Although it’s still the case that many entrepreneurs enlist factories to handle the production process of their new products, it’s no longer a necessity. Thanks to the advent of 3D printing, some inventors and designers now manufacture consumer goods in their own homes or offices.
“I’ve always been passionate about technology and creativity, so about five years ago I bought my first 3D printer,” says David Chacón, owner of Plastiwave. “I started by making figures and keychains for friends and family, but soon realized the potential in the market.
“I’ve always been interested in online businesses, and 3D printing gave me the chance to offer personalized products and technical solutions. That’s when I decided to go all in, quit my job, and focus full-time on this business.”
Want to know how to manufacture your own 3D printed products and sell them to customers? Here’s an overview of how to start a 3D printing business of your own.
What is 3D printing?
3D printing is a process of creating three-dimensional objects from a digital design. Manufacturers can use all sorts of different 3D printing materials, including plastic, ceramic, and metal.
Though 3D printing takes its name from traditional printers that set ink onto paper, 3D printers create three-dimensional objects by adding material layer by layer. You can 3D print at home using a relatively small apparatus that melts and then reconstitutes plastic.
Entrepreneurs can sell a variety of 3D printed items to make money online—everything from home organizers to niche gaming figurines to jewelry. 3D printing technology can also be used to make product prototypes. Whether or not you use 3D printing for your final product, prototyping with 3D printing can help speed up your product development process.
What are the steps in 3D printing?
The 3D printing process involves five fundamental steps:
1. Designing
A designer creates a 3D model of the desired object using computer-aided design (CAD) software. Alternatively, they can copy the structure of an existing product by scanning it with a 3D scanner. This digital design serves as a blueprint for the 3D printer.
2. Slicing or file preparation
Special software “slices” the 3D model into thin horizontal layers that are stacked on top of each other. The model is then converted into a set of instructions that guide the 3D printer on how to create each layer.
3. 3D printing
The 3D printer begins making the physical product. It does this by depositing printing material such as plastic, metal, or ceramic in precise layers according to the design instructions from the slicing software.
4. Layer bonding
As each layer is added, the material fuses or bonds with the previous layer. This additive process continues until the entire object has been printed.
5. Post-processing
Once the printing is complete, the object may undergo additional post-processing steps away from the printer. Post-processing might include cleaning, curing, sanding, painting, or assembly—any final steps that help achieve the printed product’s ultimate appearance and functionality.
How much does it cost to start a 3D printing business?
- 3D printers
- Printing materials
- Software
- Post-processing equipment
- Real estate and utilities
- Hired labor
- Insurance and legal fees
- Marketing expenses
The startup costs associated with a 3D printing business may start at around $5,000 and quickly scale up from there.
Some expenses, such as getting a business license and buying business insurance, are standard for any new business. Other costs are related specifically to additive manufacturing technology.
New 3D printing business owners can expect the following expenses:
3D printers
A quality 3D printer will be the hub of your 3D printing business. It may also be the most expensive item you purchase.
3D printers range from a few hundred dollars for entry-level desktop models to several hundred thousand dollars for industrial-grade machines. Consider budgeting around $2,000 to $10,000 for one or more mid-range 3D printers.
“When I decided to take the business seriously, I invested around €1,000 in my first professional printer, materials, and some software licenses,” says David Chacón. “However, the entry barrier has dropped significantly now, and you can get a good-quality printer for under €400 [$440].”
Printing materials
3D printing materials are comparable to the ink you put in a traditional paper printer. These printing materials take the form of filaments, resins, or powders.
The cost of your initial batch of 3D printing materials will vary depending on what you make. A spool of filament can range from around $20 for common PLA (polylactic acid) plastic to hundreds of dollars for a specialty filament.
Software
Your 3D printer runs on 3D modeling and slicing software. Some software options—like Blender, FreeCAD, and OpenSCAD—are free. However, some free programs may not be able to handle complex designs, so your options will depend on the type of design you’re aiming to print.
More expensive options include Autodesk Fusion 360, which requires an annual license, and Simplify3D. These programs and others like them can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars.
Post-processing equipment
Some 3D-printed items require additional equipment for post-processing before they can reach their final form. This equipment includes sanding and filing tools, curing chambers, and cleaning stations.
This equipment may run from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on your industry.
Real estate and utilities
Your 3D printing operation requires physical space. You might be able to work out of your own home if you run a small startup that only serves the local market.
If you have bigger ambitions, you’ll likely need to rent a larger workspace or even a warehouse. You’ll also need to pay for utilities like electricity and internet. Real estate rates will vary depending on your location.
Hired labor
If you plan to hire employees or contract workers, you’ll need to budget for salaries, benefits, and training. The price of labor varies widely based on location, job duties, and experience.
Insurance and legal fees
A small business owner can expect to pay for business insurance. Contact insurance brokers directly for rate quotes.
Many will also pay for legal services for business registration, contracts, and licensing. Lawyers typically charge several hundred dollars per hour, but you can save money on some document preparation by using an online legal business service like LegalZoom or ZenBusiness.
