Michael Brown knows what it takes to grow a company from a garage operation into a $1 million-a-year business in five years ,good, old-fashioned service.
Santee-based Computer Integrated Machining took a risk to attract customers in its first year. The company promised quicker turnaround than its competitors, offering to knock 10 percent off its bill if it was a day late on the order.
Then, in recent years, Brown has come to learn the art of marketing , something which gives him an edge over many of his competitors. They may be skilled with machines, but they’re not good salespeople, he said.
The emphasis on marketing his business has helped put CIM on the map, with such high-profile clients as Boeing and Lucent Technologies. Brown expects to double his business this year.
And yet, for a company that got its start in his father’s garage, Brown remains true to his roots. He may be the president of the company, but he still takes time out to machine tool a blower for a friend’s ’57 Chevy.
And then there’s Jake. This large mutt makes his home among the high-tech mills and lathes at CIM. Vendors and UPS drivers know enough to show up at the door with plenty of doggie treats, Brown said.
Running a successful business is the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition for Brown, a self-described “long-haired metal shop guy” in high school. Originally, he was attracted to welding, but changed his mind when the shop teacher described what it would be like welding in the hot sun for hours while wearing heavy protective leather equipment, he said.
He switched over to machine work and held several machinist jobs upon graduation from high school in 1980. He also took college-level courses and learned about computers along the way.
He then took an engineering job making microwave circuit boards for aerospace contractor Soladyne for five years until he was laid off due to military cutbacks in 1991.
Eventually, Brown returned to running a machine shop in 1994. When he saw that company was heading nowhere, he went into business for himself.
Brown started the business in September 1995 with a 1988-era computer numeric-controlled mill he bought for $12,000. His father loaned him an additional $2,500 for other equipment, and provided the space in his garage for Brown to run the company, he said.
In the beginning, Brown’s company had two employees , his father and his brother. They operated the machine during the day, while Brown was working, and he would operate the machine after he came home from work in the evening.
“We did that for the first month. After the first month, we started getting enough work where it looked like it was going to take off. So I quit my job,” Brown said. “And pretty much the rest is history.”
Brown’s father, Ron Brown, also recalls the company’s origins. Michael Brown came up with the idea, which Ron Brown liked and invested in. He also did the books.
Together, they came up with the name to signify that their work is integrated with computers. Since his son had many contacts in the industry, business increased rapidly, Ron Brown said.
Within six months, Michael Brown had paid off the machine. He bought another machine and moved into an 800-square-foot building with one employee and his father.
That lasted only six months, before CIM moved into an 1,800-square-foot facility. Brown bought two new machines, worth a total of $200,000, and took on two employees. A year later, he added another machine and moved into a 2,500-square-foot shop.
All the shops have been located in Santee, where his company has been since it first opened, Brown said.
CIM did $500,000 in business in 1998, and $500,000 in 1999. Noticing business was beginning to level off, Michael Brown began to advertise in prominent trade publications and directories. He also created a Web site, (www.cimsd.com).
The strategy paid off, and Brown is now getting inquiries from as far away as Boston and Toronto. he expects to do $1 million worth of business in 2000.
– Expanded Staff
And Equipment
Brown now has a 5,000-square-foot facility with seven mills, lathes and grinders, many of which are worth between $100,000 and $150,000. He also has nine employees and may add another in the next few months, he said.
It’s now getting to the point where Brown has had to turn down a few jobs, simply because CIM is becoming too busy to take on new work, he said.
And the company is still growing. Right now, he’s waiting on a high-profile contract worth $250,000 to $500,000 grinding parts for Hughes Aircraft Co.
If he gets the contract, he’ll purchase two new machines and hire as many as four new employees to handle the extra work. That means he’ll start running out of room and will have to look for additional floor space, he said.
Michael Brown bought out his father in April 1999. The parting was amicable, but Ron Brown cited finances as his reason for pulling out. He felt that in the past, there might not have been enough orders coming in to justify the large capital investment in purchasing new machines.
Michael Brown admitted there might be something to his father’s fears, since he sometimes ended up second-guessing himself. In the past, every time he bought a new machine, Murphy’s Law would strike and business would suddenly slow down before picking back up again, he said.
That is less of a problem now, however. As CIM has grown, the company has more long-term commitments from clients, making future slowdowns less likely, Brown said.
Brown’s brother, meanwhile, works for another machine shop. Although it’s a rival company, Brown doesn’t see it that way, since the competition between machine shops is actually friendly, Brown said.
– Competitors Help
Each Other Out
Brown cited as an example one experience when the owner of another shop came over on Christmas Eve to help out. The man knew that CIM had a deadline to meet and was willing to work for free to help out Brown, he said.
For his part, Brown would do the same for his competitors. Since everybody knows everybody in this line of work, nobody wants to get a bad reputation, Brown said.
Still, Brown has managed to get ahead of his competitors. When compared to some of the companies that have been in business longer than his, CIM has higher gross sales, more machines and more square footage, he said.
Brown attributes his success not to going after his competitors, but instead by working on his own end. Many other companies, for example, have limited experience dealing with such high-tech metals as copper-tungsten, Alloy 46, Kovar and Invar, he said.
Brown noted CIM is well-positioned. As aerospace work is declining, work in the telecommunications industry is increasing , and that means companies that can handle these high-tech metals will always be in demand, he said.
