How to Start a Successful 3D Printing Business with Only $1000 in Pocket

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Standing on the hard ground of reality, becoming successful with $1000 depends on a number of factors like your skill, your ability to recover from a failure or mishap and so forth. If you do something out of craze and enthusiasm it becomes susceptible to going wrong. You should, therefore, decide with a cool brain if you really want to do a business.

Don’t get demoralized at the above words. The other side of the picture is quite bright. Thousands of people have started this business, and those who had honesty, integrity, and hard work together gained success. 

How to Start a Successful 3D Printing Business

If you are mentally ready, sit back and read the whole article carefully.

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1. Do a Research and Make a Plan

This is the basic step that is going to determine your future course of action.

  • Get Expert Help: The best practice is to contact people who are already in the business and talk to them. They can guide you from their practical experience and their advice a hundred times more precious than all of the books and websites.
  • Internet Resources: Not everyone can find such experienced people and the only dependable option left for them is searching the net. There’s tons of information on how you can start a low-budget business. At least one of every ten could be practically useful.
  • Market research: Market research is the next step of your plan. You should know the playground well before you kick off. You need to search out data and information on which 3D products have most of the customers, what are the cheapest of them and what are the ways to market them.
  • Legal Information: You need to have legal and administrative information like how to register a business, get a tax ID number etc.
  • Niche Research: What is your niche? You cannot fumble with all kinds of products and continue with your amateur-like work all along. For a starter, you can start with consumer products like eyeware and toys. When you’ve decided on a particular niche you can easily start running on the track you feel comfortable.
How to Start a Successful 3D Printing Business

2. Select Your Ideal Printer

This is where you should take the longest time and consider the hardest to decide because you cannot possibly change it often if you are not satisfied.

There are numerous types of printers on the market ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to some thousands of dollars. You must select one that serves your starter business best.

Here are some of the printers that you can easily choose from:

Comgrow Creality Ender 3

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For those who are searching low-cost printers, Creality could be a one-stop solution. It has got a series of productions of various technologies.

If you have decided on a resin printer they have got the Halot ONE. It offers 127 x 80 x 160 mm print volume, LCD technology and a reasonable price. 

The Ender 3 V2 supports ABS, PLA and wood and has got a bigger print volume: 300 x 300 x x400 mm and a replaceable 0.4mm nozzle. And yet the price seems not out-of-reach.

The Monoprice Mini Delta V2

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With a small and compact size and an amazing compatibility with PLA, ABS, Copper Fill, Wood Fill, Bronze Fill and Steel Fill this printer works superbly for a low-budget business. It has got a USB connection and has got slicing that supports Cura and other open source software.

The reason for the excellent efficiency of these printers is that the company always takes users’ reviews and updates their products.

Voxelab Aquila 3D Printer

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This is especially designed for the beginner level print works and, therefore, suitable for the business we are dealing with.

This Chinese company, Voxelab, has been in the market since 2015 and has been manufacturing such printers that are more suitable for home use than large scale companies. Aquila is one such instance that you may choose without a second thought. It supports PLA, ABS and PETG.

da Vinci Nano 3D Printer

The brand, XYZprinting, has brought more than 20 printers to the market. And among the varied level of price and performance the da Vinci Nano 3D is much cheaper as well as a good-quality printer.

Launched in 2017 this is a desktop FDM Solution that supports PLA and PETG filaments equally. Though the print volume is limited (120mm x 120mm x 120mm) it can be suitable for a starter business.

Anet A6 3D Printer Kit

This is another Chinese company that produces cheap 3D printers. Most of them are easy to assemble and use. Beginners can get their basic 3D printing experience using these products.

The Anet A8 or Anet ET4 are some of the best matches for low budget business. Introduced in 2019, the latter offers a fairly large print volume (220 x 220 x 240 mm), a touch screen and an end-of-filament detection system.

QIDI Technology X-One2

One of the renowned Chinese 3D printer production companies, QIDI Tech has brought out a number of printers that suit a wide range of obligations and requirements.

The X-ONE2, for example, has a full aluminum frame providing more stability and, inside, a built-in turbo fan circulating air around the nozzle. It also offers a slicing software and a heated print-bed. Its build volume is 300 x 250 x 300 mm.

