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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Crazy idea of opening a small business!!!

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The last time a forum member made a website to sell complete lasers from within the US, men in suits from the FDA literally showed up at his door.

who was it? ickray, ent-tray?
 





DTR

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If you start to make a real go of it you have to keep everything on record, start thinking of tax

That hit me pretty hard my first year specially the self employment tax even if you have a regular job. Not taking in account the amount of record keeping and that the tax man after all is figured wants 32+ cents of every dollar made was a bummer. Second year going forward went to estimated quarterly payments which makes it a bit easier.
 
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DTR, do you legally have to classify your shop as a business? I figured you wouldn't have to, since its not really a "business" per se. I mean, it is obviously but...not...really? Do you get what i'm trying to say here?
 

DTR

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If you offer products or serveries for a monetary gain on an ongoing basis that is a business. If you start accepting paymetns with any type of payment service they are required to get your ss number and you will get 1099's. Those you can't ignore. Hell even coinbase and other bitcoin wallets after so many payments are required to get a ss number to issue you a 1099. Threshold is $20,000 in payments or more than 200 transactions.
 
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If you offer products or serveries for a monetary gain on an ongoing basis that is a business. If you start accepting paymetns with any type of payment service they are required to get your ss number and you will get 1099's. Those you can't ignore. Hell even coinbase and other bitcoin wallets after so many payments are required to get a ss number to issue you a 1099. Threshold is $20,000 in payments or more than 200 transactions.

Ah, did not know about that. Thanks for the info :beer:
 

Rifter

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I think to make any money at this you are going to have to do alot more than put together pre assembled parts. As there is to much competition to do it half assed.

As in if you plan to:

1. Buy host heatsink already plug and burn ready.

2. Buy diode from DTR or whoever mounted in module, soldered to driver with leads attached.

3. Solder the four wires together and sell it as a custom laser.

Then i think you will fail to make any money as you are paying everyone else to do the work for you.

However if you:

1. Order flashlight host from china for less than few dollars each in 100 lots or greater.

2. Get Machine shop to make custom heatsink for your hosts also in 100 lots or greater.

3. Modify host contact board if needed to work with your driver choice(usually not hard).

4. Buy diodes in bulk

5. Buy modules in bulk

6. Buy lens in bulk

7. Press together diodes/modules yourself ans solder on drivers.

8. Make your own driver or use an open source driver and order boards and components and assemble the drivers yourself(rhd's open source CC bost driver for example is less than $5 a driver If ordering all components in 100+ quantities, only about $7 even if ordering components 3 at a time. And stable up to 2.4 amps. adjustable 500ma-2.4amps.

9. Assemble it yourself

Then i can see you making some cash as you will get very quick at doing the work yourself so wont be spending much time after a few dozen assemblies. And then the costs will be alot cheaper than using pre assembled and therefor much more expensive parts.

Also dont forget the legal liabilities of shipping these lasers into almost everywhere because they are not allowed in most countries, and the amount of work you will put into customer service answering questions constantly and dealing with repairs.
 
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Nice idea! I can be your partner in crime. We live relatively close so i can give you tips and whatnot :p

Hook it up fat homie...

:beer:
 
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Yes sure am glad you know but I make up for it with other things...

Seriously tho...
 
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Hm, good point. Forgot bout what I just read at Laserpointersafety.com lol. I probably deserve a -rep for thinking it would be ok for someone to sell big lasers over 5mW in the U.S.. Yea maybe you could consider just selling kits like what Jayrob does Greenlander?

I think the FDA needs a neg rep, or better yet, the ban hammer, for thinking it's ok to waste US tax dollars to harass a small business for selling laser pointers instead of going after the manufacturers of Celebrex and other toxic drugs which are proven to cause harm and/or kill people.

STILL not a single person killed due to lasers aimed at planes; TENS OF THOUSANDS killed because FDA couldn't be arsed to investigate lying-ass drug companies who sell poison; homeopathic snake oil and other bogus dietary supplements are still unregulated, which also kills people - "I'm sorry Mr. Smith, if you had come to the doctor a year ago as soon as you noticed that lump, something could have been done... but because you tried bullshit holistic therapy instead, you now have stage 4 cancer and 6 months. Sorry about your luck."

