but how do you drive traffic to your site?
Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
The name is RebelTaz. Been building and using 3d printers and cnc machines for years, but new to laser cutters/engravers. Thanks for having me!
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Laser: Atomstack A5 Pro based befon 5.5 watt -and- Ortur LaserMaster 2 5.5 watt -and- Atomstack m100 based EnjoyWood E20 20 watt 3D Printers: Tevo Tarantula -and- Elegoo Mars 2 -and- Halot Lite CNC: generic 2418 Vinyl Cutter: modified Cricut Cake
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Laser: Atomstack A5 Pro based befon 5.5 watt -and- Ortur LaserMaster 2 5.5 watt -and- Atomstack m100 based EnjoyWood E20 20 watt 3D Printers: Tevo Tarantula -and- Elegoo Mars 2 -and- Halot Lite CNC: generic 2418 Vinyl Cutter: modified Cricut Cake
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
I have been going around to local stores in my area and building a little network. Some things I have sold out right some are on consignment. The things on consignment they take 20% which is better than Etsy when you include all the other things they hit you up for. The things they buy outright, at least here they mark it up 50% so in effect some things I'm selling whole sell. But to be honest some of the things have a pretty big margin. Tiles, coasters things like that don't cost that much to make so you can sell them relatively cheap and still make a good buck or two. I like not having to deal with shipping or a store front. So don't give up, just change the game plan a bit.
I don't need to get rich but covering the cost of my hobbies would be nice.
Never give up, there is always a way.
I don't need to get rich but covering the cost of my hobbies would be nice.
Never give up, there is always a way.
Hi, my name is Mike.
I am using NEJE 3 Max laser and a Longmill MK2 for CNC woodworking. The learning has been fun and frustrating, sometimes at the same
time.
I am using NEJE 3 Max laser and a Longmill MK2 for CNC woodworking. The learning has been fun and frustrating, sometimes at the same
time.
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
I recently retired, so I'm not really in it for the money I just want to keep myself busy. I advertise all over town and personally hand out a lot of business cards. I also made a lot of small freebies (phone holders, coasters) for neighbors and you would be surprised how fast they tell other people. I live in a small town so I also advertise free shipping to local customers. It helps me to get to know the people and takes away the hassle of going to the post office and hoping the order gets there in one piece.
I have an Atomstack X7pro. and upgraded to an xTool F1 Ultra.
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Joenavy
- Laserologist
- Reactions:
- Posts: 171
- Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:56 am
- Location: Lemoore CA.
- Contact:
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
I just mailed 20 trees in the last month keeping the little pieces for little wall art I am sold zero on Etsy but did all right on Facebook Marketplace
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PSIDAVE
- Laser Master
- Reactions:
- Posts: 113
- Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 12:40 pm
- Location: Duncanville, AL
- Contact:
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
Amen!!! I am retired as well and need just enough $ to fill RV tank. Do not want/need another job.
Dave
HL-1060 100w (Blue Gray) - Lightburn
Yeti Smart Bench - Aspire
HL-1060 100w (Blue Gray) - Lightburn
Yeti Smart Bench - Aspire
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
Yes! Doing it as a job takes all the fun out of it.
I have an Atomstack X7pro. and upgraded to an xTool F1 Ultra.
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Tooter
- Laserologist
- Reactions:
- Posts: 400
- Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:05 pm
- Location: Comgrow Z1 10 Watt
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
I haven't sold anything yet and I am not on ETSY. I will try visiting local businesses in the area and see if they have interest. I spoke with the owners of a local brewery about making tap handles. They love the idea and the sample I made them, but they have not released an order. They claim they will need 300-400/year. Anyone have any ideas on how to sale locally? I think I will try to meet with some realtors in the area.
Hi, my name is Matt and I have a Lasermatic MK2 30 watt and I have been working with CNC Rotors and CNC lasers for about 3 years.
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2Jacks
- Noob
- Reactions:
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:07 am
- Location: Meadow Lands, PA
- Contact:
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
Maybe it's time to resort to a little bribery.
SculpFun S9 + CNC-4040 with 2X mods to X axis.
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seeknulfind
- Jr Member
- Reactions:
- Posts: 23
- Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:56 am
Re: Time to pay for all this stuff. Open for business.
