Business people who run manufacturing companies make many decisions every day. Unfortunately, we don’t always make the best decisions. There are a number of reasons for this, and we’ve listed the top ones here along with some tips to help you improve your decision-making batting average.
The thieves who use computers instead of weapons to draw money out of business bank accounts are increasingly targeting small to mid-size businesses. Once, if you weren’t a billion-dollar company, you were less likely to be hacked by cyber criminals. That’s no longer the case. Consider these recent statistics:
As managers we’d like everyone in our workplace to get along and for things to run smoothly. However, whenever you have a group of people working together there are bound to be occasional conflicts. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Healthy conflict can often lead to better ways of making parts or other improvements.
In a perfect world a manufacturing company owner or supervisor would simply give employees orders, walk away and enjoy the results. After all, people should be self-sufficient, take pride in their work and always do their best. In the real world, of course, we all have our ups and downs, we make mistakes and we don’t always get along with everyone. In other words: We’re human beings.
As has become its pattern, the United States Congress waited until the 11th hour of 2015 to approve the Section 179 deduction of business equipment for 2016. The good news is that this means you can write off up to $500,000 of manufacturing equipment put into service by December 31, 2016. Had this legislation failed to pass and be signed into law by the President, the 179 deduction limit would have been capped at $25,000.
It’s challenging enough to run a successful CNC machine shop these days without worrying about people trying to steal from you. Unfortunately, it’s a reality we all must face. Certainly, there have always been thieves and con artists, however today’s technologies and the rapid pace of business provide new opportunities for them to get hold of your hard earned dollars. Following are 5 of the most common scams aimed at businesses of all sizes and what you can do to keep the scammers’ fingers out of your pocket.
There are lots of big names in the news that wish they weren’t. They’re newsworthy because their databases have been hacked, putting employees and customers at risk. Not only have many major retailers been hit, but also institutions we thought were the most secure, including the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and other government agencies, have recently suffered major data systems breeches.
While we all want our employees to be safe in the workplace, the fact is there were close to 3 million reports of nonfatal injuries reported to OSHA last year. Over 900,000 cases involved days away from work. FEMA reports that in 2011 there were 85,400 non-residential fires in the U.S. that caused 80 deaths and 1,100 injuries. The dollar loss from these fires amounted to $2,435,700,000.
Typically owners of businesses like CNC machine shops put off thinking about the future of their company once they’re ready to retire, move on to a new challenge, or something unexpected happens. Let’s face it: few of us like to think about these things. We own our business because we like what we’re doing, we enjoy being our own boss, and we don’t want our success to depend on anyone else. We’d much rather focus on resolving today’s challenges, planning for growth and investing in new technology.
Marketing is typically not on the top of most CNC machine shop owners’ minds. After all, each day is filled with myriad challenges, and the primary goal is to produce more and better parts and products. Unfortunately customers don’t stay around forever, no matter how well we treat them. Companies are bought and sold, go out of business, bring previously outsourced work inside, or simply no longer require the kind of work you provide. That’s why we must constantly add new customers. But where do we find them? And how can we do so cost-effectively? Fact is there are a number of ways you can seek new customers by substituting sweat equity for dollars. Here are 4 of them: