Interview: Running a 3D Printing Business - the ins and outs

[Music] hello my friends i am excited to share this conversation with you i recently had the chance to sit down and interview my friend anthony at 3d prints anthony uses 3d printers laser cutters and cnc router to make a bunch of different products and sell them on a bunch of different platforms i get to ask him questions like how did he start what was the first product that he made how does he market where does he sell as well as some personal questions fears struggles along the way and we just talk shop throughout the video so i think anthony's crushing it he's currently doing this part time and hopefully he'll be transitioning to full-time in the next six months or so i honestly think that he has a lot more to offer you than i do in terms of just running a business and all that good stuff so i hope this video is an encouragement to you that's the whole reason why we decided to record the conversation in the first place i hope i hope that you find it's relatable and you get a lot out of it so there are chapter breaks so feel free to jump around to whatever section interests you most if you want to find more out about anthony i'll put links to his uh store and all that good stuff in the description below and without further ado here's that conversation well hey anthony how you doing doing good how are you sweet yeah good uh thanks for taking time to jump on a call and talk shop yeah yeah it's exciting yeah um do you have a lot of a lot of orders that you gotta get done today yeah um actually so my my glowforge pro has been down and i finally got it to work yesterday but um yeah i've been just behind crazy amounts so hopefully today i'll be caught up okay so good well thanks for taking time to jump on a call yeah any yes we are recording this and we're just gonna uh you know throw it on youtube after we're done and hopefully it's an encouragement to other people who are on yeah a similar journey or uh starting or thinking about starting a similar journey um yeah are you cool cool if we just jump in yeah let's do it cool well i think a lot of people that are watching this video probably know about me and a little bit of my journey and background how about you kind of introduce yourself and kind of what you got going on yeah um well my name's anthony and i started my company 3d prints llc i think officially like two or three years ago um but yeah before that it was just kind of like me doing random stuff for people um i had a buddy and i kind of talked about this on one of my videos um how i got started but one of my family friends was like hey can you like 3d print this part it was like a i don't know like a muffler housing for air compressors in there like nobody else in the world makes this so like if you could make this we could make a ton of money so i did he ordered like 25 and then i just had my little ender three plugging away and i was like i need another printer like this could be big so you know 10 printers later it's kind of where we're at today so yeah awesome and then so um so you what i think is cool about your journey is a lot of times when you see someone on youtube maybe they're already full time and maybe they're crushing it making tons of money um what i think one thing i think about one thing i think is cool about your journey is you're you're part time you haven't gone the full time yet hopefully by the end of the year so you you were working full time at your day job and you just switched to part-time right yeah so um my job and they were always like this is full-time but it was more like you need to work at least like 45 hours a week um to like 65. uh that's just kind of like the the kind of environment that we were in and i realized early in like the pandemic that like i value time more than money um so i was like okay i'm not gonna do like the 50-hour thing anymore i'm gonna work 40 hours and i i it was kind of a really awkward conversation with my boss i was like i need to be at home a day a week so i could do my own thing and he they were really respectful and i think that he is very like-minded too in the sense that you know he started when he was like 30. so i went from every day working i guess every every workday to just monday tuesday wednesday thursday um 10 hour days and that caught up to me really quick and i was like falling asleep on the way home so i was like you guys can i just like work 30 hours and they're like yeah 10 hour days that's fine so now um yeah i'm home part time and then i work part time so i'm playing the safe game but it's it's kind of like i said i'm just it's hard to keep up it's hard to come out with new ideas so yeah part time how how many listings of products do you got just kind of a rough oh jeez um you know i thought about this the other day because etsy charges you 20 cents per listing every month i believe and i was like oh my gosh this starts to add up pretty quick so i think i have between etsy and ebay right now i have like 100 maybe of just different products different variations that's a lot of listings yeah yeah i i've got well i think i have like five or six but we've talked before and i basically got like three kind of main products but i kind of imagine i can't imagine juggling six or a hundred different products listings so um where did world do you sell do you sell primarily on etsy and then or yeah what's that look like yeah um so i started out on ebay just exclusively because um it was just easier like their platform was really easy but now that i've gotten on etsy um i think at the end of last year i started selling on etsy and that just kind of took off because of the product i think and then um just a couple months ago i started on amazon which their seller platform is really great too because it's like as a consumer i'm like i'm buying it on amazon i'm sorry like i everything i get is on amazon and i i looked at the year-end statement and i'm like i better not tell my wife but you know i just spend so much but in and it is and it's just so convenient because it's like it's here the next day or the like two days later so i'm like i gotta get a piece of this pie so but i found that uh some of my products are more like older people like buying them um because it's a really niche product like like the model train stuff and it's like people like that are set in their way of like ebay so it's like things like that i sell um like etsy is like a really good outlet for other products so it's just kind of like i saw this over here really good i sell this over here really good and then this does really well over here but most of my listings are just across the board anyway so okay and then i'll probably just splice up some pictures of some of your products yeah you have in compost but what are what are some of the products that you sell um so lately um a lot of people are buying just acrylic letters and i really uh i don't know i just love it because people will be like hey i need this letter i'm going to make a keychain so it's just kind of cool to see everybody's story like and be like well yeah this letter would be really good but what do you think about doing this and then they're like that's such a good idea thank you for like so um yeah acrylic letters acrylic shapes really basic things they're kind of like uh like a bread and butter and then lately i've been doing like a lot of diorama kits because that's that's just kind of a fun thing that i like i'm not really a collector or anything but uh yeah i do that and then um most of my resin printers are running uh like uh scale model accessories like little i don't know like little toilets and stuff so okay yeah that's pretty cool that is really cool i think one of my favorite uh listings of yours just because i like star wars it's just that kind of background star wars background scene yeah that's