Xometry: How Much Did I Really Make in 2024?

[@AscendedTechnologies]

AYYYYYYY, some results brother! Great video

[@AudacityMicro]

Thanks man! I made this video specifically because I saw your video!

[@ifonlyeverything]

Thank you for having the courage to post real, bottom line numbers. Very insightful.

[@AudacityMicro]

I won't ever claim to be an expert at this stuff, but I figure if I share as much as I can, then other can watch, and learn from my experiences one way or another!

[@Cmtb125]

You made enough money. And you are your own boss. It will only grow and get better from here. Awesome stuff.

[@chrisj4570g]

Always dealing in cash means that you are a slave to no one. Glad to see you’re making it Dude.

[@AudacityMicro]

Getting there! 2025 should be much better

[@Str8UpRevving]

Your income is similar to what i make with my day job. And i'm doing just fine with a mortgage, car payment, etc. I tell people all the time, it's not just about the money. You are your own boss, and that alone is priceless in my book.

[@AudacityMicro]

Exactly 🙂

[@whosgotthetime3995]

Great job on the first year! I've ran a similar sized business since 2023 while maintaining a full time engineering job ( yes, I've forgotten what sleeping is like lol). Continue to avoid large debt like the plauge. Cashflow is probably the single biggest thing I balance outside of my time. I've known several guys who borrowed "reasonable" amounts after two or three good startup years. Both of these businesses had slowdowns or capacity issues immediately following these loans. One was bought out by several out of state investors and the other guy is hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Keep after it and keep posting the transparent content. You've inspired me occasionally and I'm sure there will be some other dreamer like us who will try because of your impact. I'm far to lazy to create content from my own shop so definitely keep it up for all of us "little guys" starting out.

[@KayRoepke]

Not taking on extra debt is very wise, IMHO. Not only are you in complete control but you also have an immediate perception about your finances. Taking calculated risks should always come a position where you have a good understanding about your situation, and not from pressure to "make it". Greatly appreciate the transparency and wish you great success in 2025!

[@stevenmartinez133]

If you’re happy at the end of the day who cares! Plus, you can see that it’s a stepping stone towards something bigger. Keeping going and have fun along the way!

[@rustysena2638]

I like what you're doing buddy. Keep it up. Thank you for being honest.

[@AudacityMicro]

🙂

[@romanpats]

Thank you for sharing the numbers! I think that building honest and public business is vice way to go nowadays. We are waiting our third boy, I know that kids takes a lot of time but they definitely worth that effort. God bless!

[@joell439]

Great job for year 1. You learned a lot too. Keep after it and hug your family. 👍

[@Cor-l4w]

Love this video and thanks for letting us in on your journey good luck

[@rockyrivermushrooms529]

Time spent with your family is priceless. You are lucky.

[@Cmtb125]

Also, THANK YOU for making this video so we can get a look into the Xometry life. I am still an employee at a job shop, but one day I will venture out on my own.

[@Jbpipesandmufflers]

. Love to see youre first year went great. Not having fun money is 1 but being able to say you actualy made a reasonable first year is great! Keep it up. Score some good jobs and make double/tripple next year. Business can be hard. But when theres a will theres a way.

[@AudacityMicro]

thanks! Money isn't everything! Money is tight, but we're doing just fine!

[@Jbpipesandmufflers]

@AudacityMicro i know exactly how that feels. Dont have kids. But i know what it is to be just fine. Money doesnt make you better. But its allways nice to have some spares. I had a rough couple of years myself. Now im trying to get up again. Not easy But il manage i hope.

[@AudacityMicro]

I have faith in you 😀

[@Jbpipesandmufflers]

@AudacityMicro thanks.

[@piccilos]

Congratulations on the solid year, growing a business without debt is success. I'm hoping we see some tariff changes that improve our competitiveness in manufacturing this year.

