Part 3: Nine Must-Haves for Any Line Sheet

If you’ve ever applied for a job, you’ve probably also gone through the exercise of preparing a résumé. It can often seem like a daunting task to condense who you are and your value into a single page, but we are driven to do these things always with a bit of hope. There’s hope for new opportunity, hope for the prospect of working with a company that you respect, hope for new experiences and development. A line sheet is not so different in this way. Rather than applying for a job for yourself, a line sheet opens your jewelry business to new business opportunities and ultimately, a chance to grow and develop beyond what you were able to do before.

In this third part of our 7-part series on Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business, we’ll break down a line sheet into its basic components and hopefully take out a bit of the anxiety of putting it together in the process. This segment will incorporate the pricing strategy which we discussed in our last installment and prepare you for the next segment on effective sales outreach.

I’ve prepared a line sheet template which you can download here and use as a starting point to assemble your line sheet. We recommend referencing this template as you go through each of the items in this list. The template is prepared in Microsoft Word for maximum accessibility, but feel free to take the format into a more advanced design program, such as Adobe Illustrator or InDesign if you have those skills.

1. Brand Name and Logo

A brand name and logo, though seemingly the most straightforward of any item on this list, has a significant influence on the visual impact and memorability of your brand in front of a potential buyer. Make sure that it features prominently on the line sheet so the buyer has no question of the brand. If you don’t have a logo, there are ample online video tutorials available on YouTube for logo design in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. For those who may not be able to afford an Adobe license, Pixlr Editor can be a very capable free alternative to Photoshop.

2. Brand Brief

With the assumption that the recipient of your line sheet has no familiarity with your brand, it can be helpful to create context for your brand, its relevance, and its value to the buyer’s business. We suggest including a brand statement and a brand description.

The brand statement is a simple declarative statement on the type of product you create and your brand positioning.

The brand description is a 1-2 sentence snippet on what makes your brand special- specifically in the context of the particular stockist. Some different angles include whom your products are for/your customer niche, the concept behind the collection, a brief brand story, or a gap in the market which it addresses – just remember to choose one, not all. Think of this as your elevator pitch: keep it short , sweet, and relevant. The purpose of the brand brief is to educate the buyer on your brand beyond what your product images alone can convey.

3. Contact Info, Online Stores, and Social Media URLs

Make sure you can actually be contacted for all those orders! Be sure to include the following key pieces of contact information:

• Contact Name
• Email
• Phone Number
• Website

Add the URLs for any online stores (e.g., Shapeways Marketplace, Etsy, Tictail) where you are listed. If you are listed on several platforms and have similar collections on each, it’s fine to just include one or two in the contacts section. This is mainly important to give the buyer an opportunity to view a wider selection of your product.

Include social media handles (we recommend using the same handle across platforms) and your Facebook business page URL to give the buyer a good sense of other visual direction and context around your brand.

Line Sheet template for wholesale jewelry selling

4. Product Listing

The product listing should be the core focus of the line sheet and is the reason for putting it together in the first place.

Product Selection
The products you choose to include in a line sheet can be personalized to a certain degree for each stockist. Consider what you think will appeal to the stockist’s target customer and hopefully also the buyer.

Identification System
For ease of reference during the ordering process, establish a product ID or SKU system to identify each item beyond just name. Include the ID number below each product name. You will also want to include the materials or finishes available for each product as well as the sizes available.

Photography
Photos are obviously a large part of the product presentation in your line sheet. Use clear images, which highlight the most interesting aspects of each piece while showing the whole item. Flat white backgrounds are generally preferred. Note that unlike marketing assets, these images are intended to be informational, rather than stylistic. They can still be beautiful images, but keep in mind the intention when taking or selecting product images.

Pricing
Pricing is the last piece to include in the product listing. You will want to include both the Wholesale Price (WSP) which is how much the stockist will pay you and the Standard/Suggested Retail Price (SRP). The SRP is how much the stockist will be able to sell each item for. Make it clear if different materials or sizes are priced at different rates.

5. Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

The minimum order quantity is the lowest quantity at which you would be willing to offer wholesale pricing for your products. Having an MOQ helps to establish clear expectations around what volume you need for a business transaction versus a purchase through your standard channels of business. This makes it more likely that a deal will actually be worth your time and effort.

6. Clarifying Notes on the Product

You will want to include any notes or clarifications on the type of packaging, stock items (chains, polishing cloths, etc), and shipping options (international vs. domestic only, speed) to expect with an order. Some of this information may be held to later discussions once the buyer has expressed interest, but use your discretion on which information provides important propositions of value. For example, if you are presenting your line sheet to an overseas buyer, a international shipping options may be a consideration.

7. Bulk Discount Tiers

One of the biggest advantages of selling at a wholesale volume is that your suppliers will frequently allow for bulk discounts based on either order value or quantity. It can be a good idea to pass along some of these discounts to your wholesalers as well. You’re passing on the discount, but also the incentive to buy more.
At Shapeways, we offer the following quantity discount structure on most of our cast metals:

Order (Units) | Discount
26 – 50 | 5% off
51 – 100 | 10% off
      101+ | 15% off

You can find more details about Shapeways’ bulk order discounting here.
It’s generally best to mimic the discount structure of your supplier, i.e., order value for order value or quantity to quantity, to ensure you are always getting a discount as well. This will help you to avoid any unfavorable situations around price. If you ever want to discuss pricing on jewelry business projects, please feel free to contact Shapeways’ Business Development and Sales Team using this contact form. The team is always happy to work with you to scope out a project and figure out the details around pricing, lead time, and production feasibility.

8. Production Lead Time

If you’re not holding large amounts of inventory on-hand, it’s good to specify how long (on average) it will take to produce and provide stock. If there is not a set production time across all projects, feel free to specify that lead times will need to be discussed around the time of order placement.

For small businesses, holding inventory is often difficult as start-up capital can be tight. If you want to have a wide product selection, but are not able to support a large amount of stocked inventory, 3D printing can be a great solution. It allows you to incorporate a lean inventory method, where you only have to produce once you receive orders.

In addition to the made-to-order aspect of the production, you also never have to worry about how to supply all size and design combinations again. This can open up your offering and make your products more attainable for more people (read: sizing options for everyone!).

9. Payment Terms

Payment terms are last on this list because they’re critical to any order agreement with another business. These terms define how and when you need to be paid, whether that’s prior to production, net 30, net 60 or another arrangement. If you’ve work hard enough to secure a deal, you definitely want to be sure you know when and how you will be paid. Payment terms need some dedicated attention, so we’ll be covering that in much more detail in a future segment.

Once you have all of this information in a concise document, export it as a PDF and you’re ready to present it to new potential business partners.

Stay tuned for the next part of our series, where we’ll discuss sales outreach strategies for actually putting your line sheet to work!

Contact us if you have any questions on growing your jewelry business or have a bulk order you’d like to scope out.

About the authors:
Ross Keong is a Strategic Sales Manager specializing in growth development for B2B users in the industries of jewelry, fashion, art, and design.

Virginia Gordon is the US Jewelry Community Manager, helping designers build a successful jewelry business using Shapeways and 3D printing

The post 7 Critical Steps to Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business, Part 3: Get Into Stores With Line Sheets appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

In January 2012, retail stalwart JC Penney introduced a radical new concept, stemming from the mind of then-CEO, Ron Johnson. Johnson — the man responsible for Target’s 1990s merchandising renaissance and the retail mastermind behind the Apple Store — proposed that discounts and coupons would be eliminated from JC Penney. Rather than relying on what he deemed “fake prices” inflated to make markdowns more appealing, Johnson proposed a “fair and square” approach to pricing: all prices would automatically be at least 40% lower from the start. No more coupon cutting, no more 4 a.m. lines on Black Friday, no more pulling a fast one on the customer. This “fair” approach seemed so logical, but, as Johnson soon realized, people are often not. In the fourth quarter of 2012, JC Penney’s same store sales fell 31.7% over the previous year and and the company reported a net loss of $985 million. In the end, Johnson was asked to leave and the JCP coupons made their way back into weekly circulars.

