THIS is the video I’ve been looking for.. - Got laid off from my corp job working with the same company for 20 yrs and was doing lasering custom work on the side as a hobby. I used most of my severance ( that I’m blessed I got) on three expensive lasers (diff types IR/ Diode/ CO2) and have been lately doubting myself despite the progress I’ve made in learning and setting up an LLC etc - gives me hope and refocus. THANK YOU.
I'm doing this because my wife's job is a stay at home mom, but man I would love to quit my job and do this full time eventually. I have learned so far to be explorative in the beginning to see what sells, and to not carry inventory on things until you know they'll sell.
A good bit of information. As someone like myself who has worked at the same place for 18 years and make wages have been very low i finally opened up an etsy store with the hope of one day saying adios and just work on my own.
This spreadsheet is GREAT!! I have made a few similar for other calculation scenarios so I know it is fairly simple in concept, but to dial it in for a specific idea takes time and tons of revisions. I appreciate your time and effort in this and am looking forward to putting it to use! THANK YOU!!!
One factor on your cost analysis. So im going from a Cnc, and have a laser on the way. So reality machine time is human time. Yes you can leave a bit, and do other things but those hundreds of hours of machine time, you still need to be in the shop. More just pointing out the time calculation gets complicated. So woodworkers do this math a little bit different, total time divided by total profit(minus materials) is your hourly rate of pay
This is really helpful information. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. The only addition I’ve made in the spreadsheet is to account for my design time. Using your example of map making, I might invest 2 hours of design time. Rather than just calling that sunk cost, I allocate those 2 hours over the first 10 copies that are sold as a way to recoup that design time. Thanks again for the great content! Much appreciated.
Great video! I have been on the fence about trying to sell the stuff I recently made with my laser. I sort of got addicted to making comic book corner art pieces and originally, I was just going to keep them, but I really don't have the room for them at home. I've been debating on whether or not to setup an Etsy shop. I really appreciate all the info and effort. Thanks!
As always, THANKS for the great information. I'm still to inexperienced with my laser but once I've figured it out much better I was thinking about doing something like Etsy and this video and the file you shared will definitely help to determine if I think I could do that in the end.
I can see you've put a lot of work into this and really appreciate you sharing it with us. Now to find a great, profitable and unique idea. Got a spreadsheet for that effort? 😆
Ha I wish! But I would so looking around to see what’s popular is great and then figure out how to sell it locally, or get pretty specific on a popular item to sell to a passionate community.
Great video. Personally I would leave out packaging cost because that can be put into your shipping price, that the customer pays. I would add in misc business costs as a % on top - rent, supplies, kitchen, cleaning, insurance, registrations, safety equipment etc. As for laser time, i've found that it is unrealistic unless it is the ONLY factor in pricing a custom one off job. A lot of people online use laser time but if you're also factoring machine cost, maintenance and labour, then counting laser time is basically double charging (in terms of working out your costs). However it does work in figuring out how to price a custom jobs on the fly, where you aren't making the same kind of item hundreds of times. Ultimately if you are making at least 3-4x the cost of materials then you're doing alright.
I would definitely have to make 100K/year in order to go fully on my own (live in SoCal). Right now I am just starting my own business as side hustle. My regular 9-5 is also engraving for a pet keepsakes company. I do not plan on running online stores as I would rather gain clients organically via craft fairs and word of mouth (social media). Great informative vid as always, the spreadsheet breakdown of costs is a great idea, Thx!
I just discovered this laser engraving business because of an Instagram video my friend sent me. I'm always looking for a way to make extra money. I'm really interested in this and am looking to buy a machine and begin doing this. I'd be very interested in seeing how you would begin an Etsy store and market it and so on. I already have some ideas and would love to pick your brain about it
Im just about to get into this....I'm in ohio and now that weed is legal here and half of the rest of the country is as well, I'm gonna lean hard into that space..
How would you edit the spreadsheet for making multiple identical items? i can get 50 key rings out of a single sheet of Perspex but cant work out how to edit the spread sheet for this. Could you do an updated calculator?
@@makeorbreakshop got it. I guess it would be hard to dictate how you would breakup work load between items since the customer decides what sells. Thanks for the excel doc
You missed the MOST important aspect of this. Legalities. You cannot always create products from brands, names or trademarks. Just because people are selling it on Etsy, does NOT make it legal. there are SO many illegal items on Etsy. I've liked many of your previous videos, but this one is kind of a disservice to your viewers.
Good point on the legal side. There was a lot more I could have put in there but tried to keep it pretty quick. That reason is exactly why I went with football stadiums that I created the design for. Lots of people wanted the team logos on them but I knew that was going to be a no go.
Have they updated it so you can control in lightburn yet, or is it exporting gcode then opening in their software and run that way? (Not a make or break, but a bit confusing that they list as lightburn capable, but it isn't integrated fully yet)
You mentioned a program for seeing what is trending on Etsy, what was that? I'd hate to see you delve into SEO, as that's not the thing, but maybe some other tools we can use to asses our shops' performance.
Oh mean to link that, I'll drop it in the description. It's called Marmalead: marmalead.com. It does search for keywords but I wouldn't think of it as SEO as much as just seeing the things that are popular on Etsy. Totally don't just start stuffing your titles with words you think would work, but see if there are types of products that might be getting a lot of searches that you think you could offer a good option for.
Don't forget to add all that R&D time into your costs... Also not so sure about etsy's cut of 6.5%. They take their cut after shipping and everything, and it comes out to be much more than 6.5% in my experience
Basically, don't leave you day job!!! Nothing to be proud of business wise in this adventure. If you don't like selling, then why trying to convince other people that what you failed yourself will work for others? Your plan was flawed. Another youtuber telling people they can live from a business that did not work... Easy to be rich on an Excel spreadsheet! Too many IF conditions... Maybe you are selling here or there, maybe you will do this or that... but remember that whatever I am telling you what to do to get a 6 figures yearly, that I was not able to do it myself! Not really credible.
"Make This With Your Laser To Leave Your Day Job" How about showing us what the title of this video is that we can make that will enable us to leave our day job. Perhaps you should make a video of how to be a click bait artist. Glad I've got ad blocker running.
