Tom Buzz Bernard
08-01-2013, 10:26 AM
Creation of a Laser Product
Part 7
Once again I am going about my day trying to keep an eye out for possible new product ideas. This should be a daily practice for all of us and don’t forget that input from others sometimes spawns an idea. My wife helped me with this one. Let me tell you what happened recently.
Location: we are at an NBM show in Indianapolis and exhibitor booths are everywhere. I must say sometimes just browsing booths doesn’t always ignite a new idea, but when you spend three days next to another exhibitor and see what they are creating, it makes you wonder what else could be made, can the substrate be used on the laser somehow, and is the material low cost?
At this trade show we were right next to a company that sells a printing machine that was running guitar picks through it. Each pass would print around 50 or more guitar picks. The printing was outstanding and they did many different designs. They were giving the picks away as a sales tool so I assumed the price was very low. I was told the material was a polycarbonate and they buy them in large quantities to resell to their customers. Their wholesale price was 100 for $10.00, so the individual price is 10 cents each. That’s a start, but what could be made with your laser and a guitar pick?
267686
Of course I have to wonder what will happen when I try to cut or engrave polycarbonate. Is it safe to run on the laser? What intrigued me was something my wife said. The wife mentioned how it was a nice size to make a hole in the top corner of the guitar pick and make an earring out of it.
WOW, women love jewelry. This is a great idea! Now we have to see what the hooks cost and if this material is OK to cut on the laser. Remember this can be the fun part. Even if the substrate doesn’t work, the concept is still good if we can find the right materials to work with. We have an idea, let’s see if we can make a product that will sell for 1000% markup!
First thing I did when I got home from the show was to fire up the laser and see what would happen when I tried to burn a design into the guitar pick (polycarbonate). I haven’t checked to see if the substrate is safe to cut, so don’t try this at home. I am a professional (idiot), I mean genius - known to burn, cut, and destroy things (at times) in the name of laser advancement for entrepreneurs. Someone has to be that person. :eek:
Some would call it a failure. I see it as a small hurdle. The polycarbonate did not cut. It melted and looked horrible. Even when I could cut the material the brown residue looked terrible. Very inconsistent and the size was so small (guitar pick) it did not allow for much detail. Now what?
Jewelry is still a good idea, we just need to find a replacement substrate that can be used to hit our target markup price. This guitar pick was a form of plastic. Is there something else that would work? Let me tell you how I came up with this replacement substrate.
My son used to use our lasers to make laser cut stencils as an income stream while he attended high school, then college. His biggest customers were temporary tattoo clients. I think in the heyday (the fad peak) he was shipping all over the nation. While only working part time (one day a week) he was netting over $30K a year – not bad.
Another point to this story is temporary tattoo stencils was one of those product ideas that came from everyday experiences. I had another business called Real Action Simulators, which was a company that supplied simulator rides to amusement parks, malls and for events. Our rides would take you completely upside down. I was at an event, training a new operator/manager on how to set up, run and operate one of these rides. The only reason I bring this up is while training the new operator/manager, I noticed a booth that had a line of people longer than ours waiting to spend money. I had to go check it out.
When I got over to the booth I noticed two people sitting on seats with air brush sprayers in their hands. They had a small air compressor with dual lines coming out of it to allow them to spray temporary tattoos on the customers. They were charging $5 a piece for a tattoo and extra if you wanted sparkles on it. They were jammed with customers wanting tattoos.
I figured with the compressor, air sprayers, paint stencils, and even extra supplies they would be hard pressed to have $1K tied up in the operation. My mind quickly thought our ride charges $5 per person to ride (same as them) and is more than 100 times the investment and they are matching or exceeding our income. These guys are smarter than me. I need to find out more.
Once I had a chance to talk to these individuals, I asked what was the biggest hurdle about getting started doing temporary tattoos. They said getting the right size stencils. Currently they have been buying their stencils in craft stores, but they are usually too big and made for walls or other uses. They informed me the best stencils were laser-cut and made from a thick solid plastic for longevity, but the sizes never worked for the younger kid’s tattoos.
Of course having a laser I immediately asked if we cut a bunch of perfect size stencils for their use - how much would they pay? That is how it started. Before you knew it my son had built a stencil business into 100’s if not 1000’s of designs out of many types of stencil substrates. I still have some of his supplies stuffed in several corners of the shop. Hundreds of pieces of heavy duty stencil material are stacked up under a table. This stuff is a little thicker than the guitar picks but I know it is laserable. Maybe this will work for the earrings? We had already done a material price breakdown when he was making the stencils and the square inch price was $.003. This sounds like a really good fit. Let’s try it out!
Plan: we are getting ready to head to adoption day for Golden Retriever rescue. This is an organization we are part of and they meet once a month for adoptions. So let’s use the LaserBuzz golden retriever design to make the earrings and see how many notice or may want to buy a pair. A good idea is only great if it sells. This will be a perfect opportunity to test market with this new product.