Aside from suggesting that even the creator of the Apple Store can make mistakes in business, the point is that pricing matters. It is the primary driver of buyer behavior and can affect so many facets of your business, from brand positioning to marketability, to the money you make for yourself and for your business.

In this second part of our 7-part series on Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business, we’ll provide a primer on Pricing, breaking down price into its basic components. This segment will also make an introduction to pricing strategy, focusing on the Keystone method, which is the fundamental pricing structure for the wholesale world we introduced in our previous installment of the series.

Costs

Costs form the foundation of price and, on a macro level, determine where profitability begins. They not only establish the absolute baseline revenue needed to maintain a solvent and viable business, but also provide you with a starting point for thinking about pricing.

Price needs to cover not only the costs of your product itself, but also the costs of running your business. They fall into two main categories, both of which are important to consider: variable costs and fixed costs.

Variable costs are costs that are directly linked to your level of output.

For example: if you were a violin maker and knew that you could make 5 violins with 20 hours of labor and 15 boards of wood, your variable cost to make one violin would be 4 labor hours and 3 boards of wood. You could then assign a monetary cost to each labor hour (wages) and to each board of wood (material cost).

Some variable costs jewelry designers might consider include:

• Design labor (whether your own or that of a hired designer)
• Cost of materials
• Selling platform transactional commission
• Stock items: chains, earring hooks, polishing cloths
• Packaging
• Shipping (if you’re doing your own distribution)

Fixed costs are costs that you would incur regardless of your business’ level of output.

In the violin example, the rent on the workshop or the “corporate” Spotify premium account playing metal music in the background would be fixed costs. No matter how many or few violins you make, your monthly payment is going to be the same.

Some fixed costs you can think about for your jewelry business include:

• Monthly flat-rate bills
  • Domain hosting fees to run your website
  • Shopify or Squarespace subscription
  • Google Suite
  • Adobe creative cloud
  • Microsoft Office
• Rent
• Insurance

Product Cost

Now that you have a broad framework for costs in general, let’s dive into product cost.

Product cost captures the expenses required to get your product ready for sale.

There are different ways to calculate it, but generally, this includes variable costs coming from material, labor, and manufacturing overhead. Product cost can also be referred to as Cost of Goods Sold or COGS.

If you are stocking inventory, especially if the cost of that inventory fluctuates, you’ll want to consider which inventory method you want to use to keep your costing consistent. The most common methods are FIFO (first in, first out), LIFO (last in, first out), and Weighted Average Cost. You can find more information on costing methods here.

If you’d like to skip the accounting lesson and focus on the jewelry making, consider producing and selling your jewelry through Shapeways. We allow you to run a lean, inventory-on-demand jewelry business through the power of 3D printing. This made-to-order approach is accompanied by straightforward costing and set precious metal pricing that doesn’t fluctuate with the market.

Gross Margin

Gross Margin (GM) is the bridge from product cost to price. It is essentially how much you’re earning on top of your product cost (COGS, or cost of goods sold), in other words, how profitable a product is. You can think of price as:

COGS + Gross Margin = Price

GM is a critical metric, because it determines how much of your sales can actually contribute to the cost of running your business and ultimately, to your take-home profit. You will usually see margin expressed as either Gross Margin Dollars (GM$) or Gross Margin % (GM%).

GM $ = Price – COGS

GM % = GM $ / Price

If you were calculating GM$ and GM% for your whole company, you would replace price with Sales Revenue.

When using GM to evaluate business or product performance, it’s important to be aware of both GM$ and GM% together. For instance, while you may have a product with a lower GM%, it may yield a high GM$ amount and vice versa. A good product mix should take into account individual product GMs to yield a desirable margin overall.

Determining the right amount of margin is a delicate balance. On the one hand, you have your motivations of covering operating costs and maximizing profit and on the other hand are the customer’s motivations and price sensitivities.

