In our years of experience developing websites for both new and established machine shops across the country, we’ve been able to catalog the important facts potential machine shop owners should consider to help the growth of their businesses. As more manufacturing jobs return state-side, experienced machine operators and industry professionals are looking to enter the machining space through a privately owned machine shop. In addition to creating a captivating digital footprint, we’ve compiled a list of ten critical ways to help grow a machine shop. This article covers those ten items, provides links to additional resources, and should help create a tangible set of objectives for established machine shop owners looking to expand the viability and profits of their precision machine shops in 2024.

Jump to a Section:

1. Finding Your Focus & Niche Markets
2. Adding The Right Equipment
3. Pursue Certifications for Specialty Industries
4. Employee Education & Safety Measures
5. Develop Regional Partnerships
6. Build An Impactful Website
7. Create Marketing Strategy
8. Emphasize Customer Service
9. Build A Client List
10. Integrate an ERP System

#1 – Finding Your Focus & Niche Markets

Determining your focus is one of the most important things to know before and after starting a machine shop. Maybe you’re coming from the aerospace, automotive, or medical industry and would like to apply your skills to a different aspect of manufacturing components for those sectors. Perhaps you are a versatile and skilled machinist looking to make a name for yourself in the manufacturing world and have no limitations surrounding your specific focus. Finding this focus can be a driving force behind opening your machine shop, but it can also be an incredible way to expand your viability to new markets when the influx of new customers or jobs slows after a few years of operation.

Your concentrated focus will factor into any other decision you make including the specific equipment you purchase, marketing strategies, website design, certifications, potential clients, and the required staff to make your dream a reality. Finding your focus can also include the varying value-added services potential customers appreciate in their machine shops like expedited turnaround time, proficient prototyping, maximum production volume, experience working with specialty materials, and countless other crucial variables that can make or break machine shops in today’s manufacturing environment.

In our experience, machine shops can be expansive and versatile service providers with no limitations or they can be refined businesses that only cater to niche or specialty markets. This can include working within certain industries that require added certifications or advanced machining equipment like aerospace and medical or prioritizing high-volume part production of designs with reduced complexity.

Ultimately, the choice depends on the applicable experience of the machine shop owner, the regional market, available investment capital, and the projected growth of the machine shop. In some instances, machine shops can start with broad capabilities to attract customers and then refine their offerings once a steady client base is established with well-defined margins and production volume. No matter the focus, identifying your early focus and developing a plan for future progress is a surefire way to help your machine shop grow.

#2 – Adding the Right Equipment

Precision machining and the associated manufacturing equipment are advancing at tremendous rates, making purchasing the right equipment for your machine shop a challenging endeavor. Depending on your specific focus (see, we told you it was the most important factor!) you may find that you need specialized equipment to meet specific requirements of customers and help grow your machine shop. You must be prepared to adapt to ever-changing industry requirements for levels of precision, flatness, accuracy, and handling complex part geometries. Although this list is by no means comprehensive, the right assortment of high-quality precision machines can help your shop grow and evolve for the future:

• CNC Turning Centers: These can be horizontal, vertical, or universal machining centers with a varying range of axis capabilities depending on component complexity, design, or material. A singular UMC or combination of two vertical or horizontal machining centers is the heart of any good machine shop and provides the flexibility required to accommodate the complex demands of the modern fabrication industry.
• CNC Lathes: Used predominantly for cylindrical or conical components, CNC Lathes provide enhanced accuracy and precision over manual lathe applications. Although manual lathes are an option for some machine shops, offering the precision of CNC lathes makes machine shops appealing to specialty industries and can help grow your customer base and expand profit margins.
• Cutting Equipment: This category of equipment encompasses a wide range of possibilities that range from simple band saws to multi-head water jet tables capable of cutting through several inches of steel. Depending on the projected volume or specific industry focus of your machine shop, you may consider adding CNC Fiber Laser or CNC Plasma Cutting tables to your facility to expedite production and expand viability. The right combination of precision cutting equipment can elevate the production capacity of your machine shop to appeal to customers with high-volume projects with tight deadlines.
• Precision Metrology Equipment: Certain industries with rigid tolerances for their machined components will require machine shop owners to use precision metrology tools like coordinate measuring machines and optical comparators to guarantee components have the correct dimensions and tolerances. Some machine shops can also decide to be a third-party metrology service provider and complete advanced measuring of tolerances and dimensions for customers overwhelmed by their current workload.
• Other Assorted Equipment: This category includes assorted small tools, saws, grinders, sanders, welding equipment, personal protective equipment, and drill presses required to have a fully operational machine shop. Often this list of specific equipment will grow as you expand production and take on new jobs that require creative solutions.

