As a follow up to our popular Designing for Laser Cutting Ebook, we are proud to present our latest offering to our fans: Return On Investment: Starting a Business with Your Laser. In this ebook, we discuss the process of choosing and getting the best results from your laser cutter from a business perspective. For this series of blogs, we will highlight a business utilizing laser cutters and engravers to demonstrate how one might find their own return on investment. Up first is Ann's Jewelry & Decor.
Ann sees herself as an artist first and a businesswoman second. Her interest in a laser cutter is determined by its ability to demonstrate her artistic talents. Amy looks to make a nice supplement to her income with her crafts someday, perhaps with an Etsy store. Ann works with mostly organic materials, such as wood, fabric, leather, and occasionally, acrylic, to make unique custom jewelry. Ann’s specialty is custom cufflinks with original engravings of her stylish designs. Ann has been making her crafts by hand but finds a laser cutter increases her production while reducing the time she spends manufacturing her designs. Ann loves spending more time thinking of new ideas for items and less time making them.
Ann’s CO2 Hobby Laser
Ann considered many tools to get her business production off the ground, and then discovered Hobby Series and Muse by Full Spectrum Laser. Hobby laser cutters offer Ann many advantages:
Low buy-in investment: Ann doesn’t need a large industrial laser cutter for her cufflinks and other jewelry. Hobby lasers are considerably less expensive than professional grade laser cutters but can keep up with the pace of Ann’s production needs for a casual business.
Increased Production: A typical hobby laser has a workbed of 20” x 12” which is plenty of space for Ann to cut her jewelry designs. In fact, Ann discovered she can cut up ten cufflinks out of one piece of material. Ann then duplicates her design ten times and lays them out side-by-side in the laser software. This allows Ann to cut ten pieces without having to change out material or run separate jobs. She saves this design file and now, every time she needs ten more cufflinks, it is all just a click away.
Additional Products: Ann discovers she can easily create new designs while keeping the basic shape and size of the cufflinks.
Portability: Ann loves to go to Maker-Faires, and she knows being in the DIY scene is the best place to demonstrate her talents for her business. She also knows having her customers see her working her craft lends credibility and personality to her work. Ann’s hobby laser goes with her to create on-the-spot custom orders and to attract a crowd to her modern tool of art making technology.
Profit Analysis: Ann has no problem selling her wonderful cufflinks; her real issue is making a profit when it takes an average of an hour to hand cut and carve one cufflink pattern and design by hand. With her laser cutter, Ann can cut multiple cufflinks as one project in less than an hour. During that time Ann monitors her laser cutter while designing her next line of cufflinks.
Ann’s Decision: Muse Hobby Laser
Ann decides Muse is the best hobby laser cutter for her needs.
Ann's ROI Breakdown
See more laser business ROI profiles by downloading the complete ebook, Return On Investment: Starting a Business with Your Laser. Exclusively from Full Spectrum Laser.