Just curious if anyone has any tips or suggestions, on getting some of the bigger/repeat jobs. Or maybe even stories of how they really got their business up and rolling in the laser engraving industry?
If anyone cares to read a novel, here's my background: Boss got REALLY mad that I was pregnant and I was "laid off" (long, very illegal story, but she got away with it). I saw it coming, knew a bit about laser engraving and was interested in it for the work from home aspect. I'm establishing myself in a small tourist town in SW Colorado with my 40 watt Epilog Zing 24. I'm getting ready to send the kids off to grandma's so I can hit up the local retail shops to offer things I make and do promotional items. I do a lot of my own designs, am trying ideas on things I can create and sell (mostly kid related items), and play with my machine a lot, doesn't feel like work, Yay!
In the meantime, I do get random, "one time" type jobs from friends/family, and I'm starting to get the word of mouth customers and customers from the time I've spent at craft fair booths, etc. I'm all over the social media with local pages, and have a Facebook page, and website. They often turn into repeat customers, but haven't gotten any type of routine, somewhat reliable, or larger jobs. My husband has a steady income but not much and I'm getting kind of tired of living in poverty and eating Ramen. I was hoping to upgrade food when I graduated college. I am looking for even just a little bit better customer base so I can upgrade from Ramen to Mac and cheese (hehehe, ok, that's an exaggeration).
I'm getting closer to more legit customers and I'm sure patience for that kind of work is important, but does anyone have any tips or stories of how they REALLY got their heels dug in? Maybe avenues I haven't thought of? Someone else in the area does trophies so I won't step on their toes by doing trophies but otherwise, I'm not picky and mostly shameless. Ha! Thanks in advance!