#3 – Pursue Certifications for Specialty Industries

Pursuing additional certifications is a guaranteed way to separate from competing providers and help your machine shop grow. These certifications can be broad and encompass your entire operation like an ISO 9001 Quality Management System or showcase your proficiency in manufacturing components for specific industries like the ISO 13485 designated for manufacturing medical components. Although these certifications require extensive audits, documentation practices, and additional training, showcasing any of the certifications listed below can elevate your machine shop and dramatically increase the volume of RFQs and signed projects. Highlighting these certifications throughout your website and marketing campaigns will help grow your machine shop.

• ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems
• AS9100 Quality Management System for Aerospace Industry
• ISO 13485 Quality Management System for Medical Industry
• NADCAP for Aerospace & Defense
• ASME Certification
• ITAR Compliance for Military Components

#4 – Employee Education & Safety Measures

Another top ten thing to help grow your machine shop is devising a plan for the continued education of machine operators, engineers, and other staff. This can include proper training on new equipment, attending industry-specific conferences, understanding new rules or regulations for certain sectors, or staying abreast of current trends.

Chief among these important education topics is a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of facility safety measures designed to keep employees healthy and safe during work hours. Cultivating a safe atmosphere at your machine shop will improve employee morale, retention, and performance in countless areas. After all, a profitable and productive machine shop doesn’t happen without well-trained employees who want to represent the quality standards of your shop in everything they do.

#5 – Develop Regional Partnerships

Long before you purchase your first piece of equipment or hire any employees, machine shop owners should have a comprehensive understanding of the businesses in the area and begin the relationship-building process in earnest. These partnerships can include potential material suppliers, shipping and logistics companies, potential customers, manufacturing organizations, and local government officials. This is also a vital step to understanding the demand for your new machine shop in your area and how much of your marketing strategies will need to attract customers in a broader region. Developing these relationships early on in your business will only help grow your machine shop in future years and expand your partnership network through word-of-mouth referrals.

We recommend starting as locally as possible and expanding your network to the surrounding counties, cities, and states as your machine shop starts to gain traction and demand for your services increases.

#6 – Building an Impactful Website

Also recently published on our website is a comprehensive list of “15 Modern Manufacturing Website Designs” that showcase our body of work and experience in providing a clean, aesthetically pleasing, and easily navigable website for customers looking to grow their machine shop. Maintaining a digital presence is essential to the success of any modern business and this goes double for machine shops where competition is fierce, quality is paramount, tight budgets, and strict deadlines.

The website for your machine shop should reflect your specific expertise and help nurture potential customers into your sales funnel. weCreate considers the following factors when developing websites for customers hoping to grow their machine shop:

Clear Focus: Your website should showcase your foundational services or products in the “Above the Fold” section of your website and be among the first thing any visitor sees when visiting your website. These will have icons or design sections that link to internal pages that provide more information and resources. This can include specialty services like CNC Milling or CNC Turning, specific industries like Aerospace or Medical Devices, and even unique certifications like ISO 9001 or ASME Pressure Vessels.

Support Information: All services and products should be supported with informational sections, impactful and informative SEO content, specifications, and professional photography that displays your facility, equipment, and finished products. Many machine shops have benefitted from incorporating detailed facility tour videos, slideshows of finished products, and display customer reviews to help amplify the quality of their services.

Simple Navigation: Nobody likes a confusing website without a defined focus and muddled navigation between pages and services. We prioritize a simplified website structure that allows visitors to easily access their desired service or product and connects the internal structure of the website with comprehensive links and supplemental design features.

SEO: All headers, titles, content sections, and text organization should be optimized for SEO to drive traffic and exposure to your website. These critical portions of the website can be tailored to specific industries, services, or regions depending on the focus of your machine shop. All measures to improve SEO directly correlate to improved search visibility, more traffic to your website, and help your machine shop grow through an increased number of quote requests and closed sales.

