I share what's worked for me and how I arrived at my prices. Intro and my background 0:00 How I arrive at my price 1:13 Spreadsheet breakdown 2:26 Some advise 5:21
When you pay for a service/product, you pay for the experiences behind it. Not the 10 minutes it takes to make/solve it. But the Months/Years it take to for that professional to get to that level of efficiency.
Well, i do not. I know about this Research&Development but this has to be shared among so many people that it should be a fraction of the price not a multiple.
@@llothar68 like the last person said. Start making shit and sell it for a damn cheap price and whatever many years of experience you have? Leave that out of the price.
"A product's value is not found in the material it's made out of but in the problems it solves for people." I totally agree with your attitude! The design and R&D fase is often undervalued and not calculated into the price. Finding a niche is also very important, it is valuable if you can design something that is not easy to replicate. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thank you for what u brought up. So the value is to be based on the problem it solves so to be determined would be how? I am so lost with that and wasnt sure about that. Thanks!
@@immortalmonsterhybrid975 That is the million dollar question. How do you determine the value of your solution? I think you must first look at the current problem that the customer has and calculate how much it costs them to fix it now. It might cost the customer 1000 dollars per year. You might be able to convince the customer to buy your solution, if it is the only one that currently exists on the market and it fixes the problem for less than 1000 dollars per year. You can sell it between 1 to 999 dollars, many makers would choose the highest price they can convince the customer to buy it for (maybe 5-20% cheaper than their current solution). If you have competition, you might want to price it more competitively.
@@htpkey I c. Then it would be good to know what market prices are then and there. The goal is to be good at doing research. Then XD and that means knowing the cost of the part the time it would take the strength if the peice. The question is how to determine the quality for the peice if it will hold or not.
Really enjoyed this (especially you sharing your real-world numbers) and thanks for not using jumpcuts in your videos. The natural flow makes it easier to focus.
I agree... so many sell too cheap and hurts the rest of us. They end up quitting after a while when they don't make money, but they still have done the damage. I'm amazed sometimes how much people are willing to pay and also amazed at how cheap some people want to talk you down to... But that's retail... I'm just beginning in sales, been printing for a few years for myself...been in businesses of my own for years. I'm just looking for my niche.
Are there any other ways of income from the 3d product besides selling the actual 3d printed parts or selling the 3d model or a licence letting others print the 3d model with a small royalty fee for each sale they make from it?
Your content is awesome man. Just relaxing as heck to listen to you explain stuff. Appreciate the "no metal music" way of making this an easy to listen channel. I have a 20 machine farm in my country and I am finding your content super useful! Highly appreciate you sharing so much information freely and with such good vibes!
You can add to your skillset "well done youtube videos". I have just started my journey educating myself about 3d printing. Came across your "first $5000 made" video, which was easy to watch and listen to. So I looked for more of your story and have watched several more videos. Very helpful! Thanks for your candor and down to earth style.
Sometimes, if you sell cheap, people will try to haggle you down to the point where it's not worth making or selling. Sometimes, if you price yourself higher, people assume it's a quality product and is worth the money, so they just pay without question.
I just found your channel and I subscribed because I love you are so real, honest and open. You really deserve your success and thank you for sharing what you have learn and encourage other to pursue their dreams. It is really hard to find a complete clean human on YT or other socials. I said this not only for your vid but because I read your replies to some interesting questions. I can’t express how excited I am to see this real transparent honest helping others you. Thank you!! I hope you continue to have great success by doing this.
Wow, that was probably the kindest and most encouraging comment I've ever received. Thank you for taking the time to share all that, I really appreciate it!
Im planning on starting a 3d printing business and I have ideas booming in my mind. Watching your videos are just what I was looking for all the questions I had and question I didn'y even know. I saved the videos to my playlist so i can reference back to them. Thank you so much !
Good info in this. What I've realized doing online business is that if you already have customers, you should almost always charge more money to make the most profit. Sure you'll lose a couple customers who don't really want it, but the extra price will more than make up for that loss. However, if you don't have reviews or a customer base I would recommend to start low price just to get some credibility.
If you are having trouble pricing a product or finding the "right" price you can do this: Start at X price, if it sells then raise the price. Rinse and repeat until you start to see sales tapper off. This gives you an idea of what your customers are willing to pay for that item. I've done this with my consulting over the years. The real value is if what you are selling solves a problem or saves someone time.
basically, if you double the price, and lose 50% of your sales, you made the right choice. same profit for less work. Obviously, this is a crude/rough example, but it gives you the idea.
