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How to ACTUALLY Make $10K/Month With Your Laser (w/ xTool F2 Ultra) — Transcript

by Make or Break Shop · 4,165 words · 549 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So, I recently surveyed hundreds of
0:01laser engraving business owners and I
0:03found that only 2% of those folks make
0:05$10,000 a month. And looking at that
0:07other 98%, there's typically three
0:10common problems that wind up killing
0:12their business. So, in this video, I'm
0:14going to show you what those problems
0:15are, how you can fix them, and give you
0:17a brand new tool that will walk you step
0:19by step through the process on how you
0:21can make $10,000 a month. All right,
0:23let's get into it. Okay, so we're going
0:24to play out the process of building a
0:26business, and I'm going to be using this
0:28brand new tool that I've built that's
0:29going to help you think through all of
0:31the potential expenses and income
0:33sources that you might have with your
0:34business. There's a link down below if
0:36you want to check it out and follow
0:37along as we go. But since we're building
0:39a laser business, we need a laser. So,
0:41in this case, we're going to be talking
0:42about the X Tool F2 Ultra. This is the
0:45Mopa/Diode
0:47version of this. What's great about it,
0:48especially in this use case, is as a
0:51fiber laser, they are really, really
0:53fast. Even though the work area is
0:54smaller for fibers in general, um they
0:57have a really high throughput. So you
0:59could easily set up a jig and then knock
1:01out a ton of these like metal business
1:03cards, which actually is going to be the
1:04very first product that we do. And if
1:06you want my like full review of this
1:07machine compared to the original Xtool
1:10F1, there's a link right up there. So
1:12jumping into our tool, the very first
1:14thing that we need to do is set an
1:16overall goal. Uh, so I am going to set a
1:19goal of $10,000 a month uh in profit.
1:23Uh, that's probably what I put somewhere
1:25on the thumbnail. So, that's a nice
1:26round number. And we're going to have a
1:28meter filling up as we're adding in
1:29income and profit. But to do that, we
1:31need to add in an actual product. So,
1:33I'm going to hit add product right here.
1:35And I am going to name it our metal
1:39business cards. And then underneath
1:41that, we have our very first decision,
1:44which honestly is the hardest decision,
1:46as well as the first problem of the
1:48three that we're going to get into, and
1:50that is your selling price. And if you
1:52were like me, first starting out, and
1:54you're trying to figure out like how
1:55much should I charge for these things,
1:56you probably just go and look like what
1:58are other people charging? So, we do
1:59somewhere in the same range. And so, I'm
2:01pulling these up on Etsy and we're like
2:04in the $5 to $10 range, it looks like.
2:06if you jump into these like individual
2:08personalized carts. So, I'm going to
2:09start out with a selling price of six
2:11bucks, hundred of these per month. Uh,
2:14and then we can see right now we have a
2:16profit per unit of $6, um, or $600 per
2:19month. And you can kind of see how this
2:21flows through uh, the rest of the
2:23calculator all the way up here to the
2:25top. But, we need to put in our
2:26expenses. Going to have these broken
2:27down into several different categories.
2:29First is going to be our material cost.
2:31So, really, you only have like one
2:32material cost with this. Uh, and so I'm
2:34going to go in and add in our metal
2:36card. Uh, and we're gonna say those are
2:38like up 10 cents and that flows up to
2:40our profit. But you can also like buy
2:42these in bulk. Uh, and since we're
2:44talking about X tool, I'm just going to
2:46pull up what they sell these cards for.
2:48So it looks like 300 pieces uh for $30.
2:51Um, so if you don't want to do that
2:52math, uh, what you can do is actually go
2:54in and add your batch material. We're
2:56going to call these metal business
2:57cards. So that's $29.99 for 300. And
3:00we're going to call these the individual
3:02thing a card. And then each one is going
3:03to require one of those. Um, so again,
3:06our unit cost is going to be uh 10
3:08cents. And you can also just save this
3:09to reuse for the future. And in general,
3:12everything that we're doing here is just
3:13going to save locally to your machine
3:15inside your browser. Um, so if you like
3:17clear out your cookies and your history,
3:18it's going to reset it. Um, but as long
3:20as you don't do that, it's going to kind
3:21of stay in there as long as you need it.
