Lessons on Building Your Business From Manufacturers

MFG was joined recently by Jesse Casto and Adam Kjar, owners of their respective fabrication/machining shops, for a conversation on building their businesses as manufacturers. Jesse Casto is the owner of BetterCNC, a CNC machine shop located in Garland, TX. Adam Kjar is the owner and CEO of Custom Tooling and Fabrication LLC (CT&F), located in Loveland, CO. Both manufacturers are incredibly passionate about their work and are dedicated to providing the best possible products and experience for their customers. Jesse and Adam shared lessons on proven strategies for building your business using online tools.

Online Presence Essentials

Jesse and Adam’s number one place for finding customers and building a customer list is MFG.com. Adam noted that MFG is newly coded and is an easy-to-use platform, functioning as a one-stop shop for manufacturers. Adam and Jesse are both premium users of the platform, quoting jobs and winning new customers. Manufacturers on MFG receive other perks as well, such as lead lists, discount raw materials, and more. 

He also noted that the key to staying in business is “making sure quoting volumes are maintained or increasing,” especially when looking to grow. Another recommendation from Adam for building that base was networking through events, trade shows, and tools like Zoominfo. Zoominfo provides information on industries and products with metal or plastic parts that machine shops can manufacture, giving suppliers like Adam a point of contact. Another way to find customers according to Adam is through marketing on social media, SEO (search engine optimization), and SEM (search engine marketing). 

Jesse highly recommended maintaining an online presence through a website, social media accounts, and manufacturer directories. With so many customers turning to Google to find a supplier, Jesse says, “[I]f you want to show up on Google, you need to put your name out there everywhere you possibly can.”

Build Your Reputation Through a Website

Both Jesse and Adam emphasized the emphasis an online presence can have on your business; more web traffic means more potential customers. Jesse recommended sites like Weebly and Wix which are helpful for building out pages and employing SEO tools to rank higher on Google. When building his website, Jesse specifically considered questions such as: “What are my customers looking for?” and “What things do they care about?” Look to add elements and offerings your customers can relate to. 

Adam’s philosophy for his company’s website is similar to Jesse’s. He further emphasized the importance of having a “modern-looking website that is easy to traverse” from the customer’s perspective. That means the least amount of clicks as possible to get the customer to their end goal, as well as simply interactions for anyone interfacing. Adam also noted that website builders like Weebly, Wix, GoDaddy, and WordPress are also implementing AI capabilities that make creating and ranking your website much easier.

MFG is another great tool for SEO. Profiles are optimized for higher ranking in Google. Adding a profile photo, uploading certifications, and refining your company description on MFG.com will help your business gain online visibility and traction.

Utilize Social Media

At Adam’s company, he uses an agency to help with social media strategy and posting. He notes a lot of engagement with video content and recommends demonstrating current projects or parts manufactured. As a one-man shop, Adam also recommends ChatGPT or Google’s Bard to “ask questions about how [he] can improve [his] website.” These tools can provide keywords, metadata, and taglines to focus on and include.

Jesse does all of his own social media for BetterCNC, with his most active websites being Instagram and LinkedIn. His target with social media is to get people interested and for everything to funnel to his website to build customers. His content is not solely catered to customers; fellow machinists and business professionals are also interested in his posts. Even if they do not become customers, the increased traffic on the website causes Google to rank it higher. Jesse recommends Canva for social media posts, a cost-effective and simple graphic design tool that is integrated with AI capabilities.

Online Tools for Finding and Converting Customers

Bringing a product to life is “quite the process and very involved” especially in the current competitive market. Dave recommends leveraging your insights if you notice a clear opportunity in a broad market. This allows addressing unmet needs with a new product. When pursuing an innovation, Dave says to “be diligent and test often.” Maintain being true to your audience and remembering who the design is for and the target audience to create a great product. As Dave says, “A great product truly eliminates problems and removes obstacles for the customers that it resonates with.”

Adam has Google Analytics set up for CT&F’s website to track conversions along the entire sales funnel. Tracking is essential for recognizing any bottlenecks along the path to the end goal of becoming a customer. Zoominfo is the most effective for Adam because he can track the opening of emails sent, allowing him to follow up when CT&F is top-of-mind. Another great tool Adam recommends in tandem with MFG is Paperless Parts, something also utilized by Jesse. Paperless Parts is highly compatible with MFG and allows Adam and Jesse to drag and drop a part from MFG.com to see all models and prints, as well as a preliminary quote based on your company’s and shop’s capabilities. This tool takes an hours-long manual process down to a few minutes, increasing efficiency and accuracy for the company as a whole. Getting back to the customer quickly with a response and quote is essential to win jobs.

It is much more cost-effective to retain a customer base than it is to find a new one, and MFG paired with other tools recommended by Jesse and Adam can help you do just that. 

If you want to hear Jesse Castro’s and Adam Kjar’s full conversation with Greg Rothman from Shapeways Manufacturing Week, you can listen here.