Erez Speiser Reinvents Career with “Machining Doctor” Website

Erez Speiser has spent his entire professional life in the machining industry, notably over 20 years in senior management at cutting-tool manufacturer Iscar. During the Covid pandemic, Speiser launched the “Machining Doctor” website, providing valuable technical information for CNC machinists. This venture not only opened a new chapter in his life but also paved the way for an entirely new career path.

“From an early age, I was captivated by science and technology. After completing my army service, I pursued mechanical engineering. Following my studies, I began job hunting and one of my interview opportunities was with Iscar.

A Hobby Turned Opportunity

Outside of the engineering field, my major passion is hiking. In 2018, I had an ambitious idea: to create a website about hiking in Israel for tourists. My extensive knowledge and enthusiasm for hiking led me to develop resources in English, launching the website as a hobby.

The Impact of COVID-19

Initially, the site gained traction and started generating some income. However, like many others, I didn’t foresee the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak significantly reduced travel, leaving the hiking website with minimal traffic. It was active online but essentially dormant.

Pivoting During Lockdown

During the lockdowns, with the hiking site inactive, I turned my boredom and frustration into a new venture. I decided to leverage my web development skills and machining knowledge to create a useful website for the machining industry.

Building Momentum

As my employer began reinstating staff, I continued developing the machining website in my spare time. The site quickly gained traffic, especially to its calculators for speeds and feeds, hardness unit conversions, and metric-to-inch conversions. Another popular section covered screw threads. The rapid traffic growth was surprising but encouraging.

Learning from Success

The experience taught me an important lesson: you can’t predict what will be popular. Just like a supermarket can’t survive selling only the most common items, a website needs a broad range of content to keep visitors coming back.

A Bold Decision

Three years after launching the website, I decided to leave my stable job. This was a difficult decision as I’m naturally cautious and had a secure position in a large company. However, I believed my 50s was the ideal time to take this risk – still young enough to have the energy, but experienced and financially stable enough to handle potential failure.

The Journey Ahead

Although the revenue from my websites doesn’t yet match my previous salary, it is steadily growing. I believe strongly in their potential and the importance of taking calculated risks.”

Original source MMS