How can I state making money, i have a phantom 4x8 s series, and have been working with the last 1.5 years. I had accident and lost leg, so every day I use it and my other machines. I have a M E epilog 32x 20 inch 50 watt laser and 2 large 3 d printers plus all the tools to do wood including a sawmill that cuts up to 32 inch's But to be strait, I'm not making a dime. have web site, nothing, tried Esty, well that sucked and just cost me money. what is best to do. . I work hard to learn all, but no rewards. I'm way pasted upset off about it. any help please. I'm in a poor town in Tennessee and they can only buy food most time. or want me to flaten ther I understand that now.
bobbyhutchinsworld
How can I state making money
Welcome @bobbyhutchinsworld. That's a nice machine. We had a member here who was polish, lived in a region with lots of Polish people, was involved in numerous polish causes and activities. He set up a file for the very distinctive Polish Eagle, and began using it to make nameplates for polish families. He gradually developed other items with the eagle in various sizes. He attended shows and gatherings and had a booth of sorts dispaying his wares and taking special orders which he charged a good price for. Look for a small super specialized market and make stuff for that market. If you make the standard stuff, you're competing with cheap labor overseas and you will lose.
I taught marketing for professionals for four decades, so when we started having more and more CNC folks, I wrote a pdf with general guidelines for how to make money with a CNC. It is attached. Download and read it. It's short and very direct.
I taught marketing for professionals for four decades, so when we started having more and more CNC folks, I wrote a pdf with general guidelines for how to make money with a CNC. It is attached. Download and read it. It's short and very direct.
Etsy can be a race to the bottom. Your competing against 100 other people with a CNC in their garage, that are content to work for free, because they think if someone gives them $20, then they made $20.
In reality, to really make money, you need to make $50-$100 per hour of your time spent, plus materials. There are two ways to do this. One is to be really good, and really efficient, so that you can somehow sell cheap stuff cheaper than anyone else, and still make money. The other is to sell unique products that nobody else does, at a fair price that makes you money.
Most people think a CNC is an automatic way to make money. It can be, but only if you realize it's just a tool, that allows you to make items faster and cheaper than with other tools. When someone has an existing business, adding a CNC can make that business much more profitable. But if you buy a CNC with no existing business, you just have a CNC sitting idle.
In reality, to really make money, you need to make $50-$100 per hour of your time spent, plus materials. There are two ways to do this. One is to be really good, and really efficient, so that you can somehow sell cheap stuff cheaper than anyone else, and still make money. The other is to sell unique products that nobody else does, at a fair price that makes you money.
Most people think a CNC is an automatic way to make money. It can be, but only if you realize it's just a tool, that allows you to make items faster and cheaper than with other tools. When someone has an existing business, adding a CNC can make that business much more profitable. But if you buy a CNC with no existing business, you just have a CNC sitting idle.
Yrs back I was making rosette square blocks and plinth blocks with different circular designs, different sizes on different hard woods. (Door jamb trim, top/bottom corners)
I had a magazine feed (about 20ea) I kept filled on a rosette spindle machine automatically fed, raised, turned design, lowered, pushed away by new block from magazine.
I converted an old Rockwell mitre saw to pneumatic control, pneumatic logic, foot pedals to feed a 3/4"X 3 or 4" wide board and foot cut to size, and auto push out.
With the pneumatic's lowering the saw blade, lifting saw, air blow out cut piece, I could easily cut one block every 4-5 seconds that was ejected into a lg tub.
Kept the rosette machine magazine full and took the tub of the then circle cut blocks and stacked them up for my wife, She ran a router profile on the four edges.
We could kick some butt cranking out our product. The problem was, I do not like nor know how to sell or market the product.
I began this venture already knowing how I would unload them, as I had someone who simply added my inventory to his plywood customers.
He made regular trips to all of his lumber yards, big box, hardware stores etc customers. I dropped my product at his facility.
If you ck out what is sold at locations that have similar product you may find out who their suppliers are and contact them.
My "salesman" bought my blocks at an agreed upon price that I could make good money. He sold them at his profit price to the lumber yard, they add their cut for retail price.
With leg work or surfing the web see what is out there and consider what you could do better, or more appealing, and negotiate with the store/business/suppliers.
Will have to lower price a margin, but then no sales work, leg work, etc, just keeping up an inventory. Best wishes in your venture.
I had a magazine feed (about 20ea) I kept filled on a rosette spindle machine automatically fed, raised, turned design, lowered, pushed away by new block from magazine.
I converted an old Rockwell mitre saw to pneumatic control, pneumatic logic, foot pedals to feed a 3/4"X 3 or 4" wide board and foot cut to size, and auto push out.
With the pneumatic's lowering the saw blade, lifting saw, air blow out cut piece, I could easily cut one block every 4-5 seconds that was ejected into a lg tub.
Kept the rosette machine magazine full and took the tub of the then circle cut blocks and stacked them up for my wife, She ran a router profile on the four edges.
We could kick some butt cranking out our product. The problem was, I do not like nor know how to sell or market the product.
I began this venture already knowing how I would unload them, as I had someone who simply added my inventory to his plywood customers.
He made regular trips to all of his lumber yards, big box, hardware stores etc customers. I dropped my product at his facility.
If you ck out what is sold at locations that have similar product you may find out who their suppliers are and contact them.
My "salesman" bought my blocks at an agreed upon price that I could make good money. He sold them at his profit price to the lumber yard, they add their cut for retail price.
With leg work or surfing the web see what is out there and consider what you could do better, or more appealing, and negotiate with the store/business/suppliers.
Will have to lower price a margin, but then no sales work, leg work, etc, just keeping up an inventory. Best wishes in your venture.
ONE of the things I did was, go to stores that were likely to be interested in my products and cut consignment deals with them. I'd remind them they have the advantage of having inventory they did not have to buy outright. Far more often than not, stores that didn't do consignments would.
It did involve a lot of paperwork, to keep track of inventory, but it got me in stores I, otherwise, would not have gotten in to.
The other thing was, I expanded and did a lot of things, THEN watched what sold the best/most. I pushed down those roads.
Also, I went to arts and crafts shows. There, I not only had inventory, but I made clear the fact I'd do orders.
One thing that helped me was, being unique. The things I did didn't result in a lot of competition, other than that decor items were competing with millions of others selling decor items.
As an example, I, by accident, found out I was an auto interior guy. I would park my old 69 1/2 ton step side, open the doors and play soft jazz. Guys would see the woodwork interior (I built a custom dash, gear shift over, stereo frame, overhead gauge console, glove box door, stereo rack and so on). A guy asked what I'd charge. I quoted a price. He was tickled and asked how much I'd charge for the interior items (that's when I realized I was underpricing myself, because the quote was for all of it).
It did involve a lot of paperwork, to keep track of inventory, but it got me in stores I, otherwise, would not have gotten in to.
The other thing was, I expanded and did a lot of things, THEN watched what sold the best/most. I pushed down those roads.
Also, I went to arts and crafts shows. There, I not only had inventory, but I made clear the fact I'd do orders.
One thing that helped me was, being unique. The things I did didn't result in a lot of competition, other than that decor items were competing with millions of others selling decor items.
As an example, I, by accident, found out I was an auto interior guy. I would park my old 69 1/2 ton step side, open the doors and play soft jazz. Guys would see the woodwork interior (I built a custom dash, gear shift over, stereo frame, overhead gauge console, glove box door, stereo rack and so on). A guy asked what I'd charge. I quoted a price. He was tickled and asked how much I'd charge for the interior items (that's when I realized I was underpricing myself, because the quote was for all of it).
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