Published on 10/30/2026 · by Leandro Caldas, glazier, founder of Routeck and creator of the Arena
How to start a mirror business: Janael's path at Arena do Vidro
How to start a mirror business is one of the questions I get the most. Woodworkers, salon owners, people who build custom furniture, people looking for a new trade. At the start of Arena do Vidro episode 3, before the template challenge, Janael Hipólito told the story of how he got into this line of work. And his story answers that question better than a lot of classes.
In this post I go through the path he described, what each step teaches someone who is starting out, and why that episode's challenge, cutting by hand without touching the template, shows the first skill you need to practice. The episode is right above.
How Janael started working with mirrors
Janael has been working with mirrors for about 7 or 8 years. And he came in from another side: his wife, Elaine, had a beauty salon and needed vanity tables. He built her a new one, and the old one sold right away. That is when he saw there was money in it, and he started building a lot of vanities.
At first he only built the base, the cabinet part, and bought the mirror already cut from a glass shop. He soon noticed the mirror was expensive and was one of the items that pushed his price up the most. So he learned to handle it and to edge it. Back then there were not as many courses as today, and he learned the hard way. Over time he stopped building the furniture and focused only on mirrors. Today what he likes making most are decorative mirrors: organic shapes, framed mirrors, LED mirrors. In his words, he does it because he has to support his family, but he really loves what he does.
What his story teaches anyone who wants to start
- Start with something that already sells. The first vanity sold right away. Before investing heavily, Janael had proof there were customers.
- Find out what weighs most on your cost. For him it was the mirror bought already cut. Once you know where the cost is, you know what is worth learning to do in-house.
- Learn the process hands-on. Handling, cutting and edging glass are learned with the piece in your hands, making mistakes on offcuts before you make them on a customer's job.
- Specialize. He dropped the furniture and kept the mirrors. Whoever does the same thing every day gets good faster and gets known for it.
- Pick one type of piece to be known for. In his case, decorative mirrors with frames and LED.
Buy the mirror pre-cut or cut it yourself?
That was the math that changed Janael's business, and it is the first math you will do too. I am not going to guess numbers, because the price of glass sheets and labor changes from city to city. But the reasoning is always the same:
| Buy the mirror pre-cut | Cut it yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per piece | You pay for the sheet, the labor and the glass shop's margin | You pay for the sheet and your time |
| Lead time | Depends on the supplier's queue | Depends only on you |
| Shape | Limited to what the supplier agrees to make | You decide the shape and the finish |
| What it takes | Little space and few tools | A cutting table, tools, room for sheets and practice |
| Breakage risk | The supplier's | Yours, especially at the start |
Buying pre-cut mirrors is a good way to start selling without investing much. But when volume grows and the mirror becomes the heart of your product, cutting and edging in-house is what gives you control over cost, lead time and shape. That was exactly Janael's path.
The first skill: cutting a mirror by hand
Right after his story, the third challenge of the season began. I said it was an easier one: two organic-shape templates, each contestant picked one and had to cut exactly that shape in a mirror, in 20 minutes. No edging, nothing else. Just the cut. The rule that made it hard: they could not touch the template or lay it on top of the mirror.
At the judges' table, the read was that the hardest part would not be the cut but transferring the drawing to the glass. And that is what happened: 10 minutes in, neither of them had the drawing right. People who have cut mirrors for years struggled there. It shows that cutting by hand, with a steady score line, a clean break-out and the curve in the right place, is practice, not talent.
If you are starting out, the message is to practice cutting on offcuts: simple shapes first, curves later. In daily work you do not need the Arena rule. You can use a template, and plenty of glaziers do: in episode 1, one of the contestants said he keeps templates in his shop that he made himself for cutting tight curves. And when volume grows, a machine comes in. During that same test I said that on the Router Glass I would cut that shape in about a minute, on my own.
- How do I start a mirror business with no experience?
- Start with a product that already has buyers, like Janael did with vanity tables, learn to cut and edge by practicing on offcuts, and pick one type of mirror to specialize in.
- Is it better to buy mirrors pre-cut or cut them yourself?
- Buying pre-cut takes less investment at the start. Cutting them yourself gives you control over cost, lead time and shape once mirrors become the core of your product. The math depends on sheet and labor prices where you live.
- What was the Arena do Vidro episode 3 challenge?
- Cutting by hand, in 20 minutes, one of two shapes exactly like the template, without touching the template to the mirror. Just the cut, no edging.
Want to talk about starting with mirrors or about Arena do Vidro? Message me on WhatsApp at +55 31 9095-8383. And if you already cut well by hand, applications for the next season are open here on the site.
Full episode 3 · Janael Hipólito: the Arena do Vidro champion · How to cut a mirror by hand with a template · How to cut a mirror into shapes
