Workshop for the production of metal products

Hi, my name is Maya, just sharing my experience

Custom metal products business

In this article, we want to share our experience in running a business in the manufacture of metal products. Who are the customers, how to look for orders, what "pitfalls" exist, the answers to these and other questions will be given in this article.

An organization engaged in the manufacture of metal products to order may have its own specialization. For example, equipment and personnel can be optimized for the production of stainless steel tanks, or for the manufacture of aluminum structures, or metal stairs and fences. An enterprise can produce standard metal products: supports, embedded parts, fences, trailers, but also have production resources to place orders for the manufacture of non-standard metal products. It is important to understand which orders are profitable and which are not. In this article, we will consider an organization with a staff of up to 30-50 people, capable of producing a wide range of metal products, including one-time orders.

Clients can be divided into two categories: legal entities and individuals. Legal entities, in turn, can be divided into subcategories: one-time customer and potential regular customer.

From physical. faces are simple. Small orders for bath tanks, fences for summer cottages, a single bracket, a metal cabinet according to its dimensions. In fact, there are a lot of such orders, but in terms of profitability, this group of clients is significantly inferior to legal entities. persons. Although there are exceptions, the amount of an order from a private client can reach several hundred thousand rubles.

You can find such clients:

• through free message boards (avito);
• by launching contextual advertising on the business card site;
• by registering in the directories of organizations (yellow pages, 2gis);
• By placing a banner in places where summer residents and motorists gather.

If you decide to start a metal products business, private customer service is the best way to gain loyal customers and explore the market. Finding such clients is easy, especially during the season from May to September.

Business in metal production: promising ideas

persons you must first of all have your own legal entity. face. It is advisable to have a website on which photographs of completed works and a list of clients will be posted. The main customers for the manufacture of metal products are construction companies, so in your portfolio you can focus on orders for construction organizations.

What are the highest priority customers:

Steel structures are a popular building material used in the construction of various structures. The organization of our own production of these products is possible in Russia. In order to firmly occupy your niche in the market and receive a stable profit, you need to competently approach the opening of a project, having previously worked out a business plan.

How to start a business

The production of metal structures is a topical business that requires a large amount of investment due to expensive equipment. It is possible to recoup these investments only if the distribution channels are well-established. With a sufficient number of consumers, it will take no more than a year to payback. To do this, it is necessary to carry out an advertising campaign on time and build up a client base even before launching the project.

Organization of production will require solving a number of issues:

• analysis of the market and competition in a particular area;
• drawing up a detailed business plan;
• choosing a legal form and registering an enterprise with a tax authority ;
• purchase of production space or their lease;
• hiring personnel;
• purchase, installation and adjustment of equipment;
• search for suppliers of raw materials ;
• advertising company, conclusion of contracts with clients.

Given the seasonality of this business, it is necessary to take care of long-term orders in advance.

An important point in organizing activities is the search for start-up capital, its approximate amount will be - 9,000,000 rubles. The costs will include the following items (rubles):

The amount of investment may vary depending on the specific region where production is planned to start.

Determining Direction

Before deciding on the direction of business, you need to familiarize yourself with the list of metal products and find out the level of demand for them. Depending on the purpose, designs can be of several types:

• crane ;
• leaf ;
• bridge ;
• long-span.

Depending on the manufacturing method and the constituent elements of the metal structure, there may be:

Of course, the production of steel structures is not the easiest thing to do. But it is quite profitable and in demand. When drawing up a business plan, you should prepare for the fact that the investment will be very large. Most likely, one person will not be able to pull a business from scratch. It is worth considering looking for investments.

Business Investments

Naturally, you must first register your business. It will take about 50 thousand rubles to collect documentation for this particular type of business. This is not the smallest investment in the production of metal structures.

Next, you need a room. The workshop cannot be less than 250 squares. Such an area is necessary to accommodate all machines, devices, as well as various utility rooms. The cost of building a new plant in different areas is different. On average, you can keep within 600-900 thousand rubles. This indicator is very conditional.

You need to think about finding employees in advance. You will need a staff of at least 30 people. Workers must be professionals in their field, have extensive experience and seniority.

The largest investment in the business is equipment for the production of metal structures. You can order it from both domestic and foreign companies. The first option is cheaper, only slightly inferior in quality to the second. You will have to invest no less than 6-7 million rubles. That is why it is worth considering how to attract investment from outside.