3:23We're going to add in our material. And
3:24you can see instead of uh where we had
3:26it like this, it's going to be blue,
3:28meaning that we added this as a batch.
3:30You just click on it and edit from
3:32there. And then also you probably have
3:33some uh shipping materials and we're
3:35going to say that's another like 50
3:36cents as well. Now to get to our goal of
3:3810,000 let's see how many of these we
3:41actually uh would need to do. So it
3:43looks like at 1,900 units per month that
3:46gives us a net profit of 10,260
3:50bucks. But this is actually the very
3:52first problem because you're not
3:54actually pricing this as high as you
3:56need for all the actual expenses that
3:58you're going to have with this
4:00individual product. The big one being
4:02your time. Now, I totally get if you're
4:04just doing this on the side and you're
4:05like, "Hey, my time uh is like free cuz
4:08I'm just doing it." It still is good
4:10from the jump to take into account your
4:12time, especially if this is something
4:14you want to grow for the future because
4:16you'll actually be like taxed that way.
4:17But also, if you want to hire people to
4:19do this process, um then it's really
4:21easy for you to kind of plug them in and
4:22you know, their time is actually built
4:24into the price of your product. And so,
4:26to do that, we have a labor section
4:28right here. Uh, and so you can see I
4:30have a few just like general ones in
4:32there. Um, you can delete those and add
4:33them as needed. And as of right now, you
4:35only have one worker. Um, so it's just
4:37you or the owner. Uh, and there's a
4:39summary over here on the right side
4:40that's also showing up um, right here.
4:43But what you can do is you can go in and
4:44you can put in uh, the time um, that
4:47this is going to take you. Now again,
4:48since we're using a fiber laser, more
4:50than likely you're going to do these in
4:52a batch. Let's say you can get like
4:53eight in there at a time. Uh, and so for
4:55a batch of eight, um, let's say the
4:57design is going to take us a couple
4:59minutes. Setup is also going to take us
5:01a couple minutes. There is no finishing.
5:03And then packaging, if they're like
5:05individual, let's say, um, it's going to
5:06take us like 15 minutes uh, total uh, to
5:09do all of these. But since we're doing
5:10it as a batch, I'm going to click this
5:12batch mode right here. And I am going to
5:14say we are doing eight at a time. And
5:16then if you just hit apply, it's just
5:18going to divide all those numbers by
5:19eight. Uh, and then they're blue,
5:21meaning that we have the bat applied.
5:22And so to get back into it, you just
5:24click that batch mode again. And you can
5:25see the numbers that we had before. Now,
5:27with that applied, you can actually see
5:28we have a labor cost of about a dollar.
5:31And that is pulling from your price per
5:33hour. The default right now is just like
5:35$25 an hour. Um, you can just click
5:37right there and adjust that as needed.
5:39And you can see the price is going to
5:40auto adjust uh from there. Now, a couple
5:42other things you're going to need to
5:43keep in mind, especially if you're like
5:45selling not direct with cash, you're
5:46going to have some type of fee, whether
5:48it's like a credit card processing fee
5:50or if you're selling on online
5:51platforms, um, like Etsy. So, if I add
5:53that right here under our platform fees,
5:55and I've got some like current defaults
5:57on what those fees are, but you can
5:58adjust it. And so, it's just going to
5:59put in your fee right here. It's kind of
6:02clipped off, but at 6.5%. And then what
6:04you can do is just adjust the
6:06percentage. So, this is going to be at
6:07100%. So we have an additional 39 in
6:09terms of our expenses. And these are
6:11like your overall amounts right here.
6:12And so now our cost is nearly at two
6:14bucks. And finally, it's also good to
6:16take into account the cost of your
6:18machine. So that is what machine time is
6:20right here. So this is per unit. Um and
6:22so this is the amount of time this will
6:24actually be running. So let's say to do
6:25eight of these it would take 2 minutes.
6:27That's going to be 0.25 minutes to do
6:29each one. U but and then you're going to
6:31have a cost per hour on your machine.
