Maker Presentation - Cost of Starting a Business

All,

I guess this is me welcoming me to the forums. Recently I bought an Arduino Uno due to my love of design, software, mechanical engineering, and even Matlab. As a mechanical engineering student, I have to present on an engineering related issue. I have chosen the Maker culture as a topic (more specifics in a second). Arduino is clearly a part of this, and although I'm not yet active, I've made the first steps in one day being so.

I want to introduce other students to the maker culture and to mainly introduce them to the changes the Maker culture is spearheading in industry (manufacturing for small businesses/startups mainly). I am personally amazed at being able to draft, prototype, test, manufacture, and ship for very little money, in a very short amount of time.

Long story short, I am wondering if anyone could suggest some reading materials for this (especially business cases). I am currently reading "Makers" by Chris Anderson as a backbone for my presentation. He talks of companies being able to start on a credit card budget. I also think Amazon web services are amazing, so any useful applications of MAKER TOOLS for small businesses would apply here. Thank you all!

Welcome and Great Topic! I wish I could help but I don't yet have a business. Would love to hear about your findings though. You may be able to read about sparkfun's story on their website. It is the biggest maker-related business I know of, having millions of sales each month (or a year?!).

would these articles be of interest?