Challenges of Starting a Business
Although I’ve gone down this road several times in my life, it never gets any easier to start a brand new business.
Back in 1996, I was selling industrial 3D animation services to manufacturers around the world – I had no money for advertising (as most new businesses can relate to) so I just called, emailed and faxed every manufacturing company I could get my hands on. I had just dumped my life savings into purchasing an industrial workstation without any customers lined up for those services. Back then, these massive machines that cost about the same as a mid-level sedan and as it was considered commercial, Dell didn’t allow them to be sent to residential homes. My solution? My bedroom became a suite and the house a factory (on paper). The FedEx guy wasn’t sure where he was, I guess he was expecting something a bit larger for such an expensive batch of packages!
I was 18 and I thought I hit the jackpot… only to realize over time that the market didn’t know what I was offering and from demand (3D back then was an extreme novelty unlike today) and branched-out into website development. The website work paid for the 3D, staff, wickedly expensive software and in a few years, I was making pretty good money by being one of the few who could offer industrial 3D animation services AFFORDABLY in North America. This is a service I offer to this day and it continues to pay dividens with my other business, CNCKing.com. All those years have allowed me to reach a global CNC market that wouldn’t be possible without 3D animations and 3D rendering capabilities – I built a name for myself without advertising and have sold plans around the world!
Jon in Make Magazine, Volume 40, page 19
Fast forward to now with CNCROi.com… the challenges are similar but I have the confidence and experience from these early beginnings. Yet again, I put my life’s savings and then some into the only machine of its kind in Canada – I never believed in getting what everybody else has, I tend to go beyond what most people think is possible. I’m slowly developing a customer base and building the contacts yet again in the manufacturing field after being away for almost a decade traveling abroad. This means a lot of time on the phone, road and email letting people know that yes, what you are doing IS possible and building-up their confidence in your capabilities.
Yes, I am currently a one-man shop, no, I don’t intend to be that way for any longer than needed but I can’t think of too many companies that started out HUGE from the get-go. It’s quite amazing to think about the capabilities of modern CNC machines that can allow one person to do the work of an entire industrial age shop floor! The advantage I always had is that my businesses are rather straight forward to scale, if you have more projects than you can handle, go visit a manufacturer and load-up on some machines!
The advantage I have this time around is that I had a far more thorough understanding of machine capabilities thanks to my extensive CNC design background and experience with general production cycles. I have a network of people just like me and in higher strata of the CNC world that I can ask for advice on certain applications and best of all, surrounded by customers are as enthusiastic about their industrial processes as I am of mine.
It’s astonishing to me how little the general public knows about the manufacturing sector, how vibrant and enthusiastic a community it is and how many awesome people are in their ranks. I’ve developed a habit of dropping into businesses around the ones I have meetings with (after, not before as I don’t want to be constantly watching time) and it’s incredible how many times I get instant tours of the facilities, get to meet-up with the executives and engineers and we all bounce ideas off one another. I have yet to find a manufacturing company that can’t benefit from our services and many companies offer services that can actually augment mine for other clients… and it’s this synergy of being to form production chains to help clients that’s the most fun.
Most people have a severely out dated vision of modern manufacturing, most of the shop floors I’ve had the privilege of visiting are cleaner that most retail shops I’ve visited!
