I am business dumb, but I have a very unique mix of skills I would like to turn into a side hustle. Needless to say, there is going to be a huge learning curve for me.
Sure, I could just sell 3D prints on Etsy, but I would rather focus on B2B type work with a more hands on approach than the Chinese print farms/PCB manufacturers. (I’ll start an Etsy shop for practice, but that particular market seems extremely saturated.)
So, if you have started a business before, what are some basic things that you wish someone had told you before you did? Are there good books or other references I could use?
I don’t have any advice but I’m curious what kind of equipment & software you’re working with. I know that stuff isn’t cheap.
For starters, I have a Prusa printer, Moose 3D scanner and a full license for Fusion 360, a small custom built CNC and a good selection of specialty tools.
If needed, I can revert to photogrammetry for capturing high detail on small parts. (Probably within 15um/.5 thou? I need to test the limits of what I can actually do before I say for certain…)
I can scale printing super fast and am lucky enough to have a Microcenter near me so I can buy more printers and filament in a hurry. (Now that I think about it, I’ll probably order a resin printer this evening. It’ll be useful for my own projects where I need to duplicate some injection molded parts.)
For now, I am going to let the jobs determine the scale of my operation and how I invest in additional equipment. Thankfully, I am decent enough at the mechanical aspects of this stuff to handle issues fairly quick.
But yeah, I already have a few thousand dollars in tools, assorted parts and filaments. It’s the odd tools I have that give me a good starting advantage, me thinks. (Nobody else I know has a full set of pin gauges, as an odd example. My electronic component and fastener selection is also fairly substantial.)
Honestly, it’s time to get an ROI from all of my own, personal projects that I have made substantial investments in over the years.