Oh, and don't forget that, according to a Harvard study, more than 40,000 people every year are killed by lack of medical insurance.

Yes, the FDA is protecting us and keeping us safe. By the way, I've got a nice condo on the western Wyoming coastline for sale at a very fair price.

The people at the FDA have their heads shoved so far up their asses, their heads are practically re-emerging from their mouths, as if the whole agency were some kind of klein bottle or something. Their prioritizing is so colossally bad, and their efforts to combat anything that matters is so lacking... what is it they're doing again? Nothing apparently, except harassing a small niche market of people who like lights. Wasted paychecks, every single employee.

Sorry, it just gets me going that they will persecute something which has killed no one, while basically doing nothing about things that kill thousands every year. And then bragging about doing such a good job whenever some kid with a laser gets arrested, or a business raided. Nice job FDA, keep up the good work and stay klassy.
 
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If you ever do decide to start a business like that, I would probably be happy to buy some of your lasers. Haven't found any trusted builders from the forum that actually sell pre-built lasers yet lol. If there are some that I don't know of, let me know. Maybe I just haven't looked around enough.

Eh what? there are 2 known builders here on this forum, one i bought from the 445 1w laser is called thejoker and the other is Blord, both are making super good lasers you can find them in the Buy/Sell thread section and see what they offer.
 
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Sorry, it just gets me going that they will persecute something which has killed no one, while basically doing nothing about things that kill thousands every year. And then bragging about doing such a good job whenever some kid with a laser gets arrested, or a business raided. Nice job FDA, keep up the good work and stay klassy.
kinda like marijuana vs. tobacco and alcohol !
 
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I must say that it is a good idea :) But it is not easy as it seems to be.

After a long long time with my bussiness here on LPF I have managed to get 1W 445nm and sell them for $85 only.

But it took me over a year to get everything running well. And still I am finidng my self buying parts almost everyday and I still struggle to get a stock all the time.

Running a laser bussiness is not easy. But go for it :) you might succeed. and you might not.

I would say , start building a few lasers before that. I can tell you that even I , after building with my own hands hundreds of lasers , I still have a lot to improve.

Also you need to take a risk here. Sometimes customers gets a broken laser , usually because of the shipping company that abused the package. I found my self many times sending a new laser for free to many customers. So loosing money in that bussiness is also very easy.

In my opinion , take the time and learn first before jumping in. It is harder than it seems to be. How hard can building a 1W laser can be right ? try building 10 lasers at a time when customers are sending emails all the time lol :beer:

Anyway , this is just a prespective from someone who do it all day long. If you will need any help in the future. I will be happy to help :beer:
 
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Eh what? there are 2 known builders here on this forum, one i bought from the 445 1w laser is called thejoker and the other is Blord, both are making super good lasers you can find them in the Buy/Sell thread section and see what they offer.


Oh lol, didn't know blord sold pre-built lasers.
 
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I must say that it is a good idea :) But it is not easy as it seems to be.

After a long long time with my bussiness here on LPF I have managed to get 1W 445nm and sell them for $85 only.

But it took me over a year to get everything running well. And still I am finidng my self buying parts almost everyday and I still struggle to get a stock all the time.

Running a laser bussiness is not easy. But go for it :) you might succeed. and you might not.

I would say , start building a few lasers before that. I can tell you that even I , after building with my own hands hundreds of lasers , I still have a lot to improve.

Also you need to take a risk here. Sometimes customers gets a broken laser , usually because of the shipping company that abused the package. I found my self many times sending a new laser for free to many customers. So loosing money in that bussiness is also very easy.

In my opinion , take the time and learn first before jumping in. It is harder than it seems to be. How hard can building a 1W laser can be right ? try building 10 lasers at a time when customers are sending emails all the time lol :beer:

Anyway , this is just a prespective from someone who do it all day long. If you will need any help in the future. I will be happy to help :beer:

Appreciate it :)

-Alex
 




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