PiBurner

PiBurner of the Week: Sumita & Anuj Patel

Stan Altshuller September 1, 2022

Let’s celebrate our PiBurners of the week!

Sumita and Anuj Patel

owners at

HOME BOUND CUSTOM DECOR

(@homeboundcustomdecor)

We are very excited to share the inspiring success story of PiBurners Sumita and Anuj Patel

Sumita reached out to me about becoming a PiBurn affiliate a few weeks ago and we got to talking and hit it off.

As I learned more about the couple’s growth story, their journey really struck me as one very symbolic of so many laser entrepreneurs we speak with. The traits that usually lead to success – like not being afraid to invest in your tools, recognizing and jumping on an opportunity, and constantly feeding your growth mindset really make this story worth sharing.

Also, like so many PiBurners’ their business started as a small side hustle but within the first year grew to six figures!

And when I marveled at their Instagram, (they surpassed 30k subscribers, woo!!) learned more about their laser class, and all the great things they do with their PiBurn, I knew we had a beautiful match!

Let’s dive in and learn how they did it.

About Sumita and Anuj

Sumita and Anuj live in Atlanta, Georgia, where they own and operate Home Bound Custom Decor.

It is a laser engraving business specializing in personalized home goods and gifts.

We are a husband/wife operated business and we recently welcomed our first child to our family this past May!

Like so many other PiBurners their business is run on top of their full-time jobs! (No not just being parents 😉

It’s another beautiful example of a side hustle that turned into a meaningful and consistent income stream.

We have corporate jobs (Sumita is an attorney and Anuj is in sales). In addition to our engraving business, we host a class where we help other laser owners grow their business.

We are passionate about helping other small businesses expand their presence and sales.

The Journey

Home Bound started on the Patel kitchen counter in 2019 with a 25$ investment. Afterward, they posted a few of their DIY items on Facebook Marketplace!

From humble beginnings…

Within the first week, they received over 50 orders and knew they were on to something. This is where they recognized the opportunity and quickly acted on it.

We quickly invested in not just one, but two, and then three laser machines (Glowforge Pros).

And similar to many PiBurners they quickly outgrew the Glowforge machines and moved fast to invest in their growing toolset.

Within a few months, we realized that in order to keep up with business demand, we would need a faster and stronger laser, so we invested in the Aeon Mira 7 and 9.

Since starting in 2019, we have expanded into our own warehouse and even have two employees! We ship over 400 orders a month nationwide and Canada and have developed wholesale relationships with boutiques, real estate agencies, and more.

Pretty incredible! With their growth, they are now job creators and also give back by teaching others the way to success in the laser world.

The link to their laser class where they share tips and tricks on how they grew sales to the six-figure mark within the first year is: https://www.homeboundcustomdecor.com/collections/small-business-q-a-class/products/recording-of-november-15th-small-business-q-a-session

Tools of choice: Aeon Lasers and PiBurn

Sumita and Anuj use the Mira 7 as a Rotary-Exclusive machine so that they don’t have to swap out settings each time.

We love having a machine dedicated to our rotary-based product line and this allows us to be a lot more efficient with our time. We have the Piburn with Magnetic feet and highly recommend this for even easier use!

They just recently launched tumblers, and these have been a hit! With just three bulk orders, they earned their PiBurn investment back!

BTW! This is the real reason we build this tool. It pays for itself, and then it keeps making money for many years.

How do they grow their business?

Their approach is simple. They build strong relationships with large companies, and guess what, those companies keep coming back to the people they trust and continue to place large orders.

While we do allow solo sales of our tumblers on our website, we focus our efforts on building relationships with corporations, wholesale accounts, gifting agencies, etc. so that we can obtain large scale orders for the tumblers.

It’s not easy. It’s a lot of hard work, thoughtful decision-making, relationship-building, investment, and planning. And yes, a lot of laser firing! But isn’t it all so worth it?!

If you like their story, take a look at their website and visit (and follow them) on Instagram. All links are below.

Examples of favorite projects

The tumblers that Sumita pumps out on her Mira + PiBurn combination are undeniably beautiful. See for yourselves:

As I’ve said before, hearing success stories like this is the main reason LensDigital is in this business. We are here to help makers like Sumita and Anuj succeed!