6:34Now, there is a huge deep dive you can
6:36do to figure out like what is the cost
6:39per hour on your machine. So, you can
6:40take like the cost of the machine, all
6:42the stuff that you have to buy yearly
6:43that are consumables, um maintenance,
6:45repair, all that kind of stuff. And
6:47basically just break it down to a per
6:49hour level. And that is what this
6:50calculate does right here. There's a few
6:53things already you can drop in there,
6:54but basically at the end it's going to
6:55spit out a dollar per hour. Uh so, in
6:58this case, uh we are going to do 64
7:02cents per hour. which adds of right now
7:04is less than a penny, but when you
7:05multiply it out, there's a cost in
7:07there. So, with those additional costs,
7:08we actually need to make more units per
7:10month to hit our 10,000 goal. So, we
7:12were at 1,900 before. Now, we have to go
7:14to like 2500 a month in order to hit our
7:16goal. Now, you might have some like
7:18additional costs in there as well. And
7:20what's really hard about this first
7:22problem that I'm calling the price trap
7:24is you're going to have the tendency to
7:25want to drop your prices further and
7:27further down, especially if you see
7:29competitors out there on Etsy that might
7:30be selling it for even cheaper. Um, so
7:32even if you drop this down by like a
7:34dollar, then we're going to have to sell
7:35over 3,200 of these per month and maybe
7:38you have to drop it even further than
7:39that to like four bucks. Now we're at
7:41like 4700 of these per month. But that
7:44also is going to drive up the number of
7:46hours that you're working. So not only
7:49is that labor giving us like the price
7:50per unit, but it's also telling us
7:52you're going to be working over 40 hours
7:54just on the production side of things.
7:56So, if you actually jump over to our
7:58labor tab, um that is what this is
8:00designed to do to give you a better idea
8:02of where your hours are going. So, even
8:04if you set your like hourly rate to zero
8:06and then our profit's going to skyrocket
8:07at that point, you're still going to be
8:08over like the 40 hours a week um that
8:10you might have in a normal job.
8:12Especially if you come further down the
8:14page because we have not only production
8:16hours, again, those 47.6 hours. Right
8:18now, we just have one product. Um but
8:20also if you tack on like all of your
8:22additional tasks that you're going to do
8:24as an owner. So maybe you're going to do
8:26like an hour a week on bookkeeping,
8:27couple hours a week on email, a couple
8:29hours a week on social media. Uh your
8:31time really starts to stack up. Now
8:33we're getting close to 57 hours per
8:35week. So you've got the ability to like
8:37hire workers uh to do this for you. So
8:39that is what this ad worker does. I'm
8:41going to call him Luke Skywalker because
8:43why not? We're going to give him an
8:44hourly rate of $15 per hour. And then
8:47what I want to do is actually assign him
8:49to that product. So you can do that
8:50right here. Uh and you're going to see
8:52your hours switch. So now he's over 40
8:54hours a week, but your hours drop down
8:56to 9. Or if you come back over to your
8:58products and then under your labor, you
9:00can basically assign all of these tasks
9:02to a different person. That's going to
9:04update for everybody. It's going to do
9:06the same thing. Now, this brings us to
9:07problem number two, the demand ceiling.
9:09Um, so I've actually gone back in and
9:11added in a cost per hour for us. So now
9:13we're back to $25 per hour. And then,
9:16um, I changed our selling price to five
9:18bucks and then our units to 3500. But
9:20everything else should have stayed the
9:21same. But this is assuming you can make
9:233500 sales um just like organically. But
9:27if you can't, then you're going to have
9:28to do some type of paid marketing. So
9:30that is what this marketing tab is right
9:32here. You can see we have a couple
9:33different sales distribution channels.
9:35We have organic, digital, and events.
9:37And then each of our digital, and events
9:40are going to have some type of cost. And
9:42so I can um adjust uh the percentage for
9:45our sales. So I'm going to put digital
9:47at 25%. And you can see our profit has
9:51gone way way south negative $40,000
9:55because we're doing a cost per click
9:57calculation, which is normally how
9:58you'll do like digital ads with
9:59Facebook. So these are just like
10:01ballpark conversion rates and cost per
10:03click. You can definitely look them up
10:04or like look at your own stats and kind
10:06of see what you get. But even if we drop
10:08the cost per click, let's say 70 cents
10:09and our conversion rate is higher at
10:11maybe uh three, we still are definitely
10:13in the negative. Um because to get those
10:16875 sales, we have to get nearly 30,000
10:20people to click at.7ents per click. Or
10:23another way to think about it is how
10:24much does it cost you to get one sale.
