A few years back when I was getting trained on our nd:YAG system, the technical staff kept referring to our company as a “job shop”. At that time, I had never heard of this term, but it did make sense. A job shop was a company which laser marked or laser engraved a wide variety of products which were brought in by the client. What I found rather surprising was that job shops were more of an anomaly. According to my trainers, the majority of companies utilized their lasers in a very specific way.

In this article, I would like to share my thoughts about the pros and cons of a laser job shop. In addition, I will offer some thoughts on how to better handle the downfalls of the laser job shop.

You can laser engrave a wide variety of outside products.

The Pros
Being a laser job shop allows you to offer a wider variety of services to your clients. Simply put, you have another revenue stream. Perhaps you originally purchased your laser to engrave acrylic awards or wooden plaques. Now you have the ability to laser engrave numerous other products, and hopefully at the same time, make a few extra dollars.

An advantage to the laser job shop is that you do not have to carry additional inventory. Thus, you will not have to worry about slow-moving inventory which will undoubtedly tie up operating cash. Another benefit of the laser job shop is that you will have the ability to service industrial clients. Often, these will be clients who have been totally out of your scope, and many of these companies have award, gift and promotional requirements. Why not try to sell them some of your existing products when they come in?

The Cons
Unfortunately for the ones that are considering becoming a laser job shop, you will find that the majority of this article will focus on the downfalls of the job shop. Do not fret, as I will try to offer some solutions and ideas on these matters.

The Unknown Product
This is always a major concern for us when we take an outside product. Your customer will be asking you to sometimes laser engrave products that you have never seen before. Frequently, these types of products will have some sort of unique coating or finish. These types of products can include gift items, industrial components and tools. With a little experience, you will have the ability to make an educated guess of the end result, but you can never be 100% certain.

Remember that the lasers that most shops have will remove the coating and show what is underneath. One method of seeing the base material without actually laser engraving the product is to find an inconspicuous location and manually scratch the surface with a small blade.

On totally unknown products, we often will start with very low laser power settings and then gradually increase them to the point where the engraving is showing up properly. As we all know, once it is engraved, there is no turning back.

The Unknown Clause
When dealing with outside products, it is very important to advise the client of the potential challenges. We always tell our clients that “… because we have never laser engraved this product before, we cannot be certain of the end result. We feel confident in the results, but we cannot be 100% certain.” It is also a good idea to have some type of form prepared where the client signs off and agrees to the potential risks. Just yesterday, a local funeral home asked us to engrave a small coated metal urn which involved both laser engraving and sandblasting. When we took off the protective mask, it removed some of the coating. It appears that the coating was not fully cured, and the coating came off very easily. We were sad to see this happen, but we were content that we warned our client about the potential risks of an unknown product. It was not a happy ending, but we did protect ourselves.

I have heard of other shops offering engraving insurance policies for outside products. For example, if your customer wants their $400 camera laser engraved, you can offer an insurance policy where they pay a certain percentage of the value. If the engraving does not work, you would give the client back the $400 they declared. Hopefully, you would be able to build up a small “war chest” for the times when you actually have to rebate the value. I have never utilized this type of insurance policy, but I can see the benefits of it.

The Unknown Client
Customers who require laser engraving of their product vary widely—as much as the different types of products they bring in. It could be a grandparent who wants their gift engraved for their grandson. It could be an industrial client who requires serial numbers engraved on their parts. Or it could be somebody who has some watches to be engraved.

A common client who requires the services of a laser job shop are brokers. Brokers are resellers who are commonly associated with promotional products. In my opinion, this type of client can be great. But let me warn you, it can be a bit of a challenge when dealing with them.

Often, brokers are unaware of, and frankly do not care about, the difficult nature of engraving an outside product. These brokers are used to showing a catalog to their client and having everything done all at once at the factory. In my opinion, it is with the broker that you should always have a detailed quote, price and sketch. You should always have the broker sign off on absolutely everything. Just remember that brokers are very busy people, and anything that is not discussed could cause you grief.

Another huge aspect of the laser job shop is the repacking and packing of the product. Sometimes you will spend more time with the logistics of the project than you will to laser engrave it. We had a broker bring in several hundred knives which required laser engraving, but more importantly, requiring us to remove the knife from the original packaging. We told him that due to the amount of time to pack and repack, there would be an additional charge. He got very upset and said that we were trying to “rip him off.” We then suggested that he could save money by unpacking and repacking the items himself. He came back a few days later and said that after several hours of unpacking, he understood the charge. The following year, he was more than happy to pay the packing and repacking charge. They are busy people, so do not leave anything to chance, because you can be certain that you will be paying for it.

The Unknown Deadline
This leads me to the other potential issue with brokers, and it is called a deadline. Brokers will often only deal with laser job shops if it has to do with a really tight deadline. Otherwise, they are used to ordering out of a catalog and receiving the final product which has already been fully marked, engraved or decorated. Many of the broker’s suppliers will demand 2-3 week turnarounds, and as we all know, it is human nature to leave it to the last minute. Hence, the broker will often have very tight deadlines which are now transferred to you.

With the busy Christmas season approaching, we are becoming the broker’s best friend. I know of a few shops where they refuse to do any rush jobs on outside products. I think there is a lot of merit to this policy. We have all been forced to scramble around the city trying to find a replacement, because the engraving on a rush job failed. I think you do need to pay special attention to outside products; sometimes doing such a job in a rush can lead to some increased risks.

The Unknown Setup
Often for small runs of outside products, you will spend more time setting the job up than actually laser engraving. Pay special attention to your setup charge. In my opinion, this is where you can profit or lose money the quickest. Remember, your time is worth something, so do not be afraid to charge for it.

That being said, your laser operator will have to be very creative with setups. This is especially true for small run jobs of unusually shaped objects. Often you will find yourself using everything from masking tape to blocks to shoe boxes filled with rice to hold these outside pieces. You may also want to check with laser suppliers, as there are some creative holding fixtures which can make your life much easier.

As you can see, there are some details which you need to pay attention to when laser engraving outside products. Whether it is the customer, product, deadline or setup, you can face many challenges as a laser job shop. With attention to these details, you can minimize many of these problems and become a profitable laser job shop.

Richard Korbyl manages the family business, Columbia Awards, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has been involved with the awards industry for over 20 years. If you have any questions or comments, contact Richard at 1-780-438-3266 or rkorbyl@columbia-awards.com.