Wanting to buy laser cutter for craft markets/wedding favors...worth it?

[jeannine kas]

I am looking to purchase a laser cutter in the next couple of months. At this time I work full time, but would like to eventually go to part time and do laser work for the other time. Is it worth buying a laser cutter to hit the wedding favor and craft market?

I have a demo next week for the Epilog machines (maybe the Zing?). Trotec has demo'd the speedy 300 which I really liked. It's just a large investment I want to be able to know that I will pay off this machine within the first year.

I REALLY want the machine but don't want to lose sleep investing that much money and find i can't make it with home items and personalized gifts. I am hoping to get this moving and then let my husband start the cutting while I work. At this time he is semi-retired he has a laserphobia, but I know he can do it once he watches me use the machine a few times. I currently go to a laser cutter cafe in BC and use the Full Spectrum they have. It's not my ideal machine to purchase, but it does the job. If costs a lot right now to do anything ($1.50/minute to cut) which is why I want to buy my own machine.

Am I over-reacting? Any honest opinion welcome.

Thanks, Jeannine

[Jack Clague]

Hi Jeannine,

I am a part time laser business, I would highly recommend doing a business plan up and working out what you could make in a week and sell and then what you would need to sell to make it worth it, compare that to cutting and making the articles at the "workshop" you have access to and base your decision from that

Don't forget to equate in the machines, a Trotec 300 for example will process faster than other machines but if your part time using it then the speed will not effect your overall weekly output

Also do some research on additional costs for running a machine and see if you have both the space and if those costs fit in your plan

Consider a good range of machines before you purchase, if you want to see my experience see here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-and-Decisions

[Gary Hair]

This is just my opinion, but then again that's what you asked for... You'll never make a living doing wedding favors and crafts - there isn't enough of a market and the market that is there is very price sensitive. You might be able to work 80 hours a week and make the wages of a 40 hour a week job. So you are not really buying a laser, you are buying a job. The real money is in industrial marking - with a bit of marketing and ground-pounding you can eek out a nice living and not put in nearly as many hours as the favors/crafts market. If you want to be sure then keep renting the laser at the cafe and see how much you can bring in with it - I think it will be an eye-opener!

[Bill George]

Well you can't go wrong with Epilog but is the money coming in going to pay the bills? That is something you will need to answer yourself. Everyone dreams of finding a niche market and setting back and watching the money roll in, but reality soon sinks in. Its better to do your market research before spending $8000 to $20,000. Your big plus is you know how to run a laser, but is the market there? Are you selling what you make now? Good luck. I hope you come up with that $1,000,000 idea!

[jeannine kas]

Thank you for your opinions and I think it's true, I won't make enuf money to quit my day job for sure. I do need to find that niche market that has enough of a margin to make it worth my while. Gary, thanks for pointing me in a different direction. Industrial marking is something will look in to. Spending $20k for crafts does sound a big crazy. Jack, thank you for the link on your previous post, it was very informative and thorough.

*sigh*, I think you have brought me back to reality and I really appreciate it. I need to look at more than crafts and wedding favors to make my money. I love using the laser cutter and at this time I am making no money on the laser cutter I rent by the minute. I use it for gifts and practise right now.

I needed to hear this before I have buyers remorse and an empty bank account.

Jeannine

[Jack Clague]

As a part time job and investment maybe consider pushing out your return period to something like 4 or 5 years, if you can live with that then you have room to build upon your investment and business and if you are borrowing for the machine it will also leave more headroom in your financials.

[Mike Troncalli]

You might want to investigate some of the lower priced Chinese machines. You can get in to a pretty decent machine in the 3K to 6k range.. Also decide how much money you can let go without hurting your finances.. Assume that money as just gone... And as others have said you really do need to create a business plan first.. Determine your market, your product, your time, expenses, cost, etc..

I don't do industrial marking, but I do corporate logo's and yes some wedding stuff.. I'd estimate that my machine netted me 20 - 30K in profits this year. So it can be very worth it if you are willing to put the time and effort in to it.. But remember, you and a million others who have plunked down a few $$ and bought a laser are trying to do the same things.. Search for other engraving companies in your area.. Talk to wedding planners, stop by a few stores... See what your competition is..

Good luck..

[Mark Sipes]

Jeannine welcome to the forum...not sure where you are located. Your focus on the wedding market is only a small aspect of what you need to look at. Here is a site that gives you a better idea of the products you need to ........start with

http://www.foreverlaseredmemories.co...gifts-cat.aspx

toasting glasses, cake cutting sets, groomsmen/ brides gifts...... Church contacts.....Hallmark/party shops.......


Good Luck

[Jacob John]

I am looking to purchase a laser cutter in the next couple of months. At this time I work full time, but would like to eventually go to part time and do laser work for the other time. Is it worth buying a laser cutter to hit the wedding favor and craft market?

I have a demo next week for the Epilog machines (maybe the Zing?). Trotec has demo'd the speedy 300 which I really liked. It's just a large investment I want to be able to know that I will pay off this machine within the first year.

I REALLY want the machine but don't want to lose sleep investing that much money and find i can't make it with home items and personalized gifts. I am hoping to get this moving and then let my husband start the cutting while I work. At this time he is semi-retired he has a laserphobia, but I know he can do it once he watches me use the machine a few times. I currently go to a laser cutter cafe in BC and use the Full Spectrum they have. It's not my ideal machine to purchase, but it does the job. If costs a lot right now to do anything ($1.50/minute to cut) which is why I want to buy my own machine.