really sweet yeah um so what was so so that was that muffler housing was that the first product that you had ever made or what was the first thing yeah well and i was thinking back of and and i don't know how much time we have but it's like i i originally saw this video of a 3d printed crescent wrench and i was like i need a 3d printer so i when i got one i made that and i was like this is so cool but at the time not a lot of people were selling things um online like they were 3d printed so yeah it was just like little knickknacks here and there like i printed a spoon i don't know why somebody paid for a 3d printed spoon but it's not really something you want to eat off of but yeah that was kind of like the major the muffler housing was like the this is the get up and go for me um okay and that was like the first actual product that they kind of carried it along okay and then you just kind of started branching out different stuff from there yeah yeah and um that would like i said before that was uh kind of a discontinued they don't make that anymore and then i was like well what else on that machine don't they make anymore so there's like this like squirrel cage like i don't even know what it's called i don't know but i i bought one on amazon or on ebay that i found and i took my calipers and i made that i actually sell the model file for that on my other etsy store a lot of people have been buying that and printing it themselves because it's like yeah they don't they don't make that anymore so it's really nice for people to have access to stuff like that so yeah it's just like i don't know if it's a curse but it's like i go through home depot and i'm like i could make that and i like look it up and i'm like i can't profit off of that i'm not going down that road right but yeah happens a lot it's one thing that's kind of challenging then i'll see you know i have an adapter that i that i print and it's very unique you can't find it off home depot but if you were to buy a similar adapter in home depot it'd be like five bucks yeah like there's no way i could sell mine for five bucks and print it because i don't know i guess if people understand 3d printing maybe they'll understand a little higher price but it's like i'm not getting these manufactured in china for five cents a piece um and then but anyways um so you're doing this you're doing this full-time you're working or part-time you're in your basement just cranking it out what kind of what kind of setup do you got going on what kind of machines and equipment you got yeah uh so i have two glowforge printers that are just running pretty much all the time when i'm home um and then i have i kind of have been sticking to like the creality machines for 3d printers just because like most of the parts are interchangeable um so i have eight fdm machines um two and then two more that i just kind of have for parts right now and then i have six uh resin printers so and those are those are running just non-stop all the time because i'm trying to push things to amazon and i need some stock okay um and then out in the garage we have the shea poco pro cnc router so that's kind of like one of those projects that i just want to dive into but again i don't have a whole lot of time so it's like i just wrap what i need to for parts um as they sell so i don't have any like stock or anything sure all right okay yep and then um as far as uh kind of your money coming in does most of your money come from etsy or is it like 50 50 split between etsy and ebay or kind of how does that work yeah so that's kind of interesting too because on etsy most of my orders average from like like 10 to 30 um but there's like i you know there's like three or five a day um and that's really consistent but then like etsy is just kind of more high level items um so like last week i made um probably about half of what i made on etsy on ebay so i'd say lately etsy's been doubled in sales for as compared to ebay okay um yeah if you don't don't feel like you have to share any numbers if you don't want to but is this a small business that you have 3d printing is that providing about half of the income that you and your family need to live off or kind of where you at on that um yeah and that's kind of something that i didn't think about because like early on i was like making about 700 a week in sales and i was like oh my gosh like i could do this full-time and then i was like oh i need to pay taxes on all this and you know all those things just kept coming up and i'm what do you mean i gotta pick you know insurance what is this so yeah it was really surprising um early on uh that i was like oh maybe i can't do this but then as sales kind of went up and up i was like yeah we could do we could do this um but yeah i'd say maybe about 60 maybe a little bit over half of what what uh my business brings in and that's just partially my fault because i like to buy toys too so i'm like sure you know most of my business income goes back into the business where i'm like oh wow we got all this money sitting there let's get another laser you know right so right and and it's kind of a good space for me too because i'm not 100 reliant on that income um that i can make those uh purchases now so it's like buy the stuff that you need now before you rely on it um right that's good so that's that's been kind of a good thing but at the same time it's like last i didn't need a new macbook so you know i was like maybe i should act like i'm reliant on that income but yeah yeah it's so it's so easy to fall into that it's a business expense trap yes yes and that was one of the first things you told me and like the very first email you sent you're like those amazon packages that show up are a curse not a blessing and i'm like yeah and now i hate spending money with the business because it's like that could be in my pocket you know or in like a savings to like give myself a bonus at the end of the year but yeah it's just it gets it gets ya yeah i i learned my well i hope i have learned my lesson um i'm a little bit more diligent saver now and i just really try just tooth and nail not to buy anything that i don't need um so it's a work in progress learn learning journey um yeah how is as far as like so you i didn't know that you sold stl files too i thought you just just did just yeah um and that was that was kind of like uh i i keep trying to think of like my my dream day is like i found out that i'm like really creative in the morning time so i'll be okay what can i create in this uh like just this morning i made like a little computer station that i'm gonna 3d print for you know those star wars dioramas but i've already been selling that file for a long time on cults 3d um and i'm like well why don't i just print that too and offer that at my at my store people have been buying this file it's just kind of like a another avenue of income income because you know people say like to become wealthy you need like seven sources of income well it's like i do i have that so making stl files and selling them has just been like kind of a backup like extra money but not extra if that makes sense just like another avenue of of another stream of income but sure that's kind of an interesting topic is it is it another stream or it's like are we losing because i thought about this myself too am i am i losing a sale over here with an actual made physical product or is it just a completely different audience because i mean people who own 3d printers and are in 3d in the 3d printing industry it's like they're probably not going to buy my product from me they probably just want the stl to make it themselves and save on that modeling time yeah um yeah it's it's interesting i i sold i only sold one product as a stl for a while and then someone took my file i put on thingiverse and then someone started selling the the physical