Tornado 3D Printer (300*300*400 mm)

Another Chinese company Tevo markets affordable 3D printers. With an average print volume of 300 x 300 x 400 mm. Supporting almost all the plastic filaments and offering a heating plate it is always among the shortlisted 3D printers. 

Phrozen Sonic Mini 4k from

Time for introducing one of the smartest Taiwanese companies— Phrozen which has brought out a series of 3D printers including both professional and desktop models. The Sonic Mini 4k has the following interesting features:

  • The precision level is 35 micron
  • Takes around 1.5 seconds to solidify a level
  • 6.1 inch monochrome LCD screen
  • Print volume is 134 x 75 x 130 mm

It’s price is pretty higher than the ones we described earlier

The Polaroid 3D Printer

Can you think of a real 3D printer weighing only 1 kg? It’s the PlaySmart marketed by the American camera company Polaroid. With a print volume of 120 x 120 x 120 mm it supports three types of materials: PLA, PEGT and P-Wood. It is suitable for a beginner businessman who is looking for a compact and durable printer.

Bresser REX Wifi 3D Printer

This is a product of German technology. The Bresser corporation is well known for manufacturing binoculars, telescopes and microscopes. As typical to German companies they have brought out a professional level 3D printer at a comparatively low cost.

It is a WIFI 3D printer with an intuitive touch monitor and therefore easy to use. It has also got a versatile connectivity, i.e., USB port, WIFI and cloud. The printing dimension is pretty alluring: 150 x 150 x 150 mm.

Features of a replacement nozzle and filament package (one white and one black) along with the cloud print control and integrated 2MP camera have given this printer a speciality that few of its kind have within this budget.

Thanks to the heatable mounting plate which gives your material an optimal level of adhesion and thereby reduces the chances of material sliding.

3. Invest in Training

It would be really unwise to step into a fast changing and rapidly growing business without having a basic skill. This might make you susceptible to repeated mistakes or, at least, slowing down your success. On the other hand if you avail a training course you’ll feel confident. Acquiring the basic skills means a lot while you start a new business.  

Today it’s not very difficult to find a course that would be just suitable for you. Most of the fruitful programs will, however, cost you some bucks. Don’t worry, they are worth that.

Here is a website that will guide you to some essential courses.

4. Select Ideal Raw Material

Your product selection will practically determine which filament you’ll use. PLA and ABS are the cheapest of all. The average production cost of a quality 1kg print with PLA is between $15 and $20. For ABS it is a bit costly: between $20 and $35.

5. Marketing Plan

We’ll be going for the famous four P’s formula of the marketing plan: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Product

The marketing plan for your product means the detailing, e.g., in addition to your printing whether you are going to offer design and shipment services and any other type of engineering services.

Price

As you are in competition with your neighboring companies (remember, by dint of the internet, the whole world has become a single commercial marketplace) you need to declare a reasonable price. There should also be a clear sub-section of the price of the additional services.

Place

This is one of the most important decisions and this is going to affirm 70% of how your business will run. At different places you’ll need different strategies: beside a busy urban road, in a 3D Printing market or right at the heart of an industrial district.

Promotion

Most beginners fail or take imprudently longer time determining how they will drive customers to their own business. You can think of the following steps:

  • Reaching out to local websites
  • Advertising in local papers and magazines
  • Social media marketing
  • Flyers
  • Local radio advertising

Final Words: You are Always at Risk

Don’t think that you are at risk only because you haven’t got enough money. So many big companies run by a panel of rich people and with millions of dollars’ fund suddenly fall victim to irrecoverable losses. Some of them even had to end up selling off their business or closing down permanently.

So you don’t need to panic. Focus on cutting down production costs (of course not affecting your product quality) and marketing plan we told you about. If there are hundreds who failed there are thousands who achieved success. Which side do you think you belong to? 

Shamim Ahmed
Shamim Ahmed
I’ve been an innovator in this space for years and am really excited to share my knowledge with you. I’m an entrepreneur and love helping others achieve their goals by teaching them how to build a business around the newest innovations in technology.

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