Just found your channel today and have been enjoying your informative business videos! They’re really helping me piece together what I should think about for my own 3D printing business. I’d really like more videos based around business/ your website! Thanks!!
Nice Onefinity in the Background! I actually sell printed parts for that. New item is a rear dust collection system with integrated drag chain ingratiation. Nice info as well!
Recently discovered your channel, love it! VERY helpful. Question for you... did you get a patent for your design? I'm just curious, because it seems like an easy target to rip off and sell (overseas companies do that a lot). I ask, because I have a couple designs I've made and I worry that if I bring it to market I will start seeing the same thing on Temu for $5. Thanks for any input! And keep up the great work!
Very nice insight, thank you! Always great to see when people can make a "hobby" to a profitable business with real value for society. But the list is missing some values which may need attention too: what is your electricity bill per part? How do you value wear and tear on the printers? What about maintenance cost? What about refunds on lost shipments and unsatisfied customers? Hosting cost for the website? And the big one: taxes?
I just became aware of your channel as I got it recommended by YT and found it very informative. I'm into 3d printing myself, but only as a hobbyist, so I'm not into selling any products. But I was curious about this video and I'm impressed about your openness and honesty regarding your pricing, especially for the adapter you were showcasing. Sure, you calculated some profit into it as you need to make a living for you and your family, but I was missing some other detail to take into account. What about the costs for purchase / maintenance of your printers, the electricity to run them or the storage room you need for your workshop? After all, those costs have to be recouped as well...
I do custom designs and reverse engineering. The prints I do are custom for each customer and can't/won't sell to anyone else it makes the printing more expensive. With test prints to final product the prices are usually hated and I do lose business, but very little profit is made from my prints. I love the work and helping people with their inventions, just wish I could make enough to make it full time.
This video was inspiring and insightful. I've been taking the plunge on setting up a legit 3d printer workshop (in a closet!) And have been designing some original products. Pretty soon here once I'm up and running, I'll be trying to start selling on Etsy, and also selling the files on places like myminifactory. Do you have any more specific advice for getting your first couple sales?
Right on, that's awesome to hear! I started with three Ender 3's in my apartment closet lol. As far sales, ya know, I think I just got lucky. My part(s) go to the Glowforge. I made a review video of the machine (first TH-cam video I've ever done) and it got tons of views. My product link was in the description and that's what led to sales. There's a very large Glowforge group on Facebook, and customers started sharing my part in the Glowforge group and that brought even more sales. What product genre would your parts fall into? What kind of people are they tailored to? Fell free to email me to joe@martinsonmanufacturing.com
this should be helpful. just starting and went the route of 'how much would I charge if someone requested me to make this'. the more research and all I am doing, including this video, finding out that might be hard to have sales at that rate. so I better redo the math based on a structure more like your template. would like to see my STL files sell more though, but trying to list them at the same time that I list printed products
Alright, that settles it I’m going to try selling things I designed. Honestly, more recently they started as I “I have a problem, can I learn CAD well enough to make a functional part?” That quickly became an aesthetically polished functional part. So, the design work was done to prove to myself that I could. But now, I have a part that maybe others could use. If I can somehow get past my expectation of printing something so clean it looks injection molded… Side note, many people have background music loud enough it’s distracting. You have it almost inaudible which is perfect. Good stuff.
Tyler, I think you may have a huge advantage here against all the other dudes selling 3d printed products on Etsy. Honestly, most 3d printed products I see on Etsy look very 3d printed. A lot of the techy guys printing and selling them also don't have a great sense of aesthetics. I'm thinking your version compared to there's would sell so much better. I think that's why mine does well. There's a lot of other dudes selling versions of my part, but they kind of look like junk. My meticulous tendencies paid off. 90% of the ratings I have on Amazon are 5 starts which is almost unheard of. People will see the quality of your part and will pay more money for it. BUT, you have to get it out there man. Just ship it. Take some photos, get it listed, and get that thing out the door. The world needs what you have to offer. Don't keep holding it back from us ;)
Nice videos, it's interesting to see how you approach things. I'm doing some very similar product development work to you but haven't quite hit success yet. Also, very jealous of your tools. I'm curious how you landed on selling those adapters? Was it a personal need or was it something you noticed a lot of other people talking about? Did you have success selling your stuff right away or did you have to fumble around a while before you really got going?
