✨ Suggested Supplies:
⇢ Rainbow Plated Tumblers
⇢ Slate Coaster

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If you’re making any of these 5 products with your laser, you’re probably working for less than minimum wage — and you don’t even realize it. I’ve been doing this for 12 years, and I’ve made every single one of these mistakes and more!

Let me save you a LOT of wasted time and materials and teach you how to see past the product and straight to the profitable potential.

Let’s dive in!

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Before we dive in, I want you to know that I’m not saying anything I will be listing out here today are BAD products. They can work and will make you some serious moolah.

But the way most people are making and selling them? Well, that’s a race to the bottom.

So, for each one of these products, I’m going to tell you why it’s not working and give you a better alternative that actually makes money.

Once you get good at shifting from product to problem solved, success isn’t far behind!

Let’s kick it off with –

#1 – Laser Engraved Coasters

I make them, you make them. It’s a completely normal thing to make with your laser and I’ll stand by that forever.

Every single person who gets a laser goes straight to coasters. Slate coasters, wood coasters, bamboo coasters. And I get it — they’re easy, they’re satisfying, they look great.

But here’s what nobody tells you: everybody’s coasters look great.

If you want to strike up a coaster business, you are now competing with thousands of sellers. Which means price wars. Which means desperate measures.

Would you be willing to charge THREE BUCKS for one to compete with other sellers? For something that took you 20 minutes to engrave, mask, clean, and seal?

While you consider that, let me tell you about my sons engraving business. He makes primarily tumblers, with a tabletop gamer nerd vibe.

But he doesn’t just make tumblers. He makes gift sets.

Let’s do a little exorcise. Here is a coaster he makes. Nice right? They cost about $1 a piece. How much should he charge for this all by itself? Keep that number in your head.

Here is a matching tumbler. Pretty nice. Comes with a metal straw and cleaning floof. Super fun rainbow colors. (Here’s a link for these tumblers if you’re interested) They cost less than $5 a piece. But how much should he sell these for?

Go ahead and write that down and add that to the coaster. I’ll wait a second. One.

Ok now here’s how much he sells these for as a gift set. – $35

I suspect the majority of you estimated a lower number. And yet, there are people that think $35 is a reasonable price, as is evident from his constant consignment sales for these sets!

So, what should you do if you’re trying to sell coasters?

The Better Alternative: Don’t sell a $3 coaster. Don’t even sell a coaster set. Sell a gift set of a variety of similar products.

Try a $75 Housewarming Gift Box — coasters, a cutting board, and a custom key tag. Or a $150 Bachelorette Party Gift Box with 8 matching coasters and 8 Champagne Flutes with customizable wedding color packaging.

Same products, 3x the price, and the customer feels like they’re getting MORE value. And as a bonus, they get an experience out of it that builds memories. Which is great for business.

#2 – Generic Family/Gather Decor

You know the ones. ‘Home.’ ‘Gather.’ ‘Bless This Mess.’ ‘Live Laugh, Julia Roberts Eating Pasta”.

They can sell, people DO love these, there IS a market for them…

But…

Here’s your competition: Hobby Lobby. Target. Amazon. Walmart. Goodwill. They’re selling these for $12.99, mass-produced, and they look… fine. It’s just, you cannot out-price a factory. So, stop trying.

Here’s the Better Alternative:

Make them WEIRD. Ok, maybe not weird, but extremely niche specific. Remember that “Keep Calm and Carry On” trend from a while back?

Then people started making Keep Calm and – Be Cool, Game On, Do Magic. Keep Calm and Pet Your Cat, Walk Your Dog, Go Fishing.

Live Laugh, Scream. Live Laugh, Lizards. Those are old examples, but I think you get it.

You can really play around with fun phrases and niches. If you are a little all over the place, this could be a great way to put some feelers out there to test the niche pools.

You may be tempted to make custom signs and decor, and if you watched my recent video on custom signs versus batch builds, then you know that a brand-new custom design for every single customer can be a challenge. It is wildly time consuming, but can net you a good amount of money.

But, before you accidentally laser yourself into a customized corner, let me warn you about the next one.

#3 – Custom One-Off Art Pieces

This one is sneaky because it FEELS like you’re doing premium work, and you dang better be charging up for it, but here’s the problem.

Let’s say someone messages you: ‘Can you make me a 3-layer map of our city with these specific streets highlighted and our house marked with a heart?’ And you think — ooh, custom work, I can charge a lot! But then… the back and forth. Message after message after…

Then come the revisions. ‘Can you move the heart?’ ‘Actually, can we add another layer?’ ‘My husband doesn’t like that font.’ Before you know it, you’ve spent 2 weeks emailing, and 7 hours in design software for a $150 piece. Maybe even a $300 piece, but you’ve already put 10 hours into it and haven’t even made anything yet.

So how can you offer custom profitable work without the fear of wasting your time?

Here’s the Better Alternative:

Productize. Your. Customization. That’s just a fancy way to say – Make templates.

