7 expert tips for starting a business

“You won’t always hear positive things, but it is important to learn from criticisms. Take the feedback and constructively transform it into something positive. Adjust your sales strategy and the associated measures and stay flexible. You can only get to know your requirements and wishes if you have an active dialogue with your potential customers. Knowing exactly what your customers expect of you and meeting that expectation is the key to success. That’s how you create real customer benefits.”

“The training given during installation means that you are well prepared to start your business, the next step is on the job learning. The better you know your laser machine and the application technology, the faster, more efficient and more cost-effective your production is. Trotec supports you in gaining this competitive advantage with various training courses and tutorials. Our lasers are robust, low-maintenance and easy to service. Take care of your laser machine and check mirrors, lenses, vents daily, cleaning when necessary. With the TroCare service package, you don’t have to worry about maintenance costs and you can extend the warranty of your laser machine up to 10 years.”

“If you have an idea and you know which products you want to offer, get to the laser machine. Be creative and don’t be afraid of doing something wrong. This often results in new concepts and new ways of working. Design ideas and graphic templates can be found in the Trotec DIY gallery or on various online platforms such as Thingiverse, Pinterest or Facebook. Our Trotec JobControl® laser software offers you numerous practical functions: Thanks to the parameter values that are tested and supplied by us, you don’t have to spend a long time searching to find the right laser settings, the JobTimeCalculator calculates the laser time for you in advance. This is also a real benefit in price calculation too.”

“This is especially at the beginning, many of our customers are unsure how to price the laser time. £1 per minute of laser processing time is a common calculation basis. Start with simple products. Personalising picture frames, glasses or wooden spoons. During My visit to IKEA in 2017, I was able to observe the effect of laser personalisation on end customers: Individualisation with the laser turns simple objects into something special – this increases the sales price by a factor of x.”

“A good web presence is a company’s business card. If you sell your products online, rely on a respectable shop solution. Making sure that your customers find you is important. Search engine optimisation, inbound marketing, paid advertising and content marketing are the key issues that you should cover. Ask yourself in which channels you can best reach your customers. Wherever your customers do their research, they should be able to find you quickly and easily.”

“In my opinion, excellent customer service is the key to success. As banal as it sounds, it is the “supreme discipline”: Treat your customers well. Give honest and fair advice, for the benefit of the customer. Excel with good reachability and boast an excellent response time. It will pay off; these customers will become your regular customers and recommend you in droves.”