Since the invention of the first working laser in 1960, laser cutting technology has evolved so much and developed into a market with 2.8 billion US dollars annual turnover and 8% year-to-year growth rate. Can you make money with TS3 laser cutter & engraver? The answer is clearly “yes” with no doubt and the laser cutting & engraving business is for sure one profitable and promising business for entrepreneurs.
However, to realize the full potential of laser cutting technology, it’s extremely important to figure out a few questions before making a detailed business plan.
- What are laser cutters & engravers used for?
- What are some top laser cutting & engraving business ideas?
- What materials can laser cutter and engraver work on?
- How to launch a laser cutting & engraving business?
What are laser cutters & engravers used for?
What are laser cutters & engravers used for? Laser engravers and laser cutters are basically the same machines. TS3 laser cutting machine can engrave as well as cut. The laser cutting & engraving machine allows users to handle and process various materials including paper, Polywood, leather, stainless steel, etc. It could be widely used for making customized art objects, engraved toys, various types of souvenirs, jewelry, and more applications beyond imagination (check the following video to find out what is laser cutter & engraver used for). With a laser machine on hand, you would be passionate about testing every material or object available from a book cover to your iPad. You would be amazed by how creative your life could be and making money is just an extra bonus that is less of a concern.
Top Laser Cutting & Laser Engraver Ideas for Business
1. Providing Laser Cutting & Engraving Service
Many companies need customized branding for their products however without corresponding machines to finish the job. Laser engraving on products or packages could be the right solution for these companies. One example is that flashlights factories often send flashlight housing to a third party for logo and branding information engraving. Some companies source non-branding products for retailing but have high demands for customized branding to boost their brand awareness.
This could be a great business opportunity if you are considering launching a new business with laser engravers. It’s listed on top of your business idea list for two main reasons:
1st: Orders from factories or wholesalers are also based on larger order quantities compared with orders from individuals. In such a case, you might need to convince only fewer companies to try your service, and serving this selective number of companies with excellent quality service would generate great profits for you.
2nd: You could focus on how to improve your service as factories and wholesalers would try their best to get more customers. Your business would keep growing and improving during the process as their success brings you more orders.
2. Customized Promotion Gifts Wholesale
The market for customized promotional gifts is huge as it’s an essential and great method of advertising to enhance companies’ branding impact. It’s an inevitable advertising option if companies are planning to host events. A customized promotion gift could be a USB flash drive or a pen but all require customization to a certain degree. In such a case, laser engraving and cutting would be a perfect solution for branding marking on gifts or making new gifts with a laser cutting machine. You can either register a new company to wholesale your selected promotion items with branding possibilities or items of your unique design made with your laser engraving and cutting machine.
There are a few great places to find potential customers if you decide to go with this option. You can list hotels that host conferences or events regularly and negotiate a way to advertise your company during these events or approach the companies that host events there, there might be a great chance they would be interested to check your promotion gifts options as these companies would always be interested in new gift ideas. Another place to find potential customers would be printing companies that regularly print advertising materials for companies. You might check companies listing directories like Yellow page with contact information, make a call, or pay a visit. Even for those companies that do not host an event, they might need customized gifts for their customers or employees.
3. Home Decoration Accessories Retail
Proper home decoration attachments could add much taste and mood to housing. Some might spend a hundred bucks or more for single wood wall art. Just like artwork can hardly be measured by costs, it’s difficult for users to tell the real value of customized decoration accessories thus the profit margin could be huge. If you have rich experience in designing and home decoration, you might design your collection of artworks. If you are with limited knowledge, there are still websites to source free or paid designs for home decoration. Following are some accessories you might include into your list for cutting and engraving:
- welcome mat
- customized wall clock
- engraved coaster
- cutout wood arf crafts for wall decoration
You could either focus on single accessories of the above list sell all listed accessories. However, it’s recommended to include more accessories in your collection. The reasoning behind it is that customers searching for a customized welcome mat might also need an engraved coaster. Include more accessories would generate more orders by cross-s
Laser Cutting & Engraving Home Decoration Accessories
You could either focus on single accessories of the above list sell all listed accessories. However, it’s recommended to include more accessories in your collection. The reasoning behind it is that customers searching for a customized welcome mat might also need an engraved coaster. Including more accessories would generate more orders by cross-selling.
