Canada is in a Recession… not CNCROi.com!

It’s official, Canada is now in a recession… CNCROi.com is having its best month ON RECORD since starting almost a year ago!

What is a recession?

Recessions are basically when a country has two successive quarters of negative grown. It can be due to a number of factors but generally, businesses slow down their decision-making, stop hiring and start cutting costs or slowing implementation of changes which have a ripple effect across the economy.

Why isn’t CNCROi.com isn’t in a recession?

We are actually going the other direction in this economy, we are investing in equipment, inventory and gaining new customers WEEKLY! Just because one part of the economy goes downhill doesn’t mean others are doing the same, with every shift in the economy, there are booms in some places and busts in others… it’s when OVERALL there is negative growth that there is a recession. I don’t see the value proposition in following others into a recession.

So far in my entrepreneurship “career”, I’ve weathered two recessions, 9/11, a depression and now, well, another recession! First three wiped me out and I had enough. I left the country for 8 years to travel the world, rediscover and reinvent myself. Things are different this time around as I’ve positioned CNCROi.com with companies who are investing in their future DIRECTLY to get more business!

Custom is expensive (NOT!)

I knew from the start going down market, fighting for every nickel and time in a saturated market isn’t where I wanted to position CNCROi.com. We are a custom CNC shop, which is just about as far away as you can get away from the high volume and low return many shops put themselves into. We build everything to spec, and not only that, we work WITH YOU to build custom, never before seen (or experienced) products from coasters that hold your product to corporate awards that MEAN SOMETHING to tags and so forth.

I tell our customers that the only catalog we have is what is between our ears. I’ve gone to far too many trade shows, everybody hands out pens. They cost NOTHING and the ROI on those is NOTHING too! I can’t even remember the last time I actually looked at the name of the pen that I’ve picked-up… it’s the same with the copy/paste corporate awards out of crystal or resin or a host of other things people get on the cheap because THEY ARE CHEAP! These things are so beyond the point of saturation that just about every company have the same things, that they have lost all value and meaning. What’s worse, everybody knows you are handing those out because you have no money and don’t want to invest into a potential relationship with them… not a positive “first impression” is it?

Want to motivate and encourage employees? DON’T GIVE THEM A GENERIC CRAP AWARD! Want to attract new business, DON’T GIVE THEM A PEN! Want to grow your business, invest in solutions that grow your business in a positive direction!

It’s about ROI, not $$$

In all honesty, I could have purchased dramatically CHEAPER equipment, cut corners on materials (it’s easy as nobody would notice) and bought second-rate of everything. I refuse to do that. We are a custom CNC shop and as such, if I’m not willing to invest in the absolute best for myself, how can I offer the same for our clients? Our Austrian wide-format industrial Trotec Speedy 400 flexx wasn’t cheap, but what I can produce with it is mind-blowing. What I found fascinating is CNCROi.com was the FIRST company that bought this CNC laser in ALL OF CANADA!

I could have gotten A LOT of other machines for the price of just our CNC laser such as a good-sized Chinese industrial laser, plasma AND router  for just that one Austrian machine but guess what, my lead times wouldn’t generally be 24 hours, the precision and repeatability would be dubious and worse, if something crashes or goes down, I’d have no backup plan. I’m 100% confident that if I have ANY problems, I can call-up Trotec Laser, ShopBot Tools or any of the other companies I get supplies and equipment from and not only will they answer my call, they’ll bend over backwards to make sure my problem is resolved without quoting me their hourly rate in the first few sentences. This confidence in our suppliers can’t be missed when negotiating with customers who sometimes have ridiculous timelines.

When I visit customers, the first thing they generally ask me if they are CNC enthusiasts like myself, is where does your machine come from. I tell them AUSTRIA! They have a big smile on their face and we proceed to talk. THIS IS A TEST! It’s like going to a bankers convention as a keynot speaker and driving-up in a chaufered Maybach vs a rusty Chevrolet Chevette… you instantly gain respect and for us, things just build UP from there once they see our samples and experience our creativity.

Most of my customers are like me, they do not look at the cost of something, they look at how much it can bring back to their business in increased productivity, attention and ultimately, their bottom line.

It’s about passion for solutions!

Why is CNCROi.com booming right now? The simple answer is investments made over the past year – we aren’t even a year old yet! Look at this website alone, almost 200 blog posts with related videos… these took a lot of time but they show our clients that not only are we awesome at what we do but we actually LOVE THIS STUFF! Not only that, I’m a few weeks away from releasing a 500 page book about the company and the custom designs I’ve made over the past two years (5th volume btw)! I don’t do things half-assed here! Not only that, over the past year, we’ve had each and every one of our customers pay us, I didn’t have to waste time running after anybody to get paid!

I was closing a deal yesterday (yep, we got it!) with a local company and they told me they’ve never dealt with such a fast company regarding prototyping a unique solution to an upcoming event they were having. I met them about 5x over the course of two days as we developed and refined a design, making physical prototypes and testing them out in person and getting their feedback in such short order allowed us to demonstrate to them that our passion is worth every penny they were spending with us!

There were cheaper solutions (there always are) but they saw the premium offering we were providing and we won the bid hands down even though we were the highest priced. When a purchasing manage is going to bat for you to close the deal with higher-ups, you know you’ve left an impression!

That project is being made in our shop right now by the way and yes, we will be getting paid in full within 14 days to boot!

It’s NOW the time to invest in your future!

So, before you order another 100 pens for 80$, take a good hard look at the money you have and what it REALLY gives to you. Handing out generic pens at a trade show, giving our crappy awards to employes and suppliers or worse, putting on junk tags on your equipment doesn’t show you are professional, you will not be noticed! Contact CNCROi.com instead, let’s develop a custom solution that will make heads turn and attract people and let your customers know you are SERIOUS about not only your business but long-term for them.

Let’s make something at multiple price points to hit both your high rollers and something to attract new ones to invest in your business during your next mailout or corporate event you are sponsoring. Let’s make something unique using your products (scrap?) or have us custom design a scale model of your product customers can visually see and play with to understand your solution.

Let’s make this “year of the recession” the one you remember for the BOOM and not the BUST!