🔗 Try out InstaSVG for FREE
💎 My Gemini Gem for Laser Niches

If you’re still tracing files by hand in LightBurn, Inkscape or Illustrator, you’re probably wasting 30 to 45 minutes per design before you even start cutting. I’ve been doing this 12 years and file prep used to eat up more of my day than an actual engraving.

So let me show you the tool that cut my prep time from 45 minutes to under 60 seconds and how I made $40 my very first day trying it out.

Let’s dive in!

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The Old Way…

My decade long laser journey has brought me to a whole new path – business to business baby! But there is one thing that I learned in my single graphic design class I took at the community college like 20 years ago that many business owners don’t know about.

A logo should not be an illustration.

This has been my #1 struggle trying to make sample products for businesses.

Lately, I make local businesses a coffee tumbler, keychain or whatever little trinket with their logo on it, give it to them for free with my contact info and this actually gets business deals!

But what do you do when a logo looks like this?

Or this?

That’s no logo, that’s a full on painting. Not easy to engrave. Sure, you can dither it up and get an ok result. But some need so much tracing, with so many layers, it’s just not worth it.

Then I can’t make them custom laser engraved thingies and I lose out on some serious potential B2B money.

That’s where InstaSVG comes in. And yes, I seriously paid for 4 months worth of this app with my first project. Nice.

What is InstaSVG?

So, what is it? It’s an AI tool that’s made for us laser engravers.

Let me show you all about it.

Here is the main studio. You can upload pictures to make engraving-ready or you can create somthing.

These are my first attempts at describing an image. If you know the reference, drop it down in the comment section! I’ll know who my fantasy/sci fi book fans are.

This next one is the few tries I did to turn this literal painting into an engravable logo.

This is for the Comfort & Joy Cat Cafe here in downtown Colorado Springs. This painting was made by an amazing artist and cat enthusiast. The love is there for these adoptable kitties, but good luck setting your dot ratio good enough to capture the magic of this.

So, I’ve got a picture and uploaded it into InstaSVG.

Here’s what makes it super special. Instead of having to get good at prompting AI to make the image you are actually thinking, we can churn it through one of these style generators to get the effect we are after.

First, I tried the “Classic Engraving”. This is helpful for your laser program, such as LightBurn, to better turn into an engravable image for your machine.

Not quite was I was looking for.

Next, I tried the “Cartoon” style. It is super cute, but it too a lot of details away and the tail isn’t quite right. I could ask the ai to fix that in a second prompt under this edit.

I also tried the “Engraving” style and felt I was onto something!

Instead of trying to tweak all the little details, and since it is a true SVG file, I decided to download it to get those few details fixed.

Here in CorelDraw (the program I am most used to) I can just double click and all the nodes are there.

It imports beautifully. Edits perfectly. Engraves silky smooth and distictfully.

I took an example to the cat cafe and they loved it!

They ordered a few and boom, $40 in my pocket for minutes’ worth of work. Hopefully these sell out soon, and I can make them a new batch!

3 Business Ideas Using InstaSVG

I love business, I love lasers, and I love this program, app whatever you wanna call it.

Let me spark your imagination on what else you could use this app for.

I am working on a new laser business I am calling Unhinged Cat Lady. Might be a little obvious that I like cats by now, but imagine this.

Product idea: Custom Cat Portrait

Any cat owner has about 6000 pictures of their cat on them at all times. So, let’s immortalize little Dio here.

What is so awesome is with this app, and getting into the groove of things, you can really forge your own artistic style in a repeatable way.

Same style, same results, different pictures.

I’m going to upload this into a template I made on Lightburn. This is a super quick – copy & paste – product idea that you can really whip out.

Now, I’ll just engrave and cut this suncatcher out with some basic clear acrylic.

Flipping majestic.

Product Idea: Custom Paint Sets

As a grown up, or grown up adjacent, I like to craft. I love making things, painting, writing, doodling, crochet, all the things.

Adult craft kits are an untapped market. Seriously. So let’s make some paint set kits.

Using the cartoon style selected, I’m just going to prompt some fun ideas to generate an image from.

By now, I bet you know what I’m going ask for in the prompts here. And that is ask for celestial zodiac tarot cards!

(You so thought it was going to be cat related…)

Well, you’re right! We are getting cats involved, who do you think I am?!

Need a tweak, just ask the prompt and throw it back in the mix.

I’ll be engraving these on some plain cheap wood. Easy cheesy.

Now we can package up these sets, throw in a paint set or some markers, and it’s ready to sell!

Product Idea: Logo Creation

Do you know a business with the most complex “logo” you’ve ever seen? You can change it into an SVG that a business can then easily engrave, get embroidered, get watermarked embedded letterhead paper, address stamps, and so on! And you can sell them that logo!

That’s why you need a logo-logo for a logo. And this is your proposition.

Find businesses and show them a few examples. Let them know for a small fee, you can alter their logo to be ready for leatherette keychains, water bottles, hat patches, custom logo stamps, a layered welcome sign, employee badges – AND! You can also make them all those things you just listed.

In fact, here’s an example.

I didn’t charge the Cat Cafe for the logo, it’s a charity and I really did it for the love of the cats, but this is a service people will pay for. Especially if it comes with some laser engraved products they can either sell or use for customer relations.

Pretty cool.

Of course, you will want to disclose the creation process to the business. Honesty is always a good policy.

So, here’s the thing — InstaSVG gives you the files. It doesn’t tell you WHAT to make. So let me show you the other half of this workflow.

Finding a Laser Business Path

If you are still trying to figure out what path to take with your laser business, I have yet another fun – and free – ai tool I have made for you!

This is my Gemini Gem called “Laser Business Niche & Product Generator”.

I’m no AI programmer, but the function of this gem is to figure out potential business niches to direct your product creation.

You might find out about a hidden niche you wouldn’t have thought about, or discover some product ideas for the niche you are already in that you didn’t know your customers are looking for.

There is a free plan for you so you can try it out before you take the plunge. However, the basic plan is only $10 a month, and a business right off! I hope it really helps you with your laser projects.

One question I get a lot is if someone should go down a one and done product model or a repeatable product model. You can watch which one works best for me in this post next.

Thank you so much, and happy crafting!