I know you know. I remember when you were there, too. 
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Ha! I keep saying you know me. You really do. I had to give myself a little talk before I went calling on him.
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Great marketing!
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I know what you mean…I’ve never done anything like this before, either. I have a little worksheet that I made for doing some calculating. I’ve done lots of reading online about all the different formulas for calculating this kind of thing and just did the best I could to make myself and my time valuable while not gouging the customer. He’s a very small business…and I’m an even smaller one. I’m thinking I will be able to hone this more as I go along. I wish I could come up with a realistic time for use of the laser tube, but everyone’s is going to be different. I added materials, of course, then a rather arbitrary cost per hour. Was going to charge $20 per hour, for the 11 hours engraving that 25 would take. I didn’t want to choke the guy with a huge cost, so I added on an additional $100. So, 25 coasters for $150. But, then instead of gagging the guy right off the bat with a big number, I told him the cost per coaster, which made it sound a lot more appealing. He ended up ordering using the price per coaster method, and ordered 20 of them, instead. I also gave up $20 profit and offered them to him ‘this time’ for $5 apiece instead of $6.
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I don’t think it’s worth fretting over. It’s under warranty and they just posted the manufacturer warranties it for 2 years (I expect that was a misstatement by Support). Regardless, it’s gonna cost something less than $500 or $250/yr. Most likely it’ll last a lot longer. I’d just assume I could cover an extra couple hundred a year and focus more on my time & materials. Someday we might have more info but right now I’d just throw an extra dollar or two per job for the tube and move on.
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(Not so far with the Glowforge but…)
I’ve used the following rule of thumb for years:
“What does it cost me to make it? Triple that.”
That doesn’t include the purchase cost of the machine, but it does include materials (including the tiny “Oh I have one of those already” materials), and any shipping/delivery/whatever.
Extremely complicated things (or things I really hate doing) get an up-charge. Extremely simple things (or things I love doing) get a discount
The triple comes from having enough to make one, replace the materials, and a profit to take home
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Thanks. I sure agree with that. Too much math can get in my way!
Selling things was sort of jumping the shark for us (both retired) and initially we sort of tamped down the gushes of ‘I got to show this at my next meeting’.
We were sort of afraid it would become work instead of the fun it is.
Then we figured that if it became an issue, we could just back off of taking orders and return to the world of ‘one of a kind merchandise’.
Trust me, word of mouth on that coaster sale is going to be bringing business to you. Probably lots of it.
Get some business cards made now while still got some idle time.
Happy Trails.
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Well, I guess your formula just accidentally worked for what I just did. The final quote to my customer was just that…three times the cost of materials. Then, because it’s merely a round disk and was only 20 minutes in the making, he got a $20 discount.
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Thank you
I hear where you’re coming from. I am retired and don’t need the extra money. I want to do it because it’s fun and it hones my skills with designing, which I love.
I got some ‘pretend’ business cards quite some time ago…the cards are real, but so far the business has been ‘pretend’. At least the cards make it look like I really know what I’m doing. 
Bring it on…!
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Or make them - you can get 100 thin wood ones pretty cheaply or even aluminum (for special customers). Laser them and you’ve got a signature card for your business.
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I’ve thought of that, too. I had a ball making them on Vista Print, but if and when I’m feeling more accomplished in my offerings, I will up my game. I LOVE anodized aluminum cards, particularly.
Well done! You’re on your way, keep up the good work. I am hoping my GF will give business a boost.
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It is incredibly satisfying, when someone asks for a card, to drop an aluminum card down onto the table. It makes such a solidly metallic thunk.
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You’re giving hope to us all! Yay!
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Ditto on that. I gave my light up sign to the local yoga studio and they asked if I had cards. Still haven’t gotten to that. Damn full time job!
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That’s a pretty fair price. I’m finishing up a 250 coaster order (on 1/4” maple for materials cost for a friend) and I’m going to be VERY happy to get my machine back. How slowly the GF engraves makes me really glad that most of what I do is cutting. Haha!
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One thing you will want to keep in mind.
just because YOU don’t need the money, price your stuff at market rates. if you are just fooling around and undercutting somebody trying to make a living, you will create hard feelings.
I have a good friend that was a wood turning supplier. he continually had to deal with old guys that valued their time at zero, and undercut him by a large margin. the old guys didn’t even realize they were actually hurting themselves.
I used to sell turned pens. my booth the pens would be 50 bucks plus. some old guy 15.00 each
now they werent’ the same wood, etc. but people would be like why are yours so much better.
and go buy the 15.00 pen not realizing that the other guy’s pens were made out a tree from his back yard, and mine were made out of burls from Australia and south east asia.
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So that whole design only took 20 minutes to engrave? I ask because I have a couple of pubs looking at engraving their logos, but dang if I can figure out what to charge. At first I was doing some stuff and just picked a number (.50 per minute for laser time), but I think maybe that is too much? Oy. 
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No. Each coaster took 25:16 min. to engrave…it was the designing that took only 20 minutes. Originally, I picked an arbitrary cost of $20 per hour for engrave time, but that took some lowly coasters up to a huge cost, so I cut that in half.
Here’s an interesting and simple formula, which is pretty much what I ended up doing with this order, before I even read this post. My method of calculating was different, but I came up with the same answer. Try this ‘triple’ method and I think it might make things more clear to you.