PiBurn Gigs: Make money with your rotary

2,000+ Tumblers in one GIGA order, featuring Kory Cook and his Thunder Nova 63 / PiBurn combo

 

Welcome to another PiBurn Gigs feature – a blog where you can learn how to score big orders, get new customers, delight and retain those customers, and grow your business just by offering customized tumblers.

All the amazing makers featured in Gigs are proud owners of the PiBurn rotary, the best laser rotary attachment on the planet!

 

Meet Kory

We often follow up with our customers to inquire about their experience with the PiBurn.

 

We recently asked Kory to share a review of his experience with the PiBurn V4. Then, he shared an image that blew my socks off. It was a small fraction of a recent P&G order for 2,000 20oz tumblers. No Typo. TWO THOUSAND. 

That’s gotta be a record, right?!

 

While this is a very good order, it’s actually only our 3rd largest!

 

In case you were wondering what 2,000 tumblers look like all packaged up:

So… Kory has to be doing this full-time, right?!

 

While my wife and I have our normal day jobs, our laser business is actually still just a side hustle for us. I don’t post many pics because honestly we’re constantly busy with the next order. But when I do post a picture, I do get asked how we get such big orders.

How does he do it?!

Keeping an open mind for new business opportunities and the ability to give something of value away helps tremendously. We see this many times with successful PiBurners.

Sometimes opportunity knocks, even when buying a car!

 

Our first big order was when we went to purchase a new vehicle for my wife, the night before, I decided to make a tumbler with that dealership’s logo on it. After we purchased her new SUV, I gave the tumbler to the owner of the dealership. That night we left not only with a new SUV but with a check for a 7,000 tumbler order.

 

That same dealership has since ordered 4,000 more tumbrels from Kory. That’s not to mention all the personal orders from the owner and his employees as well.

Incredible that deals like this are just a friendly conversation away!

They have also had various 250, 500, 1000, and 1200 tumbler orders from local businesses, schools, local sports teams, and other organizations.

On top of all this, they average around 200 tumblers from normal customer orders each month!

So, when we say the market is HUGE, we aren’t kidding. It’s big enough for all of us to succeed.

 

What about that Giga order from P&G?

Orders bring more orders. And in this case of a mega-order, serendipity had a role to play!

 

Our most recent P&G order of 2,000 tumblers was a result of their marketing director seeing a tumbler we did for someone that works at the plant. That goes to show you never know who’s going to see your work!

 

But that’s not all. Kory has his eyes on even bigger whales.

We’ve recently had a meeting with a hospital and the initial meeting was to secure an order for 8,000-10,000 tumblers. We have a follow up meeting soon, so hopefully we get that contract as well.

 

Wow. That is some serious scale.

How does the PiBurn fare on those massive orders?

Our first big order was unfortunately before we got the Piburn V4, oh how I wish we would have had it when we first got that order.

 

The PiBurn made Kory’s work a lot easier and more predictable.

We did receive the Pi when we had about 1,000 left of that order though and those last 1,000 felt like they took an hour to complete compared to the first 6,000.

 

So, what did you think about the performance of the PiBurn?

The ease of the V4 and the product quality is second to none. We could swap out a lasered tumbler with a new one and get it started before the exhaust fan on our Nova 63 even stopped.

Since we received the V4 when it first came out, I estimate that we’ve done around 9,000 tumblers (my wife feels like we’ve done over 10,000) but the V4 works just as it did when it came out of the box. Not a single spring, o-ring, wheel, belt…NOTHING has broken or came loose. I initially explained to someone that the V4 is a workhorse, but I was wrong. It’s a tank that can not be stopped. My only regret is that we only ordered one, we have 3 lasers, but we’ll be one of the first in line to get the Omni and we won’t have a worry in the world that it’ll handle our next big order.

 

Any advice for folks starting out?

 

My usual response to anyone asking how we get big orders is step out of your comfort zone, don’t be afraid to bet on yourself and approach businesses.

We’re constantly making tumblers with the logo of other local businesses. We’ll take them to the business, ask for the marketing director or the highest level person available.

It’s not always a great meeting, sometimes we get the cold shoulder and we move on. But we won’t give up!

Someone will see that tumbler you made, someone will ask about it, and someone will reach out for an order.

People don’t throw away free tumblers, they may or may not throw away the business card we put in every single tumbler that leaves our store.

But they more than likely looked at our business card and threw it on their desk or in their desk drawer and it’ll be there when they change their mind or someone else asks about their awesome tumbler.

 

 

Did you catch that tip? Put a business card in your tumbler – when giving out freebies.

 

Ready to try the PiBurn? See what it can do for you and your growing business!

Happy PiBurning!