model on etsy okay and it was the exact they didn't try to change it or anything was the exact same thing inside the message them and then after that i just kind of had a sour taste in my mouth and like yeah this is my baby i spent so much time designing it and now someone's stealing my stuff what the heck um but it's i can make more profit if i sell a physical item but then it takes more time versus a stl maybe i only make five bucks but then it's pure like passive income which is really nice too yeah yeah that's kind of one thing like um that muffler housing i will never sell that stl just because that's like that is the money maker for me so it's like if i if i list like a computer station or like a little like i don't know like a cup holder or something i'm not really like okay i'm not gonna sell this physical product if i sell this stl and mainly because i think it's like people are going to like cults 3d for me and like that's a stl website like they're not like going to to uh etsy and seeing my listing for the stl and being like oh i could sell that you know and uh but then in my description too i say like if you want this 3d printed go to my other etsy store and like i have that listed there too um but yeah i don't know about that because um i've had a lot of people message me and say like could i get this 3d printed like i don't have a 3d printer and that's that's really cool but um yeah you always take a risk like giving out your intellectual property sure yeah do you have any kind of uh it's kind of hard to to guess maybe of when you might make that plunge and go full time in your business it's kind of a scary scary jump it is yeah and um looking back i've been like in my mind i'm like it's gonna be this day it's gonna be before christmas it's gonna be on my birthday and then like those times pass and i'm like did i miss an opportunity i you know you can always look back and be like i wish i would have started when i first got my 3d printer but um i don't know man this year probably for sure just the way things are going um we're just like right right there chasing it and i'm like i'm only doing this two days a week what could it look like if i was like a hundred percent um so yeah i don't know i just like it's it's scary but like my father-in-law was like hey you know like if something has like that that big of a risk like think about the reward that could come with that you know and it's like uh but now i have two kids and a wife to take care of so yeah it's just it's crazy but like i told you i can always just go get another dead-end job so whatever yeah right yeah it's such a great topic to talk about and there's so many different facets and it obviously depends on everyone's different circumstances and situation and comfort level and risk tolerance um my journey was a little different i just kind of took the plunge and tried to figured it out and thankfully something worked out but i had to get a little part-time job delivering packages uh through amazon for a little bit to keep me afloat while this kind of went full time but um yeah how about how about a little more personal question like friends family and even like wife just as far as like kind of comfort level do they think you're crazy for maybe a man quitting a you know a stable security job and doing your own thing yeah yeah um that was something that's very surprising and i don't know maybe like if if the viewers are watching like you got to consider this like you might lose some friends over this that like kind of kind of think that they're helping you um but yeah we've had a lot of conversations like my father was just like dude don't quit your job like put in another two years or put every time i talked to him he would be like just do this for just hang on keep your full-time job for another year until i sat down i was like this is how much money i'm making like and he's like oh okay okay well and then i'm like you know i'm not an idiot okay i have kids and a wife i've considered literally everything like we have our llc set up i'm on payroll they're holding taxes you know i have savings and then you know i got other people like my father-in-law that are like how could i invest like this is a great idea you know i need to help out like when can i work for you you know so it's like you have like polar opposites of of people and then and then you have like i don't know if you how your wife is but like my wife's been really supportive um there's times where she gets sick of me talking about business and i'll be like like we'll go for walks every day and i'm like listen if i start talking about our business just tell me to shut up because i know like you don't necessarily need to hear about it but and i think that's cool like like that you and i have conversations because it's like that's an outlet that i can talk about things that i'm excited about and but at the same time you like talk about like your daily job like it's not really that big of a difference but yeah i've definitely had a couple friends where it's like i don't really talk to them as much anymore because they kind of gave a little bit too much opinion and that's something that i struggle with too is just like not everybody thinks like i do or like we do um some people are okay with their dead-end job and watching roseanne every night on tv so i don't know it's right it's just kind of crazy right yeah i never had um any negative things verbalized to me i just kind of kind of had this feeling yeah um and again you know you know they never said anything but sometimes i kind of have that feeling like do you know what you're doing and uh yeah that was really tough for me so i had gotten married i think two years after we got married i quit my job and then just floundered for a little bit as i tried to figure it out because i just couldn't stay on my job anymore and uh i just hated i hated when people would ask me like maybe you go to a party and there's someone new that you meet they're like hey what do you do for work like hey how about those packers or how about the weather or just change the subjects i'm like i'm just trying to figure it out i don't know what i'm doing and then other people think you know it's not wise and then i'm like you know i want to be a provider for my wife whose dream is to be a full-time you know stay-at-home mom and right right now she was working part-time but now she has to work full-time to try and carry my load because i'm not bringing anything to the table and what's her parents think because i'm not bringing anything to the table and those like first three months were probably the most mentally emotionally spiritually most challenging for me to kind of wrestle with yeah all these things and not making much money but i i think it's it's great um where you're at because you're you're doing a little smarter than i am you're slowly weaning yourself off instead of just jumping ships so that's that's yeah well and i think too sometimes i'm like am i playing this smart or am i just scared you know it's like what what could that look like because it's like if if i'm making you know i don't well 50 grand doing two days a week is you know how what's that gonna look like five or six days a week but yeah it's it's it is definitely mentally straining on somebody because like and a lot of people will say like you've created this business this is your baby and like that's part of you now like if the business isn't doing good like the past two weeks for me have been like really slow and it's starting to pick up now which is great but it's just like dude you're in a bad mood and and you gotta really turn that off somehow and yeah it's just kind of it's really it's a struggle for for me at least just like what are we gonna do and and that's where i like panic and i'm like i need another product like like i told you it was like father's