You don’t need more leads.
You need the right customers.

In this episode, Mike Fritz breaks down one of the most important strategic decisions you’ll ever make for your machine shop: defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

Most shops call themselves “job shops” and try to serve everyone. The result?
Price pressure.
Clogged capacity.
Inconsistent margins.

Your ICP changes that.

We cover how to:

• Identify your most profitable work using your last 50–100 jobs
• Stop saying “we make stuff” and start positioning your shop strategically
• Use ICP to filter RFQs and protect your capacity
• Align your marketing, hiring, quoting, and equipment decisions around the right customers

And one of the biggest takeaways:
Your biggest customer is not always your ideal customer.

If you want clearer messaging, stronger margins, and a shop that grows intentionally instead of reactively — this episode is for you.

Subscribe to our weekly format:
Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays

If this episode helps, please leave a review — it helps more shop owners find the show.

Are you losing money on jobs in your machine shop without realizing it?

In this episode of the Machine Shop Growth Podcast, Mike Fritz and Kirk Phelps break down how to identify and fix the 20% of machine shop jobs that quietly destroy your profit margin. From legacy pricing and inaccurate burden rates to poor payment terms and customer concentration risk, we unpack the real reasons job shops struggle with profitability.

You’ll learn how to:

• Calculate your true machine shop burden rate
• Identify unprofitable jobs using simple time studies
• Decide when to blend margin vs. renegotiate pricing
• Protect cash flow from long payment terms
• Stay the solution for your customer — even if you don’t machine the part

Many manufacturing businesses think they have a sales problem.
Often, they have a margin visibility problem.

If you run a machine shop, job shop, or manufacturing business and want to improve profitability without sacrificing customer relationships, this episode gives you a clear, practical framework to follow.

Because being busy isn’t the goal.
Being profitable is.

You don’t have an OEE problem.
You have a perfection problem.

In this episode, Kirk Phelps breaks down Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and challenges one of the most ingrained beliefs in machining: that zero scrap equals a high-performing shop.

We unpack Availability, Performance, and Quality—and explain how fear of scrap quietly kills throughput, adds downtime, and limits growth. This isn’t about being careless. It’s about understanding risk, planning for reality, and operating your shop like a system.

You’ll learn how to:

• Rethink scrap as a byproduct of manufacturing—not a failure
• Identify how perfection erodes availability and throughput
• Use OEE to see where capacity is really being lost
• Apply standardization to reduce setup time and improve performance
• Balance quality with risk management instead of fear

If your shop is busy, clean, and still stuck, this episode will change how you think about OEE—and what “good” really looks like.

Subscribe to our new 2026 weekly format:
Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays

If this episode helps, please leave a review—it helps more shop owners find the show.

You don’t need more RFQs.
You need a better sales system.

In this episode, Mike Fritz sits down with Nick Goellner to break down what sales actually look like in manufacturing—and why most machine shops stall at the same revenue ceilings.

We cover the real difference between marketing and sales, why prospecting is always important (but rarely urgent), and how to grow without hiring a sales team or chasing bad-fit customers.

You’ll learn how to:

• Build a simple Top 10 target list
• Prospect consistently without sounding salesy
• Reduce customer concentration risk
• Sell like a partner, not a job shop

If your shop is busy but not breaking through, this episode gives you a practical, repeatable approach to growth.

Subscribe to our 2026 weekly format:
Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays

If this episode helps, please leave a review—it helps more shop owners find the show.

You don’t need more machines.
You need to stop wasting capacity.

In this episode, Kirk Phelps breaks down why most shops misdiagnose growth problems and how operations—not sales—ultimately decide profitability. We dive deep into OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and explain how availability, performance, and quality reveal hidden capacity, wasted margin, and smarter paths to growth.

Learn how to:

• See where capacity is leaking inside your shop
• Stop defaulting to “more people, more machines”
• Use OEE to guide smarter planning, budgeting, and reinvestment
• Grow your bottom line before chasing top-line revenue

If you’re tired of being busy without getting ahead—and want a shop that’s profitable, disciplined, and intentional—this episode is for you.

Subscribe to our new 2026 format:
✅ Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
✅ Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
✅ Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays

If this episode helps, please leave a quick review—it helps more shop owners find the show.

2026 isn’t about staying busy—it’s about winning on purpose.

In this episode, Mike Fritz breaks down a simple, proven framework to grow your shop using Top Line, Bottom Line, and People. Learn how to clarify who your shop really is, cut loser parts, focus on winner work, and pull the lowest-effort, highest-impact levers for growth.

If you want to break through plateaus like the $2M ceiling and build a shop that’s profitable, scalable, and intentional—this episode is for you.

Subscribe to our new 2026 format:
✅ Sales/Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
✅ Operations/Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
✅ Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays

If this episode helps, please leave a quick review—it helps more shop owners find the show.

💡 “It’s not automation. It’s not another machine. It’s one thing that can touch EVERY part of your business.”

This week, Mike sits down with Paul Van Metre of ProShop ERP to reveal the #1 system that impacts your shop’s top line, bottom line, and people.

From replacing hours of manual tracking to discovering hidden profit leaks. This tool doesn’t just make you more efficient… it makes your entire business more valuable.

Tune in to find out how one software born inside a job shop became the secret weapon for manufacturers everywhere.

What if your next big customer came with a whole shop attached?

In this episode, Mike Fritz sits down with Mike Payne—shop owner, dealmaker, and host of By the Numbers- to pull back the curtain on how real machine shops grow through acquisitions.

From understanding what makes a deal worth it to financing it without millions in the bank. This episode reveals the real-world strategies behind building an empire, one acquisition at a time.

Tune in to learn how to avoid costly mistakes, find the right opportunities, and structure deals that actually make money.