[@sleepib]

My opinion on borrowing money is that you need to know it's going to make more money before taking the loan out. For example, keep track of jobs you want to take but can't because you need X machine. After a year, tally up the extra money from those jobs over what you actually ended up doing in the time that would have been allocated, and see if it exceeds the cost of the loan payment.

[@AudacityMicro]

Personally I'm not against borrowing for machines, or buildings, (though I would still avoid it if I could) but anything beyond that I think is unnecessary, and potentially harmful.

[@craigbossard399]

Congrats on year 1 being a success. You do a great job of explaining the methods you use. I will be interested to see how you grow. I’d like to see what you think is critical to double your business this year.

[@AudacityMicro]

Thanks! Doubling my business I don't think will actually be that hard. I'm already pretty much there. The year started off rather slow, but I grew a lot over the course of the year. November was like 600% what I did in February. If I just maintain the same pace as November, I'll probably do 2x in 2025 what I did in 2024. But I have a longer form video coming soon with more details. My goal is to do double the revenue in 2025 with half the number of hours I spent in 2024. IE, build a realistic work life balance 😅

[@macmcmillen6282]

Thanks for the transparency about your business income. I think you've done remarkably well given that you've only been in business for one year. Well done!

[@AudacityMicro]

Thank you!

[@lizardkeeper100]

You made more then I was expecting you to have from this. it isn't a windfall but for how small your business is and being cash only (I think that is smart) I think you are doing good.

[@AudacityMicro]

I came in a little under my predictions, but that was mostly due to December being weird (I did almost no machining work in December). but overall I am pretty happy with how things are going! Machining certainly isn't a get-rich-quick scheme 🤣

[@rexmundi8154]

I’m about to semi retire from my career as a machinist. From my experience, there is a sweet spot for longevity in a small shop. I see some shops plug away for decades. They have a good reputation locally for quality and they are conservative with their spending. They don’t have expensive new machines or flashy buildings. They’re doing the jobs big shops can’t bother with. Resplining shafts, making couplers, making brackets. Almost always they’re also a welding shop to some extent. The other type of shop I see is the Titan model. They have all the toys. Maybe they start with just one or 2 machines but pretty soon they have a bay full. But it’s always hustle for them. They’re a few cancelled orders away from bankruptcy. I worked at one once and it’s no fun to show up one morning to locked doors and a security guard telling you to schedule a time to pick up your box. If you’re a good machinist, you can make a good living in a 2 bay garage with a Prototrak mill and a decent lathe. Obviously you need to be somewhere there are customers, but most decent sized city has those.

[@mkosmo]

As you grow, hopefully you can direct market your services and improve your margins instead of letting the broker take 20% off the top!

[@AIB707]

Thank you for sharing and being open about this. You are inspiration for me to potentially getting a machine. I would say that for the first year, this is great. The burden in the first year is very high and the investment in the first year will pay off. With your new machine and your workflow developed (an continuous improvements), this is very promising.

[@AudacityMicro]

hey that is awesome! Definitely reach out if/when you do decide to get a machine!

[@gorak9000]

Seems really good for year 1, and being all cash is smart. It will be interesting to see what happens next year - if you stick with the same machines, how much will revenue grow, or do you get bigger machines, and what possibilities does that open up... etc

[@AudacityMicro]

2025 is already looking much better! I already have $20K of work booked, and it's not even February yet.

[@davesmith4130]

Doing good, keep it up

[@AudacityMicro]

Thanks!

[@lelandbray98]

Hey AJ, thanks for the insight! Was this premium level xometry work for the most part?

[@AudacityMicro]

Nope! Most of this was done at the first tier

[@misupercooner]

Dude you killed it! One thing I'd like to see is hours worked to get you there. That tells the whole real story. If you worked sub 40 hours a week then 🎉. If not either way year one id call that a huge success!

[@AudacityMicro]

Oh I definitely worked WAY more than 40 hours a week 😅. I have another video almost ready to post, in that video I talk about my goals for 2025, and one of my major goals is to cut way back on my hours worked, while maintaining/improving my income.

