If i look back at many of the companies which closed... one thing stands out more than most ... expansion.

It is actually sad to think that not one of the customers who helped me grow and survive all these years is still operating.

Another thing i have found catches up with you... customers which over time just become part of the everyday grind ...i have found you tend you get slack with payment collections and eventually they go from COD to 30 -60- 90 days ... i have one customer i let go because over the years there have been a few factory builds... factory moves and then just machine repairs and because the outstanding money is small you tend to just let it go... until this customer just got out of hand ...in fact they have never settled their account... it is only about R4000 ...but 5 customers not paying R4000 become a problem... the catch is they take advantage and forget that they have tried other companies over the years and keep coming back because you know their equipment and control etc ( there is a manual star delta crank handle on one of the old lathes) there are not many sparkies around who can fix an old manual star delta and fit and program a PLC... most can do either one or the other.