Social Media, Wine 🍷 Library, and Web.2 YouTube video with Gary V. That was the wake-up and was the right time to use these SM platforms.

Engineering Experiences and Stories

It’s now common place to use all these marketing tools, we call Social Media. Back in mid-2007 it was still very much a few willing to try, video, posting, blogging, even to try and put authentic, business posts was just unthinkable.

It’s taken myself, unfortunately, this long to fully embrace what’s required, to fully gain from marketing on Social Media.

The penny has dropped.

You just post consistently and often.

That’s it.

Again the end game has still to ‘reveal its presence’ to CoverStep, StepRack and EntrepreneurialGrit. With our robust, just-in-time business models but no ‘Robustos Cigar’ as yet but we as a business just keep doing. That game will always be a long haul and Social Media has just reduced the timeline.

With that in-mind, your cost for marketing your business has vastly reduced, as long as you put the effort in and post, with the best possible content ‘you-can-produce!’

Just-do-it.

#manufacturingengineering #designengineering #industrialdesign #industrialsolutions #manufacturingindustry #manufacturingprocesses #productdesign #productdevelopment #designengineers #processes #systems #entrepreneurialgrit #hospitalestates #keysystems #keymanagement #keystorage #keyholders #steprack #keyfob #keys 🔑

Website or Brochure that be the question?

Engineering Experiences & Stories

It’s hard to imagine the stories around what now are almost obvious?

Website or a Brochure?

Floppy Disc or CD 💿?

Apple 🍏 or Windows?

MobilePhone or just stick with the landline?

And I assure you, the answers are not glaringly right or wrong. Because you can still do business with either in the list. Maybe be not Floppy Disc, but you get the picture.

The website or the printed Brochure, was the big question in 1996 both cost the same and the debate commenced.

In the end we did a combination website, a CD 💿 with a Brochure style sleeve. Which was pretty neat.

The early mobile adoption made people lazy and turn-up when they felt like, hence not keeping to appointments.

Yes that’s true and probably still applies.

But times move on and it’s go with your intuition for what is right for you at the time. Just make the decision.

And Run-with-it.

Working with Academics

Engineering Experiences & Stories

European Solar Telescope 🔭

What we learnt as a sub-contract supplier for the EST on the Canary Islands.

If you want a frictionless, seamless system, and delivered by week X of the fifty-two via stated export agent, you deal with well prepared thought process as a buyer, a fair amount of putting yourself in the suppliers shoes to understand their methods, timeline, and working to a clear, precise procedures.

Asking what you require as the buyer, from what you require from the supplier.

It was that easy, for us as the supplier, you new exactly what was needed, by when and with what certifications for every part, for an exact date, week it had to be delivered.

If you can state the exact Week you delivery 📦 then you have the process & system ‘built-into’ your business.

That should be your aim as sub-contractor, product supplier, a manufacturer, an entrepreneur with physical products.

Frictionless & Seamless make that your goal.

“You will get by Week......”

If you can fill the blank, you are ready.

Going with Technology

Engineering Experiences & Stories

To buy or not to buy CNC that be the question.

I remember a question being asked from a machine tool dealer and a joint venture, investor, asking if we ‘new what machine tools were the best to buy!’

It was like the blind, leading the blind.

Just because ego was what you’ve seen and worked on, they didn’t look what was coming down the track.

We all did eventually and that’s when you take-off, you can see the technological advantage and act-upon-it.

Buying CNC.

Again it’s Math, quicker, better, faster, smarter and as the businessman ‘you take the calculated risk.’

We see it today with the additive material machines, it’s a little bit of timing, when to jump-in and invest.

Then it’s Big Nuts 🥜 Time

Do you or Don’t you!

“Come on in, the Waters Lovely!”

As a Sub-Contractor?

Just-Do-it!

As an Entrepreneur.

That’s different.

Why?

Feel free to Contact any time and I will tell you or you may already know?

Paint 🎨 from Back of a Van

Engineering Experiences & Stories

Well it’s have a laugh Friday.

We just got a contract from a Japanese 🇯🇵 corporate to do mods to their injection mould tools and we got the nod that the emperor of the business was coming to UK 🇬🇧.

We thought, from our small startup unit, in a court yard with other startups, we would paint 🎨 before his visit.

Around comes the opportunistic ‘white van man’ with gallons of grey paint. We paint the floor the night before the big visit.

The morning after, it’s not gone off and his on his way!