This applies only to large and mass enterprises, in particular, the production of building metal structures. It is difficult to produce this type of product in a small factory, and sometimes completely impossible. That is why, before organizing production, you need to decide what you will sell.

And of course, you cannot do without the material from which this or that part or structure will eventually be made. You can also buy material at a low price at scrap metal collection points. Usually sellers provide solid discounts for bulk purchases. This concerns mostly private items, because state-owned enterprises rarely sell bulk quantities of material.

Total down payments include:

• documents,
• room ,
• equipment ,
• advertising ,
• material ...

Despite the fact that the supply market is not very large, there is competition. For a buyer to notice you, you need to spend on advertising. It can be both a TV spot and information on the radio. Ideally - your own website on the network, which will describe not only services, prices, but also photos of finished products.

In addition, your own vehicle fleet can be an expense item. If you plan to deliver your products to customers yourself for a certain price, then you cannot do without equipment.

Calculating the payback period of a business

A good blacksmith will always find a job! This expression is the best fit for the forged products business. A lot in this matter depends on the master. For this reason, large enterprises in this area cannot be found. Artistic or cold forging is, first of all, a small business, where everything revolves around the talent of the business organizer, who at one point decided to turn his hobby into a profitable business ...

Cold forging refers to working with metal at room temperature. Unlike hot forging, metal is not heated here. The main operations in cold forging are cutting out blanks and bending them on special machines. Most of the elements of cold (artistic) forging are template and are produced in serial versions. Cold forging has its advantages:

The great advantage of such a business is the assortment that can be produced in a mini-production environment: forged gates and gratings, barbecues, garden grates and flower beds, fireplace accessories, arches and balconies, forged furniture and benches, visors and swings , forged fences and barriers, lamps and monuments, forged doors, forged panels and so on. Product prices are essentially limited only by the complexity of the job. A brazier can be sold for 3-5 thousand rubles, and forged gates for 40-60 thousand rubles.

It is advantageous to locate production near large cities and megalopolises. Customers can be individuals wishing to decorate the courtyard areas, as well as businesses, shops, recreation centers, funeral agencies, and so on. Some entrepreneurs actually start a similar business at home. And if your house is located on a federal highway, then it is very easy for you to sell your products: display your products right on the highway - and live advertising brings an endless stream of customers. As an example, a post from "Old Welder" on the chipmaker forum. u:

How to “earn” on rolled metal

Once upon a time I worked a little in this area. What happens next and how.

