The Lenny Harris of Sheet Metal Fabricators

I am the Lenny Harris of sheet metal fabricators. Lenny Harris was one of the best, if not thee best, pinch hitters in baseball during his career. He had the most pinch hit at-bats (804) and the most hits (212) in pinch hitting situations.

Since the beginning of the year and over the course of the last few years I have filled in as a fabricator for a larger, past customer. They decided years ago that housing their own fabrication shop was best for them and no longer needed my services. However, I kept up good relations and when their main fabricator has been ill or out of work, I have been on the list to come off the bench and pinch hit.

The money we generate from this company is and was much larger than most customers I fabricate for, creating a nice stimulus. For this reason, burning the bridge and creating a rival competitor was something I was not willing to do. With any micro business, if you provide a service and do your best job possible, someone will always need what you are selling. Without the trickle down business these companies provide, micro businesses like ours would have trouble surviving.

I could have been very caddy and hurt that a solid customer of ours was moving on, leaving us to find other revenue sources. However, business is business and I don't control what others do with theirs. I knew that we might be needed again in the future and I didn't see the point of making them out to be a villain, trying to hurt the little guy. Sometimes it pays to be patient and realize that things come and go in any business. Only diamonds are forever.

Sadly, yesterday was the last day of my pinch hitting duties, but I will be swinging a bat in the tunnel getting ready for my next assignment. Always be prepared, you never know when your number may be called.

Great Prices on Sheet Metal Hand Tools. Visit kesheetmetal.com/toolshop for Snips, Notchers, Benders and More!

Wednesday Fabrication and Knowing Your Shop Limitations

We don't do much commercial work at our shop due to lack of man power and equipment. The shop is geared toward a lower volume, residential market with the ability to fabricate for bigger jobs if the lead time is extended. This week we have been fabricating some larger transitions and duct for a smaller commercial job that had a week or so of lead time. Perfect for my father and I. Both transitions needed to be insulated and fabricated with 24 gauge sheet metal.

These types of orders pay well, but aren't a regular thing around the shop because it takes me the majority of the day to fabricate and insulate this size order. Years ago we thought about financing a plasma table, but then the economy went into the toilet. Since then, like everyone, we've been doing our best to solidify consistent work.

My father and I learned a long time ago to know what you can handle at any one time. We used to take everything that came along and were extended beyond our means hence creating more negative word of mouth than anything else. When we figured out what we could accommodate, our days became much more productive and customers were happier.

Below is a photo of the transitions I worked on today. There is still some straight duct and flexible connectors to fabricate.

Looking for a new set of sheet metal snips? Check out our online tool shop at kesheetmetal.com/toolshop

K & E Sheet Metal Website and Blog Performance Update

I started our website, kesheetmetal.com and this blog, last year with the goal of helping our customers easily find and learn more about our little company. I was also hoping to draw in some new customers and possibly gain a bit of revenue from the sites as well. Here are a few of the lessons I am learning and how the sites are doing as a whole:

• I am learning that in the world of web I am not a great community builder, which has hurt each site and my ability to drive traffic accordingly. This is something that I need to work on if I want the website and blog to do well in the future. Creating conversations with a base of people checking and interacting on either Web site is a must if I want them to work.
• I wasn't sure if running a blog would be a good or bad idea when I decided to start one for the company. I really enjoy posting, but the time that is needed to write daily and finding interesting things to post can be difficult. The days of fabrication can be long and finding time to write in the evenings can be hard. The goal is to do a better job of writing and keeping interesting posts coming as the blog moves forward. Suggestions on things that may interest you as the reader are always welcome.
• Traffic to each of the sites has been low and I attribute that to my lack of community building and getting more involved in social media. I post to twitter a good deal, but I think I need to engage more people daily and get some conversations going with regular followers. I may need to focus more on the Google+ page as well because I have neglected it for the most part.
• Revenue for each site has been very low, to the point of not even calling it revenue. Ultimately, as I stated earlier, I would love to have more interaction on the blog and normal customer visits to the main website. The reason being is again to focus and commit to getting involved and engaging people in the HVAC and sheet metal fabrication industry.
• I recently started an Adwords campaign to try and drive some traffic to our Amazon tool shop that I setup on kesheetmetal.com. The main focus of the Amazon tool shop was to try and garner enough money to help pay for hosting, running the site etc. Honestly, the Adwords campaign has eaten up any ad budget I may have had and really has been more of a drain than benefit. Although it has driven more traffic to the site. Recently, I have tweaked the ad a few times, but my budget is low and that is not a good thing when running PPC ads on the web. Time will tell if this is something I will continue going forward. Concentrating on community building may be a better use of my time.
• Bringing more of my personality and regular life might help to engage more people in the future. Sometimes business and industry only posts and commentary can become stale and boring. Just the right amount of personality may help to gain a better following.

These are just a few of my observations since I built and started my new web venture for the company. Any suggestions on how I can make each site better and more engaging is greatly appreciated. Please comment or find me on twitter.

Have a need for new sheet metal snips, notchers or bending tools. Check out our tool shop at kesheetmetal.com/toolshop