Marketing the business

[Dave Chase]

This is for all of the folks making a living with their laser. What is the best way to market your business? Or at least the fact that you have a machine and am looking for work. I've had the machine for about 18 months now and let me just say it hasn't gone as I had hoped. I started off doing the custom thing - which worked well for a while but fell off. I have since struggled to do anything really with the machine. I've dabbled here and there with eBay but it hasn't proven to be worth the time. I work full time and most likely will continue to do so, but I would still like to do some work with the laser and have some side cash. I don't really have a product but would provide the service, much like the rest of us here. Any suggestions?

[David Fairfield]

eBay sucks for marketing purposes, its too saturated with garbage.

Think local. Check at the fishing, sporting, greeting card, tourist souvenir and glassware shops in your area. Ask if they'd be interested in referring you to customers or working with you to provide a personalization service. Bring appropriate demo items. For example, Father's Day is coming, so engrave a couple of nice looking fishing lures "For Dad, Happy Father's Day 2008" and show 'em around.

HTH
Dave

[Mike Null]

Working with somebody else's customers is generally non-productive and disappointing. It sounds like a great idea to have others sell your work but the reality is--they just don't care. You'll make a few bucks and keep asking yourself why you're doing it.

Go find your own customers and go after commercial/institutional customers not retail. The reason is simple; the commercial guys will give you larger orders and repeat orders. They're also much easier to work with.

Every school, church, fire and police dept. is a prospect. Boat and van customizers need your services. Control panel manufacturers, parts mfrs etc. are all potentially customers.

Every public service company needs name tags.

[Joe Pelonio]

One of my biggest sources of laser business these days is other sign shops, cutting acrylic letters/logos and doing detailed engraving that they cannot with their rotaries.

[Nancy Laird]

Hotels, golf courses, restaurants, even a church is on our customer list, for name tags in their bookstore. If you are a member of any sort of professional or public service organization that uses name tags, they are prime candidates. Get a copy of the logo, work up a name tag as a sample, and show it around. I just picked up TWO golf courses for name tags for the employees, and the great thing about hotels and golf courses is that employees come and go, and every one of them gets at least one free name tag at the beginning. Then, when he/she loses the tag, or puts it through the wash and it starts looking lousy, or he/she wants a spare, there's a reorder. I'm making pretty good bucks making name tags, believe it or not.

Also, don't forget offices that may want/need desk name plates for their employees. A 10' length of 2x maple can make a bunch of them.

86933 These are mine and hubby's that I made for us.

Find a logo and tack it on, or something that is representative of the profession you're dealing with. I've made and sold a bunch of these to attorneys and their staff with the scales of justice on them. They are 2" on a side and 10" long - one solid piece of maple - lasered on one side, the other prettiest side toward the person who has to look at it, and don't forget to laser your own contact information on the bottom and put some little "feet" so it doesn't slide around. I'm selling these for $23.50 each, and just filled an order for a hotel for their management staff for 35 of them.

Also, don't forget pen boxes--if you have someone (or if YOU) turn pens, you can laser those boxes personalized for gifts for graduations, Mother's and Father's day, birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas---any gift-giving occasion that you can conjure up. I'm working with a local realtor who purchases a pen and a personalized box with the realtor's logo and the recipient's name(s) lasered on. The realtor presents the pen to the buyers to use at closing to sign all of those documents that need to be signed, and the buyer has a small tangible memento of the occasion.

These are just a few of my ideas for making money at this - we started part-time 3 years ago, and I'm now doing this pretty much full time. I'm staying busy - turned out four orders this afternoon.

Nancy

[David Fairfield]

oh yeah try the local wedding planners & bridal shops, too. One of my best customers, always reordering engraved glasses in large lots.

Just be sure you have some experience with the rotary tool before advertising glass engraving, it can be problematic depending on the type of glassware

Dave

[Mark Ross]

eBay sucks for marketing purposes, its too saturated with garbage.

Think local. Check at the fishing, sporting, greeting card, tourist souvenir and glassware shops in your area. Ask if they'd be interested in referring you to customers or working with you to provide a personalization service. Bring appropriate demo items. For example, Father's Day is coming, so engrave a couple of nice looking fishing lures "For Dad, Happy Father's Day 2008" and show 'em around.

HTH
Dave


Just did some poking around on ebay, one guy is selling a 12 X 12 " granite with custom photoengraving and text for $19.95 with FREE UPS shipping. I know what the granite costs at Lowe's (5-6 bucks a piece in single piece volume). I don't know how/if they make money at it. Looked at their sales, they seem to have started out in January 2009, they have bumped up the price now to $24.99 with free shipping but don't seem to be selling many.

Looked at another ebay user and they have more items that are custom engravable but they have only sold about 200 items since 2001. Another has about 800 items sold in a couple of years. I think one would have to really research not only items and pricing but also keywords and so on to have sucess on ebay. Also, as people get desperate, they will basically give it away to break even or sell at a slight loss to generate cash flow.

[Andy Joe]

i agree, sign shops and award shops are the biggest seller for me. I dont know how many sports any of you watch, but im finding alot of the trophies being laser cut and etched acrylic. Last 4 UFC i have watched all had them. Flat peice of acrylic cut in a octagon, etched with winners face and some wordage u cant read on t.v. Who ever has that job has it made. U know they have like 3 championship matches in a night with 2 people fighting in each. thats 6 peices made before the event even happens.

[Bill Cunningham]

Just did some poking around on ebay, one guy is selling a 12 X 12 " granite with custom photoengraving and text for $19.95 with FREE UPS shipping. I know what the granite costs at Lowe's (5-6 bucks a piece in single piece volume). I don't know how/if they make money at it. Looked at their sales, they seem to have started out in January 2009, they have bumped up the price now to $24.99 with free shipping but don't seem to be selling many.


People who are in the market for granite memorials etc. look around.. They see most websites selling a 12 x 12 'tile' for $80-$100 and then see someone flogging them for 19.95, or even $24.95 and many come to correct conclusion. The cheap one is crap and they won't bother with it. They may sell a few at that price, but once burnt....:mad: Under pricing your products, do nothing but devalue them..

[Rodne Gold]

The best way is to target a market segment and market directly to em via samples.
For example , target electrical contractors in the yellow pages , make up a sample range of switch plates , estucheon plates , small control panels and so on , include a "marketing" device of your choice (a keyring , ruler etc) .
Call the co's and instead of giving a whole speil , simply say "We have a sample pack of electrical lables for fre, would you be interested?"
If they say yes , send the samples with a letter or brochure.
The response rate to this is high an you are not essentially cold calling , you are giving em something for free.
You need to implement a follow up plan as well , just keep in contact with those who have accepted your kind offer