Blessing the community with a 3D printing side business

It’s not unusual for ambitious people to start a side business whilst working full-time. Joshua Peacock is one of those people. He currently works at a race team at Sydney Motorsport Park full-time and runs his Peacock Race Solutions 3D printing business during his spare time.

Josh always had an interest in technology and cars. With his father, he built the Peacock Clubman car from the ground up. Along the way, he printed a few of the parts himself to finish the build.

Josh bought his first second-hand 3D printer on eBay to play with and learn to make useful stuff for himself. Little did he know, he was just about to start a profitable side business.

One of the first things I made was just a handle for a tyre inflator. A workmate said ‘Oh cool, can you make me one of them?’ So I made one for him and then other contractors we had in for the race weekend saw it and he wanted one. It just built from there.

Soon the word had spread to the local racing community and Josh started getting serious orders from customers outside of his workplace. This is when Josh decided to file an ABN and set his first steps as an entrepreneur.

Here’s Josh’ story:

Benefits of 3D printing for race teams over the traditional method of ordering parts

Prior to 3D printing, race teams had to order parts in from overseas or from large local factories. They would create a mould of the part you need and then make the parts, usually in bulk. Trying to order just 1 unique custom piece from a factory was difficult, if not impossible. Quite often, with the time it would take to build the mould, create the piece and then deliver the piece overseas, race teams would miss deadlines.

Geoff Forshall, one of Josh’s clients said “Motorsport is one of those businesses where everybody is time-poor. The motor race is on this particular date and that won’t change. You need to have things manufactured as fast as you can and as accurately as you can and that works pretty much first time, otherwise, you’re behind the eight ball.”

Common struggles of a small business

Some of the struggles of owning a small business is trying to find the time. When you’ve got a full-time job as well, trying to find the time for everything.

Running a small business whilst working full-time is one of the most common struggles amongst small startups. For Josh’ business, it was no longer a case of getting an order over the phone and printing it overnight for a mate. He had clients with deadlines and needed parts to run their own businesses as well. This meant scheduling, quoting and generating invoices within the short breaks he had in between work and family.

Invoice generator app helps Josh’s small business save time

Josh first started making invoices using excel. He created an invoice template and typed in the customer’s name, items and cost individually every time he got an order.  It got to the point where Josh needed a solution to automate his invoicing process. He searched for an invoice software and found Bookipi Invoice app, an invoice app that was made for businesses like Peacock Race Solutions.

I found out about an app that I could just do an invoice on my phone. It saved all the different customers, all the different products all I had to do was type in the different pieces and send it away.

Bookipi invoice app was developed by a small business owner, who couldn’t find an invoice software that was affordable for the full-time working side small business owners, like Josh. Not only is it affordable, but it’s simple to use. As a small business owner, you don’t need to pay for a big accounting suite with payroll, employees, taxes and banking.

The app was developed by a small business owner and for small business owners.

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