“If you have experience printing PPE during COVID, then you have a taste of what it is like to 3D print with high demand and deadlines.”
Q. What’s your top advice for hobbyists who want to turn pro?
If you have experience printing PPE during COVID, then you have a taste of what it is like to 3D print with high demand and deadlines. You know what kind of failure rates you run and how often your machines need re-calibrating. Those are key factors in understanding how you should charge for your services, which is the key ingredient to successfully turning the switch from hobby to pro.
If you printed PPE during the pandemic, go back and think through that time about what worked, what did not work, how much you put into it to keep the machine(s) running. Then start to calculate what an hourly rate would have been to make that experience a worthwhile career. Then triple or quadruple that hourly rate because there will not always be as high of a demand for 3D printing as now during the PPE shortage, so you will need to cover some downtime. Use that hourly rate to then calculate what a price per part or piece would be, and you will have arrived at an understanding of what you would need to charge customers in order to turn your hobby into your profession.
Q. What are your cautions for hobbyists who want to turn pro?
There are plenty of people in the market already doing the same thing. In my opinion, the biggest hurdle for a new company at this stage of the industry is differentiation. If you are just another “me too” then you will not stand out and it will be hard to build momentum and traction.
Q. As more companies enter the 3D printing services area, how are you staying ahead? How do you differentiate your company?
Primarily, we differentiate by offering solutions, not just services. We contribute to our clients’ projects by offering ideas to make their projects even better, whether that is in the design, the production and printing method, or the overall concept. Our input and assistance is highly valuable, but it is not a line item that we charge for, it is just what we do. Customers are often unaware that they even need it, but when we start brainstorming with them to make their project even better, they certainly appreciate it.
Q. There’s a growing number of online services, like Treatstock and CraftCloud, that match clients with printing services all over the world via online portals. Are these a threat to local entrepreneurs in 3D printing services?
In ways, those online services are a threat, but we see them as opportunities. Their rise in popularity shows evidence that more people are designing for 3D printing, which means the industry is growing and in turn there will be more work for our local firm. Plus, as we list our services on those platforms it gives us ways to reach customers outside of our normal market. But to address their threat, online services are a long way away from beating the intangible benefits of personal relationships with clients. Design assistance, turnaround times, material selection, getting in touch with me over the weekend on my cell phone, the list is long.
Q. What percent of your business involves giving advice or guidance on 3D printing?
Complementary services are a critical offering for our business and how we leverage them is our differentiator. Our design plus print clients represent at least 50% of our print service work, but that is considering “design” as just 3D modeling or file repair. Our “professional input and print” clients represent 90% or more of our print service work. It is rare that a client will come to us with a working file and a knowledge of exactly how they want it printed.
“It is rare that a client will come to us with a working file and a knowledge of exactly how they want it printed.”
Q. How time consuming is it to help customers who submit a CAD file that won’t print?
This was a large challenge for us in the beginning. There have been numerous occasions where the price of a 3D print did not come close to covering our time spent repairing a file. Once we came to terms with the fact that it was going to happen quite often, we put processes in place to repair files efficiently and we determined a proper fee structure and a way to communicate that with clients. This is a critical “gotcha” right now for entrepreneurs in this space; if you do not have the 3D modeling and repair component figured out, your potential customer base just shrunk by an order of magnitude.
Q. What has been your most successful marketing avenue?
We’ve done it all, from SEO to paid search to word-of-mouth and having a physical retail presence, to email campaigns, cold calling, and social media. They all have varying levels of success depending on the vertical market, but the one common thread that has led to success in all channels is our reputation. We are known for understanding clients’ needs, being fair, and exceeding expectations. That has contributed to more marketing successes than any of our well thought out and executed campaigns.
Q. What would you say has been your biggest lesson learned in the 3D printing service industry?
Prints fail, and when they fail there are repercussions. I am much better at handling those repercussions, and devising ways to prevent failure than I ever was before 3D printing.
Q. What are your growth plans for the future?
We have lots of growth planned for our future! At our pace, and with our plans, in five years we – me and my business partner, and co-founder, Jason Daenzer – will be 10 to 20 times our current size. We will still operate our largest print farms in one location, but we will have satellite locations in additional cities. We will have not only expanded our print farms to include additional printing methods (currently we have FDM and SLA farms and are building out an SLS farm as we speak), but we will be bringing on additional “making tools” such as vacuum forming, CNC, and laser cutting.
We see the 3D printing industry starting to take significant bites out of traditional manufacturing, and we are evolving to meet that demand for production.