Marketing expenses
You’ll need a marketing budget to promote your own business within your target market. This includes developing a business website and running paid ads, along with pursuing search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, and more.
Some small business owners pay for this with their own sweat equity, creating most of the marketing materials themselves. Others hire a marketing specialist.
Our research found that the average small business owner spends $40,000 in their first year. Between 7% and 12% of this goes into marketing.
How to start a 3D printing business
- Conduct market research
- Develop a business plan
- Legally establish your business
- Obtain financing
- Research and choose a 3D printing technology
- Lease space and purchase equipment
- Choose a sales platform
- Hire staff, as needed
- Build an online presence
- Market your business
Starting any successful business requires careful planning and discipline. Here are the key steps to starting a 3D printing business of your own.
1. Conduct market research
Before you embark on a business venture, take stock of the current marketplace by doing market research about 3D printing in your industry. Study local demand and assess your competition. Identify potential niches and markets for your 3D printing business.
Braydon Moreno, founder of Robo, had a unique way to approach product research and validation: “Once we got that first prototype together it was obviously a great achievement for us at that time. We were like, ‘Cool, we got our first product. What do we do with it?’ We got to raise money and it just led us down the path to Kickstarter.
“There [were] other products in 3D printing that had done extremely well on Kickstarter,” Braydon says. “We knew the market was hot and excited about it.”
2. Develop a business plan
A business plan is the roadmap of your business, including your goals and how you’ll get there. You’ll need this if you plan on securing financing—investors will want to see the vision before they give you money.
Use a free business plan template to jot down your:
- Business goals
- Target market
- Services offered
- Price points
- Financial projections
- Marketing plan
Bear in mind that starting a 3D business doesn’t just mean manufacturing products and selling them directly to the customer. You can also offer 3D printing services for others.
For example, some entrepreneurs have opted not to design their own physical goods, but instead produce items for a roster of corporate clients. These small business owners function like boutique factories, as they turn customer designs into physical products.
3. Legally establish your business
Legally organize your 3D printing operation under a formal business structure like an LLC, a corporation, or a sole proprietorship. The former gives you more legal protection and access to more funding options.
You may also need to choose a legal business name, obtain a business license, and get business insurance to operate in your state or municipality. Shopify has guides for starting up that can help you learn the requirements for your specific region.
4. Obtain financing
A 3D printing company has bigger startup costs than many other business ideas. You’ll need to pay upfront for 3D printers, materials, software, legal services, and marketing fees.
Instead of funding this yourself, set up a business bank account and obtain financing. This could come from investor capital or bank loans, or by bootstrapping and using your own personal savings. You can call upon public resources like the Small Business Administration (SBA) or private resources like Shopify Capital to obtain the funding you need.
Also consider whether you can rent 3D printing equipment from suppliers, where you’ll make monthly payments to lease the machinery. You won’t own the equipment outright, but it’s a superb way to start a business on a budget.
5. Research and choose a 3D printing technology
Decide on the type of 3D printing technology you want to operate. Research fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), and selective laser sintering (SLS), all of which create 3D printed objects layer by layer.
Determine which 3D printing materials you’ll work with and the specific 3D printing services you’ll offer, including prototyping, production, custom items, and more.
You might spend more time doing this than you initially expect. “We ended up making probably 15 different 3D printed models before it was all said and done and we had the one we liked,” says Alex Commons, founder of Bulat Kitchen.
6. Lease space and purchase equipment
If you’re just starting out, you can probably run your 3D printing business from your home. As your company grows, you may need a larger space.
Regardless, create a dedicated workspace with proper ventilation, lighting, and electrical outlets. You’ll also need the appropriate 3D printers and raw materials for your chosen manufacturing niche. Research and compare different printer brands and models based on your budget and business plan.
7. Choose a sales platform
If you plan to sell your 3D printed goods directly to consumers, an ecommerce platform like Shopify can handle everything you need for selling online, including:
- Collecting customer data
- Displaying product details
- Processing secure online payments
- Running marketing campaigns
- Localizing the experience for international shoppers
If you plan to operate under a business-to-business (B2B) model, the same concept applies. Modern buyers want DTC-style experiences from the brands they’re purchasing from.
Shopify lets you do this from the same ecommerce platform that’s powering your consumer-facing website: with a password-protected portal. That way, you can display wholesale price lists and product catalogs exclusively to buyers who’ve been approved
8. Hire staff, as needed
If you choose to start your 3D printing ecommerce business as a solo operation, this step may come later. Or, you can have a team of workers on hand before you start accepting customer orders for fulfillment.
For instance, you could hire a specialist who handles the actual 3D printing. Alternatively, you could learn how to 3D print on your own, and hire a team to help you with administrative work like accounting and marketing.
Bear in mind that there are other costs associated with hiring employees besides their salary—like taxes, benefits, or pension contributions. You could always explore temporary contracts with freelancers to see whether it’s a cost-effective way to increase capacity.
