“Hey Buddy – yeah, you. Hey, how’d you like to make a quick $100? All you gotta do is tell me some of yer secrets.”

If somebody came up to you on the street and said that to you, you would likely have some skepticism about the legitimacy of this offer – okay, outright doubt, bordering on hostility.

But what if the only monthly business publication serving the machine shop and engine building industry told you about the chance to earn a cool Benjamin for doing nothing more than what already makes you successful? Would you be interested?

If you’re intrigued, I encourage you to click on this Shop Solutions link. Shop Solutions, now in its 11th year of being sponsored by Engine Pro (www.enginepro.com), may be the best-kept secret way to make some quick cash. Shop Solutions is intended to provide machine shop owners and engine technicians the opportunity to share their knowledge to benefit the entire industry and their own shop.

Each month, the Engine Pro selection committee chooses anywhere from four to eight of the most creative ideas to be included in the column – and if your Solution is selected for publication, you’ll receive a prepaid $100 Visa gift card from Engine Pro.

Dave Sutton, long-time columnist to Engine Builder and part of the selection committee, says he hears every day from professional customers about the challenges of trying to compete with OE crate programs, online parts ordering competition and a general misunderstanding that businesses are allowed to be profit-generating enterprises.

Now, probably more than ever in the history of this industry, it’s important that we work together to help our fellow participants. Active participation is the best way to ensure that the knowledge gained over the decades gets disseminated to the next generation of professionals.

A rising tide raises all ships and the sea of Shop Solutions can go a long way to helping readers of Engine Builder continue to generate profits.

All you have to do to participate is send your advice and ideas on ways to improve quality, service, marketing or “best practices” on any aspect of the engine building/rebuilding business. Click HERE to automatically upload your shop tip. Or you can mail your ideas to us or email them to [email protected] or [email protected]. Be sure to include your name, shop name, shop address and shop phone number as well as your email address – we’ll need to know where to send the winning gift cards!