267685
So I made the earring 1 ½” X 2” in size (could have been smaller). Rounded up I used 4 square inches of material for each ear. I’m trying to work the prices as we go along, so for a pair of earring we have used $.024 worth of material. Now let’s find some hooks. I searched the internet using “Earring Supplies” (in Google) and I found a company who sells earring hooks in many styles. They had some simple hook designs in 5 different colors priced at $3.20 for a package of 2000.
267687
Holly cow this means for a pair of earrings my total material cost could be about 3 cents? I know we still have shipping for supplies, but even if I rounded up to 10 cents for the pair this has awesome profit potential. To test market the product I need the hooks now so I ran out to the local craft store and bought a package of 30 for $2.99. If you check out the picture in this article you can see how the finished product came out.
267688
At adoption day in less than 10 minutes a fellow volunteer wanted to know where my wife had gotten her earrings. She wanted some. I gave her an extra set I had brought with me and then the deluge started with more than a dozen different requests for earrings.
Now here is a perfect chance to also find our price point. I see perceived value as an important tool to set market price, especially when your material costs are so low, so I asked how much they would pay for the earrings. Amazingly none would give me a price they were willing to spend, so I said $5.00 a pair. Immediately I was asked how many they could buy at that price. We were even asked if we could make them wholesale for the club to sell as fundraisers. This was a great test market.
I think we could get a higher price, especially if we personalized them with their dog’s name. If our material price was 10 cents this would be a 5000% mark up over materials. Production was fast and easy! Making a personalized product you cannot buy anywhere else is enough to get sales quickly if it causes emotion.
Emotions cause impulsive purchasing. What other designs could we use to make other emotional earring products? Once we come up with an idea that sells we need to see how big of a product line we can make with it. Organizational symbols, school mascots, spiritual designs, the ideas are endless.
Note: I always get contacted for material questions (usually I can answer them) but I do not know the maker, nor the type of plastic this was (just too long ago). We were told it was used to make stencils for heavy duty sandblasting. That’s all I remember and I’m sure the prices are different now, but I have to believe there is still room for a good profit margin or a higher price point. The original material was bought in 4’ X 8’ sheets and cut down to fit in the laser.
Now I have to start thinking of what can we create next month! You know if we can create 12 new product lines a year how big could our company get? How many lasers could we keep running? How many people could we hire? I wish it was that easy. :rolleyes:
Part 7
Once again I am going about my day trying to keep an eye out for possible new product ideas. This should be a daily practice for all of us and don’t forget that input from others sometimes spawns an idea. My wife helped me with this one. Let me tell you what happened recently.
Location: we are at an NBM show in Indianapolis and exhibitor booths are everywhere. I must say sometimes just browsing booths doesn’t always ignite a new idea, but when you spend three days next to another exhibitor and see what they are creating, it makes you wonder what else could be made, can the substrate be used on the laser somehow, and is the material low cost?
At this trade show we were right next to a company that sells a printing machine that was running guitar picks through it. Each pass would print around 50 or more guitar picks. The printing was outstanding and they did many different designs. They were giving the picks away as a sales tool so I assumed the price was very low. I was told the material was a polycarbonate and they buy them in large quantities to resell to their customers. Their wholesale price was 100 for $10.00, so the individual price is 10 cents each. That’s a start, but what could be made with your laser and a guitar pick?
267686
Of course I have to wonder what will happen when I try to cut or engrave polycarbonate. Is it safe to run on the laser? What intrigued me was something my wife said. The wife mentioned how it was a nice size to make a hole in the top corner of the guitar pick and make an earring out of it.
WOW, women love jewelry. This is a great idea! Now we have to see what the hooks cost and if this material is OK to cut on the laser. Remember this can be the fun part. Even if the substrate doesn’t work, the concept is still good if we can find the right materials to work with. We have an idea, let’s see if we can make a product that will sell for 1000% markup!
First thing I did when I got home from the show was to fire up the laser and see what would happen when I tried to burn a design into the guitar pick (polycarbonate). I haven’t checked to see if the substrate is safe to cut, so don’t try this at home. I am a professional (idiot), I mean genius - known to burn, cut, and destroy things (at times) in the name of laser advancement for entrepreneurs. Someone has to be that person. :eek:
Some would call it a failure. I see it as a small hurdle. The polycarbonate did not cut. It melted and looked horrible. Even when I could cut the material the brown residue looked terrible. Very inconsistent and the size was so small (guitar pick) it did not allow for much detail. Now what?
Jewelry is still a good idea, we just need to find a replacement substrate that can be used to hit our target markup price. This guitar pick was a form of plastic. Is there something else that would work? Let me tell you how I came up with this replacement substrate.