Keystone Method Pricing

With a solid grasp of cost and the lever that is gross margin, we can start to approach a pricing strategy. The Keystone Method is the benchmark and standard of the jewelry and retail industry. It’s not a perfect model, but it is where you should start when thinking about pricing.

The Keystone Method is broken up into two components: wholesale price (WSP) and standard retail price (SRP). Both are based on the product cost of the item.

Wholesale Price is the cost at which you sell the product to a stockist or wholesaler.

Standard Retail Price is the cost at which the end consumer will buy the product, either from you or from the stockist to whom you sell.

The Keystone Method implies that:

Product Cost = x,

WSP = 2x

SRP =  4x

For example, if the item’s product cost is $20, the wholesale price will be $40 and the standard retail price will be $80.

Typically, wholesalers will require at least a GM% of at least 50%, so the Keystone Method helps to position yourself for the inevitable wholesale discount that is expected for those types of sales.

Keystone is a great simple place to get oriented, but it is not always a one-size-fits-all approach. Experiment with pricing on individual products within your product assortment, check your prices against competitors, and consider where your brand and product sit within the market. If you’d like us to go deeper into pricing strategy in future content, please let us know in the comments below.

Stay tuned for the next part of our series, where we’ll incorporate our pricing lesson into creating Linesheets, the résumé for a jewelry business entering wholesale. These are critical documents to getting your foot in the door with stockists, so come back next week to find out how to prepare one.

Contact us if you have any questions on growing your jewelry business or have a bulk order that you’d like to scope out.

About the authors:

Ross Keong is a Strategic Sales Manager specializing in growth development for B2B users in the industries of jewelry, fashion, art, and design.

Virginia Gordon is the US Jewelry Community Manager, helping designers build a successful jewelry business using Shapeways and 3D printing

The post 7 Critical Steps to Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business, Part 2: Pricing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

With the broadening of e-commerce retail channels and the lowered barriers of entry to designing and producing unique, beautiful jewelry, the independent jewelry business is having a moment. It’s now seemingly easier than ever to start a jewelry brand, open an online shop on the Shapeways marketplace, Etsy, Shopify, or elsewhere, and sell your product to a global audience.

We will be helping you to think about your jewelry business as just that: a business.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve already done these things. If you’re reading this, there’s also a good chance that you’re making less money than you thought you would for your time and efforts.

The fact is that the jewelry industry is saturated: there are tons of talented jewelry designers creating tons of beautiful objects. However, there are far fewer of those designers with the business acumen and know-how to run truly profitable — and financially viable — businesses. In this series, we hope to make you part of that minority.

Over the next several weeks, we will be helping you to think about your jewelry business as just that: a business. This collection of videos and tutorials will focus on helping you to think bigger, to speed your growth momentum, and to introduce you to business strategies which are vital to your success in this industry.

The series we will cover topics including:

• Wholesalers and stockists

• Pricing strategy

• Getting into Stores with Line Sheets

• Outbound Selling to Jewelry Buyers

• Entrepreneurial Negotiation Tactics

• Legal Considerations, Contracts, and Payment Terms

• Relationship management

Stay tuned for our first installment, where we’ll dive into the world of wholesale, why it can be a critical catalyst to growth, and how to take your first steps in it as a business

Contact us if you have any questions on growing your jewelry business or have a bulk order that you’d like to scope out. 

About the authors:

Ross Keong is a Strategic Sales Manager specializing in growth development for B2B users in the industries of jewelry, fashion, art, and design.

Virginia Gordon is the US Jewelry Community Manager, helping designers build a successful jewelry business using Shapeways and 3D printing

The post 7 Critical Steps to Growing a Profitable Jewelry Business: Introduction appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Emerging Jobs: 3D Scanning Pro from One Planet Pictures on Vimeo.

Sophie runs a studio in New York, called ScannerWorks NY. She has been working with 3d laser scanners and printers since 2003. She has an MFA in Art & Technology studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has experience in preparing prints for almost any 3D printing technology that you can think of.

How did you come about starting a business in 3D scanning?

