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3D Printing is Fun and Useful. Every Maker Should Get One.

I can’t believe I waited until 2017 to get a 3D printer, these things are great! Right out of the box you can make all sorts of useful stuff for your home or office with a 3D printer.

In future posts I will discuss 3D printing as a tool for #MakerBizSuccess, but for now I just want to help you catch 3D printing fever (yes it is contagious).

Important Tips
Before we get into how I got started and what it can do, I want to share some tips I found invaluable.

Painters Tape and Glue Sticks! Before you order your 3D Printer make sure that you have a stock of Painters tape and all-purpose glue sticks. Continue reading “3D Printing is Fun and Useful. Every Maker Should Get One.”

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Marketing Rich – Alexa Skill for Small Business Marketing Tips

Marketing tips for your small business from your Amazon Echo. I wanted to share tips on marketing to help you acheieve #MakerBizSuccess.

We launched version 1.0 in February 2017, simply look in the #Alexa app for “Marketing Rich” or go online to Amazon.com and under ‘Departments’ go to ‘Echo & Alexa’ to select ‘Alexa Skills’. You can look under Business & Finance and/or search for “Marketing Rich” or eRose Web.

Currently we have a limited number of tips and you need to start a new session for each new tip, but over the coming weeks we will be adding more tips and additional functionality to improve this skill to better serve Makers and Small Business owners interested in learning more about marketing.

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Funding and Proof of Concept with Crowdfunding

Makers, once you have created the best new product ever of course people will throw money at you to make it! Right? Before you put your home on the line or sink every penny into that great new product you made, please test your market.

One way to test your market is through a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. It’s one thing for somebody to say they would buy your product, it’s a whole different animal when they have to actually take money out of their pocket and give it to you, the story often changes quickly.

Crowdfunding gives you a better idea of the actual demand for your product, if you are at a price point where you can make money, and gives you feedback on potential improvements or adjustments that may be needed on your product from those early adopters.

Make sure if you do run a campaign you plan it out and set yourself up for #MakerBizSuccess. If you throw it together without strategic planning you are likely to fail and it will not tell you whether the product is good or not, just that you may need a lot of help in your marketing skills.

Here are a few highlights and a link to an interesting article with expert tips from people that have been there and done that:

Are You Ready to Launch? – Creating a Successful Kickstarter Timeline

By Shetara of @MakersRow

“In addition to funding, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great launch platforms to test your initial product concepts in the market.”

“You will need at least 2 months dedicated to setting up the project. The more thought and attention you give your Kickstarter “pre-launch” the more likely your chances are for a successful campaign.”
Read Full Article…

As they mention in the article, when you use the crowdfunding avenue make sure to plan your rewards for maximum results, and you put a lot of thoughtful effort into the visuals and content. First impressions go a long way towards success.

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Maker Business Marketing Intro

Once you have created a great product you need to get the word out about it! Unfortunately it is not just about creating product that is better than everything else out there. People need to be able to find out about it in order for you to achieve Maker Business Success!

For full disclosure and transparency, being a maker is a hobby for me at this point. My primary business is web design and marketing through eRose Web & Business Services, LLC. Hopefully this blog will add valuable resources, education, and encouragement to what I hope will sometime be a full-time business for you if it is not already. Continue reading “Maker Business Marketing Intro”

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The Lean Startup philosophy critical for Makers and Inventors (unless you are loaded).

If you have got more money than you know what to do with then this article is not for you. If, however you are like most of the Maker and Inventor universe and your budget is tight or very minimal I want to share some good info from a book I read recently.

The good news is that The Lean Startup (@leanstartup) by Eric Ries (@ericries) explains that the path to success in the age of advanced technology is not about sinking large amounts of money into a new product in order to create economies of scale. The opposite is true, at least early on when the proof of concept is a primary component. Continue reading “The Lean Startup philosophy critical for Makers and Inventors (unless you are loaded).”

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3D Printing – Amazing Possibilities

I recently attended an ‘Intro to 3D Printing’ class at The Hacktory (www.TheHacktory.org) in Philadelphia, and wanted to share some of the amazing things being done in 3D printing.

Some of you may already know a lot about 3D printing but I had not yet had the chance to explore the possibilities with what is coming down the line. If you do have good knowledge of this area, I welcome your comments to help inspire the Maker Community.

For those of you like myself who have not yet explored 3D printing I will share a few things I learned and some cool resources. While there are currently 3D printers available at a much lower cost than in the recent past, that doesn’t mean 3D printing at home is for everyone. I am told by sine the design software isn’t too hard to learn, especially for simple designs and in making adjustments to existing designs. (Check out Thingiverse.com for shared 3D designs). There is apparently a learning curve on avoiding common mistakes regarding making sure the initial layer of material adheres well, making sure any overhanging areas are supported and ensuring proper quality of material. Continue reading “3D Printing – Amazing Possibilities”

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My Maker Story – What got you started?

Before I even knew there was such a thing as a Maker Movement I had been interested in creating and learning. My Dad got me started, he was an avid woodworker, dabbled in Electronics and developed his own photographs. We built quite a few things out of wood, and he taught me a variety of hobbies. He even helped me learn enough about some basic electronics to make a metronome from scratch and win an award at my 6th Grade Science Fair.

My Dad is not in the best of health now, but thankfully he is still around to ask some questions and carry on his legacy of learning and exploration. My main hobby over the last few years has been woodworking with a wide variety of power and hand tools he had given me.

More recently I have started to explore electronics again. Unfortunately it has been quite a few decades so I forgot almost everything. No worries though, a lot has changed with the technological advances, like Arduino, etc…so I am probably better off not thinking I know stuff that is not accurate.

With this blog I am not trying to pretend I know everything and that I personally am the ‘Maker Authority’, it is quite the opposite. I have been having trouble finding a resource that covers all the things I want to learn, so my goal is that as I find the resources or learn the concepts, I can pass them on to the ever growing Maker Movement followers. Together we can advance the technology and solutions available to make life a little easier. (And hopefully have some fun and make money while doing it).

I am not a scientist or engineer so I figure if I can learn it than anyone can learn it! Continue reading “My Maker Story – What got you started?”

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Maker Authority a Resource for the Maker Movement

There has been a significant reduction in cost and ease of use in technology. Now making it possible for just about anyone with motivation to join the ‘Maker Movement’.

The maker movement is a trend in which individuals or groups of individuals create and market products that are recreated and assembled using unused, discarded or broken electronic, plastic, silicon or virtually any raw material and/or product from a computer-related device.

What is the Maker Movement? – Definition from Techopedia

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28408/maker–movement

With TV shows like America’s Greatest Maker, Shark Tank, Beyond the Tank, and other shows focused on new inventions and products the Entrepreneurial Maker spirit is gaining momentum in popular culture.

Someday (hopefully soon) this can lead to another industrial revolution… Continue reading “Maker Authority a Resource for the Maker Movement”