Great questions. I made the part for myself first. Then later I thought, "If I'm having this issue, others probably are too." I made a review video of the laser cutter this part goes to and that video (to my surprise) got a lot of views. My part was mentioned in the video and linked in the description and that drove a good amount of traffic to my Etsy where I first started selling it. That video started taking off and then people in Facebook groups started sharing the part with each other. That's when the part really started going. To your question though, I fumbled for at least 6 months before it became somewhat significant.
@@MartinsonManufacturing Thanks for the reply and congrats on the success. I definitely get the feeling I should be ramping up my social media efforts, I've pretty much ignored it so far and it sounds like it worked really well for you.
You know marketing has been the only part of this that feels like pulling teeth and I ignore it all the time. Our types usually just prefer to be in the shop making products, not talking about it online. I can’t wait till I get enough money coming it to hire a marketing person full time.
Any way i could get the template for your spreadsheet, one of the files, or a better quality picture so i can see what costs you accounted for and have a better idea what i should be doing? It could just be my phone but i can't read anything on youre spreadsheet, its all blurry
Really enjoyed the video! I'm just wondering how you ship so cheap at only $4? When I have looked into shipping it seems like USPS would be the cheapest at over $6.
My 8x10 polymailer is only 5 ounces so that's probably why. I have bigger parts in a 7x7x7 box at 15 ounces for around$6. If you're under 1lb you're golden.
Arc welder sounds amazing, and it's beyond me why Cura wouldn't use G2/G3 for arcs to begin with. I watched this great video and he says it doesn't save any time. Am I missing something? th-cam.com/video/zn3rQhdBReQ/w-d-xo.html
I would start with how much plastic it costs to print the part. If you change infill or layer thickness, the cost of material will change along with printing time. Your slicer program should tell you how many meters of plastic it needs to make the part.
Good advice. I wonder why you haven't added some ballpark value for printer time in your per-item costing. Is it just so low that it isn't worth considering?
What would that account for? Like wear and tear to account for printer maintenance? I’ve hardly had to do any printer maintenance so it’s pretty negligible and I just count it as a general business expense if I need to a replacement part. I certainly could add it in though and it wouldn’t hurt.
I'm curious you haven't included electricity cost to make parts or a % added in for running repairs of 3D printers? Or is this just all lost in your profit?
Even running 10+ printers I never noticed a significant jump in electricity. Our electricity bill is paid out of our personal checking so I don't add it in. Repairs/maintenance could definitely be added in, but it's pretty negligible for me so it just becomes a general business expense. That's just how I do it.
How many machines do you own? How many did you own when you first started selling? I own one machine just purchased. I have a unique product I designed but it requires 6 separate parts. Not all big parts but I don't think I could keep up with orders if they sold at a rate of more than 2 per day. Great vid. Very helpful. Subscribed.
I had 14 Ender 3’s. I started this journey with 2. I realized early on that quantity in printers is the name of the game. However, BambuLab printers will print 2x to 3x faster which means less machines and less management and maintenance.
I find your excel chart for each product helpful, but if you have something like quickbooks, doesn't that achieve this sort of breakdown as well? Maybe this is for those without quickbooks??
Good video 👍, but don't forget to add the machine costs. You have to include maintenance costs for your current machines and you should consider the costs for buying a new one, because your current printers won't last forever.
Hello, I want to print and sell things on internet but I don't design. I would like to pay commercial use licences but there are pretty rare (and pretty expensive). What can I do If I want to make business printing, without designing ?
I quit my full time job and pursued this full time in Aug 2019. After a few months of not making enough money and running out of savings I got a part time gig delivering packages for Amazon three days a week to keep me afloat. By April 2020 my 3d printing sales became a full time income and I was able to quit my part time job. Wishing you success on your journey!
How did you pivot from one selling platform to another? We’re you worried about loosing customers? How does shopify handle marketing your products? Currently on Etsy, eager to move
Moving from Etsy to Amazon was amazing! Moving from Amazon to Shopify was horrible!Etsy and Amazon have incredible SEO that you’ll never be able to replicate on your own website. If you move to your own website you absolutely need a strong marketing strategy and a strong reason for customers to buy on your site rather than an established one like Amazon or Etsy. I didn’t have a marketing plan place and failed miserably when I switched to Shopify.
Just started my 3D printing business kinda felt guilty to charge 1500PhP ( 26USD) for an prop NVG for airsoftt guy First customer, well, right now kinda felt a relief. thanks alot sir.