10:26Uh so with these numbers, it is $23. Uh
10:30and so we definitely could uh maybe have
10:32better conversion rates. Let's jump it
10:34up to 10. And let's say our cost per
10:35click is really low at like five. Um we
10:38still are talking about $5 for an actual
10:41conversion. Then if you come over here
10:42to our products and you click down, um
10:44you can see we now have a marketing cost
10:47attached to it. So just like in problem
10:48one when we added in all of those other
10:50costs, we couldn't really sell this for
10:53less than what it required to make it.
10:55So this is definitely true when you're
10:56adding in marketing. Now before we get
10:58to a fix for this, I also have events
11:00and shows in here as well. And this is
11:02just like a quick how much it costs to
11:03get into the event. And this is just a
11:05quick how much it costs to have a booth
11:06at the event, how many people uh might
11:08be there. So let's say it's going to be
11:10like a,000. And then maybe we have a 15%
11:13conversion rate. And it's going to
11:14actually tell you the number of visitors
11:15you need. So we actually need to do a
11:17higher conversion rate uh since we're
11:18only going to have a thousand people
11:19there. But really, this is just your
11:20event cost divided by the number of
11:22people we do need. And that is your cost
11:24per sale. So the in person potentially
11:25could be a lot better, the cost per sale
11:27for digital. But what does all of this
11:29really mean? Um if we're going to have
11:31to do some type of marketing, you're
11:32going to have to take that into account
11:34into your prices. So even if we go from
11:36like $5 to $8, now we are back into the
11:40black or in this case uh the green. So
11:42this is just another way to take into
11:44account additional expenses that you
11:45might have and you can definitely play
11:47around with this to see how well this
11:48works. Okay, so the final problem is
11:50what happens when you turn this into
11:52like a full-time business. There are
11:54definitely additional expenses that are
11:56going to come along with this that you
11:58need to take into account into your
12:00entire budget. Now, before we're putting
12:01each of those expenses into individual
12:03product lines, um this is just going to
12:05be an expense for the business overall.
12:07And that is what this business tab is
12:09right here. And I basically have it
12:10broken down into physical, software,
12:12savings, and then because you're a real
12:13business, um you're going to have to
12:14save for taxes. So, physical, we just
12:16have some put out. So, I'm going to go
12:18in really quick and put in some demo
12:20numbers. So, say a,000 bucks. Insurance
12:22$100. Uh then we have like social media
12:25marketing software we're using as well.
12:27And then maybe we want to have some type
12:29of savings or fund for future equipment
12:32purchases. So let's say we want to save
12:334% of our topline revenue. Uh and then
12:36we definitely need to take into account
12:38taxes. Now I am definitely no tax expert
12:40whatsoever. So take all of these numbers
12:42with a grain of salt. But for now, let's
12:44just take a general like 25% of your
12:46profits are going to be tax. So I'm just
12:48going to type in 25% for just
12:50self-employment even though that's
12:51different. And you can see everything
12:53rolls down. Now, coming down to the
12:55bottom, we have full business expenses
12:58of $6,000 per month. And again, if we
13:01want to get to that 10,000 goal, um, as
13:03of right now, the only thing we really
13:05can do is sell more, but again, there's
13:07going to be costs associated with that
13:08on marketing as well as your time. Um,
13:10or you're going to have to raise your
13:12price. So, let's jump this up to uh $10.
13:15Now, we are at over $10,000. And at the
13:18very end, it's just like a full
13:19accounting P&L. And then after taxes and
13:21everything, we drop down here to 10,000
13:23bucks. um or $130,000
13:27a year. But all of that brings us back
13:29to the core problem of how are we going
13:30to sell $3500 of these at $10 a pop. And
13:34to answer that, maybe this type of
13:36product isn't what you need to sell.
13:38There are some better options. First
13:40off, we are just going to kill the metal
13:42business uh product line uh for right
13:44now. What if we sold an item that is a
13:46lot more expensive? And so I've talked
13:49about these uh laser engraved coins
13:51before. I've done like tutorials on how
13:53to do them. These actually take a really
13:55long time on the machine. Um like 30
13:57minutes to an hour. So having higher
13:59watt edges makes that easier, but you
14:01can definitely custom engrave these in
14:02like the standard non- 3D way. Um they
14:04go a lot faster. And the things that
14:06I've seen work really well for people is
14:09instead of jumping into a really crowded
14:12market, which is just like anything
14:14online, is actually focusing on local
14:16sales. Um, so while there are a lot of
14:18people that are running laser businesses
14:19and selling on Etsy, there may not be
14:21that many people running laser
14:23businesses and selling in your city.
