[quote=lindismith]We are in manufacturing, right here in San Diego.
My business has increased A LOT in the last 7 years, mostly because we use a lot of technology, despite the fact that commercial sewing is a somewhat old-fashioned type of process. We don’t have any high tech specialty cutting machines in the factory per se, we just utilize high tech marketing (blogs, SEO, email etc.)and software for running the business as much as possible. So the high tech element is on the front end.
Sometimes when my competitors go out of business, they call me to see if I want to buy equipment. It’s interesting to see, but they often have high tech stuff in their factory, but not in their office, which is the opposite of us.
You can see what we do at http://www.garymanufacturing.com, but we manufacture very basic items, despite stiff competition from China.
The other high tech element we use is reading the blogs, like Piggington and CR. I would say those two single-handedly helped me ramp up prior to the recession so that I was prepared for it.
Ultimately I was surprised by how fast and how far the economy dropped, but still, I felt like I had access to really great data thanks to Rich and all the Piggs.
Hope all is well with you guys – have had a busy summer, but still lurk once in a while. Like, today.
Belinda[/quote]
Nice to see examples of local manufacturing businesses finding a way to compete globally, rather than complain about unfair trade practices. My employer is also a manufacturing intensive company, competing domestically as well as globally with powerhouse European and Asian businesses. Fourth quarter 2008 and 2009 has been extremely challenging, but thanks to a proactive management team, we executed our recession scenario business plan flawlessly allowing us to still met business targets with minimal layoffs. Although a hiring freeze is still in place, I’m happy to report no more layoffs are planned for the forseeable future.
I don’t see how, but more power to you if find blogs like Piggington helpful in managing your business. As a former small business owner with upwards of 20 employees at the peak, I found the biggest challenge hands down was managing, motivating and retaining quality employees. It was a wild ride for 6 years. I don’t miss it at this stage in life as I prefer the relative safety and abundant resources of the corporate world. If you happen to check in, I would be interested in hearing about the unique challenges of your business. Good luck.
