This guest post was contributed by Jenny Wadlow.
3D printers are getting a lot of press at the moment and they will eventually sweep into every industry. If you make your own jewelry it will affect you sooner rather than later. Let’s look at some of the reasons why 3D printers will be good for small jewelry manufacturers in case you want to get in there before everyone else does.
The price of machines will fall
Machines are obviously very expensive at the moment, but it definitely won’t be that way forever. There is going to come a time when they are mass-produced for the general public and everyone will be able to get their hands on one. Because you’re running a business you might not need to get the cheapest model anyway, so you can splash out on something more expensive. You might even be able to pick one up secondhand from a company looking to get rid of an old one.
The materials will be cheaper too
How much money do you spend on materials at the moment? When you start printing stuff out you will be able to save a lot of money and this is mostly down to the fact human error will be taken out of the equation. The printer will know exactly how much of a certain material to use and none will be wasted. You can also add that to the fact the material will be cheaper to ship to your door because it won’t take up as much physical space.
Explore your creative side
Some people prefer creating stuff with the materials in front of them, whereas lots of other people prefer creating when they are sitting in front of the computer. When you’re staring at a screen you will be able to do a lot more things instantaneously. When physically creating new designs you will obviously need to do everything manually before you know if it will work or not. This leaves you with more time to get creative.
Save so much time
The real time-saving will come once you’ve already designed your jewelry and you’re ready to print it out. No longer will you need to sit and do everything by hand. The hardest thing you’ll have to do when it comes to the manufacturing side is keep an eye on your machines to make sure everything is okay. With more time also comes great power and we’re going to look at how you should spend that time, so unfortunately it doesn’t mean more TV.
More time marketing the business
If you want your business to turn into a thing of beauty you can’t just sit around waiting for other people to come to your website. You will need to spend your free time marketing the business. Luckily the time you free up by using 3D printers means you’ve got all the time in the world to dip your toes into the marketing side of things. 3D printers will mean you can take your company to the next level very fast indeed.
It’s easier to scale
Once you start marking your business a lot more you will obviously need extra stock. This would have been impossible before when you were making everything by hand. Even if you hired extra people the profits wouldn’t have been great. Luckily you will just be able to purchase extra 3D printers. Maybe next time you can get bigger and faster ones. Your business will be able to scale pretty much hassle-free as long as you have somewhere to keep your printers.
Think about changing
There is one bad thing about 3D printers we’ve not spoken about yet. If you don’t move fast it means your competitors will be out there stealing business from you. Luckily in jewelry design it’s not easy to replicate someone’s creations, but you still want to move over to 3D printing while there is still time to find your feet.
Author Info
This article is authored by Jenny Wadlow, an employee at Lior Diamonds, leading specialists in engagement rings online. She is a sports fanatic and enjoys playing football on weekends.