My business - follow up

[Wheat.Millington]

So not sure if anyone's interested, but as a follow up to my post a month ago, I'm really pleased with how my little side business is going. Long story short, as a novice machinist in New Zealand it became immediately apparent to me how difficult it is to buy metal here in my country. It's insane, but the only way to reasonably buy material is to buy 4 - 8 metre lengths from the big suppliers, if you happen to be near where they are and are able to manage these lengths.

So my little side business is to buy lengths of metal, cut them into manageable sizes, and sell them online. This is something that, amazingly, isn't being done in a meaningful way over here. So I bought a bunch of inventory (not nearly enough yet) and a pretty expensive saw, and immediately found a small, but decent, market for this stuff.

Just wanted to share, because this is exciting for me, and someone might be interested in sharing my joy This little business is never going to make anyone rich, butwith relatively small effort I've managed to turn over around $1,500 worth of material in my first month,which I'm very happy with, andover time this will go some way to funding my little home workshop!

I am still EXTREMELY open to advice, suggestions, and any kind of feedback anyone wants to give me. The stock we have available over here is a little different to what's available elsewhere, but so far I'm stocking round bar in 6061, 304, 1045, 1040, 4140, brass and acetal, sizes from 10mm up to 60mm and expanding.

I'm also stocking mild steel flats in a few different sizes and a couple of other things. Being a tiny business I'm hesitant to expand my inventory too fast.

Happy to post my website and would LOVE some feedback, but don't want to appear to be pimping my business because that's not my motivation here - someone let me know if it's OK to post a URL?

 

[T Bredehoft]

Awesome, seredipity conquers all.

 

[Martin W]

Good idea. You will be the next Metal Supermarket!
Cheers
Martin

 

[addertooth]

I am glad you applied the old "inventor's maxim".
Nobody pays for a "product', they pay for "solutions".
You found a problem in your area, and then continued to think about "what is the solution".
You made that solution available to others, and thus tapped into a previously unsatisfied market.

This means you have that "something extra" which many business owners lack. It is the ability to see a problem (which others simply complain about, but move on). Instead of "moving on" you tooled up to BE the solution. There are thousands of problems around us every day, which
get largely ignored by the community. A successful business man offers the solution (at a reasonable profit).

 

[savarin]

Wish you opened up here.
What I did in my town was to visit the end users to see if they had any off cuts to sell.
If they did or were interested I briefly mentioned that idiots like me with stupid hobbies are finding it harder and harder finding raw materials in small amounts so they should advertise as there is probably a small market out there.
Enough have done so now that I can usually find what I want locally.
The aluminium place has done so well from this that he's never got much left these days it virtually goes as soon as it hits the floor.

 

[C-Bag]

Nobody pays for a "product', they pay for "solutions".

I have never heard that before, “the inventor’s maxim” indeed. That is incredibly profound IMHO.

Not being a businessman I came up with my solution and others saw it and wanted one. This caused a whole cascade of problems like how to manufacture it etc. The other problem was the feedback was less than encouraging. Ranging from I thought of that, oh this won’t last you’ll be knocked off by China and be out of biz to why don’t you make it out of plastic, aluminum or CF instead of steel? And a host of others. So I always thought I’d just produce it as needed, by hand, as cheaply as possible until nobody wants it anymore. Then I wouldn’t lose much. It has always been word of mouth and 35yrs later I’m still a one man shop working out of my garage in my working retirement. Whodathunk?

For me it’s always been customer service with the best product I can make at a price that can keep me going as a one man operation with the lowest overhead possible. I try to make a living, not a killing.

 

[rabler]

From my perspective I think expanding sizes up to 100mm dia for some basic aluminum and steel would be helpful. Also, I would suggest perusing ebay to see what sells there may give you ideas.

 

[ConValSam]

Cheers to your ambition and initiative! I have little doubt you will meet with continued success.

 

[FOMOGO]

Congrats on a solid plan, and execution. Mike

 

[Lo-Fi]

Steel box section and angle would complete your range very nicely. 20 and 25mm are very useful for hobby tasks. More power to you!

If you want an idea to explore some more niche products in the future, look to model engineers for hex stock and gauge plate they commonly use. I know my mate in Oz orders both from here in the UK for making his model locomotives, and from the sounds of it you guys in NZ may be lacking a supplier too.