I came into this field back in 2021. Honestly, I have never thought about working in this field of activity. But I needed a job and a friend of mine offered me a vacancy as a sales manager for rolled metal products. He himself was already the head of the sales department, under his leadership there were 4 managers and I eventually became the fifth. According to the recommendations, I was hired without any problems, of course with a trial period. The terms were offered very interesting, but I did not understand it right away. The conditions were the following 14,000r salary + 25% from sales (respectively, from net profit). After analyzing the job market, I noticed that, in general, the percentage of sales in such firms is 5-15%, the conditions really turned out to be interesting against the background of other offers. At the beginning of my work, it was a fairly small company, there were only 3 sales departments. The total number of employees was about 30. In the first days I studied the material that was given to me, a lot of numbers, I memorized them for a week and at the end I just copied them from memory to paper. Only after this stage I was allowed to the phone, I still did not have knowledge of sales techniques. There were six of us in the department, 5 managers and a leader. It turned out that the main information that I had to learn was not the sales technique, but the methods of making a profit from the client. The most popular product is fittings and our department was focused on the sale of fittings. There are two types of reinforcement A1 and A3. A1 It is a smooth reinforcement. It is round in cross section, with a smooth surface (it is also called wire rod, but this is an incorrect definition). It turns out the very surface that is needed for reinforced concrete to give in to a fraction of a micron, so as not to crack under excessive load. A3 These are corrugated fittings. An iron base to which the concrete must adhere tightly. For this, the A-3 reinforcement has a ribbed surface. Let me open my eyes a little to this area. I came to work for a company that was only an intermediary. What does it mean? This means that our company essentially had nothing but an office, no warehouses, no production, no delivery vehicles. I’ll tell you more, our company didn’t even have money to purchase rolled metal products for ready-made clients. In fact, if you look at how many real suppliers are in fact in my city, then they can be counted on one hand. But if you google it, it will give thousands of results and on each site they will assure that they are large suppliers. Here you need to understand a very important thing, in order to deal with the supply of rolled metal you need to have a warehouse. It is necessary that the warehouse has a railway connection, since rolled metal is delivered by wagons. But the most important thing is the cost of purchasing rolled metal, the money is simply huge and there is no entry for newcomers. All suppliers have been working since the early 90s, how they started and who their real owners are now is almost impossible to understand. But the fact is, there are certainly small warehouses, but these are not suppliers, but rather retailers. And this is the harsh truth now this market is simply drowning in a huge number of intermediaries. And one should not think that large companies know direct suppliers - this is not so! A girl worked in our firm, I still don't know her position. She was one of the first managers in this firm, the rest left, but she stayed. And I want to say I got a very good job, unlike other managers, she had her own office. But, as it turned out, this was not her main bonus, the main bonus was her number on the site. There was a general number and her, and under her phone it was written:> So I think the general phone was called by those who could not get through to her or customers with small orders that she was not interested in and which she herself redirected. Everyone understood perfectly well that while she was working in the company, she had quite large clients. In fact, these were companies included in the list of the largest developers, of course only a few, but still. As I understood later in this area, it is the girls who take advantage. Ask why? In fact, everything is just for 2 reasons: Purchasers, usually 95% of men, are engaged in the procurement of rolled metal products. Since they communicate with almost the same men all day long, they are much more willing to contact a girl. Still, the sphere of metal rolling is quite unusual for girls. Therefore, a girl who understands it perfectly is quite outside the box and people are more willing to make contact. Most of all, I was not taught the technique of sales and so on, but the technique of deceiving the client. The simple truth is that if you don’t deceive the client, you simply won’t make money. I'm sure you don't know that, although fittings are the most popular product, many people sell them at a loss. Of course, you thought: "Nobody will sell at a loss!" and in some ways you will be right. You see, even direct suppliers receive comparatively little money from the sales of fittings, and a pitiful penny is left for the middlemen. Of course, direct suppliers live off large volumes, and the volumes of fittings they sell are simply huge. How then do the intermediaries survive, you ask? Through deception! If you compare prices for the same type of fittings, you will notice an incomprehensible difference in price. The difference in price can easily be 2021-3000 rubles / ton. For example: We want to purchase 10 tons of fittings, we search on the Internet and call by phone to find out the price. But! We call everyone except direct suppliers (we will assume that we already know all of them). We get the minimum price of 25,000 rubles / ton, after that we call direct suppliers and get almost identical prices, with a difference of several hundred rubles. Price from suppliers 28,000r / ton. (+ - 400r) Of course, a person who is far from this sphere would think that a lower price is offered by larger suppliers. In principle, a logical conclusion, but in fact people are deluding themselves. The price may vary, but a difference of one or a few thousand should definitely make you suspicious. So it turns out that simple intermediaries offer rolled metal at lower prices than direct suppliers. And still the same question: "How or by what means they make a profit by essentially selling to themselves at a loss." It was this science that was devoted to most of my training. Suppose we sell 10 tons of rebar at a price of 25,000 rubles / ton at a market value of 28,000 rubles / ton. We have a loss of 30,000 rubles. And what if the client receives 8 tons instead of 10 tons, then we get a profit of 20,000 rubles. And then you should have had another question: “How to bring 2 tons less and so that the client doesn't understand anything” Let's go in order. 1. The manager is specially trained to get all the necessary information out of the client. He must understand with whom he is talking, for what purposes they need rolled metal, what volumes they need or will need in the future, whether the person has had negative experience when working with other companies. Although how they teach, they rather give the basics, then everyone develops their own style and various chips of negotiation. What is all this for? In order to understand with whom we have to work. If this is a small company or a single facility under construction, then most likely they can be underloaded already in the first delivery. Since there is a low probability that they have scales of the first accuracy class, which quickly bring unscrupulous suppliers to clean water. Such scales, as a rule, stand on rather large objects, although there are exceptions everywhere, not without this. Also, do not forget that according to GOST there are tolerances for the deviation of the theoretical weight from the actual one. Since, say, rebar and other rolled metal products simply cannot have 100% identity to calculate the exact weight of the product. That is why, with a clear conscience, you can underload 5% of the total weight, referring to GOST. In most cases, deliveries to small objects or physical. persons pass without problems, the goods are shipped with a slight underload, clients do not notice anything and calmly sign the closing documents. 2. If in the course of the conversation we understand that there is a high probability that the underload will most likely be noticed and we can simply lose the client, then we need to go the other way. We're doing reconnaissance! If we are ordered, say, 60 tons of fittings, then we understand that the client is large and it is not worth the risk. If we make an underload right away, then we can lose it, on the other hand, we can lose a good opportunity to earn. In this case, we tell the client that we do delivery by 3 cars, since the cars cannot take more than 20 tons (this is actually the case). We send the most experienced freight forwarder with the first machine. Upon arrival at the facility, he inspects who and how accepts the cargo, how they determine the weight. In principle, it is very easy to determine the underload, knowing the weight, you can calculate the number of rods that should be in the body. However, imagine how much you need to count with such volumes, as a rule, accountants are with volumes of several tons. If the forwarder sees that the acceptance is being carried out somehow, then he immediately calls back to the office. After that, a command comes from the office to two other forwarders, who at this time are already with the suppliers with cars and ready to load the goods. It is easy to understand that these two machines will already have significant underloads. It turns out that we conduct reconnaissance, send the first car with a freight forwarder, who assesses the whole situation, and after making sure that everything is in order, we send the other two with a much smaller amount of goods than it should be in fact. 3. There is still an option when we take risks. Let's assume that we have the same order for 60 tons of fittings. It also turns out 3 cars with which we must deliver the goods. Here it is also necessary to send a freight forwarder who is sufficiently experienced in these matters, since it is he who will be able to resolve the situation if something happens. We send the first car with underload and then act according to the situation. If all is well, then other cars leave underloaded. If something is wrong and the client is outraged by the inconsistency in weight, then the forwarder, as a rule, translates the arrows and says, for example: “We have a newcomer in our warehouse for several days already mowing with weight, now I will write down the inconsistency in weight and we will deliver on the following machines ”. From experience I can say that a freight forwarder is able to smooth out almost any situation. And I have heard a huge number of stories about the successful transfer of arrows to a supposedly inexperienced employee.

