A 27-year-old who brings in up to $16,000 a month 3D printing ornaments and other products explains how he built a side hustle selling on Etsy
- Austin Ziegler began 3D printing products to sell on Etsy in 2022.
- His first idea, a battery case, was a flop. But he kept experimenting and eventually began making money on the side.
- One of his popular products took off in 2023, and he made $10,000 in sales in a single week.
On his phone, Austin Ziegler keeps a running list of hundreds of product ideas.
He 3D prints prototypes, with the majority of them going into “a huge prototyping box,” he told Insider. “I don’t let any of them go. I’ve probably prototyped 500 to 1,000 different products in the last year and a half.”
His Etsy page features the concepts that make it past the prototyping stage. Some are useful, such as a soap travel case designed to keep your toiletry bag completely dry, while others are entertaining, such as a cash ornament — and some catch fire, while others completely fail.
The first item Ziegler listed for sale was in the latter category.
He made battery cases for your double and triple A batteries.
“I didn’t make a single sale in the first four months I had it on Etsy,” said the 27-year-old Portland resident, who launched his online shop in April 2022. “It’s a very humbling experience when you finally get it on Etsy and you make nothing.”
Launching on Etsy with 2 Prusa printers and packaging supplies
Ziegler, who manages an engineering team that designs medical devices during the day, purchased two 3D printers for a separate side project he began in 2020. He created a fidget toy, purchased printers for prototyping, and then began the patent process, which can take several years.
He found himself sitting on two fully functional, fairly expensive 3D printers and thought, “I should probably use these to make some money,” he said. “So then I started just 3D printing products and trying to sell them on Etsy.”
The printers were his most expensive startup expense. He chose Prusa and spent about $1,400 total, including shipping. He saved some money by doing the assembly himself. He estimates that buying them pre-assembled will cost around $1,000.
He also purchased 3D printing filament and downloaded SolidWorks design software.
He purchased boxes, packaging paper, a paper cutter, a tape gun, and a Rollo label printer because he would be fulfilling the orders himself.
“All of that stuff is relatively inexpensive in the long-term,” he told me. “It’s a one-time investment that you’ll use for the rest of your business: the Rollo printer was around $120, the paper ripper was around $60, and the tape gun was around $10.” Those are the three items I use on a daily basis.”
He also mentioned that a photo box was a good investment. It assists him in creating a clean, sleek background for his product photos, which he takes with his iPhone camera.
Before selling his first product on Etsy, he knew “absolutely nothing except what YouTube could tell me,” he said. The battery case flop taught him that he needed to establish credibility: “I have zero sales on Etsy, I’m a brand new company, I have no reviews.” No one will want to buy from me because I am not a credible seller.”
To establish credibility, Ziegler decided to create low-cost keychains and magnets, hoping that a low-cost product would drive sales and, in turn, reviews.
“I made these little keychains and magnets and posted them for 99 cents each,” he told me. “They cost about 75 cents to make, so when I factor in shipping and other expenses, I’m really not making any money.” But it ended up driving my first 20 sales and ten reviews, giving me a little more credibility.”
Growing from zero sales to $10,000 in a single week
Ziegler only needed a product to resonate with customers after establishing some seller credibility. That’s exactly what his soap travel case did.
It was inspired by a personal problem Ziegler was attempting to solve: traveling with a bar of soap.
“I was in Hawaii and I was using a travel Ziploc bag,” he said. “The travel Ziploc bag is only so good — it will puncture at some point — and it opened and got my entire toiletry bag all soapy and gross.” “I was thinking, I should make a product for this.”
He created a soap box to create a completely dry travel experience, and it turns out he wasn’t the only one who struggled with a soapy toiletry case: the product quickly became a best-seller on Etsy, and his side project officially transitioned to a profitable side hustle.
His next big win was a gas can ornament labeled “2022” to commemorate the year’s record-high gas prices. He had the idea after filling up his tank with gas last November and paying an eye-watering $5 per gallon.
Other sellers, according to a Google search, had the same idea. The product was already on the market. Rather than abandoning the concept, Ziegler considered how he could differentiate his product: “I thought, ‘Is there a way to gift money with this ornament because of the high gas prices?'” And that’s when I came up with the idea of simply drilling a hole in the middle of the gas can.”
He created and printed the ornament, then listed it on Etsy, and it took off like none of his previous products had. He was in Spokane, Washington, with his family for Thanksgiving when business took off.
“I was ecstatic, but also stressed,” Ziegler said. “I would get stressed when I had 10 open orders on Etsy but at Thanksgiving, I had 100 open orders.”
He shipped two more 3D printers to his Portland home and cut his trip short in order to assemble the printers and begin fulfilling orders.
“I would set two eight-hour print cycles and one four-hour print cycle, so I was printing 20 hours a day,” he told me. “It was printing when I left for work.” I started printing the four-hour one when I got home from work. I started printing the eight-hour one when I went to bed.”
He also made it a point to stop by the post office before heading to work to ship orders.
Prior to listing the ornament, Ziegler’s monthly sales had increased from nothing to a couple hundred dollars per month, eventually plateauing around $1,200.
He made $4,000 in sales in November 2022.
He made $10,000 in a single week less than a year later, in late August 2023, mostly from the gas can ornament, which is now labeled “gas money” and does not include the year. Insider confirmed his sales by inspecting screenshots of his Etsy dashboard.
Other items, such as coat hooks, soap dishes, and business card holders, help him get through the non-holiday season. “I averaged $1,400 in sales per month between January and May of 2023, which is still good for a hobby.” He sold his first ornament in May, and business has picked up significantly as the holiday season approaches. He made $16,000 in revenue in September.
The days of worrying about ten open orders are long gone.
“I constantly have between 50 and 200 open orders that I’m working on,” said Ziegler, who owns 12 printers.
He reinvests the majority of his profits back into the business, which he hopes to grow to the point where it generates enough passive income to support him.
“The whole goal of the 3D printing was to make some side cash so I could woodwork,” said Ziegler, who wants to do epoxy projects in particular. “The goal is to woodwork in the future and have a company that can generate enough money where I can spend minimal time on it and maximum time on woodworking.”
