How Did a Laser Company Become a Memorial and Monument Company?
Sometimes a business grows in directions you never expected.
Bolt Laserworks began as a typical general-purpose laser engraving company, creating custom products ranging from tumblers, glassware, cutting boards, awards, and signs to gifts of all kinds.
As our laser knowledge and skills developed, we began looking for areas where our equipment, capabilities, and techniques could extend our work beyond typical laser engraving.
That search led us to explore detailed photo etching on granite memorials. We began by offering smaller etched granite memorials to our local customers. The popularity of our photo-etched granite urns, markers, and garden memorials soon led us to offer them nationally through our Etsy shop and later through Memorials Direct, the online memorial division of Bolt Laserworks.
As local demand grew, we were inevitably drawn into producing full-sized cemetery headstones, markers, and monuments.
Interestingly, our online business also taught us something about an issue customers frequently encounter when shopping for monuments: extremely long production and delivery times. Online sales require us to meet much shorter fulfillment schedules, and that discipline has carried forward into our growing local monument business.
Doing our own design and laser etching in-house gives us greater control over both quality and scheduling. It also helps us keep pricing more straightforward.
Recently, a local couple came to us after speaking with several other monument companies. They had been quoted delivery times of six to twelve months for two granite headstones. They simply did not want to wait that long.
We designed, produced, delivered, and set both stones in a local cemetery in about 45 days. They later told us that our complete price, including delivery and setting, was also lower than the other quotes they had received.
We cannot promise that every monument can be completed and set in 45 days. Granite availability, cemetery requirements, foundation work, weather, and other factors can affect timing. What we can promise is that once a family has approved a memorial, we will do everything reasonably within our control to keep the project moving without unnecessary delays.
Our background in smaller granite memorials gives us another important advantage. Because cremation memorials have been part of our business from the beginning, we offer families a wide range of choices for the home, garden, or cemetery in addition to traditional headstones and grave markers.
As memorial work has grown, so has our commitment to it. What began as one part of a laser engraving business has become a major focus of Bolt Laserworks.
“If you had told us five years ago that our newly established laser business Become a Memorial and Monument Company, we probably would have laughed. Yet here we are.
We never set out to become a memorial and monument company. Several things helped lead us down this path.
We were fortunate to invest in AP Lazer equipment with its open-architecture design from the beginning, which meant we were never seriously limited by the size of the work we could take on. Working closely with AP Lazer technical staff has also helped us continue pushing what laser technology can do on granite and led to our use of MOPA laser technology.
Just as important has been the dedication and skill of our design and production staff. Their willingness to experiment, learn, and refine our techniques has helped shape the process we now bring to every memorial we create, large or small.
Our experience with smaller granite memorials also gives us two important advantages as we move further into full-sized headstones and monuments. We offer cremation-oriented memorial choices for the home, garden, and cemetery alongside traditional headstones and markers. And we handle much of the process ourselves — from design and graphics through etching and coordinating cemetery site preparation and placement.
We never set out with a master plan to become a full-service memorial company. Our equipment, our skills, and especially the needs of our customers have led us here. We have embraced that journey and are excited about where it is taking us.”
— Jeff Nelson, Bolt Laserworks
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