These last few days have been, as usual, really busy on the family front. Pam had to travel for work, so it’s been just the three of us boys all week (with some great backup from the grandparents!). Needless to say, I haven’t had very many minutes to work on the Project. But, that’s not to say there hasn’t been any progress!
 
First of all, after a week of dealing with FedEx, I successfully arranged for shipping for our new laser engraver, and it has safely arrived here in Ohio. I’m still working on our “shop”, aka the garage, switching it over to a real workshop for our project. We bought a family storage shed to absorb some of the things currently in the way, so hopefully I can have a more dedicated, practical space soon.

Because the shop isn’t quite ready (see “Pam overseas for a week”), I haven’t been able to fully run the laser, but I hooked up the control system and downloaded the software. It appears that the motors and software are all working correctly, and this thing is pretty cool.

The goal is to survive parenthood until Pam gets home, and complete the workshop setup next weekend. In the meantime, I’m working on generating ideas on how to use this new tool for the Project and learning the graphic design software so that I can begin work as soon as the machine is hooked up.

So far, I think I’ll probably start with a few small projects, maybe some crafty signs/home décor just to practice with the machine and maybe move a few dollars of product. I think the bigger plan, though, is to product custom wedding items for couples about to tie the knot. I think the opportunity here is huge, as potential customers could be interested in a multitude of products including save-the-dates, cake stands, personalized favors, invitations, table numbers, cake toppers, etc. I think I could potentially package multiple types of products together for the same customer, allowing me to provide a cohesive design theme to their wedding and providing me with a big sale.
 
It will definitely take a while to learn the ins and outs of this new tool, I’m sure some major trouble shooting and learning are in store. My hope, though, is that I can get up and running in the next month or two to the point that I can have a “lineup” or products. At that point I will either use the “With the Grain” website to sell or build a new site, maybe open an etsy shop, and pursue local customers here in Cincinnati. In fact, I think a great opportunity to move some products are the small festivals around our local town, and they start in early summer.
 
I think it’s actually an aggressive timeline considering all I will need to learn, but I think if I can have a somewhat functioning business (and be pretty laser savvy) in time for these summer events, there could be a great opportunity there.
 
Well, that’s the plan at least… But first thing’s first, I need to get my partner back so we can get to work! I look forward to making some good progress and taking you guys along. Thanks for reading!
 

I had a while to think about the project of the last few months. It was a nice little break to reflect on what we’ve been doing so far, what’s working, what I can do better, etc. I think that’s really important, especially when you are looking for a niche. Try to avoid the tunnel vision (especially hard for an engineer like me!), keep thinking big-picture. It’s fun to do that, anyway…

As I’ve mentioned before, part of my reflection (keeping in mind that I’m thinking about it all during the busiest time of the year) led me to think that something a little more scale-able, and a little less time-for-money ish might be appealing. It would be nice to be able to offer value and make some money without having to build something from scratch each and every time. I really like building tables (and will still do some!), but it’s going to be tough to find the 10+ hours for each and every table I can sell, and in my garage space I am relatively limited on the type of efficient setup I can create, especially given that tables are, well, pretty big.

All of that rambling to introduce the new update to the project: I made a relatively big move today. I’ve been checking out some specialty tools for a while, some that can create value reproducibly, some that I can put time and effort in up-front, and then this tool can make repeating that creation easy, fast, and of high quality.

Similarly to importing products made overseas (which I’m still interested in), these types of tools tend to be rather expensive, at least for the 100K Project in its infancy. Part of that is frustrating, because it’s the project rules forcing me to slow down (I could afford many of these things “on my own”), but I know I put the rules in place for a reason… the rules are making me slow down, think more, and be more creative in what I evaluate and decide.

This weekend, some of that came to fruition. One of these specialty tools I’ve been shopping for is a computer controlled laser engraver/cutter. Similar to a CNC router, these can run as user-friendly as an ink-jet printer and create incredible engravings, images, shapes, and features in a variety of materials. They allow one-time design and flexible customization to net you many reproducible products, over and over again, and once you do the design/setup work up front, another product can be as easy as hitting “print” again…. Scale-ability. As with anything, these come in a variety of sizes, capabilities, and costs. When I first reviewed them, it looked like an entry-level model that would do what I wanted would be about $5,000 minimum, so I put the idea somewhat on the backburner until I had some more cash.

After some failed negotiations to pull the auction and sell it to me for the minimum bid, I went the auction route, and today placed the winning bid, $1225. Woah. That’s a huge chunk for the project, and I still need to pay to ship it here and figure out what parts it needs. At first, if felt like a huge risk… it’s a lot of money for something will little or no guarantees. But it didn’t seem scary… I mean, what have we learned so far? I insulated my financial responsibilities from the risk, and now I know that with some time and creativity, I can make money. So if the thing shows up as a total paperweight, I know I can recover because of what we’ve already done and learned.

But that’s not the important part today. The important part is that, because I waited and thought and searched, I was able to afford an awesome tool. One that I think will enable me to create a lot of very marketable, valuable products again and again, and one that I think will drive the 100K project to the next level.

The laser is shipping this week. I need to get the garage switched over to shop-mode again, strategize some first product types, and make sure I am ready to go…. It might be a slow start as I get the thing up and running, but I think the possibilities are huge and that we are in for an exciting year. There’s a solid possibility this plan will flop, and a great chance it will be a huge success, but it’s definitely going to be a fun adventure, so stay tuned.
 
Thanks for reading, and good luck with your own entrepreneurial journey! As always feel free to reach out with questions or comments!