It's hard to give a simple answer to that question. I had way more sales when I was on Amazon, but I didn't like the control. During my 1st year I needed someone to pick/pack/ship my products for me and Amazon FBA handled all that for me and that process was automated which was crucial for growth. Now that I'm a little bigger I was able to hire someone to pick/pack/ship for me so that help from Amazon is no longer needed. Shopify has cheaper seller fees, but you have to figure out how to drive traffic to your site, whereas people on Amazon might just stumble across your product on a random search. Starting out I just needed money, whereas now I just want the freedom to do what I want with my business. I think each selling platform was perfect in it's own season. Sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you.
@@MartinsonManufacturing That's interesting thanks. I just opened an Etsy store but it got suspended for no reason given. It takes 4-5 days to hear from them! So I'm opening a shopfiy to have more control now.
In regards to the cheaper sellers: they are serving a different market, with a different goal. You price your items under the assumption that each item has to be profitable enough to justify a trip to the post office on its own. They are pricing their parts under the assumption that they will be taking many parts on each trip. Your prices will ensure that both of you will get more or less what you are expecting. The problem is their prices are placing them in direct competition with shapeways. They will not win that fight. P.S. most of them are using stolen files anyway.
I didnt see where you considered in mfg. to include overhead cost, machine & tool payback & replacments and other adminstrative cost like licenses. Maybe you have now since the video.
I group all those into a general business expenses category on a separate spreadsheet. This sheet is mainly designed to help me see if a product is profitable enough and worth pursuing. But yes, those other costs you mentioned definitely need to be accounted for somewhere.
fyi content idea.. i'm gearing up to sell a 3D printed product and i don't think there is any way i can print everything myself. i am seeing tons and tons of videos on how to 'set up a print farm' but literally no videos (after 3 days of searching) on how to send your model to a printing service. e.g. how to find a good print farm, reasonable prices, volume expectations, turnaround etc.
People view costs for parts relative to the price of the thing they go to. In this case the laser cutter is quite expensive, so owners don't see another $20-$25 as all that big of a deal. If this were for an Ender 3 ($170), it would seem more unreasonable.
When you pay for a service/product, you pay for the experiences behind it. Not the 10 minutes it takes to make/solve it. But the Months/Years it take to for that professional to get to that level of efficiency.
Well said
Well, i do not. I know about this Research&Development but this has to be shared among so many people that it should be a fraction of the price not a multiple.
@@llothar68 then you make it.
@@llothar68 like the last person said. Start making shit and sell it for a damn cheap price and whatever many years of experience you have? Leave that out of the price.
"A product's value is not found in the material it's made out of but in the problems it solves for people."
I totally agree with your attitude! The design and R&D fase is often undervalued and not calculated into the price. Finding a niche is also very important, it is valuable if you can design something that is not easy to replicate.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thank you for what u brought up. So the value is to be based on the problem it solves so to be determined would be how? I am so lost with that and wasnt sure about that. Thanks!
@@immortalmonsterhybrid975 That is the million dollar question. How do you determine the value of your solution?
I think you must first look at the current problem that the customer has and calculate how much it costs them to fix it now. It might cost the customer 1000 dollars per year. You might be able to convince the customer to buy your solution, if it is the only one that currently exists on the market and it fixes the problem for less than 1000 dollars per year. You can sell it between 1 to 999 dollars, many makers would choose the highest price they can convince the customer to buy it for (maybe 5-20% cheaper than their current solution). If you have competition, you might want to price it more competitively.
@@htpkey I c. Then it would be good to know what market prices are then and there. The goal is to be good at doing research. Then XD and that means knowing the cost of the part the time it would take the strength if the peice. The question is how to determine the quality for the peice if it will hold or not.
Really enjoyed this (especially you sharing your real-world numbers) and thanks for not using jumpcuts in your videos. The natural flow makes it easier to focus.
Awesome, glad it was helpful.
I agree... so many sell too cheap and hurts the rest of us. They end up quitting after a while when they don't make money, but they still have done the damage. I'm amazed sometimes how much people are willing to pay and also amazed at how cheap some people want to talk you down to... But that's retail...
I'm just beginning in sales, been printing for a few years for myself...been in businesses of my own for years. I'm just looking for my niche.
Are there any other ways of income from the 3d product besides selling the actual 3d printed parts or selling the 3d model or a licence letting others print the 3d model with a small royalty fee for each sale they make from it?
Your content is awesome man. Just relaxing as heck to listen to you explain stuff. Appreciate the "no metal music" way of making this an easy to listen channel. I have a 20 machine farm in my country and I am finding your content super useful! Highly appreciate you sharing so much information freely and with such good vibes!
Thanks for the encouraging comment man! Awesome to hear you have a 20 machine farm going. I wish you great success!
You can add to your skillset "well done youtube videos". I have just started my journey educating myself about 3d printing. Came across your "first $5000 made" video, which was easy to watch and listen to. So I looked for more of your story and have watched several more videos. Very helpful! Thanks for your candor and down to earth style.
That’s so awesome to hear. Thank you for the encouraging comment :)
Sometimes, if you sell cheap, people will try to haggle you down to the point where it's not worth making or selling.
Sometimes, if you price yourself higher, people assume it's a quality product and is worth the money, so they just pay without question.
Well said
Its all custom....you don't make 37% PROFIT on a custom part.
I just found your channel and I subscribed because I love you are so real, honest and open. You really deserve your success and thank you for sharing what you have learn and encourage other to pursue their dreams. It is really hard to find a complete clean human on YT or other socials. I said this not only for your vid but because I read your replies to some interesting questions. I can’t express how excited I am to see this real transparent honest helping others you. Thank you!! I hope you continue to have great success by doing this.
Wow, that was probably the kindest and most encouraging comment I've ever received. Thank you for taking the time to share all that, I really appreciate it!
Im planning on starting a 3d printing business and I have ideas booming in my mind. Watching your videos are just what I was looking for all the questions I had and question I didn'y even know. I saved the videos to my playlist so i can reference back to them. Thank you so much !
That’s awesome! Glad you found value in my videos.
Exactly how I price my products too with a similar spreadsheet. Opportunity costs are everything!
Outstanding advise. I certainly do appreciate this video. Thank you
Good info in this. What I've realized doing online business is that if you already have customers, you should almost always charge more money to make the most profit. Sure you'll lose a couple customers who don't really want it, but the extra price will more than make up for that loss. However, if you don't have reviews or a customer base I would recommend to start low price just to get some credibility.
Great vid, very inspiring and genuine! You’re creating brilliant content!
Very informative and useful. Thank you!
Great content and it's nice to see a real person with no big fanfares, just really good informative stuff.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks man!
If you are having trouble pricing a product or finding the "right" price you can do this:
Start at X price, if it sells then raise the price. Rinse and repeat until you start to see sales tapper off. This gives you an idea of what your customers are willing to pay for that item.
I've done this with my consulting over the years. The real value is if what you are selling solves a problem or saves someone time.
basically, if you double the price, and lose 50% of your sales, you made the right choice. same profit for less work.
Obviously, this is a crude/rough example, but it gives you the idea.
Just found your channel today and have been enjoying your informative business videos! They’re really helping me piece together what I should think about for my own 3D printing business. I’d really like more videos based around business/ your website! Thanks!!
Thanks for the feedback Jake. Wish you the best on your 3D printing journey!
Great video! Thank you! 👍👍👍
Thank you, wish u the best!
Thank you for sharing!
Very helpful. Thank you.
Looking forward to more videos
this video has gave me alot of confidence to do what i want i gonna start building rc trailers thanks and have a good day
Awesome to hear man, thank you for sharing.
Thank you for the video!
Nice Onefinity in the Background! I actually sell printed parts for that. New item is a rear dust collection system with integrated drag chain ingratiation. Nice info as well!
Great video, it inspired me to carry on. Thank you :)
Love it!
Recently discovered your channel, love it! VERY helpful. Question for you... did you get a patent for your design? I'm just curious, because it seems like an easy target to rip off and sell (overseas companies do that a lot). I ask, because I have a couple designs I've made and I worry that if I bring it to market I will start seeing the same thing on Temu for $5.
Thanks for any input! And keep up the great work!
I totally need to use that sheet for my items.
Great content. You seem like a really nice dude. I hope it works out for you.
Very nice vid! Id factor in amortization and maintenance of the machines!
Think i will start outreaching more with some of my own designs and licenses i purchased. Thanks brother
Very nice insight, thank you! Always great to see when people can make a "hobby" to a profitable business with real value for society. But the list is missing some values which may need attention too: what is your electricity bill per part? How do you value wear and tear on the printers? What about maintenance cost? What about refunds on lost shipments and unsatisfied customers? Hosting cost for the website? And the big one: taxes?
