Starting a business

[Soñadora]

Thanks again for the great advice. And I completely agree about having the demand before you build. I have a customer base. A small one. I am hesitant to market heavily until I have at least the ability to meet my current demand in a timely fashion. I have been working on my website and the commerce components (all free or very low cost). I have my Kickstarter effort waiting in the wings to be released this month. If that is successful, I will be on the hook to deliver a hundred or so machines. I am not ready for that right now. But I'm also not going to build for it before I start. I just want to have the momentum going. Right now, my only costs are time, plastic filament, and a little electricity. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, I will give a 3 month lead time for delivery.

Having a facility would have allowed us to do more than just offer printers. Even though I'm already training, I would like to do more training and I'm currently at the mercy of the trade school schedule. I also think a store front would be more convenient for those looking to use us as a Kinko's style printing service. And there seems to be a trend toward 'gathering spaces'. The idea of the 'Design Cafe', where I'd have a bar with 10-12 design workstations running OnShape for anyone to use. Those things will have to wait.

Right now, the key really is the printers. Some of my models will deliver close to 100% profit. It was an interesting market study I did last week that told me I can sell my top of the line machine for half the price of other machines and deliver matching or better quality. The key is my ability to rapidly alter the design and the fact that the printer itself is the manufacturer. I do not have to coordinate scheduling with any other supplier - no machine shops, no sheet metal shops, no minimum orders, no suppliers other than the commoditized components. I can engineer things into this printer that others can't manage. It is the closest thing to true Agile manufacturing.

I just need to communicate this angle clearly. I want my customers to understand they are not investing in a 'version'. They're investing in the product. And if a mediocre engineer like me can come up with this, what will happen when the open source nature of this makes it into the wild?

[Soñadora]

This is where I'm headed:

https://voodoomfg.com/

They have purchased a robot arm to service several printers for a 'fully automated' approach. I think that's too much. I have a printer design on the drawing board that will use multiple platens for printing.

Plus, they are using machines from Makerbot. Not terrible, but not my model. Our printers will be built in-house. What better way to prove the concept than to print with printers you printed?

[Soñadora]

I continue to refine this idea.

I shot some footage for my Kickstarter campaign. Once I'm done with my day job, I'm going to put more energy into that.
I have grown my facility to include 8 machines now. The spinner craze has kept me busy and I will be spinning off (see what I did there) another brand called 'Fidgi-tek' that will focus on all this stuff.

While putting together my kickstarter and doing some (a lot) research, I'm thinking this could be an excellent franchising concept. Essentially a 3D printing Kinkos. When I first considered this, I thought "no way". It just seems too daunting. But a financial adviser friend of mine suggested I look into it.

Anyone have experience with a franchise? I was a franchisee in early 2000s and it was a disaster. Bad advice from the franchisor, in my opinion.

[Soñadora]

Rick this is super cool stuff. But.... (You know I've always got a "but". Sometimes I am a "butt".)

I would strongly recommend that you start with customers and work back to operations.

It is human nature to start with how to build the product, where to build it, how to organize the team who'll build it, etc... The reason we all do this is because these are the things we can plan, control, and manage. There's no risk involved. But none of this answers the most critical question in any business: "Will the customer buy the product or service?"

Until you've answered that key question, the most significant risk in any company's start-up process hasn't been answered. Please, get that question answered first, then worry about the other stuff. Believe me, the other stuff is easy. Heck, you can be swamped with orders and tell the customers: "Our product is so popular that we can't build them fast enough!" and "You, dear customers, are so smart for picking our product! Look how successful it is!"

Successfully starting any company is reducing risk as quickly as possible. Start with the most dangerous risks and start eliminating them. First, is always "Will the customer buy the product or service?" Second, is: "How many of these customers are there?" Third, is: "How much will they pay?" Please knock these three off first. I think you could do this by providing products to your first customers from the machine you already have.

Smart move using your basement. Hewlett and Packard started in a now famous garage. My second start-up stated in my den, I made the mistake of renting an office in the first start-up and it nearly killed us. Real estate isn't an asset or an investment, it's an expense.

The problem is a chicken and egg one.

I have been giving this a great deal of thought and research.

The world does not need more 3D printers. The market is saturated with them. Printers that are turnkey, have great quality and low price (~$200). I would never be able to compete with that.

Instead, I'm going to focus on service. There will still be an avenue for my product.

Based on my experience teaching 3D printing, the biggest gaps are:

1.) I know what I want to print but I don't know how to get it out of my brain (design)
2.) I only want a small quantity - or even just 1 - and I need someone to help me (production)

Essentially, I'd like to apply the Kinkos model to 3D printing. I can't do this out of my basement. Not if I want customers coming into my facility.

There are many 3D print services popping up here and there. You can send them your file and they'll send you a print. Turnaround is fast and quality is great. The problem is 'the file'. Where does it come from? You have to make it. It's a rare skill in the grand scheme of things.

Now, considering your question of getting customers first, how can that be done without a location? What options could I look at for co-location and still be able to develop a brand?

[Ajax]

To answer that last question, it seems like you need to create the software that customers will use to create files of things that they want you to print.

I can see the appeal of this. I have no desire to own my own 3D printer, but I would love to be able to email my file to a "Kinko's" and drive down there later in the afternoon, to pick up my newly printed part.

[Orestes Munn]

To answer that last question, it seems like you need to create the software that customers will use to create files of things that they want you to print.

I can see the appeal of this. I have no desire to own my own 3D printer, but I would love to be able to email my file to a "Kinko's" and drive down there later in the afternoon, to pick up my newly printed part.

I agree with this. Other printshops might want the app and then you'd be in the software business, which seems easier and potentially more lucrative, to my naive mind.

[TheOffice]

In order to start a franchise you need a track record, several years of audited financials and a boatload of money to create a franchise agreement and register it. Focus on building your business. Expansion is a couple years out.

[Soñadora]

In order to start a franchise you need a track record, several years of audited financials and a boatload of money to create a franchise agreement and register it. Focus on building your business. Expansion is a couple years out.

indeed, franchising is a longer term goal. But I want to have an idea of what my goals are. If it's my intention to build a franchise, I have to have that frame of mind going into this. Even if that doesn't happen for a long time, the foundation starts right now.

There are plenty of 'apps' for making 3D parts (any CAD system including free stuff like SketchUp, OnShape, etc). But the learning curve is steep and in my 20+ years of teaching CAD, some people just do not have the aptitude to drive a CAD system. Continuing the Kinkos analogy, remember when no one knew how to create a brochure or a flyer or birthday card or anything that was more than just text? Kinkos offered plenty of design consultation as well as workstations where people could work on things. This is a similar approach I am considering. We would have several CAD workstations where those who would like to can create models. We would have knowledgeable staff to help and even designers who could take on entire design projects.

The other angle is that we will be able to provide the printers to make this happen. If you take out all the off-the-shelf components of our printers, they are 100% printed. That means that any franchisee can grow their capacity simply by printing more machines.