day is coming up i could engrave zippos and it's like well that's not okay i need to just focus on like my own thing i can't just like because people are doing this for pennies and you know it's like that's not really beneficial to a customer just to to kill another product for somebody else sure yeah and there's i feel like we could talk like six hours there's so many different directions this year one one quick thought i wanted to say about part time so it's like let's just say 50 grand so it's like you're investing let's say two you're working in your business basically two days a week you probably work weekends too but okay so two days a week yeah um two days and some change so it's like you're able to create a part-time income income let's just say 50 grand for only two days a week it's like imagine what you could create if you invested 100 of yourself and all of your time it's kind of crazy to think about yeah and that's kind of something that our tax people said when i when i met with them they're like you're doing this two days a week and i'm like well yeah i mean i print stuff on the weekend but that's like maybe like 16 hours a week and they're like uh so why are you why aren't you doing this full time i'm like well because i'm scared [Laughter] yeah so no it's been it's been pretty cool but um yeah and i don't know if that is how it would actually you know multiply because right now my right now my my 16 hours a week is is just me catching up so i don't what would another day of just design be and that's kind of my fault like not scheduling myself like morning is for design afternoon is for production um and then like when i get home or when the kids go to bed i can i can run downstairs and start something else but yeah it it is really interesting to think about yeah just kind of the human potential and the possibilities and and whatnot you mentioned you mentioned like father's day and like zippos and stuff like that um you know for me on on this journey there's so many ideas like that like i could engrave tumblers or this or that and sell them and have a whole product line in store but i've personally found that on this journey i'm not i'm not really so much money motivated as i am passion motivated it's like i could engrave the tumbler but i don't really care about tumblers tumblers don't like do it for me so do you do you do stuff that just makes money or do you focus more on things like i'm only going to make it if it's cool and i actually like it and i'm passionate about it yeah um i'd say maybe 90 10. um so 10 i think i'm just like i need to create a product this like valentine's day is coming up i need to make like a keychain file people can pay a dollar for and the next valentine's day comes around they can buy it again and again and again um and then 90 of the time i'm like i need to think of something that i'm passionate about because if i'm not it's just gonna die like i've come up with ideas like like this apple watch band i bought 180 of these on line because i was like oh i could engrave these and sell them because like other people were doing it i'm like it was like 80 cents i think for the watch band and people are selling them for 15 bucks i'm like that's a good profit margin i sold one because i did i was just not passionate about it and i just like i didn't have good photos everybody else was doing it so it's like that's kind of something i found out at the beginning of the years like if i don't care about this product it's not going anywhere yeah yeah that's really good i feel like i'm i've been in that spot a lot too and you know even right now i would say like i've just been making kind of the same products for the last three years and i'm kind of like yeah i need something to kind of feel that passion like something something new and uh yeah it's it's different this whole entrepreneurial journey it's it's really like uh kind of a self-improvement journey more than anything and you gotta be a self-starter and you're relying 100 on yourself and i don't know trying to find that it's funny because so many people start small businesses and like as if that's like owning your own business is the best thing but then i've seen some other people that have created a small business doing a job maybe they're not super passionate about and then get burned out it's like well if you don't yeah if the passion is not there it doesn't matter if it's your business or someone else's business you're eventually going to get burnt out if it's not fulfilling you in some way and so yeah it's but it's hard because it's like we gotta put bread on the table and some things we just need to bite the bullet and i just need to do this because it makes money but then i also want it to be fulfilling and do something creative and cool and fun but yeah we're just trying to figure it out and i i think that's really good because it's like if you don't have a drive behind your business it's like for me it's my family and i shared that a lot on like youtube and like even on my etsy page it's like you're buying something from me because i want to spend time with my kids like that's most important um so yeah and and you kind of mention that it's like you've been doing that part for three years but it's like could you imagine like doing that for 30 years at like a factory or something where it's just like but so it's like you have your own business it's like let's let's set this aside maybe like let's put this on somebody else's plate um and we can still make money from that and i i know like a lot of people like i tried to do that with my brother i was just like listen i need i'm gonna give you a printer you're gonna run this part at your house i'm gonna give you 30 cents per part i need to focus on something else and that's kind of like the benefit of owning your own business is like i think i want to do something else right now like i wanna i don't know i wanna laser cut cups or like or like uh you know pen holders or lamps or something so you can kind of go that way in a creative space and eventually you'll probably make money on that but you know you know you're not stuck you're not stuck at you know growing somebody else's corn or whatever you know what i mean yeah yeah and it's amazing the opportunity to be able to provide a source of income to other people too like like you said if there's a product that you're kind of burnt out on just give it to you know a friend or family member and hey can you run this part for me instead yep yeah and it's cool because it's like um i have a buddy i was like dude i i'm not using this printer right now do you want it and he's like yeah and now he like prints something every day it's like eventually i'm gonna be like hey bud you want another printer but you know you might have to run some parts for me and he's just all all about it you know and it's like how big do you want your business to be you know for me it's like you said it's like it's not really about chasing money but it's like i kind of have this responsibility now if i've created this product um people want this and that's that's hopefully the the goal is to help other people and it's like if i can provide this for somebody else and then help somebody else have a little side cash you know and then you can kind of profit from that it's kind of a good space like it's a win-win it's really nice yeah yeah that is really cool it was really just a cool experience for me that i've never got to experience before hiring my my mother-in-law on a full part-time basis she was yeah she was working uh at costco for a part-time and then she didn't like it and her you know body was hurting just from lifting heavy things um yeah and so i put 10 printers in her in her basement and then she's been running those and so she quit costco and does that full time or part time now but uh yeah so that's that's