My son used to use our lasers to make laser cut stencils as an income stream while he attended high school, then college. His biggest customers were temporary tattoo clients. I think in the heyday (the fad peak) he was shipping all over the nation. While only working part time (one day a week) he was netting over $30K a year – not bad.
Another point to this story is temporary tattoo stencils was one of those product ideas that came from everyday experiences. I had another business called Real Action Simulators, which was a company that supplied simulator rides to amusement parks, malls and for events. Our rides would take you completely upside down. I was at an event, training a new operator/manager on how to set up, run and operate one of these rides. The only reason I bring this up is while training the new operator/manager, I noticed a booth that had a line of people longer than ours waiting to spend money. I had to go check it out.
When I got over to the booth I noticed two people sitting on seats with air brush sprayers in their hands. They had a small air compressor with dual lines coming out of it to allow them to spray temporary tattoos on the customers. They were charging $5 a piece for a tattoo and extra if you wanted sparkles on it. They were jammed with customers wanting tattoos.
I figured with the compressor, air sprayers, paint stencils, and even extra supplies they would be hard pressed to have $1K tied up in the operation. My mind quickly thought our ride charges $5 per person to ride (same as them) and is more than 100 times the investment and they are matching or exceeding our income. These guys are smarter than me. I need to find out more.
Once I had a chance to talk to these individuals, I asked what was the biggest hurdle about getting started doing temporary tattoos. They said getting the right size stencils. Currently they have been buying their stencils in craft stores, but they are usually too big and made for walls or other uses. They informed me the best stencils were laser-cut and made from a thick solid plastic for longevity, but the sizes never worked for the younger kid’s tattoos.
Of course having a laser I immediately asked if we cut a bunch of perfect size stencils for their use - how much would they pay? That is how it started. Before you knew it my son had built a stencil business into 100’s if not 1000’s of designs out of many types of stencil substrates. I still have some of his supplies stuffed in several corners of the shop. Hundreds of pieces of heavy duty stencil material are stacked up under a table. This stuff is a little thicker than the guitar picks but I know it is laserable. Maybe this will work for the earrings? We had already done a material price breakdown when he was making the stencils and the square inch price was $.003. This sounds like a really good fit. Let’s try it out!
Plan: we are getting ready to head to adoption day for Golden Retriever rescue. This is an organization we are part of and they meet once a month for adoptions. So let’s use the LaserBuzz golden retriever design to make the earrings and see how many notice or may want to buy a pair. A good idea is only great if it sells. This will be a perfect opportunity to test market with this new product.
267685
So I made the earring 1 ½” X 2” in size (could have been smaller). Rounded up I used 4 square inches of material for each ear. I’m trying to work the prices as we go along, so for a pair of earring we have used $.024 worth of material. Now let’s find some hooks. I searched the internet using “Earring Supplies” (in Google) and I found a company who sells earring hooks in many styles. They had some simple hook designs in 5 different colors priced at $3.20 for a package of 2000.
267687
Holly cow this means for a pair of earrings my total material cost could be about 3 cents? I know we still have shipping for supplies, but even if I rounded up to 10 cents for the pair this has awesome profit potential. To test market the product I need the hooks now so I ran out to the local craft store and bought a package of 30 for $2.99. If you check out the picture in this article you can see how the finished product came out.
267688
At adoption day in less than 10 minutes a fellow volunteer wanted to know where my wife had gotten her earrings. She wanted some. I gave her an extra set I had brought with me and then the deluge started with more than a dozen different requests for earrings.
Now here is a perfect chance to also find our price point. I see perceived value as an important tool to set market price, especially when your material costs are so low, so I asked how much they would pay for the earrings. Amazingly none would give me a price they were willing to spend, so I said $5.00 a pair. Immediately I was asked how many they could buy at that price. We were even asked if we could make them wholesale for the club to sell as fundraisers. This was a great test market.
I think we could get a higher price, especially if we personalized them with their dog’s name. If our material price was 10 cents this would be a 5000% mark up over materials. Production was fast and easy! Making a personalized product you cannot buy anywhere else is enough to get sales quickly if it causes emotion.
Emotions cause impulsive purchasing. What other designs could we use to make other emotional earring products? Once we come up with an idea that sells we need to see how big of a product line we can make with it. Organizational symbols, school mascots, spiritual designs, the ideas are endless.
Note: I always get contacted for material questions (usually I can answer them) but I do not know the maker, nor the type of plastic this was (just too long ago). We were told it was used to make stencils for heavy duty sandblasting. That’s all I remember and I’m sure the prices are different now, but I have to believe there is still room for a good profit margin or a higher price point. The original material was bought in 4’ X 8’ sheets and cut down to fit in the laser.
Now I have to start thinking of what can we create next month! You know if we can create 12 new product lines a year how big could our company get? How many lasers could we keep running? How many people could we hire? I wish it was that easy. :rolleyes: