“We started our small business when we purchased the Shrunk 3D mobile scanning studio thanks to funding from CEF.”
– Nick Conklin, Owner

Q&A with Owner, Nick Conklin

Give a high level overview of your business. What products or services you offer, where you're located, etc.
Shrunk 3D: photography meets 3D printing! We create 3D photos of yourself, your loved ones & pets. My first dollar was earned this past Halloween, but I have been establishing a C-Corp and doing due diligence on the franchise acquisition for over a year.

How did the idea for your business come about?
I am one of the countries leading 3D scanning practitioners & have worked in additive manufacturing for a decade. I saw the demand for this product on now legacy printers that were not consumer ready. Advances in 3D scanning collided with advances in 3D printing enabling a consumer ready product.

What neighborhood is your business located in and what do you love about that location?
My franchise territory covers all the major CO ski destinations. From a biz view this is prime territory for the tourism & how many events are being held. From a lifestyle view I am a huge ski bum & own land in Leadville that I want to move to but first had to secure a source of income.

What led your business to seek out new/additional funding?
We needed to purchase the Shrunk booth while maintaining enough personal capital to purchase a vehicle capable of towing the mobile studio. To make matters worse, in addition to loosing my primary income of the cybersecurity position, my vehicle got totaled so I did not even have a trade in!

Describe your difficulties in obtaining funding for your small business and how that impacted you and your business.
I was let go from my cybersecurity R&D position during the franchise purchase. This complicated finance qualifications and I also intended to work the job while building the franchise in the background.

What ultimately made you decide to go with CEF as your lender?
CEF was able to collateralize my home equity.

What were you able to do with the funding you received from CEF?
We purchased the Shrunk 3D mobile scanning studio thanks to funding from CEF. We had already paid for the franchise territory using retirement funds via the ROBS process.

What's on the horizon for you and your small business?
New products, new equipment that will be able to be run autonomously allowing greater reach than our manned mobile studio. Networking with event & wedding planners. We have recently been listed on The Knot, WeddingWire, and Batch.

What recent success(es) have you experienced in your business?Supporting the Special Olympics Colorado two weekends in a row. The first was the Winter State Games at Copper Mountain. The following we attended the JETKids CO Sky Invitational Gymnastics Meet - a fundraiser for the Special Olympics & a portion of our revenue was given to the host gym to donate.