So, you are going to add metal to your offering

MCS Influencer Ken McLauchlan says there are some important discussions to have when looking to get into the metal industry.

What market segments are you wanting to go into?

• Residential (interior/exterior) (walls/roofs)
• Commercial (light duty/negotiated or specified)
• Agricultural (location/accessibility/regional)

What is driving the additional offering?

• What are the products you are buying currently (trims/panels for roof or walls)
• Is this internal growth/existing customer base with further product offering
• Is this external growth/moving into a competitive market that you have not participated in

Where are my products being sourced from?

• What type of a relationship do you have with the vendor or vendors
  • What is my company's exposure?
• Can I increase the bottom line by investing in other products or processing to allow growth, but more can I gain project/job control by manufacturing?
• Do I have the facility or space to manufacture or can it be leased/purchased?

How do we gain industry knowledge/learn from other experiences?

• Vendor partnerships (who is the lead in the industry)
  • Can you work with them?
• Trade shows/industry organizations

What investments do we need to make?

• Employees (who do we need to hire/can we hire them)
• Equipment (what is the industry using/where is the industry going/what is your specific market doing) (fabrication/ installation/delivery)
• Insurance (workers compensation/liability/manufacturing verses installation)
• Re-organization (benefits in changing/adding different divisions with insurance/protection)

In the end, does this make good business sense?

• Is it complementary to your existing business and plan?
• Is this going to take away from the current focus or success?
• Can you maintain or do you have the staff in place to support the existing building and new growth plan?
• Do you have a business plan for this path with milestones/schedules?