This month we shipped a lot. A laser engraving shop where you can watch videos of real work before you order. A free way to design and order custom photo magnets. A jobs board that now works in Spanish. Real repair prices for the whole Coastal Bend so you know what things actually cost. A way to share repair estimates with a link instead of trying to explain numbers over the phone. A clean weather forecast site for the region. A wind forecast for people who work on the water. A lot of stuff moved this month.
then order one for yourself. real videos of tumblers and signs getting engraved. not renders.
NPC Laser is our shop for custom laser-engraved gifts, signs, and tumblers.
By The Shop · Dispatch from Alice
head to npclaser.com and you'll see short videos of actual laser work. a tumbler getting etched. a sign coming to life. each one is real.
you pick what you want engraved, a gift, a sign, a tumbler, and the site shows you exactly what it looks like before you pay. then you can buy it. one person runs the whole shop solo.
if you've thought about making custom magnets for an event or a booth but didn't want to risk money upfront, that's solved now. you get two weeks to build and order without paying first.
if you run a local business and want to mail postcards, you can now pick exactly which blocks get them. draw a box on a map. we'll mail only to the addresses inside it.
if you're looking for work in the Coastal Bend, you can now sign up for email alerts on a local jobs board. pick your trade and your city. when a new job posts that matches, you get an email.
you work through a repair estimate on the local jobs board. now instead of trying to describe the number over the phone or text, you can send a link. anyone who clicks it sees the exact same estimate you're looking at.
there's a weather site for folks in the Coastal Bend region of Texas. head to npcweather.com and you get a clean, fast forecast for Alice, Corpus Christi, Calallen, Kingsville, Beeville, and everywhere else in the area.
if your day depends on which way the wind blows, you fish, you boat, you work on the water, there's a site for you. head to coastalbendwindzone.com. it shows wind speed and gusts across the Coastal Bend so you can decide if today is a go or a no.
you posted a job on the board. then you realized you got the hours wrong, or you want to raise the pay because you've gotten good applications. you don't have to take it down and start over.
This short video from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission breaks down exactly how a ransomware attack starts and what a small business owner can do right now to stop it before it wipes out their files. It comes straight from the feds, it is free, and it is plain enough that you can watch it with your whole staff in one sitting.
This free step-by-step guide walks you through fixing slow mesh Wi-Fi the right way, starting with node placement and reboot order before you spend a dime on new gear. We like it because it covers the stuff that actually trips up small shops, like weak backhaul, sticky clients that won't roam, and ping spikes on video calls.
This is a free workshop straight from Google that shows small business owners how to use AI tools like Gemini to knock out real everyday tasks, not just theory. We like it because it is built for folks with no tech background and walks you through actual things you can do this week.
We found this one real useful because it walks you through the right tools to have on hand and the safety steps to follow before you crack open any device yourself. If you have been paying a shop for fixes you could probably handle at home, this video is a solid place to start.
We like this one because it comes straight from the federal government and covers ransomware, phishing, and hacking in plain English with fact sheets, videos, and quizzes built for owners like us. No vendor upsell, no fine print, just solid free advice we can share with anyone on our team.
This free guide walks you through the 3-2-1 backup rule in plain English, tells you exactly what NAS does versus what cloud backup does, names the actual tools and what they cost, and calls out the mistakes most small businesses make when they think they are already covered. Down here on the Coastal Bend where a hurricane or a ransomware hit can wipe you out overnight, knowing your data is in three places on two different kinds of storage is worth an hour of your time right now.