14:25Another great part about that as well is
14:26you can make it really unique to
14:28wherever you live. So in my case, I live
14:30in Athens, Georgia, which is where the
14:32University of Georgia is. Um, so I could
14:33totally see making a whole line of like
14:35University of Georgia themed things, not
14:37using the logo so I don't get sued. um
14:39or just making it super unique and
14:41having people send pictures of
14:43themselves, their kids, their dogs, all
14:46different types of stuff to make it
14:47really unique to them. So, to kind of
14:49show that, let's say we're going to do
14:50one of these coins. We're going to sell
14:51it for like 25 bucks. Brass is going to
14:54cost us 50. Then, I've quickly gone in
14:56and dropped in some machine times and
14:58some labor times. So, now our profit per
15:00unit is going up way higher. So, we're
15:02at 21 bucks. And we're going to take all
15:04of our marketing and just have it
15:05organic. Uh so, let's say we're going to
15:07do all of this word of mouth.
15:09And then even with all of our business
15:11expenses in there, so that like $6,700
15:13per month, uh, instead of selling like
15:16$3,500 of these, uh, we are selling $850
15:20to $25. And really can take that even
15:22further to where maybe you're using a
15:23laser to like customize some like brass
15:26inlays that are then going into cutting
15:28boards. So like a super high-end product
15:30that you could sell local because it's
15:32highly custom and really unique for like
15:35250 bucks. Let's say we've got like 15
15:37bucks in materials and then even adding
15:40in more material cost and machine cost
15:41and labor cost. Um our profit has gone
15:44from 20 bucks all the way up to like 200
15:46bucks. So now we're only talking 90
15:48versus hundreds or in the first case
15:50thousands. And I totally get this is
15:52ideal and there's still a ton of work
15:54that you have to do to do this local.
15:56The whole point of this tool is to take
15:57into account a bunch of real expenses
16:00that you're going to have and let you
16:01quickly run different scenarios and
16:03different types of pricing or different
16:05types of products that lets you get an
16:07idea if this is even worth trying to
16:09sell to begin with. Now, a couple other
16:11things is you can totally add in other
16:12products as well. Uh because you
16:14probably won't just be limited to a
16:15single product line. So, I'm going to
16:17add in another product. All of these
16:19things are customers have mainly been uh
16:22individual. So, you're selling directly
16:23just to a normal person. I've seen a lot
16:25of people having more success selling to
16:27businesses and then especially if your
16:29business is local. I've heard of several
16:32businesses selling those like custom
16:33cutting boards instead of to a person
16:35cutting it to a restaurant. Maybe that's
16:37a smaller breadboard um that they're
16:38sending to their customers. But then
16:40that's like a bulk order. So let's say
16:42we're doing a business breadboards. So
16:43we're going to sell these for cheaper.
16:45So let's say there's at 20 bucks. So our
16:47profit margins are coming way back down
16:49um from that big $200 from earlier. But
16:51it's going to be in bulk. So you're
16:52going to be able to batch a ton of these
16:54out. So maybe you're able to do like a
16:55couple hundred between several
16:57businesses for $25. And you can tack
16:59that on to your overall margins. And
17:01then when you add in your products, just
17:03like before, um you're going to be able
17:04to see them showing up individually. So
17:06you can kind of get an idea uh by
17:08product line what your profit is. Uh and
17:10then also if you just want to adjust
17:12this really quick, if you're on another
17:13tab, um you can just click the units,
17:15put in 100 uh and hit done, and you can
17:18adjust that really fast. Same goes with
17:20your labor. Now, I just put together
17:22this tool. Uh, I would love to know your
17:24thoughts about it in the comments below,
17:26especially if they're like additional
17:27features you'd love to see just to make
17:29your overall planning or business
17:31dreaming process a little bit easier.
17:33All right, until next time, go make or
17:35break something in your shop. See you
17:36guys.

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