Startup curve? 7

[sTrucTureTec]

Greetings, I am new to this forum. I started my own project management and structural design firm last October. My question is how long should I expect to go workless before activity and results of my marketing are realised. I have been doing all, direct mail and email marketing, website, attending association and committee meetings, etc. But to date I have not realised any results. I have saved expecting this to happen, but it appears it will take longer than anticpated. I live in a large metro area (Nashville) and would expect some early results within a couple of months. What have other startups experienced?

Kelly
sTrucTure-Tec.com

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Kelly - I started my own one-person engineering consulting firm four years ago. Since I am semi-retired and only wanted part time work, did not do any formal maketing or advertising. Only used word-of-mouth and informal networking. Got my first "client" after one year. First profit was in year three. Now in year four, work level has stabilized where I want it (a low-level and part-time). With active input on your part, hopefully you will have quicker results.

Will pass on wisdom my father taught me in the 1970's when we formed and operated a heavy construction corporation (in business for 6 years, then voluntarily shut down - too hard a way of life, but great experience)

"There are worse things for a business than being out of work, they are:
1. Too much work.
2. Work at too low a price."

He was 100% correct and am glad to say that I am not making those mistakes this time.

Those are my comments on your question. However, I will offer some other unsolicited observations & opinions:

1. There is another company named "StructureTec". If you google on your firm's name you get a combinations of hits for both companies - mostly theirs. Makes you hard to find.

2. One type of networking that I have found rewarding, both personally and professionally, is to teach engineering subjects locally (as a volunteer, or for low pay - and do this through your company). Looks great on your resume to see something like "Frequent guest lecturer at XXX College of Engineering". Potential clients may be alumni, and it certainly gives you something to talk about.

3. Finally, welcome to Eng-Tips. I see that your signature is "sTrucTure-Tec.com". You may want to consider a change to "

http://www.sTrucTure-Tec.com"

to make it an active link. Eng-Tips site rules permit this (but not email addressses).

Hope that I have not been too "pushy". If you want to discuss any details, you can contact me at the email address listed on my "do-it-yourself, novice" website. See below.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[sTrucTureTec]

Thanx for the input. Hopefully, it won't take me a year. Time will tell! I knew it would be a lot of hard work, but after 25 years of corporate BS and backstabbing I wanted to have my problems to be my own doing.

Yes I am aware of the other "StructureTec". I'll have to make some changes to my meta-tags so the search comes up with my site also. Glad you mentioned my signature, I thought it would be considered advertising by the forum.

Kelly

http://www.structure-tec.com

 

[fndn]

In Civil Engineering, it is contacts that lead to clients and business. You have great website, experience and licenses. But you have to focus on one or two types of clients. For example, you could target Architectural firms and perform structural design for them or perhaps General contractors and be their Structural Design engineer-so choose a category of clients and then talk to your contacts, colleagues, and ask them to introduce you to prospective clients.

That method works if the economy is good. See, when the economy is strong, it is like a wave it picks up everything. So in the Nashville area, are A/E firms hiring or just floating along?

If possible, give informational seminars abouta topic you excel in. You can do this at your offices, provide some snacks and then ask them for an appointment to review their technical needs.

Finally, be relentless in your cold calls. Marketing brochures are fine, but is supplementary to initial meeting.

If the economy is slow in Nashville, no matter what you do, work inflow will be slow. So in slow times, you could consider buying existing business for sale, adding a structural department to general CE firm, teaming up with few PE's and pooling together your resources or soliciting expanding large A/E firms to buy you out.

A Member of

http://www.civilvillage.com

 

[zdas04]

I had a couple of slow months when I started 18 months ago, and I treated it as an opportunity to learn something. I budgeted 2 hours/day to Eng-Tips.com and got really active here. My signature block (along with answers that some have concidered cogent) has resulted in a couple hundred hits on my web page per week, a dozen or so direct inquires, and two jobs.

I also got active in my local engineering association (SPE for me) and I'm currently the local section chairman. That has resulted in some great networking opportunities. Like the always-on-point comments from SlideRuleEra, I volunteered to give talks on a range of topics in a range of venues. Those have resulted in work.

I've written papers for the SPE and a trade publication that have resulted in work.

Bottom line is that during the time that there are no paying clients is a really good time to cast some bread upon the water (or hang salt licks in Elk country). It's either that or solitare and that gets old fast. Write some important papers and post them on your web page, I'm always amazed at the number of people who google to my "samples page" and stick around to see who the heck I am.

Cold calls work (as paiful as they can be), written literature just joins the noise. I've gotten exactly one call from my yellow-pages add (that didn't result in work), but Oil & Gas is different from structural (if you were closer, I have a structural problem that I need help with right now, and the structural engineers around here are booked up tight).

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

The Plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

 

[MacGyverS2000]

The Plural of "anecdote" is not "data" <<< I love it

Very few businesses produce money right out of the gate. I designed my products for over a year before I felt ready to place them up for sale. Once I did that, it was "sit back and wait" all over again... I've actually found word of mouth to be a better marketing tool than print ads. I expected a huge increase in web traffic from a particular print ad, but instead the numbers jumped a small amount and plateaued.

