Growing business with gutter machines and kindness

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with MCS Influencer Hayle Bohmer. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Abel Cisneros: My name is Abel Cisneros, co-owner of the C & S Rain Gutters. I started in 2003. My wife and I, we own the business. It's a small business and we specialize in gutters and downspouts.

My first machine was a new tech machinery. I worked for other outfits before I started my own and they had a different machines, which were not so efficient as new tech machinery was. When I started my own, I wanted to have something that it was top of the line and it was good and I enjoyed to work with it. My first purchase, it was a New Tech Machinery.

Anybody who needs gutters, that's our primary customer. I have built a small reputation here in town in Greeley, in Northern Colorado. Basically, a lot of people know who Abel is, which is a short Mexican guy who does gutters. It's hard to miss that all the time.

Our business is a small business, but we have three different crews and we have about 15 employees. The fact that we be able to help people with their gutters, to make a difference in that day and that year and the years to come, you know what I mean? That's what it keeps me going. Be able to get up in the morning and not just me, but be able to grab a group of guys and say, "Look, we're going to make a difference today in the gutter world," that's what it kept me going every day.

For me, New Tech Machinery is always being the top-of-the-line machines for gutters. I wanted to have something that I can rely on it. Efficiency that it has, technology that they have, how consistent they are, a machine that usually doesn't broke at all. It keeps going, it keeps going. If something is wrong with it, the fact that I was able to call the shop or call one of the guys who worked there and be able to get their feedback and see what we need to do and get us on the road within the next day, that's what I fall in love with New Tech Machinery.

One of my biggest challenges sometimes is find the employees that can perform the job site and make sure they're reliable, make sure they always show up to work and make sure they can learn the trade within short period of time. Then therefore, they're ready to take the next step when it needs to be taken.

A lot of times you have to be able to read people, be able to understand where they're coming from, be able to see who they are within the first days. In the interview, ask not just for the job that are applying for, but with their things they have done in life, where they are in their life. Sometimes I think people have it on them, it's because they've been taught at a young age to have good ethic at work. If you can find and be able to read those people, then you can find the employee that you're looking for.

Our relationship with New Tech Machinery, it is very good. I can say is always being the top of the line. I cannot complain about it, I don't have any issues with them. The consistency, the customer service is always there. For me it's always being the same as the machine, the top of the line.

Anytime, any day, any year, I will always go back to New Tech Machinery. The reason why is because for me, it has been a great machine, it has been a great experience, it has been a great successful to our business. Therefore, if anybody's looking for some top of the line machine, I think it'll be a no-brainer to just go with New Tech Machinery.

James Miller: My name's James Miller. This will be the fourth machine that we've bought from New Tech.
Our company name is Northwest Steel. Me and two brothers together started the business in 2016.
My dad built buildings and did general construction in Missouri, so we all worked together in Missouri doing construction. Then, when we came out here, me and my two older brothers started this company.

We were used to using metal, put up a lot of pull buildings and steel buildings and stuff like that, but when we came out here, we decided to get into the manufacturing side of it.

We have two locations, there's one here in Milton-Freewater and then one in Newport, Washington.
Primary Customer is a contractor. By far, most of our business is done with a contractor. We also sell to a few retailers, a number of homeowners do-it-yourselfers. First machine we bought was a lot on the recommendation of someone else who had one. We bought that one, it worked really well. We wanted to get into one with notching, that was something we thought would add value to our customers. We were very, very close to going with the competitor of New

Tech, but we ended up liking the portability and the design of the mobile part of New Tech better.
Based upon our experience and the recommendations of other people in the industry, we felt like New Tech's customer service was going to be much better. We deal primarily with Nate, he knows the machines really well, so he can walk you through it as you're out there on the job site or in the shop trying to figure out if there's an issue.

Well, it's neat to get the 1,000th machine. I thought it was interesting, I think we got the second notching machine to have the 1,000th SSQ-II, that's kind of neat. Super appreciative of what New Tech has done with this and the extra attention and details that they've put into this. We appreciate New Tech for that.

We had the second notcher, so this will be our third notching machine. When we bought our first notching machine, our idea was that it was going to add value to our contractors. The notching is fairly expensive and we had no expectation of the notching paying for itself. For us, it was a way to get other jobs, but it actually looks like it will be a profitable thing. The notching will pay for itself.

With this machine, we're getting our first board and batten profile. We've been making it quite a bit with our folder, that's much more labor-intensive and costly. We're looking forward to using that board and batten profile and seeing how it works for us.

I would say more and more people are coming to appreciate the benefits of a metal roof and choosing that, maybe particularly in the housing. More the high-end houses are choosing metal versus shingles from what we are seeing.
New Tech makes a great machine and I would highly recommend them.