I’m a visual artist and I needed the scanner for my own artwork. I took out a lease on one during art school, and had to come up with the payments somehow! I realized that there must be other artists with the same need. I also know how overwhelming the world of 3D can be if you’re new to technology, as I’ve struggled with it so much myself as an artist, so I started the business to help demystify digital production for people who don’t have that background and just want to get their work made.

What types of things do people ask you to scan? What kind of requests do they have?

I am endlessly surprised by the phone calls I receive. The bread and butter of my business is scaling maquettes for sculptors: I will 3D scan a small piece they’ve made, and then provide a digital file which they can modify, sculpt and fabricate at a much larger scale using CNC milling. But I’ve also scanned surfboards, meditation stools, toy prototypes, train and car parts, furniture, flowers… really, anything handmade or analog that needs to be brought into the digital world so it can be modified and remade. I’ve scanned art and architecture for archiving and historical preservation. I’ve also scanned celebrities, singers and models. More recently, I’ve had people requesting facial scans in order to pre-visualize the results of plastic surgery… There’s never a dull moment!

How do your customers find out about your services? Do you find you need to educate them on what a scan can do for them?

Google ads, word-of-mouth, and a lot of in-person networking.  Mostly the people who find me already have an understanding of how 3D scanning can help them, but I also work on educating potential customers. I often receive emails requesting guidance on developing a project, from people who aren’t sure whether digital is the way to go. Sometimes it isn’t – there are cases when a sculptor can achieve the results they want using analog means like mold making and casting. But if they want to scale an object up or down, or modify it in ways that can’t be done by hand, then digital is usually the better choice.

How did you first connect with Shapeways for printing these scans?

I use Shapeways for my own sculptures and have actually been a customer for five years. It’s nice that the pieces are printed here in New York City.

What kind of hardware do you use to scan and how did you come about using it?

I have a Polhemus Cobra handheld laser scanner and a DAVID SLS structured light scanner. I have been using the Polhemus for a long time in my artwork because I love the errors that it generates; when I started doing commercial work I had to learn to use it correctly, which is an entirely different skill set! I have tried quite a few other systems. I use the Polhemus in my artwork, so I would use it regardless. I love the DAVID scanner. The level of detail it can achieve on small objects is really amazing. Results from Sophie scanning of a boot for The Frye Company and a minifig for Lego 

What kind of advice would you give others looking to start a 3D scanning business?

For scanning physical objects, location is everything. 90% of my clients are based in Brooklyn or Manhattan, and because the objects I scan are handmade and unique, they either bring me their pieces in person, or have myself or an employee come to their space to scan. Even though the end result is digital, and many of the ZBrush artists I collaborate with work remotely, my role in the process needs to happen here in New York. I also try to connect clients to local fabricators whenever possible. I’m not sure my business model would work in a smaller city with a smaller concentration of creative people; those people would need to be scanning items by mail, and then they would  be competing with a larger tier of businesses. I also strive to provide a higher level of service: I bring an artist’s perfectionism to the work I do, which my clients appreciate, and I have experience in 3D printing and casting my own sculpture so I can consult on the entire production workflow, and make referrals to designers and fabricators if my clients need guidance. I liaise with designers and fabricators, and I keep in touch until the job is done, to make sure that the end result turns out the way my clients want. So I would say to concentrate on your local creative networks, and build your business around your own strengths and experience.

What do you see for the future in 3D scanning?

I hope that the software and hardware will become more accessible and user-friendly – even though that may cut into my own profit margins! I’m not too worried; my feeling is that photography is incredibly cheap and accessible now, but people still need professional photographers and photography educators, and I see scanning going the same way. I’d love to scale up and start a Shapeways for 3D scanning, but I’m not sure if the market exists quite yet. As more and more people understand the vast potential that scanning has, I think demand is going to grow exponentially.

What a wealth of knowledge we have in our community! Thank you so much Sophie for allowing me to interview, and sharing such valuable information with us! And thank you for helping us build into an even greater 3D printing community.