CTA: Your website should provide consistent calls to action throughout the design to drive visitors to the correct pages and encourage them to contact your team for more information or request a quote. Websites with visible and creative calls-to-action see increased visit time, reduced page abandonment, additional leads, and ultimately, more sales.

#7 – Create Your Marketing Strategy

Beyond the SEO tactics built into a website design, devising a marketing strategy is a critical item to help grow your machine shop. With B2B practices dominating the manufacturing industry, learning which strategies to employ and which to avoid is crucial to the success of your business. Google Ads can be a tremendous way to drive traffic to your site and will eventually lead to additional sales. However, this method has grown considerably more competitive, complicated, and costly in recent years and may not be a prudent investment for new businesses but better suited for those looking to grow their machine shop with an established customer base.

Finding manufacturing organizations like TriState Manufacturers, advertising services through social media, and attending trade shows or conferences can all be part of a working marketing strategy in 2024. Ultimately, it will take time to determine which strategies work best for your specific market and it may take some trial and error to arrive at those results to help your machine shop grow. Many manufacturers can choose to work with outside agencies that specialize in these niche markets rather than employ internal marketing personnel. Regardless of their decision, establishing a clear marketing budget and strategy before starting production is essential to long-term success.

#8 – Emphasize Customer Service

One negative review can derail a new machine shop and is a significant challenge to overcome for even established businesses. That is why emphasizing customer service is one of the most important ways to help grow your machine shop. This can mean several things for the business but in our experience, the following strategies have worked wonders in developing meaningful and long-lasting relationships with customers.

Answering the Call: Having a real, friendly, and knowledgeable employee ready to answer the phone during regular business hours can make all the difference between someone searching for a quote and closing a sale. Nobody likes listening to their options and pushing a button just to get an answering machine. Furthermore, emphasizing continued education of your services, equipment, and products to anyone responsible for answering the phone helps to develop rapport with potential clients and can support your claim as a premium machine shop.

Live Chat: Most websites now allow for the integration of live chat bubbles where visitors can answer a few simple questions and then speak to a real sales representative or customer service employee. These live chat options are often preferable to potential customers versus a telephone conversation or sending an RFQ email with no response timeline.

Clear Shipping, Return & Damage Policies: Proper documentation of all company policies governing your approach to shipping, returns, and damaged goods should be readily available on your website for customers to review. These help protect your machine shop against possible mix-ups or confusion and can support your friendly and client-focused customer service approach.

#9 – Build a Client List

Much like building your relationships with regional business partners and suppliers, building a prospective client base is an important thing to help grow your machine shop in the first few years. New machine shop owners will likely have a few potential customers in mind when starting but these aren’t likely enough to sustain year-round production. Researching businesses in your area and identifying their specific needs can help inform other decisions made regarding equipment purchases or marketing strategies. As part of this step, machine shop owners should also closely investigate their potential competitors and understand what their focus and capabilities are.

Ultimately, building a client list will take significant time and be a continual effort throughout the life of your business. Many of the other important things to know listed here will allow you to identify these potential customers and keep them happy with your services, products, and business throughout your relationship.

#10 – Integrate an ERP System

The last recommendation for helping you grow your machine shop is to integrate a well-known ERP System into your facility. Also known as an Enterprise Resource System, a quality ERP platform can eliminate outdated or manual processes like inventory management, sales orders, material sourcing, production flow, and shipping logistics. Once a machine shop reaches a certain level of productivity, most business owners will find they need an ERP system to help streamline their workflows and meet the demands of their customers.

ERP Systems are not a one-size-fits-all solution and you may find more specialty software options that more directly correlate with your services, products, or production volumes. Regardless of the size of your business now, integrating a quality ERP System can help your machine shop grow and eliminate many of the procedural headaches associated with a growing company.

Growing A Machine Shop in 2024

By following one, a handful, or the entire list of these recommendations to grow your machine shop you are well on your way to a more productive and profitable future. Competition between specialty service providers will only continue to grow in the coming years as demand for high-quality American machined components expands to new exciting markets. Although starting a machine shop is a considerable endeavor, continuing to grow and expand that business will be a lifelong investment of time, effort, and money. By incorporating these ten suggestions to grow your machine shop, business owners can help refine their focus, achieve new quality standards, cultivate a safe workplace, and establish proven strategies guaranteed to promote continual growth.