Making Profitable Products -- The Coaster Conundrum Explained
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2024
- When running a maker business, you need to make sure you create and sell the products - those that are unique enough for the right customers and can generate enough profit to make your business a success.
In this video I walk through the product process from creation to selling and point out some of the costs you might be ignoring and how you might not be targeting customers who are willing to pay more for your creations.
►►►► SOCIAL MEDIA
• Channel Membership ➭ www.youtube.com/@stevemakesev...
• Instagram ➭ @slicedpidesign
• Facebook ➭ / slicedpidesign
• my business site ➭ www.slicedpi.design
• my Etsy store ➭ slicedpidesign.etsy.com
• email ➭ stevemakeseverything@gmail.com (business inquiries)
►►►► SAVE MONEY NOW! (I may earn commissions)
• Get your materials fast with Amazon Prime free for 30 days ➭ amzn.to/3xhXn0Q
FTC Legal Disclaimer - Some links found in this description may be affiliate links, meaning I will make a commission on sales you make through my link. This is at no extra cost to you to use my links/codes; it's just one more way to support me and my channel.
►►►► MY MAKER SPACE
Laser/Vinyl Cutters
SP-3624 90W 36"x24" self designed laser
Full Spectrum Laser Muse 3D
xTool D1 Pro Diode Laser: www.xtool.com/products/xtool-...
xTool M1 Laser/Blade Cutter: www.xtool.com/products/xtool-...
Cricut Maker 3: amzn.to/3s8j7i0
3D Printers
Sliced-Pi ]|[ CoreXY (self-designed)
Sliced-Pi ][ CoreXY (self-designed)
Prusa I3Mk3 with MMU 2
Creality CR-10 (massively upgraded)
Creality Ender 3 V2 amzn.to/3oLz7kc
AnyCubic Photon S SLA Resin Printer amzn.to/3wtSVvo
CNC Router
OneFinity Woodworker. onefinitycnc.com
►►►► SOFTWARE I USE
DaVinci Resolve 18 www.blackmagicdesign.com
Autocad Fusion 360 www.autodesk.com/products/fus...
Inkscape inkscape.org
Gimp gimp.org
#stevemakeseverything #maker #makersgonnamake #makersofinstagram #laserengraver #laserengraving #laserengravingmachine #laserbusiness #lasercutting #smallbusiness 
Хобби
Im just starting a laser business and ive ordered a bunch of slate coaster with amazon prime for arond 1$ per coaster. Ive been doing personalized engravings (changing names from preset designs) and theyve been flying out locally for $20 a set. Ill probably stop doing them after i get better footing as a business but they've paid off my laser very quickly and gets me a lot of customers who will hopefully come back
You found the right niche, which is to do custom work and that you can make money at no matter what you are engraving. This is similar to finding a business customer or anyone else who wants something no one else has.
I found the best way to make money making coasters is to make them unique to the local area and then sell them to local shops and markets, if you are in tourist area they move quickly in the shops and it a good side product, it certainly can be the core part but it helps. You don’t have to compete in that market.
Yep, this is the right path. It is very similar to selling to a business, and I'm a huge fan of the tourist business if you want to sell anything in volume.
I have the benefit of doing this part time for the moment and I use my office as my work area. So shop expenses are minimal (mostly things like paper towels and the like) because I am paying for the lights, heating, etc anyway as I work for my company from home. I think the key is what you ended with. I do offer coasters and have sold some. But I charge more for them than you can get them for on Etsy. I do not care if folks want to go there. I think it was one of your other videos where you said something to the effect of "Don't sell your skills cheap". I took that to heart. I am going to make what I do and offer everything from coasters and earrings to cutting boards and artwork. I do not count on my coasters or earrings to be a huge portion of my total profit. But like you, I offer them so folks can get them from me if they came to my shop for other things. All around, good video, Steve. I really appreciate this series you do on the actual business side of this....well...business. I am trying to build a small business to take me into retirement in a few years and your advise always brings me to a thoughtful place where I feel more confident about my decisions afterwards.
Thanks! I'm happy to cover more on the business, so if there's something you'd like to see, just shoot me a message (email in the description). It's not about people aspiring to be millionaires but rather to run their small businesses with profit and satisfaction.
Thanks for sharing Steve - good information!
Thanks for watching!
Really great following your vids, and i agree with you that we are not considering all cost..but what i think, is to include this cheap things in our webshop, markets or whatever you use as a saleschannels. Just to draw customers attension…» oh, nice coasters, lets see what else he have» use this things as a bait. Throw them some cookies…im doing woodturning, and the biggest problem we craftsmen suffer from is that we are way to shy charging what our products are worth, i think many of us think less of our products, and under-prices us, and then destroy for others who wants to price their product for what they are worth. My experience is that if you go for quality and unikenes, that will sell. Not in quantity, thats why i think its important to throw in a bone and have some cheap coaster also..
