OFI 1365: How To Start A Successful Laser Art & Engraving Business | Amber & Krystal Wilke | AW Laser Art

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Amber and Krystal Wilke are mother and daughter, and they are operating a very successful laser art and engraving business from their family farm in Kimball, Nebraska. While this might seem like the main part of the story, as successful as it is, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Amber and her husband have been able to create an enterprise on their 4th generation, Nebraska farm, that has allowed their children to come back and work there. Now, they are surrounded by multiple generations of family, living at the farm. Krystal lives 12 miles away in town, but is back on the farm full-time. This has been done through expansion as well as innovation.

Amber’s husband and son run a manufacturing business in a shop on the farm when they are not farming, taking care of the cattle herd or feeding cattle in the feedlot. When Amber and Krystal are not doing the very same farm work, they are in a new shop, creating products and fulfilling orders for a customer base made up primarily of agricultural customers throughout the U.S.

AW Laser Art began with Amber’s vision. As she stated in the interview, she has always had some sort of a side hustle because she wanted something that was her own. About five years ago she was primarily making baskets with wooden centers, and she wanted a laser engraver to be able to put designs on the wood. She purchased one and moved forward with that idea, but about six months later the “tumbler craze” hit and she completely pivoted her business.

Amber has now gone from having a few boxes of product and one laser in a bedroom to pallets of product and two lasers in a custom built shop for her business. As she states, it has exploded!

Amber and her husband had both of the children go get college degrees after high school. They also required them to get jobs away from the farm after graduation. This is partially because they were not big enough to support them with their farm revenue at that time, and it was also so that they would get experience working for someone in a professional setting that were not their parents.

The option for each of them to come home was left open however. And each of them chose to exercise that option. So, after years of teaching agriculture in northern Nebraska Krystal made her way back to Kimball, joined the farm operation and joined her mother in AW Laser art. Both Amber and Krystal are self-taught in graphic design, and Amber now specializes in coloring products.

This is an exciting and entertaining interview that you are going to enjoy!