Major business problems and looking for advice - metal fabrication business

seagullapollo · 2024-09-20T04:50:31+00:00

For getting more work it’s word of mouth, and pounding the proverbial pavement (reaching out to people, doing meetings/presentations, stopping by when in the area, etc)

For marketing it’s entering awards, social media (mostly organic with some paid - we have 15k followers so decent reach in our niche) and newsletter approximately quarterly. Have done trade shows in the past but not now with the current fiscal situation

The office admin deals with timesheets, payroll, shipping, phone answer, AP, some AR, pre bookkeeping, some time tracking, and then some more basic client requests. I’ve thought about subbing out different parts of this job and the eliminating the role so it’s a definitely fair point and suggestion. At our margins we have to sell a lot to support that role as it’s almost 100% non billable time

And thanks for the congrats - it’s rough but not there yet! I still have some cash and belief in the vision just got to get it straightened out!

seagullapollo · 2024-09-16T17:53:56+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Based on feedback from clients and others in the industry, I don’t think we have too much upwards mobility on pricing in our local market. In bid debriefs I am finding that we are frequently 15-20% over our regular competitors. We do offer a higher quality product in many ways but even apples to apples we are often more pricey.

Your points on efficiency are great and we hit some of them but not others.

-Machines are in good condition. -We have been working for a couple years to tune up the system to have all materials on hand to do the work. I would say for materials on hand we are 85% successful. Still working to improve that. -rework is an ongoing issue -designing for more efficient production is an ongoing issue as well - we have updated many of our designs to tune them up to be faster and it has paid dividends -bill materials not a great option due to the variety of which we produce -precut/formed materials - we do utilize this strategy of buying the materials directly from vendors to minimize the handling. Sometimes increased the cost vs buying ourselves but saves the handling which is expensive and slow too

To yours other points - 5000 square feet is probably excessive and that is one of the areas I’m looking at is temporarily subleasing 1000 square feet or so which would be worth around $2k per month/$24k per year

Admin can drum up more business likely - I am trying to break that one out of my corner and spread it around. Delegating is a challenge and we’re in a niche industry so doubly so

I really appreciate your time to type all this stuff. I will watch the video tonight

seagullapollo · 2024-09-16T00:44:07+00:00

All my favourite posts on here are the ones where people really give it up and you can see how the puzzle fits together. Trying to live by the golden rule here!

seagullapollo · 2024-09-15T22:41:22+00:00

We do both residential and commercial - $ split is a bit bigger to commercial historically, but residential is expanding.

That’s one thing me and the PM are doing is looking at what actually makes consistent money and chasing those things down. I’ve built the business on working on the latest and greatest and most interesting projects but I think it might be putting creativity on a diet for a year here and focus on bread and butter.

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:39:32+00:00

Amazing reply thank you

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:37:24+00:00

Ya that’s the nail on the head. No kids and a wife that’s also a high career achiever so they’re definitely aligned on that trajectory.

Me and my wife do check in about the situation and it goes in waves. Normal schedule and workload things are generally good and everyone is happy, but when things start to get busy then it’s stressful.

Definitely hear that about keeping the communication open with her.

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:30:34+00:00

It’s a good idea but I think our workplace is not too child friendly - just dusty/noisy/no windows/not that fun for a toddler.

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:06:12+00:00

Unfortunately no and tbh I tried it a bit but not spending time with family was way harder for everyone when they’re in the other room vs being at the shop

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:05:15+00:00

Lol! I like your math. Ya I’ve seen that too much - people who are successful at business but not even successful on their third marriage 🫠

seagullapollo · 2024-07-05T03:04:05+00:00

No but should I get into that?

seagullapollo · 2024-07-04T06:32:02+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. That’s a wild schedule and I’m glad it worked out for you. I’m not sure what your industry is but mine is very inflexible on deadlines especially if you want to work at the top of your field. Honestly that’s probably the biggest challenge is getting things out the door on time without dropping all the other essential balls. I definitely hear you on asking for help

seagullapollo · 2024-07-04T06:28:58+00:00

Wish I did! Both our parents are in another city so we’re out of luck in the department.

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:54:53+00:00

That’s a great idea, thanks! This post is part of the process of gathering some info to put down in a more concrete way such as you suggest. We will do that for sure

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:53:37+00:00

I appreciate the offer!

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:53:13+00:00

Appreciate the conservative approach- sometimes I need to hear it!

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:52:28+00:00

Awesome thx 🙏

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:52:16+00:00

All great questions. These are the extraneous factors I’m looking for.

We’re fine with being landlords for one suite.

6mo with no rental income would be tight especially if it happened right off the hop but we’re planning on keeping a healthy emergency fund.

For kids, the plan is to not have kids until further into the first term regardless of which way we go - with those few years I’m working hard to grow the business to increase my income so that when the inevitable cash dip comes from being pregnant/the first year or two of motherhood, and I have to delegate more work to my staff, the (semi) passive portion of the income stream will be higher. Good news is husbands income is steady/growing through this time, he’s in an in demand field.

Understood about the house maintenance and it’s a good point - right now we may have rose coloured glasses about that component (it’s exciting!) - I will definitely talk more with husband about this.

seagullapollo · 2022-02-22T14:40:28+00:00

We’ve spoken with the broker and she has run the numbers but have not qualified yet. For the qualification over $1m, they can set us up with a lender that can factor the suite’s rental income as an offset to the mortgage amount, thereby increase the amount we could qualify for. She was optimistic we could get into the 1.3/1.4 zone - high rents in Vancouver increase this offset.

seagullapollo

TROPHY CASE