Light manufacturing and fabrication · an illustrative composite
The fabricator whose small jobs paid for nothing
Twenty-four people, one site in Maspeth
Every case study on this site is a composite. Every case study on this site is an illustrative composite assembled from several businesses. No client is named, no logo appears, and there is not a single testimonial on this website attributed to a person — a fabricated one would be the one genuinely dishonest thing a consulting site can do.
What was happening
Revenue up two years running, the owner working six days, and the bank balance flat. Quotes were built from a per-hour figure that had last been checked four years earlier and did not include setup, and setup on a small job is most of the job.
What we did
Follow the job for two weeks, then every quote from the previous year put next to what the job actually took. Six days over five weeks.
What is different now
The quoting method changed to price setup separately from run time, and a minimum job value went in. The owner can now say which of last month's jobs made money, which is a sentence that could not be said before.
What this cost, and how that number was arrived at
The engagement was a pricing and quoting: five to eight days at the partner day, over four to six weeks, ending in a written pricing method, worked through on your last fifty quotes, and a script for the conversation with existing customers.
How that fee is arrived at
- Partner day× five$11,000
- The same rate, at the long end× eight$17,600
- Travel, materials and anything bought for youat cost—
- What you would be quotedfive to eight days$11,000 to $17,600
The day rate is $2,200 and it is on the fees page. That multiplication is the whole of the pricing model: there is no retainer hidden inside it, no percentage of anything and no success fee.
What is deliberately not on this page
- A company name. This is several businesses combined and none of them would be recognisable in it.
- A percentage. There is no version of their year without us in it to compare against, so any figure would be an estimate presented as a measurement.
- A quotation from anybody. There is not one testimonial attributed to a person anywhere on this website.
- A claim that we caused what happened next. What can honestly be said is what was decided, what was built, and what is now measured that was not measured before.
The practice area
Sales and growth
Where the revenue comes from, how concentrated it is, what happens to an enquiry, and what you charge for the work.
$2,200 a partner day · ninety minutes free · about one in four we talk out of it
Start with the assessment, or just telephone
The assessment takes about four minutes and gives you a written summary of what your answers suggest and which engagement addresses each thing. It is indicative and not professional advice, and it is a better opening than a blank contact form. If you would rather skip it, the telephone works and the first meeting is ninety minutes and free.