Small Business Success During a Pandemic
One day, as I was mindlessly scrolling through TikTok (a popular social media platform where creators can post up to one-minute videos of their liking) I stumbled upon a video from my high school friend Robert Marquez. It was such a pleasure to see a familiar face come across my For You Page, especially since I haven’t kept in constant touch with Robert since we graduated in June. In the video, he was showing off a knife, called “Octane Heirloom,” from the video game Apex Legends that he 3D printed, painted, and was selling on his Etsy shop.
After watching the video, I was amazed. The knife was quite detailed and just the thought that it was something that Robert had made was enough to leave me at a loss for words. I wasn’t even aware that he owned a 3D printer, as it is not a common household appliance that everyone has in their house. However, recently, 3D printers are becoming cheaper and more accessible to the general public, allowing anyone to impulse buy them and not completely break the bank (which is exactly what he did).
I first met Robert when I was shadowing a student at the school I was transferring to in the middle of my sophomore year of high school. He was introduced to me as “one of the nicest people you’ll meet” and in the time that has passed since then, I have found it to be completely true. While often quiet in person, Robert is a kind and thoughtful person who anyone would be lucky to have as a friend.
Two of his main passions are his animals and video games. He owns several birds and turtles who he cares for. When he’s not spending time with them, he likes to play video games, although recently, he hasn’t found as much time to do so as his business grows. Robert has always loved video games with a particular interest in Pokémon. His current focus is on Apex Legends, but right before it took his heart, he enjoyed playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on his Nintendo Switch when it was released shortly after the lockdown began.
Robert Marquez is currently attending College of the Canyons, a community college close to where he resides, as a part-time student. He was previously a full-time student at a school that just wasn’t the right fit for him, but after his business started gaining traction, he realized that he couldn’t maintain a full schedule of classes.
In his shop, he sells a small variety of 3D printed props (or “heirlooms”) from the video game Apex Legends. He first got the idea to make his own heirlooms after searching for some on Etsy and seeing absurdly high prices. “It was too expensive, so I was like ‘I’m just gonna [sic] buy one and print them myself,’ so that’s what I did.” After making some for himself, he got the idea to start selling them at a fairer price so more fans can have access.
Robert owes the success of his business to the social media platform TikTok. It was his use of the app that inspired him to start his business after seeing the following that Apex had on there and interacting with fellow fans of the game. He currently has a small following of 16,600 followers but is still growing. If it weren’t for TikTok, he would not have made any of the 222 sales (and counting) that he has so far. “TikTok is the audience, I get no customers from Etsy anymore because I moved from Etsy to my own website” He is so popular that there is a current message on his website saying that he is “flooded with orders” and has purchased another printer to keep up with the orders.
In addition to promoting his business on TikTok, Robert also sponsors Angelic Angie, a Twitch streamer who plays Apex Legends. In exchange for a percentage of sales, she promotes Robert’s shop and products to her subscribers.
A typical workday for Robert lasts from 6 am to 10 pm and he works every day except Sunday. He will wake up and the first thing he does is start his printer. The pieces take a few hours to print and he only has one printer, so has to make the most of his day to get his orders shipped out within a reasonable time. He will then start sanding, painting, and finishing up his products that have finished printing so they can be packaged and shipped. He goes down to the post office every day to send off his finished orders and repeats this process day after day. In addition to making the physical product and getting it to his customers, Robert also spends time promoting his business on social media and reaching out to different people to help grow his shop. He does not currently design the products he sells, so he must contact the designers to ask if they would be okay if he could use their design and sell the items in exchange for a percentage of sales. “It’s a lot of reaching out for small businesses I’m trying to bring more stuff to the shop so I’m just like constantly writing emails and messaging.” He wants to bring as many props to his shop as possible because his audience is growing along with the volume and variety of requests. Robert hopes to be able to expand to selling products related to the popular game Fortnite which has an even bigger following than Apex.
Robert is mostly a one-man operation, but when he was starting out in August, he had his parents help him out because he was on campus for school in a different state and did not have his printer with him. He taught them how to carry out the production process until he returned in November. He also has a friend who helps create and edit pictures for his shop’s website. Robert previously ran his business on Etsy, but they required too many fees and if he wanted to be able to offer attractive prices for his heirlooms, he couldn’t afford to operate on that platform anymore.
Operating a small business is a full-time job and then some. If it weren’t for the global pandemic forcing everyone to stay home for a prolonged period of time, Robert would have never had the time to do this. He mentions, “I would probably be in my college dorm, doing work that didn’t make me happy and earning a degree that could never reach the current level of happiness I have now.” Robert feels that “The pandemic weirdly feels like it hit at the right time, because if it weren’t for this increase of time at home I wouldn’t have time to make the wonderful connections I did through Tiktok [sic], and I probably wouldn’t have gotten as many sales if people weren’t stuck at home only able to scroll through Tiktok.”
Robert probably isn’t alone in thinking this; there are many people who have spent an increased amount of time online, especially on TikTok where there are hundreds of creators selling just about anything you can think of. It can be fairly easy to go viral on TikTok and have your video read thousands, if not millions of people. If you own and operate a small business this means the world to you because a viral video translates to orders and possibly permanent customers.
While he is uncertain what the future holds, Robert would love to continue to do this in the future, and possibly for a living, because he is truly passionate about his business and values the connections he has made.
You can find Robert Marquez on TikTok and Instagram at thewildrob and at his shop thewildrob.com