In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit new here. Okay I'm as green as they come, laser engraving-wise. I have never engraved anything, nor do I own a machine. I might be part Scotch as I hate to part with money so I'm still agonizing over the prospect. That said, I've a long and possibly dubious history selling things. My first thought when I first laid eyes on this niche was "what can I make to sell?". I'm fessing up in hopes y'all don't think I came here to spam anyone. (Part of the reason I'm posting this is writing stuff down helps me clarify my own thoughts.)
My background is checkered for sure. Today I am semi-retired. My last job was working for a hydraulics company. About half of my time was spent managing the website and the other half handling telephone sales. Our "sales force" was myself and another guy and I often accounted for more than half the sales. I did that for about seven years. Before that I worked at various things, including internet marketing and online stuff. Don't get too excited. I learned a lot but I never made much money - the story of my life. Among the things I've done was sell a couple of screen printers locally as well as other imprinted items. I bring this up because I see a strong correlation between the imprint business and offering laser engraved items.
With this in mind, I'd like to offer some ideas on selling your stuff. The first thing I'll ask is this: What happens if you succeed? In other words, are you prepared to fill that one big order or a bunch of smaller orders should one of your items take off? How you answer this should be key as to how you should approach sales. Some of you really don't want to gear up into a production scenario. That's fine. I suggest you seek out markets that will bring you the casual sale or an item you can easily punch out with little or no trouble. For you I'd suggest focusing on custom work, such as pet memorials or baby engravings. What item you specialize in isn't all that crucial. More important is to become known for one or two specialty items. How do you do that?
These days, Facebook is a hot, local market. If you don't have a significant presence, then you may have to find a local champion, you know, that person who knows everybody, and get her/him excited about your product. Another good local FB prospect is yard sale groups. You can post on these for free and bump your listing about once every 24 hours. I'd change up my listing now and then so people don't start to gloss over it. You can also do paid advertising on FB but this may or may not be profitable. I'd go the free route first for these kind of sales.
If you are offering something like a pet memorial, you might want to ask your local vets if they would display a sample memorial in their waiting room. You might even offer to give them a free one for one of their favorite pets. Be sure to engrave your contact information on the back. (Even better if you can engrave a small business card to place below it.)
For other markets, you may consider specialty items that fit that particular market. Garden stakes might sell well anywhere plants are sold. However now we're moving more into the production scale sort of markets. Coasters seem to sell well. Can you work this into the local market? Are there landmarks in your area that customers might buy a coaster or engraving as a keepsake? One local screen printer designed a nautical theme that he sells like crazy on a number of different times - t-shirts, hats, you name it - anything he can print on. Funny thing is, we are maybe 100 miles from any significant water. Go figure. Still, it took off. The trick here is to find one thing that has decent appeal then branch out the ways you offer it.
In many areas of the country tourism is big. What draws people to your area? How can you capitalize on that?
Then there's the quantity sales. If you can or want to gear up for production then look for those things people buy in quantity. Look for clubs, local sports teams, and such or any organization that needs to raise money. A note on sports teams - often college level or above teams have copyrighted logos. Be sure to obtain a proper license to reproduce those logos. If you can secure such a thing, you could have a built-in market. Don't neglect high schools either. Over 16 million seniors will graduate from high school this year. Do you think any of their parents or grandparents might want their senior pictures engraved? They've already spent anywhere from $80 - $250 or more for those pictures.
Taking another page from imprint sales - there are certain businesses who will spend money on higher-end items to give away. Someone already mentioned real estate. What about car dealers? Or restaurants? (Coasters) Some restaurants may be willing to order enough coasters (or some other items like wooden utensils with their logo) to sell to the public. If they are at all famous, they might be open to offering a memento like an engraved photo of their business. If you can plan ahead, you might want to offer seasonal items to gift shops. Christmas is big everywhere - some might be willing to offer their customers personalized items on your behalf for a cut.
Do note when working with merchants who sell retail, they will often expect as much as a 50% markup (in retail that means the price doubles as they calculate the markup as a percentage of the selling price. Yeah, it's weird.) So you you think an item should sell for $10, you should be able to provide it to your merchant for $5. I suggest you should at least double your money so it should cost you no more than $2.50 to make.
Those are some initial thoughts. I could probably go on and on and on if I thought about it more. Do note, your mileage may vary depending on well, lots of things. Mine is by for the final word on anything so feel free to comment.