4. Photoengraving
Photoengraving is considered one most popular laser engraving business ideas. Each photo is a story to tell and with treasurable memory and feelings. Gifts with engraved photos are one best gift ideas all the time although this “tradition” has been quite a long time. Photoengraving is considered one most popular laser engraving business ideas. Each photo is a story to tell and with treasurable memory and feelings. Gifts with engraved photos are one best gift ideas all the time although this “tradition” has been quite a long time.
You can either build websites to allow customers to upload a photo for engraving and delivery physical photos to their address or offer engraving service only which requires customers to send over products to your place for processing.
5. Wall Arts
Wall arts could be listed as one of home decoration accessories but are not included for two reasons: firstly, demands for customized wall arts for companies, schools, bars, hotels, offices, etc can hardly be overlooked; secondly, the demanded artworks might be different in style from those needed for home decoration; thirdly, these two different markets operate in quite a different way thus require different market strategies and approaches.
6. Customized event products
Customized event products refer to customized products designed for events like weddings, Christmas, Halloween, etc. Instead of including all themes into your creation list, it’s recommended to focus on a specific market. If you decide to provide cut & engraved products for weddings, you should consider adding more products into the collection to get more sales through cross-selling. If you choose to sell products based on holidays, you might consider including more holidays to keep business running all the year..
7. Mobile Accessories
Mobile phones nowadays are essential parts of our daily life. Mobile accessories would be one of the largest market w
Mobile phones nowadays are essential parts of our daily life. Mobile accessories would be one of the largest markets with the fiercest competition. The real challenge is how to make your business stand out among competitors. In terms of product ideas, protective covers and phone stands could be a good niche to start your business.
8. Bookmarks
Laser cutters and engravers provide many possibilities to create eye-catching bookmarks which would surprise the readers. For bookmarks with unique designs, you could either sell them online or approach publishing companies to find a way to cooperate.
9. Business cards
A delicate customized business card would not only make a deep impression but also demonstrate your company culture and pursuit of perfection in detail. It would be better if you are familiar with designing or have a corresponding colleague to be responsible for designing.
Engraved Cutout Business Cards
10. Cutting signboards
Signboards are everywhere in our daily life from direction boards off the roads to menu boards in local restaurants. This could be a great business opportunity if well planned. Customized sign boards made with laser cutting and engraving machines would draw much more attention. Websites with a list of astonishing signboards would be a great enjoyment for visitors and a big chance is that visitors would be more likely to pay if they need signboards.
11. Jewelry & fashion accessories
Jewelry and fashion accessories are another great niche for the laser cutting and engraving business. Compared with men, women trends to buy products on impulse even at a relatively higher price. As personality and diversity are highly appreciated among users, customized jewelry of fashion accessories has gained more and more popularity. A customized accessory not only presents users’ taste but also enhance their personalities. Thus the market is also growing at a high speed.
12. Leather purses and bags
Laser cutting and engraving machines like TS3 have great disadvantages over other tools. Laser cutters enable leathers to be cut exactly as designed and could save lots of material in the designing procedure. Laser engraving functions enable designs to upgrade design to a new level. However, many prefer handmade leather bags due to their uniqueness and all hard-working put into each piece, thus it’s important to state clearly why should customers choose your products over handmade ones in marketing materials.
13. Model making
Laser cutter and engraver also provide us the ability to create products totally different from available alternatives in the market. Some product ideas might even blow your mind. Here are a few things to start your creation list:
- Puzzles
- Costume
- Organizer (organizer for pen, toothbrush, battery, etc)
- Dogs’ collar
What materials can laser cutter and engraver work on?
