We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jaylon Dixon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jaylon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?
My business is completely remote. Besides obtaining material every job is completed at my home office. Being a small business It is currently my wife an I who complete all orders received. The downside to that would be space, especially when completing bulk orders. The main pitfall is the customers who have their personal items they want engraved. Some feel uncomfortable about doing business with no storefront. We have actual lost business because of that, but we make the best of what we can do remotely with hopes to provide a better experience for customers in the future.
Jaylon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We engrave multiple products with personalized messages. We offer laser engraving on anything from home decorative items to powder coated auto parts. We also offer unique logos made in house by our experienced Graphic Designer. Have something you want to personalize, let us know. As we continue to expand our engraving ability, nothing is off the table.
We strive to provide a reliable outlet for our clients to embrace their creative ability. Our goal is to supply our clients with custom pieces that hold value and provide exceptional customer services in a personalized way.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I have been an entrepreneur since I was young. My mother taught me the importance of keeping a job, but I have always found different ways to make a little extra.
I clicked with one of my best friends from college because he and I had that in common. Over the years, we have made investments together and bounced around ideas on different ways to get ahead. This is what introduced me to laser engraving. We had the idea of me helping with custom parts for his thriving car restoration business. He thought it would be a great business for me to get into because he was confident I could master a laser engraving machine and the software.
I purchased a laser engraving machine after that conversation. I purchased the one I could afford, so it was not the best, but I was excited about what could come from it.
Once I got the machine and started working with it, there was a learning curve, but I did, in fact, master it like he thought. Regrettably, the machine I purchased could not complete the jobs we intended to do. I had to make the machine work for me. I started engraving pocket knives, which lead to tumblers, and then custom business and decorative signs. I was able to get business by posting and spreading the word until I was comfortable with creating an LLC.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think I am currently in my pivoting stage. Creating custom work, you have to find the audience who desire that. I am currently trying to take my custom work into the event space. Where I can provide my custom work to individuals who are looking for party favors for medium and large size events. Overall I am wanting to be a service to the community to make their events and parties memorable with the service we provide. A little different from what we’ve been doing since we have mostly been successful in providing individual custom pieces.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brindlelaserengraving.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brindlelaserengraving?igsh=OXFkYW5tcmp6aXZ1&utm_source=qr
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/brindle-laser-engraving-converse-2
