It’s obvious that you build yourself a Web presence to improve your business. A lot of people also think it’s obvious to build a presence to drag that business in from a manner of weird and wonderful places. A global or countrywide reach is all fine and dandy doodle, but consolidating an area you already have your mucky paws on also makes a bit of sense.

We still don’t have a sales team, or do anything other than word of mouth and the internet. Well why fix what ain’t broke, or more importantly, doesn’t cost that much?

But I still find it kinda cool that the biggest paying job we’ve had thus far online came from a company just across the road in Colne. Boundary Mill, situated right next to Asda in Colne, were moving just across the road as they’d more than outgrown their existing premises and had built a brand spanking new set.

Apparently, all the needed was a full set of stainless steel planters to look nice and shiny on their restaurant balcony looking out over Pendle Hill. As you may have gathered by now, there’s little chance you’re going to drive up and down Burnley Road and passing Butler Sheetmetal HQ thinking there’s a blossoming planter operation going on.

They had been doing their homework online – like any reasonable business should in this day and age – to find somebody in the UK who could fabricate them some stainless steel planters. I’ve no idea if they found us though this site or through Tinpot Alley, but either way, it didn’t take them too long to work out that we’d be fairly cheap on the old delivery front. We could just get Jasper to handball them down the road if needs be.

I suppose the point is that they came across us online and thought we might be worth contacting before they found out walking round would’ve been as quick as firing off an email. And that cheers me up no end.

Anyway, less gassing and more pictures:

Large circular stainless steel planter.

Custom rectangular stainless steel planter

Planters with nice balcony view.

I’ve got a load more planter pictures that I’ll be putting up onto flickr once they’ve swept up.

As with many smaller sheet metal companies, there tends to be quite a bit of sub-contracting that goes on. Obviously, the smaller you are the less facilities you have in-house. And the busier you get, the more sub-contracting out you need to do.

So, it’s kind of important that you find half decent companies that have a remote idea as to what they’re supposed to be doing. We don’t have any in-house facilities for powder coating, so any planters that require a colour need to be done elsewhere.

The Butler boys recently did a rather large planter job for somebody in London and I think I recall the odd email between the powder coating firm and John fizzing through my inbox. I got an email last week with a few pictures of the planters leaving the powder coaters – Trevon Industrial Finishings in Colne. And, as John succinctly put it in his correspondence: “They really pulled us out of the shit with this one and did a fantastic job.”

Faint praise indeed. Now I have quite a pedantic eye when it comes to finishes, and I have to say that pictures do show a very good paint job. And the bottom line is that the customer is awfully pleased as well and will be sending us even more pictures once they’ve been planted up.

You see, it’s all well and good taking credit for a job well done, but on this one Trevon obviously went above and beyond the call of duty and really helped us out to the point that we’d have been in quite a hole otherwise. The customer isn’t going to care where you get the things painted, powder-coated, or finished. All they care about is the finish once they receive the finished article(s) – and quite right too.

It’s just that you might not be deserving of all the credit lavished upon you. Unless we deserve a pat on the back for sourcing the best industrial finishings company this side of Manchester that is.

Well we’ve got another version of the Tinpot Alley site which is now on tinpotalley.co.uk as opposed to tinpotalley.com.

The one thing to say in my praise is that at least I’ve finished one prior to the planter season kicking off. I normally time a Tinpot Alley release just in time for Bonfire Night or something.

Anyway, I’d appreciate any feedback if anything seems slightly off-kilter.

Thanks.

The world can be divided into two types of people – those whose think the above is a Buckminster Fullerene and those who think it’s a football.

And those who think it’s just an overpriced planter.

Visit our sister site, Tinpot Alley, to view more stainless steel and metal planters.

I’m looking for a sheet metal fabrication shop around my new parish of Cleveland for the fabrication of our stainless steel planters, rusted planters and zintec metal planters. (Tinpot Alley)

We’re unable to service any American enquiries from over here, so it’d be ideal for me to find a fabricator with the kind of experience and quality to cobble together our planters and other bespoke metalwork.

Most of our current planter enquiries are custom made-to-measure but you wouldn’t have to deal with those as that’d be my bag. You’d only have to deal with me.

I do have a sample somewhere to be able to show you, but the current fabrication required involves lasering, bending (16swg and 18swg), welding, polishing, shotblasting and painting. Not every planter requires everything doing to it, but it would be nice to source everything under one roof or at least have somebody who can outsource certains bits without a problem.

What’s in it for you?
You’d get our American enquiries to quote on and fabricate – if successful.
You’d also get quite a few Tinbasher mentions (in fact, we’d market your core services like one of our own), which could be rather handy for the right company.

What’s in it for me?
I’d still have a works’ Christmas do to attend.

Please ask any other questions you might have in the comments or via email: tinbasher@butlersheetmetal.com and I’ll get back in touch with you. Then you can shout me lunch.

I probably haven’t covered everything here but I’m rather keen to get this show on the road.