I just became aware of your channel as I got it recommended by YT and found it very informative. I'm into 3d printing myself, but only as a hobbyist, so I'm not into selling any products. But I was curious about this video and I'm impressed about your openness and honesty regarding your pricing, especially for the adapter you were showcasing. Sure, you calculated some profit into it as you need to make a living for you and your family, but I was missing some other detail to take into account. What about the costs for purchase / maintenance of your printers, the electricity to run them or the storage room you need for your workshop? After all, those costs have to be recouped as well...
I do custom designs and reverse engineering. The prints I do are custom for each customer and can't/won't sell to anyone else it makes the printing more expensive. With test prints to final product the prices are usually hated and I do lose business, but very little profit is made from my prints. I love the work and helping people with their inventions, just wish I could make enough to make it full time.
This video was inspiring and insightful. I've been taking the plunge on setting up a legit 3d printer workshop (in a closet!) And have been designing some original products. Pretty soon here once I'm up and running, I'll be trying to start selling on Etsy, and also selling the files on places like myminifactory. Do you have any more specific advice for getting your first couple sales?
Right on, that's awesome to hear! I started with three Ender 3's in my apartment closet lol.
As far sales, ya know, I think I just got lucky. My part(s) go to the Glowforge. I made a review video of the machine (first TH-cam video I've ever done) and it got tons of views. My product link was in the description and that's what led to sales. There's a very large Glowforge group on Facebook, and customers started sharing my part in the Glowforge group and that brought even more sales.
What product genre would your parts fall into? What kind of people are they tailored to? Fell free to email me to joe@martinsonmanufacturing.com
Value is not determined by utility.
Desire is what determines value.
this should be helpful. just starting and went the route of 'how much would I charge if someone requested me to make this'. the more research and all I am doing, including this video, finding out that might be hard to have sales at that rate. so I better redo the math based on a structure more like your template. would like to see my STL files sell more though, but trying to list them at the same time that I list printed products
Nice Video. What about electricity cost?
Sorry if I missed this in the video... Are you accounting for electrical cost and machine maintenance/depreciation?
Alright, that settles it I’m going to try selling things I designed. Honestly, more recently they started as I “I have a problem, can I learn CAD well enough to make a functional part?” That quickly became an aesthetically polished functional part. So, the design work was done to prove to myself that I could. But now, I have a part that maybe others could use. If I can somehow get past my expectation of printing something so clean it looks injection molded…
Side note, many people have background music loud enough it’s distracting. You have it almost inaudible which is perfect. Good stuff.
Tyler, I think you may have a huge advantage here against all the other dudes selling 3d printed products on Etsy. Honestly, most 3d printed products I see on Etsy look very 3d printed. A lot of the techy guys printing and selling them also don't have a great sense of aesthetics. I'm thinking your version compared to there's would sell so much better. I think that's why mine does well. There's a lot of other dudes selling versions of my part, but they kind of look like junk. My meticulous tendencies paid off. 90% of the ratings I have on Amazon are 5 starts which is almost unheard of. People will see the quality of your part and will pay more money for it. BUT, you have to get it out there man. Just ship it. Take some photos, get it listed, and get that thing out the door. The world needs what you have to offer. Don't keep holding it back from us ;)
@@MartinsonManufacturing You are an absolute GEM of a person. Thank you for your input and kind words. I greatly appreciate it.
Nice videos, it's interesting to see how you approach things. I'm doing some very similar product development work to you but haven't quite hit success yet. Also, very jealous of your tools.
I'm curious how you landed on selling those adapters? Was it a personal need or was it something you noticed a lot of other people talking about? Did you have success selling your stuff right away or did you have to fumble around a while before you really got going?
Great questions. I made the part for myself first. Then later I thought, "If I'm having this issue, others probably are too." I made a review video of the laser cutter this part goes to and that video (to my surprise) got a lot of views. My part was mentioned in the video and linked in the description and that drove a good amount of traffic to my Etsy where I first started selling it. That video started taking off and then people in Facebook groups started sharing the part with each other. That's when the part really started going. To your question though, I fumbled for at least 6 months before it became somewhat significant.
@@MartinsonManufacturing Thanks for the reply and congrats on the success. I definitely get the feeling I should be ramping up my social media efforts, I've pretty much ignored it so far and it sounds like it worked really well for you.