Lucky for use, we had a trail-bike dealer who had empty cardboard boxes, Made in Japan 🇯🇵 Yamaha Boxes! The irony was not in play, but the emperor, like the Queen, is used to seeing the effort and the smell of fresh paint.

The white van boys had a field day in the court yard that day, as they sold a TV 📺 to a unit a couple doors up. They Bought one, switched-it-on, low and behold, picture but no sound. It was only after a while they discovered that the item had no speaker 🔈 🔊!

The moral:

Engineers stop buying from back of a Van

And all CEOs and Her Majesty, love to see you make an effort.

Watch ideas 💡 re-emerging because you give-up......

Engineering Experiences & Stories

Yes as the moons go bye you recall methods and processes ‘you could’ have developed, if only you had not given up.

Or worse still you are part of the organization/corporation and you got no financial reward. Though the department head increased his pension....go figure.

It’s even worse when your in the business world and you tell people who, could have, should have, helped but didn’t.

That’s the procrastination.

Because it’s your idea 💡 and it’s you who quit.

The person you told, may have ripped you off, but fundamentally you let ‘em!

Don’t forget that.

If you believe in it, you don’t quit.

Seize the Opportunity

Engineerig Experiences & Stories

These can come, in so many disguises. You can compare in so many ways, with for example, taking on new skills, new methods, new processes, as we did within the variants of the engineering sector. Tacking on a foundry.

Everyone thought we where mad.

We had a subcontract CNC machine shop, which we did the occasional cast aluminium API values for a Global Petrochemical Company. They offered us the original ‘melting pots’ that the founder of the company had worked on, to start casting with-in our machine shop.

We took a chance, as this tide our machine shop to doing ‘low margin fitting’ for Global Giant.

The beauty of this thinly disguised opportunity of having foundry equipment, lead us into a huge contract for an even bigger Global Petrochemical Company, who we made A Grade aluminium electrodes/anodes for their chlorine plant.

The founder was Ted Fort of Fort Vale and the Aluminium Anodes for the chlorine plant was ICI, Runcorn, Cheshire, now IneosChlor.

Now that’s opportunity and we took it with both hands.

So it seems to always turn out this way;

“One Door 🚪 Closes, then another One ☝️ Opens.”

I will never forget, it taught us a valuable lesson.

Why things Evolve?

Engineering Experiences & Stories

W.O. Bentley gathering at Donington Park Circuit, you’ll see a huge collection of evolving internal combustion engines. Some become a success and some go like the dodo. But they all learned and evolved to become quicker, better, faster and smarter. Not only on the track, with the actual production methods, processes, systems, engineering practices always evolving and improving.

Which is very much like the ever changing electronic world, some winners and some losers, including hardware & software, but all enlightening one another and evolving.

Who becomes the eventual winners?

Probably the one who don’t quit.

#manufacturingengineering #designengineering #precisionengineering #industrialsolutions #processes #systems #manufacturingindustry #designengineers #manufacturingprocesses #industrialdesign #productdevelopment #productdesign #entrepreneurialgrit #hospitalestates #keyholders #keysystems #keymanagement #keystorage #steprack #keyfob #product #manufacturing

Dare Mighty Things

Do not lower your Target 🎯

Most beautiful thing about science, engineering and business is the ideas.

As you heat things up, there’s always a reaction. The molecules start to move and react.

It’s the same in business, apply a bit of heat, which will come in different forms granted. Like urgency, cashflow, targets, meeting the order by said date, work to improve, work to a schedule of time.

Communication. You communicate the outcome required, with a dash of mission and vision.

You get your own style to apply the heat.

That’s the difference.

You craft your way to get results.

These are building into every aspect of your design, your build and your product.

The list goes on, it’s all experience.

We at EntrepreneurialGrit know this and wish to help our fellow entrepreneurs on their journey, as they build their stories.

StepRack electronic and mechanical key 🔑 management has many tributaries, that all add up to its development. One of them being back in the early ‘90s we signed the Official Secrets Act for QinetiQ. A big deal to us, as former PM John Major was a director at the time. As we mechanically set-up cameras 🎥 for checking microchips, to enable to find faults, and the chips went onto to be used on garments.

With the knowledge gained we are now using on StepRack, as potential ‘narrow’ AI for checking keys. This what happens in engineering and other sectors, you realise that what you learn, will always return to pay dividends and help with your marketing story.