Your customer gets to – Pick your background. Pick your size: small, medium, large. Pick your frame color: black, white, natural. Done. You control the options, you control the design time, and the customer still feels like they got something custom. Because they did — just on YOUR terms.

Alright, if you’re watching this and thinking ‘oh no, I’m guilty of all this’ — don’t panic. That’s exactly why I’m making this video. The next two are even more important and widely made. Stick with me.

#4 – CHEAP JEWELRY

I know this one is going to be controversial because I make laser cut jewelry PROFESSIONALLY. It’s what pays my bills. So, please hear me out.

The problem isn’t laser jewelry. Or that’s it’s saturated. Or the other usual excuses.

The problem is laser jewelry made from cheap plywood and sold for $5 a pair.

Those tiny, detailed earrings? They break.
The unfinished wood looks… like wood.
And the customers will be comparing them to metal jewelry from a real jeweler.
And you’re not going to win that fight.

When I started making jewelry, amongst the coasters and signs and all the same things everyone else starts with, I was using plywood. I tried staining it and painting it and no. Just no.

It wasn’t until I started investing in some nice materials, did anything change. I started charging more, and people paid more. I made more complex and interesting designs – hint – designs that mean something to particular niches. And after a long time, I made a name for myself and my brand.

I’m guessing by now you are onto what the Better Alternative is:

Use Better Materials — acrylic, quality hardwoods, precious metals even (depending on your laser type). As your catalogue grows, focus on releasing COLLECTIONS.

If you were to bundle these, you should have at least 3 similar pieces that can be sold together. Try to consign or wholesale to local boutiques or partner with other brands, like an artist or clothing designer.

When someone buys jewelry, they’re buying the brand and the story. The feeling and the statement. Not the material cost. So, give them a brand and a story.

If you’re not into jewelry, that’s ok. But I bet you the first bite of a 7-layer burrito that you’ve made the next one and had a hard time selling it.

PRODUCT #5 -KEYCHAINS

Here’s the problem. Profit.

Acrylic keychains with random designs, sitting in a bin at your craft fair table with a sign that says ‘$3 each.’ You know what that tells the customer? ‘This is cheap.’ And they’re right — because they can buy the same thing from China for pennies. Plus, those tiny things? The peeling, the cleaning, assembling the hardware — your time per keychain is way more than you think.

Now, I’m all for a quick upsell item. I sell little things made from scraps for cheap at my craft shows. I like adding in, buy two things, get a free keychain or magnet. It helps the customer make a decision and spend a little more money.

But selling JUST keychains?? Good luck. And selling them ONLINE? Don’t waste your time.

So, here is the Better Alternative:

Two words: Wholesale. Oh, never mind. That’s one word.

Local gyms need branded keychains. Car dealerships. Dance studios. Real estate agents for closing gifts. You’re not selling a $3 keychain to a rando anymore — you’re selling 200 keychains at $3 each. That’s a $600 order with ONE customer, ONE design, and you can batch-produce them. OR — move up to luggage tags, tactical bag tags, industrial ID tags. Higher perceived value, same laser time.

My first biggest wholesale deal was a keychain for a youtuber couple that teaches about flipping yard sale finds on eBay. I cold-sent them a sample and they ordered 200 from me. Not bad.

Have you noticed a trend so far? Are you catching what I’m throwing out? Let’s see if you did with this –

QUICKFIRE ROUND ⚡

Now here’s the thing — it’s not that all these products CAN’T make money. It’s that you have to stop thinking like a maker and start thinking like a business. Or at least a person trying to wipe out a few bills in as few orders as possible.

Once you get that shift, you can fix almost anything. So real quick — let me rapid-fire a few more examples for you:

❌ Don’t Make This	✅ Make This Instead
Generic text cutting boards	Grandma’s handwritten recipe board
Stock clipart ornaments	Personalized corporate gifts by the hundreds
Basic name badges (one-offs)	Bulk B2B badge packages for restaurants & salons
One Off Name Tumblers	Family of 4 Custom Tumbler Bundle
Engraved Spatula	Complete Custom Engraved “Grill Master” BBQ Tool Set

See the pattern? It’s not the product — it’s the POSITIONING. Every single one of these ‘bad’ products transforms into a GREAT product when you add personalization, go niche, bundle up, or sell in bulk.

The next challenge is getting your social media identity nailed down. Posting listings, telling your friends and having a successful craft show is just not enough in this day and age.

Social media can bring people to your listings, in person events and grow your business. Luckily, this month’s Masterclass is all about formulating a social media plan that works for your exact laser business, and I even throw in a whole months’ worth of copy and paste social post ideas for you.

This live masterclass takes place next Wednesday March 25th. I hope to see you there!

In the meantime, make sure you aren’t accidentally sabotaging your laser business by reading this post next! I go over common mistakes and how to fix them so you can avoid the head and heartache and skip straight to success with your laser business.

Thank you so much and happy crafting!