Dan
Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[sTrucTureTec]

All your suggestions are great. I guess the cold calls and writting papers are the main activities I am lacking. I try to set up appointments to follow up any mailings or email I send out, but there is always an excuse not to spend any time to meet with me. I may just have to start taking my chances and showing up unannouced. Another problem I feel I am fighting is my experience type. It is obvious that my resume' is primarily industrial. The architects and developers I have met with seem to think unless you've done commercial or hospital work you can't design their type of structure!


Thanks for all your suggestions!

Kelly Lyons, PE
Principal
sTrucTure-Tec

http://www.sTrucTure-Tec.com

 

[nnjunger]

I agree with the cold calls helping, but I personally would keep them to the telephone. I personally will not see anyone that shows up on our plant site unannounced unless I already have a good working relationship with them. It makes me feel like my priorities and time are not important to you since you expect me to drop everything and make a window of time available for you. Then my thought process goes on to "if that is how they value me as a customer or potential customer, do I want to do business with them". The answer is unless you are the only game in town, or have a truly unique and outstanding product, no.

Of course, that is only my personal view on the subject, and other people may look at it differently.

 

[zdas04]

nnjunger has it right - cold calls should be by phone. When I was still working for a big company, I never made time for people I knew who showed up without an appointment (or who were late for an appointment) let alone cold calls. I often made appointments with people who cold-called me if they could convince me within the first couple of minutes that they had something unique to offer. If they wasted my time with irrelevant BS then the conversation was over before they got to the chase. Some people say that you should try to make small talk to introduce yourself to the client and "break the ice" - when I was a client I responded better to people who realized my time was valuable and worked very hard not to waste it.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

The Plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

 

[sTrucTureTec]

I agree, that's why I've not resorted to that action yet. The secretaries do a good job of screening and I never get a return call. Just will have to keep calling!

Thanks for all your insight... I'm sure once things start it will be like a snow ball rolling downhill.



Kelly Lyons, PE
Principle

http://www.sTrucTure-Tec.com

 

[ProbaSci]

If you believe that the "common knowledge of sales" applies to your customers, it takes an average of 7 contacts with a client to generate a sale. Time to be below average for a change!

http://www.probasci.com

-
Implantable FEA for medical device manufacturers

 

[denoid]

Kelly

I read the suggestions above, and looked at your website. I see one of the items on your website is offering to partner with Architects, Developers, or Contractors. How about trying to partner with other Engineering firms that only do Mechanical and/or Electrical? You could let them do part of your marketing for you when they need a Structural person to fill out their team.

About 2 1/2 years ago, I was considering doing what you have done, after about 28 years in the business. The sticking point with me was having to do all of the marketing for a start-up company. I talked to an old colleage of mine from a previous employer who had started his own Electrical firm a few years earlier, and was quite successful right away - just looking for tips on what to expect, etc. He had added a couple of Mechanical Engineers about a year earlier. He was more than happy to give me advice on how to start my company; (we always worked well together at our old firm, and sometimes played golf together). After about the third or fourth conversation, he just asked me to come to work for him and start up a Structural group in his company. I gave it some thought, and took it. Now, a couple of years later, I'm still happy I did it. I bought part ownership of the firm with some other employees, and business is going well.

My point is, it's easier for all of the M/E/S departments to find out "Do you want fries with that burger" when selling their own services than to try to always do it on your own. You don't have to work for someone else, like I did, but if you get to know some other Engineering companies offering other disciplines, you might be able to scratch each other's backs, and keep all of your companies more profitable.

 

[TheTick]

Very nice website. Looks good.

The "caps play" on your name sTrucTure Tec is a distraction. Looks like a variable name in a program. It actually seems to make the eye back up a step and interrupts the flow of the name. Lose it.

 

[sTrucTureTec]

Denoid, thanks for the suggestion. I'll pursue that angle and see if there are any opportunities there.

Kelly Lyons, PE
Principle

http://www.sTrucTure-Tec.com

 

[sTrucTureTec]

I have been asked by a couple of architects why I have not tried to partner with other structural firms. What do some of you think? I have not pursued this path because I felt I would have to have some work to offer in return. Otherwise I would just be another employee, and when they are not seeking new employees due to work load. At this stage I am not there yet in being able to bring work to the table, and being another employee is not the reason I started this business. Maybe down the road it might be possible. Is there an angle I'm missing here?

Kelly Lyons, PE
Principal

http://www.sTrucTure-Tec.com

 

[denoid]

Kelly:

Since starting our small Structural group at my company as I described in an earlier post,we have had the opportunity to do structural work for another large local structural firm on a couple of occasions. They have periods of work influx that swamps their in-house staff, but they don't feel right staffing up for short term work, only to have to lay the people off when the work slows to normal again. The result is a benefit to us and them. We do the work in our own office, and deliver finished drawings and calculations (on their titleblock & letterhead). They perform an in-house QA review of our work, and they stamp the work, as required. We have several interim meetings to discuss progress and questions, so we are working under their supervision for legal purposes. I don't think you can consider us their "employee", but rather as their outside consultant, as on a typical project with an architect or owner.

Since we are small, it is understood that we will likely not be returning the favor, but there is still a benefit for both firms. That might be the "angle that you are missing".

 

[jjeng2]

I started a little over a year ago and it took a year to get things rolling. I would suggest staying with your current job while spending nights getting things going. I wouldnt do marketing if that would not sit well with your employer but I would do all other startup tasks so when you open your doors you can spend 100% of time on marketing until work comes in. I just wrote a post under another question in this form with some marketing tips. Search for it by my name.