Andy
My background is checkered for sure. Today I am semi-retired. My last job was working for a hydraulics company. About half of my time was spent managing the website and the other half handling telephone sales. Our "sales force" was myself and another guy and I often accounted for more than half the sales. I did that for about seven years. Before that I worked at various things, including internet marketing and online stuff. Don't get too excited. I learned a lot but I never made much money - the story of my life. Among the things I've done was sell a couple of screen printers locally as well as other imprinted items. I bring this up because I see a strong correlation between the imprint business and offering laser engraved items.
With this in mind, I'd like to offer some ideas on selling your stuff. The first thing I'll ask is this: What happens if you succeed? In other words, are you prepared to fill that one big order or a bunch of smaller orders should one of your items take off? How you answer this should be key as to how you should approach sales. Some of you really don't want to gear up into a production scenario. That's fine. I suggest you seek out markets that will bring you the casual sale or an item you can easily punch out with little or no trouble. For you I'd suggest focusing on custom work, such as pet memorials or baby engravings. What item you specialize in isn't all that crucial. More important is to become known for one or two specialty items. How do you do that?
These days, Facebook is a hot, local market. If you don't have a significant presence, then you may have to find a local champion, you know, that person who knows everybody, and get her/him excited about your product. Another good local FB prospect is yard sale groups. You can post on these for free and bump your listing about once every 24 hours. I'd change up my listing now and then so people don't start to gloss over it. You can also do paid advertising on FB but this may or may not be profitable. I'd go the free route first for these kind of sales.
If you are offering something like a pet memorial, you might want to ask your local vets if they would display a sample memorial in their waiting room. You might even offer to give them a free one for one of their favorite pets. Be sure to engrave your contact information on the back. (Even better if you can engrave a small business card to place below it.)
For other markets, you may consider specialty items that fit that particular market. Garden stakes might sell well anywhere plants are sold. However now we're moving more into the production scale sort of markets. Coasters seem to sell well. Can you work this into the local market? Are there landmarks in your area that customers might buy a coaster or engraving as a keepsake? One local screen printer designed a nautical theme that he sells like crazy on a number of different times - t-shirts, hats, you name it - anything he can print on. Funny thing is, we are maybe 100 miles from any significant water. Go figure. Still, it took off. The trick here is to find one thing that has decent appeal then branch out the ways you offer it.
In many areas of the country tourism is big. What draws people to your area? How can you capitalize on that?
Then there's the quantity sales. If you can or want to gear up for production then look for those things people buy in quantity. Look for clubs, local sports teams, and such or any organization that needs to raise money. A note on sports teams - often college level or above teams have copyrighted logos. Be sure to obtain a proper license to reproduce those logos. If you can secure such a thing, you could have a built-in market. Don't neglect high schools either. Over 16 million seniors will graduate from high school this year. Do you think any of their parents or grandparents might want their senior pictures engraved? They've already spent anywhere from $80 - $250 or more for those pictures.
Taking another page from imprint sales - there are certain businesses who will spend money on higher-end items to give away. Someone already mentioned real estate. What about car dealers? Or restaurants? (Coasters) Some restaurants may be willing to order enough coasters (or some other items like wooden utensils with their logo) to sell to the public. If they are at all famous, they might be open to offering a memento like an engraved photo of their business. If you can plan ahead, you might want to offer seasonal items to gift shops. Christmas is big everywhere - some might be willing to offer their customers personalized items on your behalf for a cut.
Do note when working with merchants who sell retail, they will often expect as much as a 50% markup (in retail that means the price doubles as they calculate the markup as a percentage of the selling price. Yeah, it's weird.) So you you think an item should sell for $10, you should be able to provide it to your merchant for $5. I suggest you should at least double your money so it should cost you no more than $2.50 to make.
Those are some initial thoughts. I could probably go on and on and on if I thought about it more. Do note, your mileage may vary depending on well, lots of things. Mine is by for the final word on anything so feel free to comment.
Andy
My name is Andy. I am semi-retired and just jumped into this rabbit hole. Got my first engraver, a Comgrow Z1 10 watt, on May 9. I also bought the camera setup, air assist, honeycomb board, the rotary turney thingy (even though I'm a hobbyist, I am committed to using professional terminology), and the tallest enclosure.
