We had to offer other services that would add value to 3D printing. It sounds corny, but that was the reality. The real money in offering a 3D printing service, especially if your a small business, is if you can differentiate yourself from merely becoming a commodity.įor us, we had to become more than just a 3D printing service. And if you do opt in for these instant quoting systems, you can get a lot of low end jobs and lose out on clients with a very custom need. If you don't opt for an automated system, you end up doing a lot of back and forth with clients. The amount of work that you have to put in on fulfilling custom orders is a lot. Many 3D printing companies have gone out of business because they could not make a sustainable profit to keep the lights on. We're not saying this because we don't want you to compete with us, but we're saying this because we want you to know the risks involved in the 3D printing business. We were fortunate that we were located in NYC, where there is huge demand for 3D printing, and that we started in the early days when 3D printing was still new. Hard to compete with the giants such as Shapeways, 3DHubs, etc.Demand highly depends on your local market.And most of them are surprised by how expensive 3D printing is and why can't it be as a cheap as Amazon! Scenario B: Amanda is looking to 3D print a prototype of a product she plans to sell on Kickstarter.īelieve it or not, we get a lot of Joe's looking to get a quote for their missing appliance part. Scenario A: Joe is looking to 3D print a door handle because his door handle broke.
But if you're serving clients where 3D printing solves a costly problem that they have, then they are more willing to pay you a lot more to solve it for them. You'll barely cover your cost because of the amount of labor required to finish just one job. If you're 3D printing for the general consumer, then your profit margin might not be high because it's for personal use.
Can you really make money with a 3D printer?
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