Yep. If you look at my website, you will see a few volume items, though in reality, I sell relatively few of those. It draws people in so I can start a conversation about custom projects.
Great kick in the lower extremity, or a good helping of reality. DON’T GIVE YOUR STUFF, TIME, or KNOWLEDGE AWAY.
Not intending to kick anyone😀. I just hate to see people work really hard and put passion into something without understanding if they are making money or not.
$1 per coaster does not take into account the commission Etsy takes on the sale. So how much is the seller actually making on a 47¢ coaster? Keep in mind that your personal time is priceless. When you are on your deathbed you would pay any amount of money to recuperate the time you lost engraving coasters. I am with you on working for nothing… it’s OK to make money it’s not OK to lose money and personal time that once lost can never be regained back. Time is the ultimate thief. We all need to ask ourselves is this a business or a hobby. If it’s a business treat it as such if you want to remain in business. Thank you for taking your time to share your knowledge. I appreciate you!
As I mentioned the overall cost estimate was low. If you sell on Etsy then yes, you can expect to lose upwards of 20% for Etsy commissions
We've disagreed on this before lol. I make decent money on coasters - we differentiate with excellent pictures, excellent packaging and excellent customer service. This got us a great bed of reviews which allows us to charge more and this leads to corporate orders - 75 coasters here, 150 coasters there. It's a good business and makes a good profit for us. It CAN be done.
I'm OK with a bit of disagreement.😉. As I said at the beginning of this video, "I'm saying you shouldn't make coasters. I'm telling you why I don't make them." I am genuinely happy for anyone who finds success in their business.
Good video. If selling coasters, or anything else, you always should calculate costs, if you want to make profit. In case you have a personalized design, specific for only one customer and not to be used again, time goes up as well as price.
And not forget taxes, though you only generate profit for the government.
For me, making coasters is for fun. But it is a hobby and not business.
I purposely left many of the expenses out of this to keep it simple. No one would believe me if I put in every cost. (e.g. Etsy fees for people who sell there).
Great video. Sad thing is cutting boards are becoming the same thing. Etsy is a whole other animal. Advertising $ or you’ll sell not much. In person sales are key for sure.
Cheers
So true!
Also, Etsy (like Amazon) doesn't care who makes the sale, nor what's the sellers profit margin (if any). For them all sellers are also clients for ad sale! Etsy wins either way... But hey, that's business :)
Good video. I agree with everything you said, except you really should include your labor number (1.10) as profit. Its not an expense unless you are really outsourcing it (and you would be foolish if you did if this is a small shop). That boosts the profit on these coasters to about 80K per year. Not too shabby for a side gig.
Labor isn’t an expense? Outsourced, insourced, or self-sourced, you’re paying someone to build and ship things. That’s an expense. True, if you are paying yourself, the cash is in your pocket, but then we can talk about taxes, etc, that eat into that.
I don't think this was addressed, but paying yourself and having a profit margin is kind of double-counting for a personal home business.
Good observation, but not entirely true. Paying yourself is something you expect to do, so it will obviously be built into your price. But you also need to grow your business over time, which is what the profit margin covers.
At the end of the year, even after paying yourself, you should still have money left in you business account. This is called “retained earnings” and is used to grow you business in the future (E.g. you use it to buy a second laser so you can produce twice as much product.)
A race to the bottom 😮
Sadly, it’s how things seem to go.
Actually, you should use different type of laser. Something like LaserPecker if it needs to be customized, or go for branding if it's a series... That's why the guy can sell at that price...
To be clear, a LaserPecker would be slower than the AlgoLaser Delta I used for this. A CO2 laser would also be roughly the same time. I'd argue that no matter what laser was used, the seller is really losing money - even if it was a fiber laser. The engraving time is only a fraction of the costs.
@@SteveMakesEverything Umm... LP4 is 4x faster than your Algo (if one can believe the specs). Also I'm pretty sure there are industrial solutions outperforming both. Coasters can be found at below $0.1 if ordered in large quantities (probably even below $0.05). Nope, not Aliexpress. Mind you, the guy from your example is likely catering to corporate users and have some surplus to burn through. HOWEVER, while I somewhat disagree with your math, I DO agree that it's not feasible to make coasters with consumer (small workshop) lasers, especially if one is located in USA/EU/UK or similar location where expenses and needed revenue to stay afloat are much higher than say some Asian countries.
Maybe there are just getting rid of stock way too cheap for coaster
Well hopefully they are do this and just getting rid of dead stock, but regardless you should at least want to break even.
True well without running the number all the way up to when the goods reach the customer hand the might think its business because the they are getting back cash but in terms of dollars and "sense" they are a charity