[@misupercooner]

@AudacityMicro awesome man. You're definitely building something to be proud of!

[@lawmate]

Congratulations, great work. I'm interested in how much of your take home profit you will set aside for future purchasing. Like if you want to buy small, medium and large tools in the future, how do you save for them? Is it a percentage of each job payment or do you take a hit on your personal salary when the need arises?

[@AudacityMicro]

Oooh, that is actually a very good question. I can tell you that for 2024, I spent all the money I had saved for future investments before the end of the year, so the number on the chart is up to date and accurate. I intended on saving more of it, but long story short, I needed the money at the end of the year. But in general I save 10% of my gross revenue specifically for re-investing into capital expenditures for the company. That goes into a dedicated account, via the "profit first" method. (It a book, definitely look into it if this is something you are considering doing). I certainly need to invest more in growth than I did in 2024. I was fairly limited due to, you know, needing to eat. But as the company grows, and needing to hit my minimum "not starving" level of income becomes a worry of the past, I'll invest a whole lot more in growing.

[@lawmate]

@@AudacityMicro OK interesting. Yeah I've listened to profit first and I'm talking with my accountant to try and work out how to set it up at the moment. I'm very interested in how to go about making medium and large purchases without using finance. Like I've wanted to get through coolant on my Hurco for years but it is a £10k expense and a want rather than an immediate need. Every time I put money aside, some other tool in the £100 - £2000 range becomes a requirement and I spend out for that. Like should you have a separate account for each large expense to save for? Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@morganallen2272]

What was your typical weekly/monthly time investment?

[@AudacityMicro]

Basically all of it?

[@jonahbrame7874]

I think considering you leveraged no credit whatsoever and skipped out on jobs that you knew were possible but didn’t want to take on the risk of buying the material on credit, you did pretty well for a first year in business! On a side note, I sincerely hope you’re not paying list prices for end mills, it’s shocking how different the pricing is going through a distributor who gets large volume discounts that you can’t achieve on your own. Of course most of them want to do net30 billing which you may consider credit…just something to look into if you haven’t already.

[@bendtheirons8648]

Hi AJ, Great video, as always. One question that I have is with regards to shipping. I see you have an "Office, Software and Shipping" breakout but does that include shipping for incoming raw materials and tooling, or is that just for shipping your final finished products? I ask because it seems for Xometry, you need to "frequently" pay for overnight shipping for both tooling and materials to meet the deadline and so wondering if your tooling and materials breakout includes those higher shipping fees? Thanks.

[@AudacityMicro]

I included shipping and taxes on materials and tooling, in the materials and tooling sections. The office and shipping section is specifically things that I shipped to other people. (Which was minimal, since most my business was xometry, and xometry pays for their own shipping).

[@Cmtb125]

This is just the start….. you made decent money and you’re just starting out. In 2-3 years from now, you’ll be making 200k profit. Easy. Just wait until you have 4 or 5 machines and 2-3 employees. Doing all types of machining work from many companies.

[@dejanvanevski4399]

Congratulations on successfull year.Do you think prices from xometry are competitive? Or do they fit based on hourly rates for milling and turning parts?

[@AudacityMicro]

Xometry's prices are super high for their customers, and super low for shops 😅. But the value of guaranteed work, and not messing with sales/billing is also huge. It's worth it to me for now, but it won't be worth it for everyone.

[@dejanvanevski4399]

@AudacityMicro I wanted your opinion because I want to try couple of parts,but very low prices offered sometimes are not enough to cover steel,delivery...

[@AudacityMicro]

Just don't take the jobs that you can't make money on 🤷‍♂️. I reject 99% of jobs. But it only takes a few.

[@dejanvanevski4399]

@@AudacityMicro If you reject jobs, that don't fit on your graphics based on xometry work

[@AudacityMicro]

That's how xometry works. You reject the jobs you don't want, and you take the jobs you want.

[@Johnnyreengo]

How many hours a week are you working?