9. Build an online presence
Many of your potential clients will find your business by searching the internet. This means you’ll need a business website and social media profiles for your company.
Your online presence should highlight your specialties and the products or services you offer. If you choose an all-in-one ecommerce platform like Shopify, you can get a business website builder included in your subscription.
Help people find your business by optimizing it for search engines. That means incorporating relevant keywords in your:
- Product descriptions
- Meta titles and descriptions
- Social media bios
- Blog articles
10. Market your 3D printing business
Search engines aren’t the only way to find buyers for your 3D printing business. Market your products to bring new customers to your business and retain past customers through a mixture of:
- Advertising (e.g. Facebook ads)
- Content marketing
- Email campaigns
- Social media marketing
- Partnerships through apps like Shopify Collabs
- Word-of-mouth campaigns
The secret to making money 3D printing is to use marketing channels your target market is already using. Evaluate top-performing content on those platforms to figure out what they’re paying attention to, and reverse engineer those topics with your own spin.
📌Pro tip: Connect your Shopify store to popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok to turn your profiles into virtual storefronts. With social selling, users can communicate with you directly and buy items from your 3D printing business without leaving their favorite apps.
Best practices for managing a 3D printing operation
Establish a workflow for 3D printing projects
A workflow is a documented process that you’ll follow when 3D printing your products. It starts with designing your item in CAD software, then preparing the file for printing, creating your prototype, and testing the new product.
Some entrepreneurs avoid rigid workflows because they fear it will interrupt the creative process. In reality, you still have freedom to experiment with new ideas and printing techniques within the parameters of your workflow. They just act as guardrails to make sure the product development process is consistent.
📚 Learn more: Saving Time and Money by 3D Printing Your First Prototype
Maintain and calibrate your 3D printers
3D printers are just like any other machine. Take good care of them and they’ll last for years—but neglect them and they’ll end up costing you money to fix or replace.
Here’s a handy checklist to maintain your machinery:
- Clean the machine to remove dust and filament build up, particularly the nozzle
- Lubricate moving parts to prevent friction
- Check for loose screws or belts
- Update firmware and software
- Replace faulty or broken parts
3D printers also need calibrating to make sure that the machine uses the correct amount of material for each product. Most printers have calibration options that do this for you.
Choose the right materials for different applications
There are several materials you can use when 3D printing: plastic, metal, and ceramic. But there is no “best” material—certain 3D items lend themselves to different substances.
Polylactic acid, for example, is ideal for 3D printed toys because it’s cheap to source and biodegradable. Metal powder would be better suited to 3D printed jewelry where the items need to be more durable and sturdy.
Cost is also a factor in your material choice. Bulat Kitchen’s Alex Commons says, “We can print a 3D model of a knife for $30 instead of creating tooling, which could cost a thousand dollars to iterate on a new version of a knife.
“I mean, it wouldn’t cost that much—you just make it by hand—but if you have particular contours or you’re using different materials or whatever it might be, it can be really expensive.”
Implement quality control measures
High quality products don’t just let you charge premium prices—they result in long-term revenue for your 3D printing business. Happy customers won’t return items. They’re also more likely to come back and make multiple purchases.
The issue is: There’s a lot that can go wrong when 3D printing your own products. The machine might need calibrating, or the materials you’ve used might not have melted as expected. Quality assurance measures can identify these issues and rectify them before they affect your customers.
“Quality is key to making sure our customers are happy,” says Plastiwave’s David Chacón. “We focus on three main areas: using reliable printers, making sure the design and file preparation are suited for the final product, and selecting the right high-quality materials. Once the piece is printed, we carefully inspect it for defects to ensure it meets our standards before delivering it to the customer.”
How to start a 3D printing business FAQ
Can I 3D print anything and sell it?
You can 3D print anything that can be built using additive manufacturing technology—from simple toys to specialized mechanical parts. You can legally sell anything, provided that you’re in compliance with federal, state, and local laws. These laws may pertain to safety, consumer rights, intellectual property rights, and tax compliance, among other categories.
Do I need to have technical expertise in 3D printing to start a business?
It takes technical expertise to operate a 3D printer, but you can teach yourself these skills via manuals, online videos, and training courses. 3D printing is powered by advanced software, and much of the training process involves mastering this software. You can also start a business and hire a team to operate the printers.
What are the key factors to consider when pricing my 3D printing products?
When pricing your products, consider the cost of materials and equipment, market demand, and competitor prices.
How do I ensure the quality of my 3D-printed products?
You can ensure the quality of 3D printed products by using high-quality materials (plastics, metals, resins, etc.) and commercial-grade manufacturing equipment. It’s also important to make sure your employees and you have 3D printing expertise.
How do I find customers for my 3D printing business?
Define your target audience, build relationships with them on social media, post on YouTube, run retargeted ads, optimize your website for SEO, write a blog, and partner with creators.
What types of 3D printers are best for beginners?
The Bambu A1 Mini is a good 3D printer for beginners. It’s relatively inexpensive, has auto-calibration features, and supports color printing.
