CNCKing.com: Stepping Stone or Lifestyle?

A question I’ve been asking myself for the past few months was do I see CNCKing.com as a stepping stone towards something else or the business itself being a lifestyle.

With all the interviews I’ve been having over at CNCKingdom.com with designers, industrialists and entrepreneurs, it really made me take a step back and ask this question.

Lifestyle Business
Basically, keep CNCKing.com as it is, just keep growing and expanding it… developing deeper relationships with manufacturers, customers and continue the steady pace, living off the proceeds while doing what I love – designing, cutting and building.

Stepping Stone
Leverage CNCKing.com’s resources, influence and experience into and onto something bigger… it may involve selling or shutting down the site due to conflicts of interest with a new position with one of several companies I’ve been having discussions with.

Being an entrepreneur most of my life, I enjoy NEW and SHINNY – leveraging my past towards larger goals. I did this several times in my past and have no fear of putting it all on the line to take a gamble… generally it works out better than worser. I essentially shut down a profitable 3D animation studio when I saw the writing on the wall and in that case, used a stepping stone instead of lifestyle for instance that eventually lead to a more sustainable long-term business, CNCKing.com. I think the worse thing an entrepreneur can do is be 100% solely focused on just one path or avenue in life… there has to be shocks to the system to keep sharp.

Radical Change!

Well, I’ve made my decision after much thought and I decided on a third option – I’ve decided that I will be leaving Australia shortly and starting a high-end custom Canadian CNC shop in the summer serving the Niagara region – where I spent most of my childhood! I’ll be using CNCKing.com as both a lifestyle and stepping stone!

I’ve learned such a tremendous amount working on various aspects of CNC lasers that I just have to get my hands on one, which I will do… at the same time, starting a CNC shop from scratch is something I find very invigorating! Like CNCKing.com, I’ll document everything from the very beginning – sharing what I learn along the way, the projects, clients etc… the ShopBot Desktop also taught me a lot about designing physical objects and augmenting that with a laser is a perfect marriage – scraps from the router can be used to create and sell projects made with the laser! The more I think about it, the more possibilities I see… having a multi-CNC shop – also inquiring about getting a CNC plasma – is the most interesting deck of cards that I wish to play with at this point and time.

Once I got all my machines, it means I can really do a tremendous amount of videos here on CNCKing.com that I was, up to this point, only capable of making with my ShopBot Desktop CNC router and my 3D Systems Cube – both awesome machines in their own right. The laser will fill a massive capability, promotional and creative hole while providing a very good income off CNCKing.com though still related and helping the site grow tremendously.

Publishing

As much as the experience and hindsight I gained from publishing my last book (breaking new personal records all the time!), it made me realize that I really need to focus on the ROI that CNCs can provide. Yep, my most recent book actually made #63 in Industrial Design and #76 in Toy Making on Amazon.com! When you start ranking for categories you didn’t even add yourself too… something good is happening!

So, now that I’ve put all my knowledge in this book regarding how to design for CNC lasers, routers, 3D printers and a bit about plasma… the next book has to be about making money off these machines and designs for the lay person doing exactly what I’m about to do… start a CNC shop!

It’s just awesome how much I’m about to learn being hands-on in a business that I’ve been skirting for the past several years as an outsider looking in. Soon, I’ll be deep in the trenches, with all the highs and challenges that it will provide. Awesome content for my 5th volume book! It’s just so exciting thinking about all this… can’t wait!

Of course, this helps CNCKing.com as I can cut over 300 laser models… creating videos, photos etc… to promote the site even more and give customers even more valuable insight into both the industry and making the models themselves. When I got the ShopBot Desktop, for the first time, I was able to prove that my models could actually be made – it’s enjoyable and fun to build what you spend lots of time designing… but the elephant in the room was always the laser section. Soon I’ll be able to squarely address this major shortcoming.

Details

Details will be forthcoming, still talking and negotiating things but within a few months – this site should reach new heights of awesomeness! I already have a machine(s) in mind, specs etc… once things are finalized, I’ll let you guys know but suffice it to say, it will be the best CNC laser money can buy with the highest ROI in the industry. If you read through my last book – you know exactly which machine that is.

With all this change happening shortly, I won’t be on this site as much as usual… consider it the calm before storm.