How to Make Money With a Printer

Some of the Best Ways to Make Money With a Printer

Have you been wondering how to make money with a printer?

You came to the right place! I will provide you with the most interesting techniques to make money with a printer and none of those will lead to jail!

Lots of possibilities, choose 1

First of all there are many different ways to make money with a printer. There isn’t just 1 correct way. Everybody will have to figure out for himself what he/she likes the most and what niche you want to dig into. A niche market is a smaller part of the market on which a specific product or service is focused. Examples of niches include printing services like textile printing, advertisements, wide format printing, postcards, printer repairing, selling ink,… All of those could become profitable businesses. However, you shouldn’t  try to be a master of everything when you start out. Lots can be said about all of these activities but today I will briefly discuss some of the things I have done myself and end with my personal conclusion about the matter.

• Textile Printing

All you need is a printing press, a plotter, a website and you are good to go. Many types of textile can be printed on. My advice would be to start with t-shirts and sweaters. Biggest challenge will probably be your marketing campaign and branding. While you could try to sell online, word-of-mouth advertising can work just fine and everybody can do this when handled correctly. I first started selling t-shirts to all my friends back In high school. They liked my service and soon enough I was selling to people in the entire school(and other schools).

“You can create a business, choose a name, but unless people know about it you’re not going to sell any products.” – Sir Richard Branson

• Advertisements

Get yourself a wide format printer and start making all kinds of advertisements and large printing jobs. This can be wallpapers, murals, signs on trucks and cars, canvas prints, banners, floor graphics,… Literally anything is possible and both businesses and private customers will make use of your services. From my experience, banners are pure money. On average it costs $1 per square foot to print them and selling them starts at $5 and up in most places. Super easy to do and great profit.

• 3D printing

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have your own 3D printing company? The excitement one gets about 3D printing(or me at least!) can definitely break down barriers to become an entrepreneur. However, 3D printing isn’t as easy as the previous ideas I gave. As with most things in life, it will come with a lot of ups and downs.

Be realistic, don’t expect you will be making millions with a 3D printing hobby. That’s just not going to happen. It can take many years and hard work to become very successful. The 3D printing learning curve is enormous, but anybody who is willing enough to invest time and money in it can make it work and earn a lot of $$$. The moment your business starts rolling it all comes down to scaling. If you want to earn more you will have to learn more. It’s as simple as that.

Like I said, lot of knowledge is involved in the 3D printing process. You will need to learn about every aspect of the industry. People need to come to You when they need help. You have to be that go-to-person. With technologies that are ever evolving (and they evolve fast), the learning process will never stop.

Please don’t run away and be all discouraged now. We live in a world that is providing us this knowledge in a lot of ways. Internet has a lot to offer and you would be surprised about how much information you can absorb in just a day. Of course you want the information to be valuable and relevant to you. A good starting point(for pretty much anything) can be You Tube for example. This video-sharing website contains 1.000.000’s of ‘how to’ video’s all rated by people just like you. The rating of a video can be a good clue to see if the information is valuable or not. When I come across a low rated video I almost instantly skip to another one.

For those who already own a 3D printer and want some printing jobs, Shapeways.com is the place to be. People can upload their precious models and let somebody else print it for them. Those who own a printer can start their own online shop and start printing the uploaded designs. Shapeways.com will take care of the business side of the transactions. Although it’s harder to do, you could also create designs yourself and try to sell them.

Conclusion

To conclude, to make money with a printer is possible in a lot of different ways. Depending on your qualities and motivation, one could turn a printing hobby into a real business for sure. With the huge growth in the 3D printer market, there are some nice opportunities to make money with a printer. Don’t hesitate and make your own dreams come true by becoming a full time entrepreneur!

If you would be left with any questions, please drop a comment below.

Vincent