Selection of premises

Let's say that you find that in your case, the business idea of ​​a scrap metal collection point can generate high income. Then you should start looking for a suitable space. To do this, you need to decide on the volume of metal that you are going to operate on. If you do not want to make a large start-up investment, then you can start by renting a small garage or warehouse.

What kind of business can be opened in a small town, village, private sector of the suburb? Of course, you need to think with your head what your neighbors need. It makes no sense to open Selpo in 2021 - sooner or later, Magnit will come to your area and take away all the buyers. Much more relevant will be: repairing something, pruning trees, cleaning areas, garbage collection and similar services.

Reconomica talked to a small entrepreneur who thought with his head, found a free niche in the private sector and started making money with his own hands. If your hands grow from where you need it, you can just take this idea and start applying it in your area right away.

How to start your own business as a simple welder

Hello! My name is Andrey. The events that I am going to describe took place in Kazakhstan, in the city of Petropalovsk. Behind my shoulders 15 years of work as a welder and locksmith, during these years of "practice" I can say with confidence that in the case related to metal structures, I am an ace.

It all started when I got fired from my job. I worked for a construction company, this profession did not attract me much, as I could hardly make ends meet. Often on the Internet you can find information on remote work and home business and the like, I did not find anything suitable for my position, I, like any man living in a private house, was able to tinker in a workshop, I was looking for all sorts of small earnings, for example, fix something.

I started looking for a new job in the first week, but my soul was calling for simpler earnings, and to my liking. So I started selling cold forged products.

Market analysis - how to find a business idea in a small town or village

Ask why exactly this? Because I noticed a trend in my area that everyone was buying their own gate at prices that were 50-70% overpriced. The gates were mainly made of profiled sheet and a regular profile frame. They did not stand out in any way and were extremely simple.

To begin with, I figured out on paper how much it would cost me to start my own business, the prices were cosmic. The prices for the gates ranged from 30,000 to 40,000 thousand rubles, I myself could make such a gate in 1 week, for about 16,000. The second part of my plan was to find a point of sale, since it is too unprofitable to sell at home, and ads were mostly not the kind of audience my business was targeting. Then a local store that sold building materials came to the rescue, its attendance was the highest in my area, and it was not difficult to negotiate with the authorities. We agreed on such terms that the owner provided the material - one problem was solved.

How to make a gate in artisanal conditions

I will try to describe the materials and basic design features. I make the gate frame from a fence profile, different sizes, about 10 mm of inner diameter. Sheathing is mostly painted profiled sheet. But the “highlight” is the cold forging jewelry (pictured), it is possible to make them on special machines, but I used a conventional gearbox (pictured), which allows you to make intricate and not very details.