You run the shop. We find the boring work eating your team’s week, build a tool that takes it off their plate, and make sure they actually use it. Fixed prices. Real engineering. No slide decks.
Every service is designed for businesses that do actual work, companies that make things, move things, build things, and sell things. We deliver execution, not slide decks.
Full-service LinkedIn optimization and content execution. We rewrite your profiles, build keyword-rich content, and post for you, so the right buyers and customers searching for what you do find you, not your competitor.
Lead GenerationWe visit your operation, document your processes, interview your people, and deliver a prioritized report showing exactly where AI saves you time and money, with specific tool recommendations and ROI projections.
StrategyYour best people are retiring. We deploy tools that let experienced workers document their expertise by talking, not typing, and turn it into searchable, trainable standard operating procedures.
Knowledge PreservationWe connect your existing systems, ERP, email, quoting, scheduling, so data flows automatically instead of being re-entered by hand. Fewer errors, faster turnaround, less wasted labor.
EfficiencyYou already own an ERP system. We help you get more out of it, activating BI modules, building dashboards, and turning the data you’re already collecting into decisions that improve margins.
OptimizationManufacturing’s biggest problem isn’t technology, it’s people. We help you recruit through LinkedIn, build employer brand visibility, and connect with workforce development programs.
RecruitingWe read the customs records. We find the imported components inside US-made products, run true landed cost with the live duty stack, and match each part family to a verified American shop. Named buyer, named part, real math.
ReshoringCutStep runs a commission sourcing desk. We read US customs records, run the tariff and total-cost math on real import lanes, and place that work with shops we capability-check part by part. Buyers pay nothing. Shops pay a placement commission after the work lands.
Your import file is public record, and some of your lines now pay full-value tariffs while others ride relief with a published expiration date. We read your lanes, bring the per-part math, and hand you a domestic quote from a shop that already passed our capability check against your actual part. If domestic does not pencil, we say so.
We show up with a buyer's name and a print, not a subscription pitch. You pay on placement only: a commission on first-year revenue for work we originated, smaller after that, invoiced after the work lands. Every introduction is dated and documented, which protects your side of the deal as much as ours.
We distribute the Reshoring Initiative's national industry survey and document every completed case in the format its library uses. The desk is the execution layer of the reshoring case: the specific part, the specific number, the specific shop, with a paper trail built to be audited.
Start with one part or one question: nick@cutstep.com
Clear prices. No discovery-call runaround.
For the owner who knows growth is stuck but not where the leak is. A 60-minute working call, recorded and indexed. A full review of your outbound, sales, and operations stack. One dashboard showing your top three leaks with real numbers. A written 90-day roadmap you own, whatever you do next.
For the owner who knows what to build and wants it stood up right. Everything in the Audit if you do not have one yet. Your outbound stack set up properly, domain and email included. One outreach system built end to end and running. Weekly check-ins and full documentation for your team.
For the owner ready to scale who wants us as the long-term partner. Everything in AI Stack Setup, at bigger scale. Multiple sequences across email and LinkedIn. Weekly performance reviews and monthly strategy. Direct line to Nick.
Bigger or more custom than this? Email us and we will scope it. We take equity in a few select software companies each year instead of cash. Ask if that is you.
The AI-powered RFQ platform built for manufacturers. Send requests to dozens of vendors in minutes, not days. Get organized quotes, track responses, and make faster sourcing decisions.
BlastRFQ is a member of the NVIDIA Inception program.
We don’t sell decks full of buzzwords. We show up, learn your business, and deliver things that move the needle.
We visit your business, document your workflows, talk to your people, and understand how work actually gets done, not how the manual says it should.
We deliver a prioritized assessment, where you’re losing time, where knowledge isn’t documented, and where AI tools can cut costs within 90 days.
No theory. We set up the tools, write the content, build the automations, and train your team. You get deliverables, not homework assignments.
Monthly reporting on what’s working. We adjust, optimize, and expand. When it works here, we replicate it across your other operations.
We’re a new firm, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. Here is what we’re building right now. Working today with manufacturers across the Midwest, including Domeny Tool & Stamping in Wauconda, a family shop running since 1959.
CutStep launched in early 2026 and immediately went to work. We’re currently embedded with our first clients, conducting on-site facility assessments, building AI-powered content pipelines, deploying SOP capture tools, and documenting everything so we can show you exactly what the results look like.
Because we’re not charging you to figure it out. We come in with a proven methodology, specific tools we’ve already vetted, and fixed prices published right on this page. AI handles the heavy lifting, not a team of junior account managers. Our first clients came to us through personal relationships built over 20 years. That’s the kind of trust we plan to earn with you, too.
We serve businesses across industries, but manufacturing is where we go deepest, and reshoring is where we work hardest. We find the parts that should come home, run the real cost math, and connect them to American shops. This week that work includes distributing the Reshoring Initiative’s 2026 survey to 37,000+ US manufacturing contacts at no charge. If you make things for a living, we speak your language.
Our reshoring and sourcing intelligence work runs on the total cost of ownership framework pioneered by Harry Moser’s Reshoring Initiative. Before any sourcing decision, we point clients to the same tool we use: the Reshoring Initiative’s TCO Estimator.
Our methodology works anywhere people, process, and visibility matter. We’re actively growing in these spaces too.
We’re operators who understand both AI and the realities of running a business. No buzzwords. No 18-month sales cycles. Just results.
Nick spent over a decade on the trading floor at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where he built a career around pattern recognition, risk management, and making fast decisions with real money on the line.
Those same skills, spotting inefficiencies, quantifying upside, and executing under pressure, now drive his consulting work. Nick’s relationships across the Illinois business community run deep, and his approach is simple: show up, find what’s broken, and fix it with the right tools.
He founded CutStep because he watched friends running great businesses get outbid on visibility by companies with worse products and bigger marketing budgets. AI levels that playing field.
Pat is the technical engine behind CutStep. With a background in data science and technical implementation, he builds the systems that make AI consulting scalable, from automated content pipelines to data integration architectures.
While Nick is on-site with clients, Pat is building the infrastructure that turns one-off wins into repeatable frameworks. His expertise spans AI/ML tooling, workflow automation, and the data engineering required to connect legacy systems to modern intelligence platforms.
Together, they bring the rare combination of relationship depth and technical capability that most consulting firms can’t match at any price point.
No padded logo wall. This is the stack running inside CutStep and our client systems right now.
We set these up for clients as part of engagements. Ask us which ones fit your operation.
The Audit finds the leak and hands you the plan. The Stack Setup builds and runs the fix. Most owners start with the Audit.
For a few select software companies each year, yes, in place of cash. For everyone else it is fixed-price work. Ask if you think you are a fit.
Good. The Audit tells you where it is leaking and the Stack Setup tightens it. You keep everything either way.
The Audit delivers in a week from kickoff. Book a call and we will tell you honestly if we can help before you spend a dollar.
Whether you’re ready to start or just curious what AI can do for an operation like yours, we’re happy to have the conversation.
We respond to every inquiry within 24 hours. Most of our clients come through referrals, but the door is always open.