The post Turn 3D Scanning Into a Business appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

In the past if a designer wanted to turn an idea of their’s into an actual product to be sold and used on a consumer level, years of development, thousands of dollars, and excessive materials had to be used throughout the process. Now, with the powerful capabilities of 3D printing, a designer can go straight from an idea to an actual product ready for the consumer in the matter of months – with very little money out of their own pocket.

The Design, Print, Profit project begin with drawings on paper — possibly the shortest segment of the process — before moving quickly into 3D modeling. From the 3D models, multiple test prints in plastic (in numbers close to the 40’s) are produced to help develop form and fit. This process ensures that the final result is exactly as the designer had intended; and only takes a fraction of the time that traditional prototyping (making molds, forging by hand, etc.) would take. Once the final form has been decided upon, the file is sent off to Shapeways to be 3D printed and produced in metal; resulting in a beautifully finished product ready for market.

Design, Print, Profit is showcasing a series of rings made my Georgia Tech students this Friday. Be sure to check it out if you are in the area!

The post Georgia Tech Design Entrepreneurs: “Design, Print, Profit” appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Instagram has emerged as a leading platform for small businesses and niche communities to promote their products and generate visual awareness around their content. Instagram posts receive over 50% more engagement per follower (likes, comments) than Facebook and Twitter.  The engagement rate on average for brands is 4-5% on Instagram, much higher than the <1% we see on Facebook and Twitter per post.

In this post I want to highlight five specific tactics that I use on Instagram to promote my Shapeways shop and that you should be using as well.

1. Search Key hashtags and Engage

When promoting my products on Instagram I choose not to play defense and expect users to discover my Instagram account and content, instead I play offense and actively search potential customers and consumers who are sharing relevant posts. I do this by searching the specific hashtags that my product targets and begin liking, and commenting on their content making them aware I have a product that they might be interested in. For example I’ll search all the photos that have the hashtag #Tardigrade, filter through relevant photos of Tardigrades, read their photo descriptions and identify if they express interest in Tardigrades with keywords in their photos that say “I want one”, or “I love Tardigrades”. Then I’ll follow up with comments on their photo saying “You love Tardigrades? I have a 3D printed one on my page”.

2. Link to your website on the location section of your post

Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links on post, no problem. Just add the link to your website on the location section by creating a “custom location” and just type the link to your website instead of an actual location. This will add visibility to your website for consumers. You can also direct users to the link on your bio which is clickable as an alternative. Either method works.

3. Utilize Repost and Regram apps

Once I began selling a large quantity of my 3D printed products I began reusing customer photos that were shared on Instagram to promote them again with the Respost app. It essentially allows me to repost their photo, thank them for being a customer, and promote that product again. The respost app is essentially Instagram’s way for “retweeting” and “sharing” another users content on Instagram.

4. Instagram Direct Messaging

Instagram launched photo direct messaging to users back in 2013. It’s a useful way to send direct photos to individual users and start a conversation. This feature has been very useful for getting in touch with influencers and other users who have a larger audience and reach than you. You can get in touch with them and ask them if they can cross promote your content. I would recommend the best course of action is to not go after big celebrities but instead go after relevant accounts. I first found success of this by DMing photos of my Thorgi figurine to niche Instagram users in the Corgi community. The reception was welcoming and I got quiet a few accounts to post and link back to my account and promote my product the lead to a increase in sales.

5. Share Creative Video Content 

These are several content creation techniques and applications you can use to get creative with your content creation instead of just sharing static photos. Videos and short form micro content like slow-motion action videos, stop motion, slideshows, and Hyperlapse videos are a great way to get your audience hooked and wanting more.

A close look at the @shapeways 3D printed Thorgi in all its glory. Now available on the link in my profile. #shapeways #thorgi #corgi #corgination #corgisofinstagram #dogsofinstagram #corgicommunity #thor #avengers #toys #customtoys

A video posted by Eric Ho (@erichoraw) on Jan 16, 2015 at 8:08am PST

Incorporate these tactics into your Instagram strategy and you’ll begin seeing better conversation and engagement. Are you currently promoting your Shapeways products on Instagram? If so be sure to incorporate #Shapeways in your photos so we can help discover and surface your work.

