Managing a viral growth spurt (manufacturing)

[AndyL]

Ok needing some sage advice - not sure why I'm asking here I kid I kid...

Some know, I've been building a business lately - 3d printing, small run manufacturing basically.

Posted a product on Etsy today. 32 Etsy orders 19 direct (FB/IG) in the first 2 hours. Posted a custom variation follow up as a bump and "look I can modify it too".

I now have more orders in under 8 hours than the past 9 months ($wise and kg of filament to be run). And ... An IG influencer just did an unboxing of a package I've had up for a month (just was a random fb mail order) - I was at 332 visits to Etsy at 8am this morning, I'm at 19000 something right now.

So here's the question - how do you manage a viral explosion of sales?

I think I'm buying another printer or 2 tomorrow when Etsy $ starts to arrive.

I contemplated doing a bump in delivery eta & price to slow sales a bit. But that might not go over well either...

I have a couple guys I work with that I could sub out some work to. We all know how that can go however

I can pickup some low cost printers, run them as long as I have this surge and flip them back for a minimal loss if I pick smart anyways. I'm sure there's a limit before I flood the used market too, but 350$ printer new local buy, 309 on Amazon prime (Tuesday delivery) they move at 250 pretty much daily on FB classifieds... but I can't manage more than 6-8 before I start having space issues.

Any thoughts or advice?

Andy

[D'z Nutz]

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I can pickup some low cost printers, run them as long as I have this surge and flip them back for a minimal loss if I pick smart anyways. I'm sure there's a limit before I flood the used market too, but 350$ printer new local buy, 309 on Amazon prime (Tuesday delivery) they move at 250 pretty much daily on FB classifieds...

This is what I would do if the Etsy money covers it so you're not in a hole and caught bag holding extra printers.

And I think if you let your customers know ahead of time that orders may be slower to fill because of the unexpected surge in sales, they'll generally be okay with it as long as expectations are managed immediately. Give them the option of cancelling their orders if they don't want to wait. That might help with the surge too. I wouldn't raise the prices cause then people will turn on you with pitchforks and torches and it could impact future sales when things slow down.

[ExtraSlow]

I guess you need to make some assumptions about how long this bump in sales might last or if you can sustain it with additional products or variations on existing ones.

I'm very conservative, so I always like to conserve capital as much as possible.

[AndyL]

Mostly pegboard stuff has been the focus and getting improved traction.

Today's surge was actually a kitschy keychain of all things - and not at a cheap price either

[Misterman]

Awesome to hear!! I love success stories.

If you're doing this good just based off of bare bones marketing like you've done thus far, it's a fair assumption that business will continue to grow if you put effort at all into growing it. Some simple targeted IG/FB paid advertising(if done well) should grow sales quite a bit. If that's the case, then you need to scale things. Part of your scaling plan is going to include how many orders you think you can manage yourself? At a certain point you'll either need employees or a large scale manufacturer that can fill your orders for you.

Your own risk tolerance is personal. Myself I'm fairly conservative. So I would want to handle as much as possible myself, until it physically out grew my capacity. But I would definitely be doing the research on the options available to really scale up when the time comes that it's a necessity.

In any sense, this is a really great problem to have in business. lol

[bjstare]

No advice to add here, just wanted to say congrats. That's awesome.

[HiTempguy1]

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No advice to add here, just wanted to say congrats. That's awesome.

I agree, great to hear.

However, personally, I'd take down the photos and information about your business. Its not exactly hard to replicate, and people do watch these forums (seriously). I'd hate to see your business get pulled out from under you!

[AndyL]

Whether they find it here, on YouTube, ig, Facebook whatever - there's nothing stopping them. That's why I work so many different areas at the same time, all semi related but totally different ends of the spectrum.

Technically I did the same somewhat, a few people did have thingiverse designs up, the hooks I'm using are someone else's design (CC-SSA) because they were better (yes I tip)

It's driving my business plan coach insane.

[tirebob]

Honestly, if you find yourself slammed with work constantly, financially speaking it makes more sense raise you prices until you get to the point where you are working at a more manageable level at a profit point that keeps it there. You will make more money closing 80% of clients for a higher profit margin than you well running yourself ragged trying to close 100% at a lower profit. Then you are not having to invest in new equipment right away either.

