How to make money with a Glowforge Laser Cutter
Are you thinking side business or full-time? Are you thinking of selling items made with your Glowforge or renting time on it (or both)? Is this supporting an existing business or would you be starting a new one? Are you aiming for meaningful income, a side-income, or just a few bucks here and there? How will you market your business? Are there any features that we could build that might make your life easier? I cover these questions on my Live Maker show on YouTube. Please Join me on the hackLAB show Live.
Looking for a Glowforge? Here's my discount referral link – you don't need to use it to buy one, but using a referral link will give you the best discount out there for a Glowforge. http://glowforge.com/hacklab/ - Ryan
Maybe you are fortunate and under no pressure to generate an income from your new machine , and thats OK. But if not…
Here are some Money Making GF ideas.
First, if the laser can dramatically shorten the cutting and prototyping time, you can spend a lot more time designing and selling.
Rent time on the Forge for things like alumiunum engraving.
Business Cards
Wedding Invitations
Frames
Diplomas
Custom Map Artwork
Make a line of custom plywood parts for R/C aircraft builders. You can make a lot of tiny pieces out of a 12x20 sheet.
Make handmade books, leather goods, papercut cards
Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape add-in
A job log app that tracks laser time on each project for billing purposes so you can print a report that shows the jobs printed and the time in use.
Create Artwork with the sold in galleries and art shows
Custom engraving
Make custom made standing base plates for my models
scrap booking supplies cut outs
card making and stamping
laser cut greeting cards
beading and jewelry making displays and packaging
wedding bands with inlays
I hope this gets your ideas going. Again, here's my discount referral link – http://glowforge.com/hacklab/ - Can’t wait to see what you make! - Ryan