[@AudacityMicro]

Too many, but also not enough at the same time 😅

[@tonerduckpin]

Thanks for posting this?

[@AudacityMicro]

You're welcome!

[@yelims20]

May God continue to bless you :)

[@AudacityMicro]

🙂

[@LightOfGodMfg]

Amen! I also pray God blesses you! I want to see you and your family continue to be successful and for your business to grow!

[@andrewnelson3714]

badass first year. did u mention how many hrs/week?

[@AudacityMicro]

basically all of them 😅

[@jasonruch3529]

Thanks for being honest...my 2 cents is FOLLOW YOUR HEART😊

[@AudacityMicro]

😁

[@ManuelRamcanny]

I've seen this graph before. How is it made?

[@AudacityMicro]

It's called a Sankey diagram. There's a number of different ways of generating them, but I used this one: sankeymatic.com

[@ManuelRamcanny]

Thanks a lot man, you are the best! I'm following your steps, keep up with the good content. You're helping me provide for my family! 🙏

[@HuskyMachining]

Not bad for a first year. XOM was my only customer for the first 5 years of my business and I definitely made more money as the years went on with them and I'm sure you will too. But now what this stuff about being able to expense some mortgage payments?!? I run a home shop too and I though I could only expense some of the power and heating bills. I need to find a better CP!

[@AudacityMicro]

Maybe don't take anything I say as tax advice 😂. I am just parroting what I think my CPA told me a year ago, I could be mistaken/misremembering.

[@HuskyMachining]

​@@AudacityMicro and if your curious, I made $47k gross with XOM my first full year with them back in 2020 (I just looked it up on the XOM finance board) when I only had my tormach 770. And my last year of them being my only customer, I made 180K gross with them.

[@paulrautenbach]

If you're having fun and have enough coming in to pay the bills that sounds good to me.

[@AudacityMicro]

That's pretty much the goal right now! We're happy and healthy, and that is really what matters right now. Comfort will come in time, but money isn't everything.

[@Bob-jn8gt]

Do you have a website? I am in charge of all of our vendor relationships at my company and I’m sure there will be a time in the next few months when we’ll have something for you to quote if you’re interested.

[@AudacityMicro]

I do technically have a website, but it's not in a particularly useful state at the moment 😅. It's just there for Fusion training. Right now I just do everything via email. [e-mail]

[@p1sca]

would be nice if you add the hours of work otherwise numbers are very relative

[@p1sca]

btw wish you good luck with the shop

[@AudacityMicro]

I can tell you that I worked many many hours 😅. Far more than 40 hours per week. But you don't start a business so that you can work LESS. You start a business because your hours compound into something worth having (eventually)

[@meandmycnc1644]

atta boy. very, very much appreicated for us that want to be Audacity Micro some day.

[@AudacityMicro]

😁

[@drewgraff7748]

If you would have funneled 30,000 worth of expenses through a decent 1.5 % cash back credit card you could have made $450 tax free! Just pay it every month.

[@drewgraff7748]

Also, a lot of business cards have a $900 sign up bonus and 15 month zero percent interest if you need to make a large purchase and pay it out over 15 months! I use it as a 15 month zero percent interest loan, plus make the free sign up bonus money.

[@AudacityMicro]

That is the worst possible argument for credit cards. Have you ever looked at the actual numbers? It's something like 1% of people actually make more cash back than they spend on interest and other charges in the long run. The amount of risk you are taking on for a 1% chance at $450 is lunacy. I would pay 1.5% to NOT add the additional risk to my business.

[@AudacityMicro]

There are certainly people who can leverage credit cards well, and it makes them a little bit of lunch money. But in my experience, they just lead to more and more risky choices. I would rather have a comfortable amount of cash sitting in my account doing nothing, than risk taking on debt.

[@drewgraff7748]

Be that one percent! I’ve invested every cash back reward over the last 8 ish years of my life. It’s added up. I haven’t paid a single penny to interest either. It’s not that hard, if you don’t have the cash in the bank don’t swipe the card.