A recent story suggests anyone can make huge money with their 3D printer. It’s not that simple.
Business Insider published a story the other week about a young entrepreneur that is apparently pulling in around US$300,000 per month — equivalent to over US$3M per year. That’s incredibly impressive for an 18-year old teenager.
The story plots the saga of Albany-based Michael Satterlee, who ran several startups before landing on “Cruise Cup”, which markets a range of 3D printed products.
Satterlee’s success is notable, and it appears he’s put in the work necessary to make that happen. By launching several previous startups, he’s no doubt learned much about how to be a proper entrepreneur — keeping costs down, managing sales, identifying and marketing products, etc.
The issue I’m concerned with is everyone else that reads that story: they may believe it is a straightforward approach to succeed and generate similar revenue.
And why not? 3D printers are cheap, just buy one and starting printing stuff. Make 150 widgets each day, selling them for US$20 each and every week you’d have US$21,000!
The truth is that the printing part is the easiest step: buy printer, feed it material, press print. Done. That is entirely predictable and can be done by anyone that can afford a printer.
That’s not the challenge here. The challenge is one of marketing: what, exactly is that widget you’re going to print? How do you know that people will buy it? Do they need this product? Do they even know they need it? How could they find out they need it?
These are unknowns, and that’s the fundamental risk of a business.
To land on a truly salable product, you have to get your head around a customer base to know their situation. You have to devise some type of clever solution for a problem they have, one that they may not even realize is a problem.
You have to somehow make your solution known to all of them, and that’s incredibly difficult.
The skills required to do all of the above have absolutely nothing to do with 3D print technical skills. This is why many eager would-be-entrepreneurs fail: they focus on the technical instead of the development of the product.
Some technical folks also have the marketing skills, as Satterlee clearly does. Those without the marketing skills had best find a business partner that does, and soon.
The truth is that any successful business is a mix of skills, including not only technical, but marketing, operations, design, leadership, finance, and more.
The Business Insider story no doubt inspired many to consider a new venture making products with 3D printers. If Satterlee can succeed, perhaps you can too.
But just be aware that you may need some extra help along the way.
Via Business Insider
