buying as much space as possible when starting out to not making that partnership agreement to being looser with budgets in the beginning - there are many things that with hindsight, may have seemed like a better route.
Read the forum thread here: www.practicalmachinist.com/fo...
If you had to start your shop again with your current knowledge, what would YOU have done differently? Let us know in the comments below!
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:30 Buying/renting a larger space
8:53 Partner selection
13:04 Business assessment timing
15:23 Looser approach to spending
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[@thehawksnest]

Well, we are one year in and too new to really look back yet, but we had to move from 800sqft to 2400sqft. It is amazing how much open floor space becomes gold. One of our goals is keeping overhead as low as possible. I am happy we've been buying used machines and watching online auctions such as bidspotter for tools. You will most likely have to fix some things but i think it is great to become very familiar with your equipment.

[@tylergilbertson4086]

Gil-Tek here, one thing that I wish I would of done was made the decision to buy my own mill sooner. I had cold feet and second thoughts the entire time leading up to and through the process of going out on my own. I spent 2 or 3 years working after hours and on weekends at my place of employment to do my own things. I was very fortunate to have a owner of the business that supported me and allowed me the free roam after hours. If you can do that then it's a great way to start and save up money to buy your own equipment. I was able to do this as well because I wasn't conflicting with his work since I was making my own product and not competing with him.

[@shaneprice2102]

Thanks for the vid👍

[@pvtimberfaller]

1. Have work for your shop before you waste money on equipment wether or it is your product or subcontracting. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. 2. Have as much in your budget for tooling as you have for machines. 3. Don’t quit your day job…yet. 4. Unless you are running the machine or product daily buy one and get familiar with the operation, software and process. Learning when you have a hot job will take all the profit out of a job.

[@conceptsken1]

GREAT ADVISE

[@TrPrecisionMachining]

hello form spain..good video..thanks for your time

[@iansandusky417]

Thank you very much for checking it out!

[@bradwick212]

I just sold all my machines, I would never open a shop again. I would rather have a steady pay and full benefits without the micro management from customers. And the money in machine shops is horrible.

[@thunderthormx]

Really liked learning about the term survivorship biased. Really good to take that kind of advice with a grain of salt. I know our shop has benefited from growing slow. Maybe painfully slow at times for my liking. But sometimes you're bread and butter customers will up and leave and if you were all in on them you're gonna be up a creek

[@iansandusky417]

Absolutely, diversifying your customer base as much as possible can only help you out!

[@k53847]

The classic example is from WW2, when the Army wanted to know where to armor planes and looked at where the planes that had landed after having been hit. There were definite patterns and people wanted to add armor to where they got hit a lot. Makes sense, right? No. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGS8gn1redyHsK8

[@iansandusky417]

@@k53847 You got it! That's a picture-perfect illustration of the concept!

[@davidchanget2563]

Cut to the chase a little quicker. Time is your viewers most valuable asset.

[@shaneprice2102]

Do you see any downside to running a new Haas mini mill off single phase vs 3 phase? Or would you get the same results regardless. I am mainly concerned about the lack of horse power HP running single. ???

[@nikolaiownz]

Buying 5 axis as the first mill and not a 3 axis with rotary.

[@iansandusky417]

That’s interesting - I still don’t have a 5 axis here and I have a feeling once we add that capability I’ll likely feel the same!

[@nikolaiownz]

@@iansandusky417 you Will never look back forsure.

[@nikolaiownz]

@@iansandusky417 i still have work that fits our 3 axis but 90% is just better ok the 5 axis

[@nikolaiownz]

I had a few that wanted to partner into my company. Lucky I dodged the bullet.

[@iansandusky417]

Though there are definitely benefits to having a partner - I’ve only ever heard once that someone wished they’d had a partner when they didn’t - most other stories you hear tend to trend the other way!

[@nikolaiownz]

@@iansandusky417 yup. It’s not that I am 100% no partner but I can see when I have discussions with my father in law(he’s helping with the administrative side of the company) there is really good in both. He’s also invested in my company but not a partner so I still make the final decisions. But it’s great to have someone to spare with that’s not a machinist or shop owner.

[@hastearserwan3204]

Is advertising worth it through facebook and youtube to aquire clients??

[@iansandusky417]

Personally, I think creating good content and maintaining an account that you update regularly showcasing your work and engaging with the community is going to be a far better use of time and energy rather than outright advertising as a machine shop.

[@efraincaballero7482]

​@@iansandusky417 hey man, thanks for your videos, I've learned a lot from them. How long did it took to actually get customers from your content? I'm starting to create content for my business but I'm not really expecting to get clients from there, I'm doing it more as a way of easily sharing my work with potential customers that I meet outside of social media. Any thoughts on that? Thanks!