You know marketing has been the only part of this that feels like pulling teeth and I ignore it all the time. Our types usually just prefer to be in the shop making products, not talking about it online. I can’t wait till I get enough money coming it to hire a marketing person full time.
How is the shipping label 4 cents? Even 4oz packages for me are $3-$5
I plan weighing my prints.. if one roll of P.L.A. cost 20 dollors at 2 pounds... what do you suggest i should charge per pound ?
What’s the best way to market things?
Any way i could get the template for your spreadsheet, one of the files, or a better quality picture so i can see what costs you accounted for and have a better idea what i should be doing? It could just be my phone but i can't read anything on youre spreadsheet, its all blurry
I am now curious what some of the products on Etsy are that you think are genius.
Could you upload/link your excel pricing sheet? Would be nice for a starter to use.
Really enjoyed the video! I'm just wondering how you ship so cheap at only $4? When I have looked into shipping it seems like USPS would be the cheapest at over $6.
Online service. Shippo, pirate ship, etc
My 8x10 polymailer is only 5 ounces so that's probably why. I have bigger parts in a 7x7x7 box at 15 ounces for around$6. If you're under 1lb you're golden.
Is the ender 3 a reliable printer?
How do you feel about resin printing?
Your product would really benefit from the arc welder plugin in cura, it vectorize curbs so it can print faster and smoother
Arc welder sounds amazing, and it's beyond me why Cura wouldn't use G2/G3 for arcs to begin with. I watched this great video and he says it doesn't save any time. Am I missing something?
th-cam.com/video/zn3rQhdBReQ/w-d-xo.html
@@MartinsonManufacturing since the printer has to process less commands, you can bump up the speed without introducing as much blobs on the print
@@TheKdcool Gotcha. Thanks for sharing.
I would start with how much plastic it costs to print the part. If you change infill or layer thickness, the cost of material will change along with printing time. Your slicer program should tell you how many meters of plastic it needs to make the part.
What do you use for shipping? 4$ is inexpensive compared to what Etsy would charge...
Good advice. I wonder why you haven't added some ballpark value for printer time in your per-item costing. Is it just so low that it isn't worth considering?
What would that account for? Like wear and tear to account for printer maintenance? I’ve hardly had to do any printer maintenance so it’s pretty negligible and I just count it as a general business expense if I need to a replacement part. I certainly could add it in though and it wouldn’t hurt.
I agree. As your printers begin to reach EOL you need to have money available for replacement or repairs.
I'm curious you haven't included electricity cost to make parts or a % added in for running repairs of 3D printers? Or is this just all lost in your profit?
Even running 10+ printers I never noticed a significant jump in electricity. Our electricity bill is paid out of our personal checking so I don't add it in. Repairs/maintenance could definitely be added in, but it's pretty negligible for me so it just becomes a general business expense. That's just how I do it.
Is the excel sheet something you would be willing to share?
Odd you do not include any fixed overhead cost. How do you account for that and where?
How many machines do you own? How many did you own when you first started selling? I own one machine just purchased. I have a unique product I designed but it requires 6 separate parts. Not all big parts but I don't think I could keep up with orders if they sold at a rate of more than 2 per day. Great vid. Very helpful. Subscribed.
I had 14 Ender 3’s. I started this journey with 2. I realized early on that quantity in printers is the name of the game. However, BambuLab printers will print 2x to 3x faster which means less machines and less management and maintenance.
I find your excel chart for each product helpful, but if you have something like quickbooks, doesn't that achieve this sort of breakdown as well? Maybe this is for those without quickbooks??
Adding value to a product is how you sell it to an customer.
Good video 👍, but don't forget to add the machine costs. You have to include maintenance costs for your current machines and you should consider the costs for buying a new one, because your current printers won't last forever.
Re: Insecurity. Yep. I feel that.
any chance you would share the Excel template?
Hello, I want to print and sell things on internet but I don't design. I would like to pay commercial use licences but there are pretty rare (and pretty expensive). What can I do If I want to make business printing, without designing ?
I’m doing the same thing. Trying to go full time. At what point, financially, did you end up doing this full time?
I quit my full time job and pursued this full time in Aug 2019. After a few months of not making enough money and running out of savings I got a part time gig delivering packages for Amazon three days a week to keep me afloat. By April 2020 my 3d printing sales became a full time income and I was able to quit my part time job.
Wishing you success on your journey!
