139. From Startup Shop to Industry Connector: Brett Lister’s Story

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Most of us were taught to guard our processes. Brett Lister built a group around doing the opposite—and it’s paying him back in work, tooling, and knowledge. I sat down with Brett to talk about Open Tolerance, the collaboration group he runs out of B&B Dynamic Machining, and what happens when small shops decide to help each other instead of fighting over scraps.

The group started as a way to swap ideas and turned into a way to swap work. A shop with a long lead time on a five axis job hands part of it to a shop with an open machine. A job that needs live tooling goes to the shop that actually has it. Brett took on a job another owner couldn’t run, made $26,000 on it, and then used it to make the case that the owner should buy the machine himself.

We also get into the unglamorous parts of running a small shop. Employees are Brett’s biggest struggle, and his answer is profit sharing plus a sales commission for anyone whose video brings in an RFQ. He explains why he walked away from a sale that would have paid what he wanted, why he shuts his VF4 down at noon on cutting tool demo days, and how a rejected set of parts turned into a teaching moment instead of a fight.

If you’ve wondered how to start something like this where you are, Brett’s advice is simple. Go to the next local event and shake as many hands as you can. More people will say yes than you expect. He also covers the free tooling that shows up when you just ask vendors, and how virtual meetings are pulling in owners who live too far away to drive to a shop on a Wednesday night.

What’s Covered in this Episode

• (0:00) Learn more about Brett Lister, his shop, and his love for networking
• (5:29) 28 years in the trade and the school idea that became a machine shop
• (7:56) Why finding and keeping employees is the hardest part
• (9:28) Profit sharing, and a sales commission for employees whose videos bring in RFQs
• (10:35) Hennig Workflow: automated pallet delivery for more spindle uptime without adding headcount
• (11:26) Working with the Community College of Philadelphia and local programs to bring in new machinists
• (15:51) How Open Tolerance started, from a mastermind idea to a collaboration group
• (23:08) Going virtual in August, and why consistency keeps the meetings going
• (25:00) Factur: the go to market steps to max out before you hire anyone
• (31:10) How the in-person meetings get organized, third Wednesday at 6 PM
• (34:06) Why he walked away from a chance to sell the shop
• (37:47) Family, the collaboration meetings, and running chips after hours
• (40:23) How the group became an unintentional support group for owners
• (43:45) Kennametal: tooling built for the real demands of the shop floor
• (44:33) Power of attraction, visualization, and the $3,000 PO that showed up on its own
• (47:15) Advice for startups: get active on social media and pay it forward with free tooling
• (50:28) How to start a collaboration group in your own area
• (52:26) Sometimes all you have to do is ask

Resources Mentioned

• Hennig Workflow
• Kennametal
• Factur
• Open Tolerance
• B&B Dynamic Machining
• IMTS
• Think and Grow Rich
• Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business

Connect with Brett Lister

• Open Tolerance Website
• Open Tolerance on Instagram
• B&B Dynamic Machining Website