really sweet and it's cool because you have you can shift and kind of move things around and do things like i man like it's funny my my journey from from etsy i started selling on etsy and it was like so cool selling all these products and then packaging them and then like a month or two into it i'm like almost like wishing people didn't order because i'm like i don't want to package a stupid part right yeah like there's so many other things i would rather do i don't want to take that one yes i i have certain products and i'll see it i'll be like say like one of your items i'm like i don't want to put one of those together right now you know i just don't want to put that together but yeah i totally get that it's but it's nice to hand it off to somebody else yeah and thankfully she loves like packaging i'm like why that's great because i hate it and uh yeah yeah well then i know i told you it's like i love walking down to the post office but then like certain days it's like maybe we need to take the car because like we have too many you know and it's like i i spent all morning packaging these up i just want to kind of take a break now but yeah it's just it's just fun yeah that's good stuff i think uh yeah one topic um just enjoying enjoying your business um which we've talked about a little bit through text and video messages and stuff and uh i've been on that journey a lot just trying to just enjoy like i could i could make more money if i packaged the parts myself but yeah it's like do i really want to do that and so i could make i could make a little bit more have a little bit more wiggle room or i could just kind of just have enough just to get by but then have that time freedom to spend more time with you know wife and kid and what's most important to us and i think it's important to really keep that in front of our minds like when we start a small business and this video i think can apply to anyone whether you're 3d printing or selling cupcakes if you're just making a you have a small business um do you do you enjoy it is it like why are you starting a small business why i want to have more happiness or more time freedom and then you ask them like do you have happy more happiness right now and oftentimes you're like i'm burned out and this kind of sucks it's like well well it's in something to note there too is like a lot of people will start their own business because they don't they don't want to work for somebody but then you're like bro you're working for thousands of people now like this isn't this isn't just like you know and that was like oh man like i don't like this customer because they're like really pushy and stuff it's like dude you can just fire them like you can fire customers like that's okay but most of the time if you just dig in and like really like be overly obnoxiously nice to them it's like they'll they'll be a lifetime customer and i know you talked about that too it's just like you can turn things around and you can take things in directions that you couldn't with a regular job and i'm like yeah you said like you don't like packaging and it was like well that's my like my brain shuts off and then like my creativity turns on it's like that's my time to just think you know and it's like i can't really do that in any other space so yeah it's just really interesting there's so many benefits i feel like but there's a lot of risks too right yeah yeah it's a wild journey here's here's a question i just thought of last night as i was thinking about jumping on a call yeah um was there anything when you're first starting this small business was there anything at the beginning that you thought so how long you've been doing this now like two years year and a half for um yeah i'd say two and a half years i've been kind of serious about it and then before that i think i think it's been five years i've been selling that muffler housing um and that was just like so two years of that and then i was like oh i could do this i could do other things so it's been i'd say maybe like between two and five years okay so was there anything that kind of at the beginning of starting your business that you thought was like really really important to where now you know two to five years in you're like that's not really that important if anything comes to mind um i can't when you ask that there's kind of like two things that came to mind that aren't really like kind of they're kind of the opposite of that like regrets like i should have done this um and that's machine maintenance i'm terrible at it like my machines are so cheap if they if if it's like six hours of repair or something i'm just getting a new one um and i wish i would like spend more time tuning my machines because you know the product's gonna be better and then the second thing would be like to be legit like get payroll service going um because taxes you know that was just a big pain um for me this past year because i technically wasn't paying myself so i had to pay in a bunch of taxes this year so it's been kind of a pain but um yeah i don't know if there's anything that i'm like i was doing that i don't think it's so important right now we're just like starting a business i know for me i labored and spent so much stinking time about coming up with like my name and my logo i'm like this is so important like my whole business hinges on the design of my logo and then i'm like people don't care about my stupid logo do i have a good product or service to offer like i know i've yeah i've actually changed my logo like three times already um and i i just i'm like that's not important like 3d prints like what is that you know i was because like the tax people were like well you actually need a business name for your llc and i'm like i don't know they're like well what do you do i was like i do 3d prints and they're like okay let's go with that and i like well just spell it like this you know and it's like that like you said that doesn't matter like you're not printing little like stickers for people to put on their car it's like who cares right it's it's to identify you as a brand but am i that big right now that it matters so yeah i don't know yeah yeah that's huge i think it's easy to fall into and i still do fall into like kind of the the launch mode like launching my business like i gotta have my entire car graphics wrapped i gotta have swag i still haven't bought purchased myself one t-shirt that says martin's manufacturing i don't have any swag but it's yeah it's kind of easy to fall into that trap i got to have like a launch and everything's got to be perfect but if you don't have you know if you don't have a hundred thousand subscribers on instagram or youtube no one's gonna care no one's gonna see it yep so it's like just start quick and dirty and just start get something out there and then you can always change that stuff later yeah yeah i always joke with people that i talk to um they're like oh well tell me about your business i'm like well we do uh three and i'm like wait a minute wait wait wait we i was like it's just me bro like it's just me in my basement we ain't no like big like corporation you know so it's like brand guidelines is like whatever you know i have t-shirts i'm that guy but at the same time i was like i need t-shirts why don't i just print my logo on them so but but again it's like did i need to spend 200 bucks on shirts it's like that could have been in my pocket i could have been paying off my house you know sure so at the same time it's fun just to kind of have that pride and ownership and i finally bought myself a 100 big banner for my basement oh cool that's my big thing yeah it is was there was there anything that just kind of this is more just uh more business like starting a small business or is there anything that maybe you didn't think about a lot or yeah i didn't cross your mind or