Can you do both???

[Johndeere87]

I got my plasma table set up and running. Now to make some money. I originally got the cnc to make parts for ag, off road, and industrial applications. And I want to run it as a business not like a hobby. Started to do some advertising and such around the area. Got a few leads but not quite ready. Still a little unsure of my CAD abilities. But I'm close.
But... I made the mistake of making my wife a sign and my boys a sign for their rooms. We had some people over and they liked them as well. I suspect there could be a market for metal art and such in my area. So I guess my question is should I put the Metal Art under a different name. My concern is that if I run it under the same name and get labeled the metal art guy then that will run off potential industrial clients. I look at it this way I don't think I would want to get my car worked on buy the guy that cuts my hair.

Just curious if any body else does metal art and industrial applications. And if they market it as two separate things.
Also whats a good "sample" piece to use to show off my cutters abilities to potential clients

[Shane Warnick]

If you can make good CAD drawings and thus, in turn, good clean cut files for ART, then I guarantee you can make industrial parts. You need a few extra tools for reproducing industrial parts (they don't always send a set of blue prints over), such as a large set of calipers, ID and OD calipers, (I think my largest OD Calipers will go to 60", however, they are easy to make, don't spend the money make your own) and a few other odds and ends, especially if you are going to get into the fab and welding side. I do both, and I can tell you, you can make a TON of money on production cutting, however, there is also money to be made on the art side as well. You will need to develop the art side of things to learn proper composition etc, so you can land some jobs making large signs for local restaurants and other places of business, and the skills you learn and hone doing the art side will get you to where you can rip out some cad drawings for machine parts extremely fast. I have found that I have two very different types of customers, and I developed them from different sources. The artsy customers came from the local farmers market, doing a few local shows, consignment sales etc on art stuff. The industrial customers all came from cold calls or referrals from other industrial customers. I have yet to sell one single "art" piece to an industrial customer, likewise I have yet to sell an "artsy" customer a sheet level quantity of, say, gussets, or ring flanges, etc.

That being said, when a potential customer comes in my shop, and there is other work and examples laying around, the artsy customers all say things along the lines of "If you can make those flanges and weld them out I am sure you can handle my little old job", and vice versa, the industrial guys say " If you can convert and cut that stair railing insert with all those animals and details, I am sure you can make a motor plate for my compressor skid, or some gussets etc".

As far as not wanting to get your car worked on by the guy that cuts your hair, your cutting and fabricating will speak for itself. I will say, I use a few guys for my more detailed art conversions, Ben DeLap pretty much my go to guy. I am hesitant to oversell my art / conversion abilities, not that I can't do it, but there is a point where I am making more money with my time by doing something else WHILE I am paying Ben to do a conversion, and that conversion cost gets passed on to the customer (with a small markup for my time and trouble of course). The art people, are and WILL BE a royal pain in the ass. Not all of them, but one of the reason that I think the art stuff costs more, ESPECIALLY the custom stuff, is all the time involved in revisions etc. Move this over there, change this, what about that, etc etc. Time is money. That is also the reason a LOT of big shops won't mess with address signs, custom ranch signs, etc. They make more money cutting industrial production parts, and they artsy people are a drain on resources, and can be a customer service nightmare. The guy buying motor plates, you either cut them right, and on time, or you didn't. He could care less that this red doesn't look exactly like he THOUGHT it would.

At the end of the day, can you do both? I don't know if you can, but I (as well as many others) do, and as long as the job is profitable and the customer pays, I am happy to do it.

Shane

[rikduk]

Basically what Shane said,
Have just one name for the business, and have BOTH signs and industrial work samples laying around,
some artsy customers might refer you industrial custumers and vice-versa.

[mdwalker]

Both!

[jbc28]

Yep, what Shane said.

I am cutting a bunch of signs and stuff that my wife sells, and then building bobcat attachments too. Plus the other little custom fab jobs. The only problem is working a full time job and doing metal work.

[whiskeymike]

I think it depends on your branding and how you see yourself. I agree with the guys above and it's definitely a legitimate route. However, a different view is that they should be different brands so the brand resonates with your customer base. If you are doing hard core offroad type products where a brand should be memorable, think Poison Spider, Rock Krawler, Body Armor, Ace Engineering, etc.. ( a couple of which have been sold off to big enterprise corporations, much because of the brand) you might want to brand similarly. By the same token, if your art is high end, trying to appeal to the higher side of client base and not focused on garden pokes and lawn art, then the customer base would probably appreciate a high end artsy name.

If one side is a very occasional thing you do, then what the guys said makes sense as the overhead of building two brands is not worth it.

Good luck.

[KIDTech]

There is an easy way to use separate names to ID your business without filing again. Use the LEGAL business name for fabrication work and a TRADE name for the art stuff. My business for instance is legally known as Knowles Innovative Design and I present it that way when I go into professional meetings, meet with me business owners, etc.... as it is a more professional name but when I am making artsy stuff we go by KID. Just how we do things in a similar situation.

[Capstone]

I am about 9 mos officially into my business ownership. A lot of what's been said is spot on, so I would only add that your personality will drive the balance of your attention towards Art or Industrial. Not everyone has the eye for the Art or the engineering sense for the industrial, but either can have success if they make the customer happy. Very little of my new business has come from "cold leads" or paid advertising. Admittedly I'm going slower than I'd like, but my current lack of shop space is 75% of the problem, so I have to be very deliberate on the business I pursue in order to maximize my return.

There's a seasonality to some of this too; a lot of the Art stuff has to be planned ahead so you have enough seasonal stuff on hand to show/sell well before the client even knows they want something and most of these same people are pretty patient for custom work as well. Industrial stuff is IMO the complete opposite; you have to be able/willing to turn on a dime to get something finished in time to keep your new industrial customers coming back or they will find another source.

As for the name, I went straight for simple, but under a DBA (Doing Business As) in my state. I kept my LLC name a little more broad. CNC Metal Design isn't flashy, but it perfectly conveys IMO the full explanation of what I offer and also happens to be my web address. Obviously that's calculated.

Good Luck