What comes to mind when you think about laser cut metal? Parts? Artwork? Jewelry?
To many, laser cutting is still a novelty, suitable either for artistic showiness or to satisfy a specialized manufacturing need.
But online ordering services, like SendCutSend, have made this technology accessible to everyone and brought it to the mainstream.
We shouldn’t think of metal laser cutting as a niche specialty anymore. Instead, consider these ways the process can help you and your business make money.
#1. Advertise and Promote Your Business
Just about everybody hands out business cards or distributes brand “swag” such as pencils, key chain tags, water bottles, frisbees, and similar items. Unfortunately, most of the time these wind up in a kitchen drawer or on a closet shelf. Laser cutting can help you stand out and be different.
Instead of the generic items mentioned above, give out distinctively crafted mementos that your customers and prospects will admire and show their friends. Or advertise yourself with the kind of signage that no one else has on your street.
Here are some ideas of how you can use laser cutting to make a lasting impact on your customers with promotional products:
- Metal business cards. People give regular business cards to us every day, and what do we do with them? Most of the time, stick them in our wallet and eventually throw them away. With a thin metal card that has your company logo cut into it, people are more likely to keep it and look at it again and again.
- Outdoor signs. Imagine your name, logo or an image of your line of business set in a public piece of artwork that’s on duty 24/7? Your customers will take notice.
- Promotional giveaways. At every fair, craft show, or conference, vendors have tables full of water bottles, change purses or string bags in hopes that prospects will use them enough to remember the company name. If you have a distinctive laser-cut bottle opener or key chain tag, folks won’t just toss these in a pile with all the other swag. They’ll use them everyday and think of you when they do. Like this cool metal hat logo!
- Seasonal gifts. Think differently about your client gifts this festive season with a clever and tasteful holiday ornament. Your clients will admire these on their walls or trees during the busiest time of the year.
#2. Start an Etsy Business or Beef up Your Garage Sale
Not every company has the capacity or inclination to order these items themselves, so you could be the specialist who helps them decide what to choose. Keep some laser-cut samples on hand and educate other businesses about the benefits of using metal business cards, signs, or other items.
The opportunity to build a business powered by laser cutting doesn’t have to stop there. You could offer plaques and unique house numbers to residential homeowners, or develop an eCommerce store on a platform such as Etsy which sells jewelry, signs, and other crafty products.
You could even use laser cutting to beef up a garage sale. Stick a few laser-cut metal pinwheels in the ground or set up a sculpture front and center in your yard. It’s not just that these items can make money on their own account, but when word gets around about the must-see designs in your yard, it enhances the appeal of everything else you have on offer.
Regardless of how you plan on selling your laser-cut products, a low-cost online service, such as SendCutSend, can fulfill orders quickly so you can build a strong reputation with your customers.
#3. Expand Your Product Line
Already have a product line? Consider adding laser-cut metal items to your inventory to boost sales and distinguish you from competitors.
Here are some ideas on how to do so for different professions:
- Artists. Incorporate metals into sculptures, or use them to offer unique frames.
- Jewelry crafters and vendors. Use laser-cut metals for earrings, necklaces, and pendants or include intricate cut metal designs in those pieces.
- Florists. Add a laser-cut flower or two to a live arrangement. Or create a metal encasement for a vase or pot.
- Home remodelers. Offer one-of-a-kind products to spark your customers’ imagination – drawer knobs, mirror edges – any original decorative touch you and they can come up with.
- Landscapers. What could it do for your sales if you had unique laser-cut trellises, gates, pinwheels and garden sculptures that customers couldn’t find anywhere else?
- Cake decorators. Don’t just use icing for that choo-choo train or racecar on a child’s birthday cake, use laser cutting to create unique metal cutouts to shape the end product into something special.
- Interior designers. Suggest laser-cut trivets, coasters and candle holders to your clients and have them made online.
- Music shops. Be the store that delights your clientele with laser-cut guitar picks, or one-of-a-kind ornaments.
Whatever your trade, there’s a way to use laser cutting to offer something your customers won’t find anywhere else. Even if your customers are hobbyists, such as automobile rebuilders, model aircrafters or home DIYers, sooner or later they will need something they can’t buy at any store, and a laser-cut product could be the perfect fit.
Don’t merely offer the same inventory as everyone else. Become a laser cutting expert who can interpret an unfindable part into a workable design and cut the end product.
Conclusion
Ready to start making money from laser cutting?
We can cut steel, aluminum, brass, copper, and titanium into your dream product and our second-generation laser technology fulfills orders in less than three days. Get in touch if you have any questions.