didn't give a lot of thought to but now that you're in a business you're like this is a lot more important than i i thought it would be i think for me i re i'm realizing that marketing is such a bigger beast than it is at first i'm like i'll just create a product throw it on etsy and i'll be good and i have had some success with that but then if you don't have marketing no one's gonna really see that product and so yeah how about how about for you yeah um well first first off uh and maybe you mentioned this earlier uh entrepreneurship is kind of like the best self-improvement avenue um so i think uh something that i think would be really important is just like your own mental health like i started journaling on that guy now like just to write my thoughts down um and kind of like grow as a person you know um but yeah marketing for sure is just like i am the worst at it and i even told my wife i was like listen you need to like take this over like you need to get on my instagram page like you need to take care of this because i am so bad at it um and i've had things where it's like i list an item on etsy and then that day i get three or four sales and i'm like how does this happen and then i spend 200 bucks on advertising on one item and i get like three views and i'm like does this product suck or like am i just you know and then all of a sudden like a couple days go by and it sells and that's kind of where like i i'm afraid to like leave the etsy ecosystem it's like they just raised their their fees but it's like yeah but their seo and their advertising is amazing so it's like if you look for like acrylic letters or clear acrylic letters probably one of my listings is going to be one of the first on the top row on your google search and it's like that that's good but at the same time it's like i i need to market better and you know make youtube videos or even just post on instagram but yeah it's it's that's one of the things that i've overlooked gosh marketing it's like a curse word well and i'm like do i need to go to do i need to go to school for this like or do i just need to pay somebody else to do it because i i love like self-improvement i wouldn't mind going to class or online class but it's like six grand for a class or like 5 000 for this other dude in his basement that's got his marketing business going you know so it's like what you know oh geez i i can't i can relate to uh having a conversation with your wife about instagram there's so many times where i'm like samantha can you please just like create an instagram account and post but then that's not her passion either she doesn't enjoy it anymore than i do and uh and then times i'm like looking in to try and find uh some company that will do it for me but then i'm coming across you know pretty substantial fees and like i can't really justify that and yeah it's that's i think i think that would be my answer too to that question i think i underestimated i mean i i got lucky the first youtube video i ever created in my entire life got a hundred thousand views in the first year and now it's up to like 300 000 views but anyways i did a review video on the glow forge and then i just plugged my product in there like hey this is a good little product to get and then that video just became like the number one review video for glowforge and so i just lucked out but since then you know first i'm like oh that was easy like and then i made my second video i got like 200 views like total i'm like oh i just got lucky there um but then since then like the youtube wave i feel like i'm kind of falling off the youtube wave and now i'm trying to figure out how else what else do i do to market and i think for i think what i need to do for marketing since youtube has worked is just to be diligent about um making videos uh at least one like product feature video a month just to kind of keep that regularly and i kind of battle with it because i never want to be that guy who's just hey here's my product come buy my product it's like i want to offer value to people but at the same time i kind of need to share products because that's my marketing yeah and that's kind of hard too because it's like you don't want to be a slimy salesman but it's like this is kind of my thing and i don't know how if you've ever read like any books but it's like most of the business books are like that uh how to win friends and influence people it's like you got to help them like and then they'll come you know so it's kind of it's kind of tough but at the same time it's like sometimes you need to just push your product and and have that advertisement and it's like people are gonna buy it or they're not you know it's up to them yep yeah that's good um boy what about just kind of um where you kind of at with things um right now with some kind of um something that's on your mind a lot or goals is your goal right now just let me just try and get to full time as fast as possible or what's that yeah um lately and that's kind of like where the journaling comes in because every day like my phone will be like what's your daily goal like what's your personal goal what's your business goal what's your like family goal my business goal is 99 of the time get caught up you know so um yeah if i could if i could get caught up which probably will never happen then i could like chase some other ideas that i have because i'm always like thinking of stuff um when the kids go to bed i can quick sketch something or create something in fusion 360 and be like okay this is going to work i need to produce this the next time i have a day off or i can you know get to manufacturing this and it generally happens maybe 60 of the time um but yeah that i i kind of have been chasing more of like more winning products um i know like my diorama kits are doing pretty well on like instagram um i did pay for like an advertisement so it's like people are reaching out to me they're like hey can you make this like but can you make it white or can you make it a little bit bigger or could you add like this door or something so that's really cool but it's like the sales aren't really reflecting that right now but i know like this is gonna be a good a good idea um because i've seen other people do it and they're just like i can't i we're moving to a different direction um just because there's more money over here or like you know our machine's broke or something so yeah i'd say like probably just new products i'm always trying to find something new just because you know certain i know i can't just put all my eggs in one basket and be like okay these muffler housings i sell you know two per day but eventually everybody's gonna have one or like somebody else is gonna be like hey i can make that right you know i'm gonna start selling this i'm gonna buy one and i'm gonna get my calipers out and make it in fusion 360. i'm gonna print it out abs or something you know so it's like what what am i relying on and is that a good space for me to be in so my mind's just constantly working um but yeah that's kind of that's kind of a curse at the same time too yeah uh you mentioned filament so are most of your parts printed in petg 3d printed yeah and i i actually just bought i should be here today actually um i got another palette of that coming because every time i have two different filaments i'll grab the wrong one and then people will be like hey this part's melting and i'm like yeah i know i printed it on a pla and then i'll have to send them a new one and like sometimes i'll just give them a coupon for like something else too um but yeah i'll it's mostly exclusively like black and white petg okay yeah and then as far as like the resin printers too i use that abs like gray print uh resin but that's all i use because again it's like if i have two different kinds and i don't know if it's regular resin or like the durable stuff