đ§ A 3D Printing Side Hustle
Links I like and 2023 Highlights & 2024 Goals
1. Business idea of the Week: 3D Printing.
Todayâs idea is a cool side hustle you can start this week with a few hundred bucks.
Like any tech, 3D printers continue to get cheaper and easier to use.
And the objects you can make are endless.
Keychains, tools, accessoriesâŚ. pretty much any physical object you can think of.
And when you can manufacture things yourself, you can print profit.
The Idea: 3D Printing.
Steps to Start:
Research a Niche: This is the most important part of the entire idea. Some 3D-printed niches are saturated (like 3D-printed phone cases). Try to find niches that are trending, and donât have as much competition (like 3D-printed e-bike accessories).
Get a Printer: Hereâs an example of a reliable printer for $170 on Amazon with 14K+ reviews.
Learn the Basics: Use YouTube videos and online forums to learn how to use your printer and design the objects to print.
Sell Your Products: Start with an Etsy shop, promote on social media, and continue to expand your listings.
As mentioned, finding your niche or the type of products youâre going to offer is the most important factor of this side hustle. If you can catch the wave of a trend, you have the potential to make thousands with your products. Use tools like Google Trends and explodingtopics.com to find ideas.
Reasons I like this:
Low Investment: You only need a basic 3D printer to start. Weâre talking about a few hundred dollars, not thousands. Once youâve started to make money, you can upgrade to meet demand.
Work from home: Start from your home office, garage, or even a small corner of your apartment. 3D printing doesnât take a lot of space.
Scalability: Kick off with Etsy, and as you grow, set up your Shopify store and use social media like Instagram and TikTok to boost your brand.
Some people are making $1000âs a month 3D printing, while others struggle to make a few bucks. If you can find the right niche and dedicate yourself to making this work, this is a great opportunity.
And thatâs a wrap!
2. Links I like.
5 Sales books every salesperson should read - The Follow Up
8 things your video setup says about you and how to fix them - Kevin Shen
How to perform an SEO HEIST using ChatGPT - WesGPT
3. 2023 Highlights & 2024 Goals
When I think about the last year, it seems short.
But when I look back on everything that happened during 2023, itâs actually a lot.
So I decided to write out all of my highlights of 2023, and goals for 2024.
In no specific order, here they are:
Sold Subshark.io (newsletter referral tool).
This wasnât a big sale but was my first âbusinessâ sale. Lots of learnings about getting customers for an online tool.
New Half Marathon PR.
Time was 1 hour 40min or 7.38/ mile pace. This was my 2nd ever half marathon. Still not sure I want to run another. đ
Rental property cash flowed.
This is the first full year Iâve owned a rental property. Had a few things come up like flooring needing to be replaced, and a dishwasher fixed, but overall it did make (a bit) of profit this year.
Surfed a lot this summer
I got my first longboard this year and surfed more than the previous year. I plan to up this in 2024.
This newsletter grew from 450 to 1.1K subs
Thank you for the support! Iâve officially written this newsletter for >2 years now, and have yet to miss a Sunday.
Quit my job at Amazon
This is a huge one. I left a comfy 6 figure job at Amazon to go all in on entrepreneurship. So far, I still think I made the right decision.
Started and grew The Follow Up to 11K subs and got featured in The Hustle.
This was my biggest focus of the year. I started in April, with 2X weekly posts, and grew to over 11K subs. We also got to work with some awesome sponsors like Hubspot, and got featured in The Hustle. This was a full-circle moment for me since The Hustle is one of the sole reasons I became obsessed with newsletters (and started this one in 2021).
Met a ton of cool people online who became friends and will likely do business with them in the future.
There are so many interesting people to meet on Twitter. Iâve found the key to connecting with other interesting people is to become an interesting person yourself. People want to be friends with people that are doing cool things. So do more cool things.
And now for my 2024 goalsâŚ.
40K subscribers on The Follow Up
I believe 40K (or maybe 50K) is the magical number that can make The Follow Up a six-figure business. This is my north star goal that I am putting the majority of my focus on. To do this, I will continue to push paid acquisition and put more focus on organic growth channels (Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin).
1K Youtube Subscribers on The Follow Up and my Personal YouTube.
This is more of a vanity metric, but itâs something I want to achieve. The input goal is to put out at least 2 videos per month on each channel.
Interview a minimum of 26 people for The Follow Up
In 2023 I interviews 8 people for The Follow Upâs podcast. While it didnât lead to much, I enjoyed them and they gave me a lot of ideas. And the more people I connect with, the more good luck I seem to have.
Self-sufficient income
Leaving my job in November meant that Iâd be living off of savings for the near term. While I donât have a specific income goal, I would like to reach a monthly income to cover my expenses. I estimate this to be around $4K.
Uncomfortable learning
My best learning and growth comes from putting myself in uncomfortable situations. To do this, I want to attend more in-person events and meet more people in real life (not just Zoom calls). To kick this off, Iâm attending my first Toastmasters session on Tuesday morning.
If you can help me with any of these goals, please reach out!
And if youâve made it this far, reply with your biggest highlight of 2023 and biggest goal for 2024.