Am I over-reacting? Any honest opinion welcome.

Thanks, Jeannine

This is coming from a humble and newer small business owner that has recently had to make the same decisions that you're considering. You do not need to be investing in a Trotec Speedy at this point...YET. I've only recently reached the point where I feel comfortable making this type of investment. If you're only doing this part time, look for something like I have. I found a very nice pre-owned laser that has been an absolute workhorse. And up until my business has exploded in the last several weeks, I didn't need a bigger or faster laser. Now once/if you reach the point of needing an upgrade (after your laser pays for itself), by all means look at the Trotec Speedy. I just wouldn't take on that risk in a very new/part time business until it's a proven concept. That's just my humble opinion.

[jeannine kas]

I have asked Trotec about pre-owned and got no response by email and when i called, he said he didn't get many pre-owned. I use a Chinese laser now at the rental place I go to now, but I still need a bit of assistance, so I will pass on those machines. I live in Vancouver BC and can't seem to find any pre-owned laser cutters. I will probably have to head to Washington state and see what I can find (although the Cdn dollar just sucks right now !). I think besides industrial marking...I think Jacob suggestion of pre-owned is my best option to help me sleep at night. Now I just have to find one !

Also, I used Inkscape for my work, it's time to upgrade to Corel.

[Art Mann]

I will try to answer your question by asking you a question and then answering that question about myself. Do you have any talent? Not operator skills but real artistic talent. When I bought my CNC router, I thought I could be successful because I am a retired engineer and have an exceptional ability to learn and use complex equipment. I have become skilled at getting my CNC to do what I want it to but that doesn't amount to much - certainly not enough to make a business out of it. I didn't realize it to start with but my wife turned out to be the reason for our small success. She spent a whole career as a visual designer in the printing and advertising industry. She is the one who comes up with the attractive and innovative products. I am just the technician that brings her ideas to life. Anybody can buy an expensive machine and learn how to use it but that doesn't necessarily spell success.

[David Somers]

Jeannine,

Before you embarked on a craft fair/wedding favor endeavor I would definitely do the rounds of craft fairs this summer in what you consider your traveling area. You can hit craftmasters.com or Festivalnet.com and get listings of craft fair/art shows in your area. For a relatively low annual fee you can get detailed information on each. Spend a season checking out fairs, talking to vendors, looking at what is being sold, what is selling, and what prices are. That can help you determine your possible income from a fair. For wedding stuff, talk to wedding planners and services about what they see in the market. Do your research first.

Do you have experience with programs like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator or other vector art packages? Are you artistic at all? Unless you buy stock patterns to make you will need to create your own items which is time consuming to develop. And you obviously need to know the software.
Do you have experience with lasers at all? Or at least are you comfortable with modest electronics and mechanical repairs of things? If not, stick with a machine that has US support. That could be lower priced Chinese machines that have been modified in the US and are resold by companies like Rabbit Laser USA, Boss Laser, etc. They can give you support by phone and have local parts stocks. You would save money buying direct from China, but you need to have a fair amount of independence to do that. You are largely on your own other than what a site like ours can give you. Machines like Epilog, Universal (ULS) and Trotec are exceptional machines but pretty expensive. They would be at the high end of what you would look at.

Lastly, have you spent lots of time going through this forum? A lot of answers can be found here, as well as questions you may not have thought of asking yet.

Hope that gets you going for the next round of questions!

Dave

[jeannine kas]

Art, I think you just hit the nail on the head. I am a crafter, not an artist.Anyone can be a crafter, not everyone can be artistic. I wouldn't consider myself artistic I'm afraid. I do have a good imagination though. I really appreciate every one's honest and candid opinions. It's all things that I should be thinking about and haven't. I am having second thoughts, but if I do pursue this, I think I will go with the previous advice of buying a pre-owned unit. I am just not sure now what to do, but that's a good thing !! I was ready to jump into this head first and pull a loan to buy a new laser cutter. And I now think I would have sunk quickly and have been stressed out wondering what the hell I did and why did I do that ! If I didn't work full time, maybe I'd have a different mindset right now. Thank you all !!

[Dave Sheldrake]

Just to echo what the guys are saying, over here 17 companies started out when I did with lasers and good ideas.....there are 3 of us left. I've seen far more laser operations (even with experienced people running them) go to the wall inside 2 years than I have companies that have built a decent market.

Identify the market you want
Identify if you can enter the market at a decent return on investment
Identify if you can cope with the workload
Identify if you can pay back any finance without hardship
Identify the methodology for feeding the machine (drawings etc)

Being honest buying a speedy 300 ish type machine based on the information you provided would be a quick disaster to be blunt. Only figure on investing what you can comfortably afford to lose

[Bert Kemp]

You said you where going to pass on a Chinese machine, WHY? I would gather to guess half or more of the people on this forum have Chinese Machines, and are using them for business and making money with them. You can get a decent Chinese machine for a third or less money then a Trotec or Epilog. With that machine you can start your business and see if its going to work and if it does then you can upgrade down the road. But if it doesn't your not stuck with a very expensive machine. Sure you can sell it and get some of your money back but you can also sell your less expensive Chinese machine and get a little back. Kind like buying a Motorcycle when you have never been on one. Get a cheap scooter to see if you can ride and then upgrade to a full size cruiser .