you know it could cross and then my parts are breaking people are mad so right those are the two that i kind of have stuck to okay have you found it um i guess beneficial to yeah do you just stick with one product now like just because for like to standardize and make things easier for you and then to offer same consistent product do try and just keep with the same uh brand or same kind of filaments or just still yeah whatever is cheapest at the time or um i definitely kind of both i it's like if if one of them's like half price or something or on sale it's like i'm gonna buy that one um that kind of burns you sometimes depending on like it's like if you're seeing a roll of filament for six bucks you know it's probably not gonna be great so you know right so it's like you kind of get that like middle of the road one um i know that if you buy wholesale you do get a good a good price i think i think uh my filament the film that i just bought came out to like 11 bucks per roll um but it's like again it's like you kind of get what you pay for but i found that that works really well for like the parts that i'm printing so okay yeah i kind of just stick to one for the most part because if i if i you know if i buy like 30 or 50 rolls and it's trash then i'm stuck with it you know yeah yeah i've i'm really big on kind of automating and standardizing and i almost geek out over more over just kind of developing the workflow behind the product yeah and um yeah i've used i started off with i think it was 3d solute it was pla and it just had a more of a nice matte finish and it just hid the layer lines really really well yeah um but then i would get batches where it was like um kind of crumbly it would just like snap and then like halfway in between a print it would snap and i'm getting all these failed prints and it's and it was a little cheaper it was like three bucks cheaper than maybe the overture brand and after a while i've ordered hundreds of those rolls and after a while i'm like i'm just gonna spend the extra three bucks to get a little nicer brand overture is what i use now one that's just consistent every single time so i don't have to run into these hiccups and now fix a failed print and things like that have you tried the amazon basic brand i don't i think i buy one a long time ago but okay because i have like a theory like that it's just the overture brand i think that they're all the same i kind of i don't know i could be wrong because i'm like if you look at uh like alibaba or something you can get that role and like label it yourself so i'm just like i think it's all the same i because i printed with them and like you said like the matte finish on like some of the other brands is like that you want that like gloss is just kind of meh but uh yeah i don't know it's it's crazy but yeah you definitely get what you pay for yeah you do and it's like after a while mike all right i'm done with the cheap stuff i've returned 30 50 so many rolls back to amazon and they then they finally put like some limit they're like you're returning too much i got like an email i got an email about it yeah um yeah but yeah how about man one thing i struggled with so much at the beginning was and i think we're coming up in an hour we'll try and keep it uh sure maybe close it off here pretty soon but uh creativity i think was really tough for me of balancing that of i love sitting down and trying to come up with new product ideas but then you gotta juggle just just the workflow just production of i got to get my current parts out the door i just got to do the more businessy side of business um and i always found it really challenging to kind of schedule time for myself to have like creative hour do you do you schedule any kind of time during the day or during the week of like here this is just devoted to new product development or anything like that or um yeah and that's kind of one of those like bettering myself scenarios where it's like i i need to learn myself i know that i'm most creative from like 5 a.m to 7 00 a.m and then it's like after that to noon is like production time and then i know for a fact like lunchtime hits and i'm just done for the day you know so i'm just like hanging out with the kids and then like in the afternoon um if my wife and the kids are doing something i'll sit down really quick and do something on the computer or like look at my notes and stuff um but yeah there's definitely times where it's like i it's not necessarily in the calendar but it should be because you know when the day is done it should be done because you can you can definitely kind of over commit to your own business and then you're like i haven't spent time with my kids at all today you know like this is the whole reason that we're doing this business so yeah it's it's you gotta stay focused but at the same time like know what's important like if my if my wife's like hey we're gonna go for a walk um and it's like i'm so busy it's like i'm going for a walk because this is the reason you know like i'll just i'll stay up later if i need to but yeah it's uh it's not scheduled i'd say but i definitely sit down at least an hour a day for for more of a creative uh like businessy side like i'll list some products and stuff so that's good yeah i struggled with that a lot because it started off being very creative for me and then it just turned into like a job like a boring job i was like i gotta wake up turn the printer on yeah sam some parts package them drop them off yeah i'm like i want to do something creative and so i go in waves i i had to schedule myself a little bit of time i think like tuesdays and wednesdays i'm like i'm going to do more creative um stuff or just do something fun but then it's it's changed i need to kind of schedule something for myself again to be creative and chase new product ideas and things like that um yeah because yeah like you said it's like you're you don't really want to do that and i see that all the time on like instagram reels people will be like oh i got an order and then like the next scene is like then like i gotta order like a little package just now i was like yes i get that like it you get 100 orders in a day or something and you're like i gotta work tomorrow but you know it's it's exciting when you come up with things and maybe that's why i like selling stl files because it's like you can you can make that you can be creative and then you don't have to make things but at the same time it's like your profit margin is gone now because you know i don't know anybody that's paying 100 bucks for an stl file right right so yeah um well as we kind of actually actually um sorry yeah they're picking up my glow forge right now oh jump on yeah yeah truck i saw two trucks coming out i'm like oh they're supposed to pick that up today all right pick pick up your broken glowforge yeah okay yeah yeah uh crazy yeah um yeah as we come to close any um any tips or thoughts or advice to someone who's i don't know maybe just wanting to get started or someone who's already started a little bit or anything come to mind yeah maybe just like don't give up on yourself you know if you thought that that was a good idea at one time like it probably is you know don't be afraid to get feedback from people um and yeah yeah do some marketing oh gosh yeah i you know what um there's been days where it's like i don't feel like working um especially if it's like been raining for a couple days and and it's and then i'm about to work you know and then uh my my family's home but uh where's they going with that my bad yeah i don't know just stay focused like remember like that that's that could be your income but then remember why why you wanted to do that um i don't know about you like what do you what do you think um yeah i think i think you you said a good line there about don't give up on yourself it's it's