[pheoxs]

First - Can you increase your production with what you have? I.e. can you print certain things at a 0.32 layer height rather than 0.2 if they don't need fine detail?
Second -Extend your processing time on Etsy to 1-2 weeks, you'll lose a bit in sales but it's better than angry customers.
Third - Message people and let them know and most people are quite reasonable.
Fourth - Consider farming a few things out to someone local if you need to meet demand. Think long term rather than just current sales. Happy customers and reviews are really important in the Etsy ecosystem.

As for more printers I highly suggest it BUT don't cheap out as you'll just spend more of your time doing maintenance rather than adding to production.

[AndyL]

Pushing the limit on optimized print, knocked 8-10% off last night refining Accel and jerk settings, swapping infill for 999 top layers.

Just kind of the perfect storm but I've been looking at another printer for over a month, just hoped the belt would be online by now (that would save me about 30% as it could print this without support)

Right now I'm set at 3-5 days next step is 1-2 weeks so, should be safe, I can still knock out almost 200 a day, if I focus on it.

Post processing I need to work on, whenever Etsy and PayPal decide to deposit I think I'm going to replace my redneck tumbler with a proper one lol

[asp integra]

There is nothing wrong with having a 'cap' of sorts on orders, demand is a great thing. I would love to constantly have more demand than supply in my own manufacturing business.

[pheoxs]

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Pushing the limit on optimized print, knocked 8-10% off last night refining Accel and jerk settings, swapping infill for 999 top layers.

Just kind of the perfect storm but I've been looking at another printer for over a month, just hoped the belt would be online by now (that would save me about 30% as it could print this without support)

Right now I'm set at 3-5 days next step is 1-2 weeks so, should be safe, I can still knock out almost 200 a day, if I focus on it.

Post processing I need to work on, whenever Etsy and PayPal decide to deposit I think I'm going to replace my redneck tumbler with a proper one lol

Want some Ender 2's? I have 2 sitting bnib in boxes your welcome to just have. I bought them a while ago and just never used them and they've sat for a year now. Hate kijiji too much to try and actually sell em.

For etsy deposits go to your finance section and hit schedule earlier deposit and it'll go through the next business day (Monday now unfortunately)

Also, what do you mean by belt be online by now?

[Misterman]

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Honestly, if you find yourself slammed with work constantly, financially speaking it makes more sense raise you prices until you get to the point where you are working at a more manageable level at a profit point that keeps it there. You will make more money closing 80% of clients for a higher profit margin than you well running yourself ragged trying to close 100% at a lower profit. Then you are not having to invest in new equipment right away either.

This pretty much what any business expert I read says. If you're in demand you need to raise your prices.

[asp integra]

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This pretty much what any business expert I read says. If you're in demand you need to raise your prices.

ditto

[schurchill39]

If you're a podcast guy I recommend "Made for Profit" which is a couple of wood workers but they talk a lot about growing your own maker business including social media, how to price your items, and how to expand the business. Pretty awesome podcast if you can get over the overly happy tone from Brad.

[AndyL]

Well luckily the damn little things have stayed at 637 to fulfil for a few hours now. Lol almost caught up but might need a road trip to Uline in Edmonton to get some boxes as shipping is insane.

I'm gonna give that podcast a go, sounds neat so far just the latest episode. Beats listening to znation over the printers and rock tumbler and dog barking at everyone who comes to the apartment lol.

[pheoxs]

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Well luckily the damn little things have stayed at 637 to fulfil for a few hours now. Lol almost caught up but might need a road trip to Uline in Edmonton to get some boxes as shipping is insane.

I'm gonna give that podcast a go, sounds neat so far just the latest episode. Beats listening to znation over the printers and rock tumbler and dog barking at everyone who comes to the apartment lol.

Shipper supply is in south Calgary. Though their prices are slightly higher than unline but no shipping costs

[stealth]

I highly recommend you get a business account with DHL or someone. Canada Post is the biggest rip off for shipping.

[suntan]

Hire lots of Indians.