How did you pivot from one selling platform to another? We’re you worried about loosing customers? How does shopify handle marketing your products? Currently on Etsy, eager to move
Moving from Etsy to Amazon was amazing! Moving from Amazon to Shopify was horrible!Etsy and Amazon have incredible SEO that you’ll never be able to replicate on your own website. If you move to your own website you absolutely need a strong marketing strategy and a strong reason for customers to buy on your site rather than an established one like Amazon or Etsy. I didn’t have a marketing plan place and failed miserably when I switched to Shopify.
No electricity cost or other overheads?
Just started my 3D printing business kinda felt guilty to charge 1500PhP ( 26USD) for an prop NVG for airsoftt guy First customer, well, right now kinda felt a relief.
thanks alot sir.
You should consider factoring electricity use into your costs
You have no cost for the wear and repair of the printers. How often do your printers require bearings and other parts to be replaced?
What about electricity ?
You aren't factoring in the electricity you are using, or the wear & tear/consumables on your printers.
Would you recommend starting straight on Shopify?
It's hard to give a simple answer to that question. I had way more sales when I was on Amazon, but I didn't like the control. During my 1st year I needed someone to pick/pack/ship my products for me and Amazon FBA handled all that for me and that process was automated which was crucial for growth. Now that I'm a little bigger I was able to hire someone to pick/pack/ship for me so that help from Amazon is no longer needed. Shopify has cheaper seller fees, but you have to figure out how to drive traffic to your site, whereas people on Amazon might just stumble across your product on a random search. Starting out I just needed money, whereas now I just want the freedom to do what I want with my business. I think each selling platform was perfect in it's own season. Sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you.
@@MartinsonManufacturing actually, that was a good answer. Thanks
@@MartinsonManufacturing That's interesting thanks. I just opened an Etsy store but it got suspended for no reason given. It takes 4-5 days to hear from them!
So I'm opening a shopfiy to have more control now.
@@samhillier4427 Hmm.. that's weird you got suspended. Good for you with Shopify. I will say it's really nice having your own website.
In regards to the cheaper sellers: they are serving a different market, with a different goal.
You price your items under the assumption that each item has to be profitable enough to justify a trip to the post office on its own. They are pricing their parts under the assumption that they will be taking many parts on each trip. Your prices will ensure that both of you will get more or less what you are expecting.
The problem is their prices are placing them in direct competition with shapeways. They will not win that fight.
P.S. most of them are using stolen files anyway.
I didnt see where you considered in mfg. to include overhead cost, machine & tool payback & replacments and other adminstrative cost like licenses. Maybe you have now since the video.
I group all those into a general business expenses category on a separate spreadsheet. This sheet is mainly designed to help me see if a product is profitable enough and worth pursuing. But yes, those other costs you mentioned definitely need to be accounted for somewhere.
What about taxes?
I got charged $450 👉just to 3D print 7 items ok - Is that correct??
Why is shipping label listed twice at two very different values?
One is for the cost of the paper label itself, and the other is the cost to ship at the post office.
fyi content idea.. i'm gearing up to sell a 3D printed product and i don't think there is any way i can print everything myself. i am seeing tons and tons of videos on how to 'set up a print farm' but literally no videos (after 3 days of searching) on how to send your model to a printing service. e.g. how to find a good print farm, reasonable prices, volume expectations, turnaround etc.
why don't you order these bulk, injection molding? it would cost you much less (per unit) and you can sell more.
I’d love to do that but I don’t have the capital to swing $10K-$30K for tooling.
$$$
Why did you start to hate selling on Amazon? Should make a video on the pros and cons Amazon vs esty vs your own website
is this video outdated?
So what does it actually cost just to 3D print a solid small item? Is it $20? Or $50? 😕🤦🏻♂️
A lot of etsy and ebay people simply sell stolen 3d models hence why it's so cheap. It's not like they spent the time to design the parts.
I´m amazed that people are paying so much for it.. but .. well i guess its, if you really need that part.... you paying what it cost i guess
People view costs for parts relative to the price of the thing they go to. In this case the laser cutter is quite expensive, so owners don't see another $20-$25 as all that big of a deal. If this were for an Ender 3 ($170), it would seem more unreasonable.
That’s a great point.
37% is way too low for profit....
Seems a lot like Fiverr, for example - voice actors or artists charging below what they are really worth. 6:07 is key.
I kind of think you rip yourself off dude . And Giving someone a dollar for gas is like giving your dog like a sixteenth of a treat