hard because when you when you start your own business there's no one else to blame for anything except for you and you're really going to war against yourself and as soon as you start your own business and especially just completely jump ship like i did there's a whole world of insecurities and demons buried down below you didn't know you had that all rise to the surface and start attacking you and say who do you think you are you can't do this you'll never make it and um i don't have any solution to how to work through that except to just keep one foot in front of the others and i had so much self-doubt insecurity and i'd come up with a product like in order to do this full time and to make money i got to sell this plastic part for 25 bucks and i'm like who the heck are you to sell a part for 25 bucks like i was gonna buy it for 25 bucks you should sell this for five dollars and no one's gonna buy it and but yeah so wait but yeah i think what you said just um just keep moving forward to walk up on yourself yeah and that too is like don't sell yourself short too because it's like you put a lot of time and effort into that just because you know somebody else is selling like something for five bucks on on ebay it's like that doesn't mean that that you're not worth that much i mean we think about all the time you put into design and like testing things and it's like you buy so many of those ac infinity fans to just test it out you know it's like that money has to come back somewhere you know you have overhead my electric bill is like 300 bucks who's paying for that you know so it's like i don't know my my wife is always like well what if we you know did this and i'm like you you're not pricing in your your time like yeah it's cheaper to do this yourself but at the same time it's like just buy this thing like somebody else already put time into it you know if it's something that i'm going to sell i got to think about the design time print time it's like i'm not even going to go down there and turn the printer on for less than 20 bucks if there's a custom job you know it's like what you know don't don't under undervalue yourself somebody's gonna pay for that if it's a good product yeah so yeah that's really good charge charge what you're worth um and i think that feeds into again of like why are you having your own business um you want more time but then don't stick yourself in the basement for 16 hours a day and never come up and see your family and it's like i want to have more financial freedom but then don't you know charge 20 cents for an item that you spent 10 hours on like you got to make it work uh do you have kind of real quick here do you have any type of uh philosophy or metric how do you price your parts is it just you value what your time is worth and kind of go from there um for the first long while i would just kind of throw numbers out there somebody i i did services um people would be like hey can you print this thing for me i made this cat model in school can you print it out and i'm like yeah that's so i'll load their file and then um just recently i was kind of i'm kind of a an idiot but in uh like hira and like that cheat box software it will have like a little section for like the price of the filament or like and it'll say like the price at the bottom after you slice it you can put in what you want there like you don't have to put the actual price so it's like if your markup is 200 percent and the film is 30 bucks and you put 60 bucks in there that's your price that you could charge but most of the time like for resin prints i i put like two grand for a bottle of resin and then it's like okay well that part's 25 bucks you know and when it's so that's kind of like uh i did like all these spreadsheets and stuff and that most of the time i'm just like it's 30 bucks does that work for you and they're like yeah that's good i'll take two of them you know so and then uh another thing too for for people out there if you don't want to do something and uh like if you don't want to do a print because it will take too long and you're just like it's going to be 800 bucks sometimes people will pay that 800 bucks so don't be afraid to just be like yeah i'll do that and then you're like excited about it you know there's been times where it's just like i've over priced things because i didn't really feel like doing that and then all of a sudden they're like yeah i'll do that i'll take two of those and then you're like oh wow this is cool now that's awesome so yeah not everybody you gotta think of outside your outside of your own budget because it's like yeah there's times where it's like people want to pay five dollars for a 3d print it's like i'm not gonna do that you know and then there's times where people are like they don't really understand or like they don't want to put in time with that and it's like yeah people make a wide variety of money like it's not everybody's not the same as you so yeah yeah that's so good to think about i do that at the same time i'm making these custom window inserts and someone ordered like a really custom one and i like to have it standardized and i'm like that's just going to take a long time to make it all custom and place everything and and so i kind of just jacked it up a little higher than normal and like yeah he's probably gonna say no and he's like yeah i think it was the same thing it's like yeah i'll take two of them like oh yeah okay well yeah it all depends on who your audience and yeah i have no idea who's on the other side maybe that person's making ten dollars an hour maybe they're making a thousand dollars an hour and it's nothing to them who knows yeah and i think that's kind of your responsibility too to like kind of offer like well this is what i can do for you for like 100 bucks and then they're like well that's a little too much then you can you can come down in your price a little bit or you can be like well this is what i can offer you and then you can you know you can provide for that customer and fulfill their their dreams or their product depending on like what materials and stuff you use so it's just like if somebody says no to your price that doesn't mean the sale is over you can be like well what what is your budget and how can we fit what can i do for you for that much right so it's kind of like something you're always thinking about yeah that's good well cool man thanks so much for jumping on the call me who can wrap that up for today maybe we'll do uh yeah uh another one in the future or something yeah um yeah for you guys watching go check out uh anthony's he's got a youtube channel i love your uh your shop tour that's a cool video just to kind of see what his setup looks like so you can go check out his channel subscribe follow on his journey and then two uh check out his etsy page and all the products that he offers um you know if you're a 3d printer person you could probably make it yourself but why not pay a few bucks and help someone fulfill their dream of going full-time yeah on the small business so uh thanks so much for hanging out and uh yeah uh if you guys got any questions comment below uh reach out to anthony i mean i'll put his information reach out to him whatever and uh wish you guys the best in your journey and anthony thanks so much for uh chatting and we'll uh we'll continue staying in touch on our journeys yes sir cool thanks man all right bye

Channel: Martinson Manufacturing

Views: 22,232

Keywords: how to make money 3d printing, 3d printing for money, 3d printing business, 3d printing ideas, how i made, 3d printing farm, creality, cr-10, cr10, ender 3, glowforge, 3d printing for profit, etsy, amazon, small business, entrepreneurship, running a small business, interview, talking shop, ebay

Id: xysWOKmXf24

Length: 67min 10sec (4030 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2022