Supported material might differ for different machines. Compared with other desktop laser cutters to cut 3mm Polywood, TS3 utilizes advanced LD+FAC+C-lens technology to provide a highly compressed focused laser beam to cut 8mm Polywood easily.
Its unique tech allows it to handle various materials as the following chart (listed material is just part of materials that we tested):
How to launch a laser cutting & engraving business?
The costs of launching a start-up business might be really low if you did in-depth research or talked to some experts, the process of striking for business success would be of many pains if not well prepared. Thus some proper preparation would save you lots of trouble and money. Following are a few quick tips on startup launching.
1st: Do market research and SWOT analysis to find the right niche to start
Though the development of laser cutting & engraving technology and various materials in the market provide users endless possibilities for creation and business options, choosing the right niche would be a matter of failure or success. Thus making comprehensive market research and SWOT analysis is critical for your business. If you have no clue, just focus on your passion, hobbies, and what you are good at, you might find the right idea for your whole life.
2nd: Make a detailed plan before the start
Make a detailed plan before the business launch, set a time schedule for each process, and make a Plan B just in case. Some ideas that should be considered to include in your list would be as follows:
- Which product would you prefer to choose?
- Should it be a local business or a domestic business?
- Should you build a website or open an online store for your business? Which service should you use?
- Who are your target customers? How do reach them?
- Should you design the file or source designs online?
- What about shipping and warranty?
- What’s the cost and retail price?
3rd: Choose the right tool for your idea
Choosing the right device for your laser cutting and engraving machine would be one most important decisions to make. Following are some factors you should take serious consideration:
- If your business model involves both cutting and engraving, it would be a wise decision to choose a laser cutter & engraver like TS3 which supports both.
- If you need cutting thicker woods, a normal DIY desktop laser cutter would definitely be not powerful enough for your project. TS3 uses a pioneering design that integrates double laser diodes into one head. The converging power beams go through a FAC optic, which compresses the laser into an 80 um spot with output efficiency high up to 97.5%!
- A tightly sealed enclosure is required by law in some countries for using a laser cutting machine, in such a case, an enclosed laser engraver would be a compulsory choice.
- Maintenance is also an important aspect to consider as you would use the device regularly. One example is the CO2 laser machine which is known for its high precision but high costs to maintain and difficult to get the right focus for cutting. If you are new to laser cutting or engraving, a diode laser engraver would be a good option to start.
Step Four: Choose the right platform for your business
If you decide to build a local business, choosing the right platform would be of minor concern. Otherwise which platform you use would make a great impact on your business. There are a few platforms out there to consider for an online business.
- Esty: Websites like Esty are designed to share and sell customized or handmade crafts with unique designs for those passionate about uniqueness and creative ideas. Since all buyers here are a selective group of people trends to pay for unique ideas, these websites would offer higher CAT and more orders by its nature.
- Shopify: SaaS website building application like Shopify provides a platform to build your own online store which is a great option if you plan to build your own brand. The two most popular websites would be Shopify and WordPress. Shopify integrates many tools specially designed for eCommerce but provides fewer options to customize the style of websites compared with WordPress.
- Amazon & eBay: Amazon and other online resellers are still major players in the market with more developed functions & support, a larger customer basis, and more credit compared with other websites. You might also consider setting up a front store on these platforms.
Step Five: Get your business found by potential customers
Regardless of which platform you use for your laser cutting business, one most important factor for any business Regardless of which platform you use for your laser cutting business, one most important factor for any business success is to get your business found by the right audience. Before you set up your stores on websites, make a clear audience map and design an effective marketing strategy to exposure your artworks to them. This could be done either by paid ads, social medial marketing, newsletters, or other channels. You should also make a detailed plan on what kind of advertising to use, which social media works best for your business. A delicately detailed plan would be half success.
Conclusion
Making money with a laser cutter or engraver is not that easier. Make comprehensive research, talk to someone with rich experience, choose the right product niche, and make a detailed plan, choosing a decent cutting & engraving machine, all these steps are important works to guarantee successful business achievement. If you have any questions or tips on this topic, please leave a comment to share your insights.
