7 Tips For Growing Your CNC Machining Business

Story by

James Cook

April 27, 2022

Whether you specialise in CNC milling or CNC turning, if you’re interested in growing your CNC business, what are the best paths to take right now? How can you ensure you are optimising all opportunities and to achieve the best sales and profit? Tudor Lodge Consultants has lined up seven tips to get you going in the right direction with your CNC machining venture.

In a rapidly changing world, it's important to keep on top of your knowledge to help you find new opportunities and spot new trends to help your business grow. Consider the supply and demand situation, is there any over-supply of certain CNC machined products in a certain niche? What upcoming trends could you profit from? Are there any seasonal occasions (for example, the Jubilee or Father's Day) that you could capitalise on?

If you want to scale up your CNC business then you’ll need to consider scaling up your machinery too. Although you may not be thinking of this right now, it's important to have an idea of your future plans so you are flexible to grow in the future. Consider if you will need additional traditional machines for faster turnaround, or perhaps a Desktop size machine would be a handy addition, or a CNC router with robust and high capabilities. You will also need to consider other resources for scaling up, such as labour costs and premises.

Just as you should keep on top of market trends, you should also keep abreast of technological developments. In CNC machining terms, this could mean software updates or new developments in machinery. Investing in technology can be expensive but it can pay dividends in terms of staying ahead of your competitors and appealing to new customers with growing demands for speed of delivery. If you don't have the capital for essential new equipment, consider reconditioned equipment.

In any business, keeping up to speed on what your competitors are doing is important. How are they marketing themselves and what capabilities do they have that you don't? Having this information is key to strategic decision-making. Perhaps your leading competitors have a strong online presence and a great website where you can see leads are being gained. This can help you encourage your promotional game too and give you some new ideas.

In terms of customer retention, giving extra value to your customers can be very effective. Thanks to the stage-by-stage process inherent in CNC machining, there are numerous opportunities throughout the machining process where you can provide added value for customers. If you can add in moulding, painting, deburring, sandblasting, cleaning or assembling at any points in the process then this can provide greater value to the product, allowing you to increase price and, therefore, profitability.

Ensure you are maximising all digital marketing opportunities. This could mean regularly updating your website with useful and factual written and video content that you can also share on your social media platforms. Make sure information like pricing stays up-to-date, your offers and promotions are clear and you can even ask some satisfied customers to leave reviews. This helps increase trustworthiness and Google reviews can specifically help with search engine optimisation.

Pay-per-click advertising and social media advertising are two other routes to consider to promote your business and thanks to the sophistication of online tools, you can measure the success of your ad campaigns in detail to see what is working and what isn't.

Finally, it's a simple one, but be patient, your CNC business will not grow exponentially overnight. Creating a strong online presence, embracing technology and scaling up all take time. Give yourself measurable long-term and short-term goals to keep your pace steady and your ambitions strong.

Developing any new business is exciting and it's easy to get carried away making early investments, but taking time to consider your options, understanding competitors and becoming more knowledgeable about the market will reward you with the growth you want.

Share This Article