Hello Again SMC Engravers

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Tim, if you decide you have too much firearm work, I'll be happy to lend a hand. Do you have an FFL or are you doing unserialized/component work? On the YETIs, are you using the fiber or Cermark? I find that most folks that want their tumblers engraved are priced out once I give them a quote...I'd be curious to know whether your customers have deep pockets or if you have a low price point.

[Tim Bateson]

...Do you have an FFL or are you doing unserialized/component work?

I do have an FFL, although I was doing this work long before the FFL. Some would make you believe the ATF is going to send a swat team to your home if you engrave firearms without an FFL. To be honest, it took me over 30 minutes to explain to an ATF agent what it was I was doing. They had no clue about laser marking/engraving a firearm., and the concept was slow to be absorbed. Now the disclaimer - Yes, for this type of work to be above board, you should have an FFL. The FFL has also opened more doors for me. Disclaimer #2 - Pain in the .... to get.

...On the YETIs, are you using the fiber or Cermark? I find that most folks that want their tumblers engraved are priced out once I give them a quote...I'd be curious to know whether your customers have deep pockets or if you have a low price point.

Cermark. The Fiber does a much nicer job of Marking stainless steel but WAYYYYYYY to slow. I love the quality of the Fiber Marking, but I need to make a profit too. Yes, some customers will walk away when quoted a price. My time isn't cheap & I refuse to work for pennies, so it doesn't much bother me. If someone can afford to buy a dozen or 300 of these, they can afford a 20-30% premium to have it customized. If it's a single mug, they'll have to shell out a 55-60% premium. Some do - actually more do than do not.

[Matt McCoy]

When I see the Yeti brand travel mugs in various stores, I can't help but think to myself, "Do people REALLY pay THAT MUCH money for a travel mug? And on top of that pay even more to have it lasered? I don't get it. Is this the new working man's luxury splurge?
"I can't get the Ferrari this year, but I got a YETI

I'm not sure what a YETI mug looks like or how much they cost, but became aware of the brand via white vinyl stickers on the back window of trucks and SUVs. I was a little disappointed to discover that this was not unbridled enthusiasm for a new boat or high-performance auto part. Now that I know it's not, I just think that the driver must really love cups.

[Tim Bateson]

I'm not sure what a YETI mug looks like or how much they cost, but became aware of the brand via white vinyl stickers on the back window of trucks and SUVs. I was a little disappointed to discover that this was not unbridled enthusiasm for a new boat or high-performance auto part. Now that I know it's not, I just think that the driver must really love cups.

They where 1st known for their coolers, which in some areas are a hot item for thieves.

[Matt McCoy]

They where 1st known for their coolers, which in some areas are a hot item for thieves.

Nothing wrong with letting the world know one's love of coolers either, I guess. It's cool.

[Tim Bateson]

Shameless Plug for SMC - If you are not a Contributor and/or Friend of the Creek, PLEASE hit the Donate button at the top of this screen. For as little as $6... more preferred, you can help keep this fantastic forum running.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Just to comment on labor since I think it's a controversial subject for small business people.

1. No generation is better than another. There have always been smart and stupid people. There have always been lazy and motivated people. There have always been good workers and bad workers. It's the reality of life. So to bunch an age group or a generation up and generalize that they're lazy or don't want to wake up early is pretty ridiculous.

2. When you want to pay $10-15/hr for labor, you cannot expect them to be $25-30/hr employees. If you do, that's your problem with unrealistic expectations. What your expectation should be is they show up and do their job in a reasonably efficient manner. The idea behind hiring "cheap" labor is simple. You charge your customer $60-100/hr. You pay the employee $15/hr. You/your business profits because it leaves you time to do the higher level labor. Anyone can unbox something, clean it, and apply some cermark. Anyone can go on USPS.com and print out a shipping label. Anyone can do pickups and drop offs. It's about using unskilled, less expensive labor, to do unskilled work so that you can do the skilled labor and theoretically this should make you much more profitable.

People seem to forget this is the point. They magically want the guy who does the unskilled labor to help out doing skilled labor and when it doesn't work out, they're not a good employee. Well that simply isn't the case. If you want skilled labor, you need to hire skilled labor. But then you're going to complain that you're paying someone $25/hr to do unskilled labor.

The other point is job commitment. If you have someone working 15/hrs a week for $12/hr, that's $180 or $9360/yr. What kind of commitment can you really expect from that person? If they miss a day, it will cost them $50-80 depending on hours worked per day. While it's money, it's not change your life money. That's actually one of the benefits of being on the lower end of the pay scale. You simply cannot be expected to be married to your job. This doesn't mean you shouldn't be fired if you're constantly late or don't show up. But it does mean that you shouldn't be shocked when someone calls out last minute because something better came up.

[John Lifer]

I pretty much agree Ross, but when I hired each one, I TOLD THEM UP FRONT THE HOURS AND THE DAYS, and I ASKED THEM honestly if there was any problems with the hours.
They said no, and were hired if qualified. Then they don't show up.... I DO agree that $10-15 is low wages, and I usually started an UNSKILLED employee at $12, and then if they showed up, they BECAME skilled. AND were continually promoted if they did good job and expressed interest in continuing to learn.. TOO may, don't want to WORK.
They want $15 an hour to flip a hamburger WHEN THEY want to flip a burger. Sorry Business doesn't work like that. When I NEED you, I NEED you, not when you want to show up.

Sorry, Forget about buying the 'latest' Iphone, our latest generation is going to starve to death when we are gone.....