The post Five Tactics To Use On Instagram To Promote Your Shapeways Products appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

My friend is an avid bass fisherman, has a marketing background, and does some work in the fishing industry. While working to distribute soft fishing lures, he found that there was an opportunity in the market for a cooler, edgier brand experience. We realized for a new lure brand to be successful it would need innovative, cutting edge, and in-your-face design. So about 2 years ago we paired up to create something new.

We discovered that getting started in the industry of soft lures had one advantage over many other product industries. The plastic used for soft lures is a low heat resin, so you don’t need big tooling (and big tooling costs) to get going with a new product. You can make a mold at home, in your basement or garage, heat up the plastic in your microwave and get good results. What this meant for us is a way to test our bait designs with the actual material they’d be produced in, and that we could keep costs down. All we needed to do was design some bait and make some molds.

And this is where the Shapeways came in.

Over the next few months, we developed 3 distinct lure designs. I would model them up in Solidworks, and we’d send them off to Shapeways to print.

With our first round, I took the models we printed, and using modeling clay and wood forms, we poured some silicone molds, and then cast the lures in Plastisol, the lure plastic used by the industry. They were a bit rough, but it gave us a good baseline. Now we needed to iterate these designs.

We knew we had a good look and idea, we were onto something, but our mold making process was too complex, messy, and imprecise. Instead of making Strong White Flexible (SWF) parts of the actual iterations, we realized it was more important to print mold-making forms. So I took our iterative 3D designs, and using Solidwoks, I split them, blocked off the backs, and made mating pegs so that all we’d need to do order the split mold-ready parts from Shapeways, slide them into pre-cut wood forms I had made, pour the silicone, peel it off, and then pour the lure plastic. It was way faster, and the quality we got from the molds went up a ton. The detail was amazing. We got consistent parts, and our iterative process moved along much faster. Better yet, we had prototypes we could test with accurate results.

With one of our lures, we went through probably a dozen or so iterations, and the ability to turn these around with our sample mold process was integral to us hitting target deadlines. With a quick turnaround for SWF, we were getting parts within a week.

Even when doing concept packaging, we were able to send Shapeways parts to our packaging designers so they could work around that while we were waiting for finalized parts to come off the tool.

Our website, BioSpawn.com, has been up and running for just under a year now, and we’ve been getting a great response from our designs and brand, and have steady growth. Our sales keep jumping, and some large on-line retailers have picked us up, both in the US and abroad.

In addition to our online success, we’ve been able to catch the attention of various sales rep groups and distributors who are interested in getting our products in front of larger retailers. Through these relationships, we’ve been lucky enough to get in to one of the larger big box stores who will be doing a trial run with us, both on-line and in a selection of stores, this coming spring.

Even though we have a small product selection compared to many of our competitors, we’ve been able to bring some great detail, nuance, and innovation to these generally ho-hum kind of products, and all because of our prototyping process using 3D printing at a fast pace, with high detail, and low-cost.

Update from Shapeways: BioSpawn’s great story resonated with the fishing community and the company was featured on BassResource.com and FishingTackleRetailer.com. Check them out!

The post Fishing for innovation: Developing a better fishing lure with 3D printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

1) Facebook Fan page direct Messaging

Whether you’re selling miniatures, jewelry, figurines, or tech accessories there are Facebook fan pages and brand pages associated with that specific product category. By doing a simple search on Facebook and filtering out your search to “pages” you will see a list of fan pages. From those search results you can find a blog fan page that might be interested in sharing your content. In this case I will use my Thorgi as an example, I searched “Corgi” on Facebook, filtered out the pages related to Corgis and began direct messaging the fan page owner asking in a kind and respectful way if they would be interested in sharing my 3D printed product with their audience. It’s ok if you don’t get a response back or they say no. My philosophy for why we share on social media is that we tend to share content that makes us look good to our audience. If the content you’re asking them to share isn’t relevant or interesting, don’t be offended if it doesn’t get shared.

2) Creating albums and uploading your photos to Imgur

Imgur is a online photo hosting service where users can upload their photos and create photo albums that can be easily shared across the internet. With a click of a button you can upload your product photos to Imgur, share with the Imgur community, and then share across your own social media channels, and Reddit. Sharing Imgur photos and albums is now the preferred way to share photos on Reddit which is a great platform to drive hundreds to thousands of visits to your Shapeways product page. Here is my previous blog post for Reddit best practices for showcasing your work.

3) Instagram – Search hashtag and Comment

Instagram is becoming more and more a platform where brands and small businesses go to attract shoppers. By searching the right hashtags and commenting on relevant photos, you can go straight to your customer and make a direct sale. In this example I will use my Tardigrade as an example, I searched #Tardigrade and found hundreds of photos of die hard Tardigrade fans. I began commenting on a few photos letting these Tardigrade fans know I made the World’s first 3D printed Tardigrade and before you know it users were commenting on the photo of my Tardigrade and buying them a few days later. A important tip for promoting your products on instagram, when someone comments on your photo and says things like “This is awesome” or “I need this”, they have expressed interest in purchasing and it is YOUR job to ask for the sale and engage those users letting them know where to find and buy your product.

4) YouTube Influencers and unboxing videos 

Youtube is the largest platform for video content creators. In this previous blog post I speak on the importance of having a engaging product video to showcase and sell the product. A tactical way to get your product seen by thousands of potential shoppers is to reach out to a Youtube channel relevant to your niche and contact them about featuring your product whether that’s through a giveaway, unboxing video, or product review video. You can find Youtube influencers simply by doing a simple search on Youtube, browsing their channel, and often times their business contact information is on their Youtube channel information page under “contact”. Here is an example of a product review done by Scott Manley on 3D printed dice designed by Avandius.

5) Product browsing website outreach

A great way to get your products seen by shoppers is to get your products featured on sites where shoppers browse products in a form of entertainment. One of my favorite sites to browse cool and interesting products for geeks are ThisIsWhyImBroke, DudeIWantThat, CoolThingsAddicted, and Nerd Approved. There are hundreds of them out there for your specific niche that if you were to reach out with a great product design it might get featured. A great way to get in contact with the editors of those websites is through their contacts page or following tactic #1 on this blog post.

Give these new marketing tips and tricks a try and you just might see a big increase in exposure, awareness, and sales for your 3D printing business. If you haven’t done so already read my previous blog post on how to make each social media platform work for you and your Shapeways business here.

The post Five Social Media Tactics That Will Drive Traffic And Sales For Your Shapeways Products appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

The Printing Everyday podcast is available free for listening on iTunes and on PrintingEveryday.com. If you’re a Shapeways shop owner and is interested in potentially being a guest on the Printing Everyday Podcast to tell the story behind your 3D printing business you can reach out to Jessica at jessicaopalhedstrom@gmail.com

Looking forward to potentially listening to you in the next episode of the Printing Everyday podcast.

Designer Ryan Kittleson on the Printing Everyday podcast

Rob Blinn of the Shapeways shop Gotham Smith on the Printing Everyday podcast

The post Printing Everyday The Podcast: A Podcast About Running Your Business With 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

The ambassador was accompanied by Economic Officer Blake A. Johnston and a delegation of the Province of Noord-Brabant. Together with my colleagues Ralph and David I had the honor to talk with them about the ins and outs of our company and our community, and show 3D Printing in practice.

From left to right: Blake A. Johnston, Ralph van den Borst (Customer Service Manager), Timothy M. Broas (Ambassador), Ruud van den Muijzenberg (Event Coordinator Europe), David Gillispie (Vice President of Manufacturing).

Do you want to see our Factories in Eindhoven (NL) or Long Island City (USA) yourself? Keep an eye on our Meetup.com page as we’ll soon be announcing Factory Tour dates for the next year!

The post US Ambassador visits our Eindhoven Factory of the Future appeared first on Shapeways Blog.