Hello everyone! My name is Ryden. I am a 22 year old that just recently graduated college as a mechanical engineer last year.
In what is probably the greatest surprise to you all, I despise working 40 hours a week for a paycheck. Do I hate engineering? Hell no, I have always loved it and have loved building stuff ever since I was a kid, nothing brings me more joy in life than bringing an idea to life. Do I hate sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day working on "engineering" related things that have almost nothing to do with an overall product I have no personal or emotional attachment to, yes!
This wasn't some sort of revelation I have just come to last week, I always knew I would dislike it. To me, I see it as a financial cushion for all of my entrepreneurial endeavors, either that's really what it is or that's what I tell myself to cope. Either or, I cant think of a time in my life in the past 7 years where I wasn't actively trying to make money on the side. Whether it was drop shipping, personal training on fiverr, amazon FBA, reselling on eBay, starting a blog, I've tried it all (given they were all pretty garbage attempts or else I wouldn't be on this forum). My latest money making attempt has been utilizing a somewhat emerging technology of plastic 3D printing. I was gifted a 3D printer for the first time 3 years ago and that opened up the world to me, I could now make almost anything I dreamed of. Of course after all the novelty of the machine wore off my first though was "how can I use this to make money?".
I'll save you the details of finding a product, the basic idea was I would try to think of something that would go 'viral', design it, print it, and post it. Quickly I learned to utilize tiktok and their tiktok shop integration for marketing and selling. Some of my videos would blow up gaining millions of views. Sales would pour in faster than I could handle, I soon made enough to buy another printer, and another, and another. The only issue was I was in college being battered by engineering classes, so the profit was not at all consistent as I could not work on the shop everyday. The sales would rise in the summer and Christmas time and fade slowly once I got back to school, that was the cycle. Before I graduated my plans were to heavily invest the money I got from my job and 3D printing shops until I had enough to retire. Shortly after I started working is when I read Millionaire Fastlane , and my God did my plans change. The world opened up around me and the possibilities I had thought were fairytales seem to be within my reach now. I thought, why should I sell stupid 3D printed junk when I could solve actual problems and make so much more money?
Fast forward to today, I find myself trying to start a new business, running some validation, seeing nobody wants it, and going back to my 3D printing shop because they continue to sell slowly in the background. After my 6-3:30 shift I come home, workout, and work again until I need to sleep at around 10:30. Right now I am in the part of the circle where I want to fully invest in the shop since it seems to be the only thing that has worked well for me. My best sellers are two different cosmetic light switch covers that have designs based off of popular games. They are mounted over your light switch and you basically use the cover to turn the light on, kind of like a big lever. Over the past couple years I have sold ~1600 of these levers across tiktok and etsy. Usually what seems to work for me is I make a tiktok videos that's interesting or funny, it gets high views and the sales come rolling in. The issue I am facing is that this doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. I post videos that get high engagement and views, but the sales just don't rise with them. I even have affiliates posting and getting even more views than me, same sales. I have tried switching up the hooks, making some different style videos, running ads, after a month and a half test it doesn't seem to be moving the needle. I know my sales usually slow down after Christmas but not even my usual style videos working is what worries me. This is where my doubt comes in and I start thinking about other opportunities: Is another product better? Should I try to make some sort of service? Should I solve a problem?
Instead of jumping ship and abandoning this thing again to try and find the next shiny object. I thought I would come here and spill out my thoughts to see what you guys think, AI has helped me with optimization but I have come to terms with the fact that nothing is ever good enough and it will always try to give you one more thing to improve on. Then you find yourself with 50 copies of a damn product cover photo each having the smallest change. What should my next call here be? Is it worth perusing a product with some proven demand but that doesn't actually solve a problem in peoples lives. Is it worth going into something with a crazy tight niche as this or am I just limiting myself and who I can sell to. Please let me know your thoughts below and ask any questions if anyone is interested in more information.
In what is probably the greatest surprise to you all, I despise working 40 hours a week for a paycheck. Do I hate engineering? Hell no, I have always loved it and have loved building stuff ever since I was a kid, nothing brings me more joy in life than bringing an idea to life. Do I hate sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day working on "engineering" related things that have almost nothing to do with an overall product I have no personal or emotional attachment to, yes!
This wasn't some sort of revelation I have just come to last week, I always knew I would dislike it. To me, I see it as a financial cushion for all of my entrepreneurial endeavors, either that's really what it is or that's what I tell myself to cope. Either or, I cant think of a time in my life in the past 7 years where I wasn't actively trying to make money on the side. Whether it was drop shipping, personal training on fiverr, amazon FBA, reselling on eBay, starting a blog, I've tried it all (given they were all pretty garbage attempts or else I wouldn't be on this forum). My latest money making attempt has been utilizing a somewhat emerging technology of plastic 3D printing. I was gifted a 3D printer for the first time 3 years ago and that opened up the world to me, I could now make almost anything I dreamed of. Of course after all the novelty of the machine wore off my first though was "how can I use this to make money?".
I'll save you the details of finding a product, the basic idea was I would try to think of something that would go 'viral', design it, print it, and post it. Quickly I learned to utilize tiktok and their tiktok shop integration for marketing and selling. Some of my videos would blow up gaining millions of views. Sales would pour in faster than I could handle, I soon made enough to buy another printer, and another, and another. The only issue was I was in college being battered by engineering classes, so the profit was not at all consistent as I could not work on the shop everyday. The sales would rise in the summer and Christmas time and fade slowly once I got back to school, that was the cycle. Before I graduated my plans were to heavily invest the money I got from my job and 3D printing shops until I had enough to retire. Shortly after I started working is when I read Millionaire Fastlane , and my God did my plans change. The world opened up around me and the possibilities I had thought were fairytales seem to be within my reach now. I thought, why should I sell stupid 3D printed junk when I could solve actual problems and make so much more money?
Fast forward to today, I find myself trying to start a new business, running some validation, seeing nobody wants it, and going back to my 3D printing shop because they continue to sell slowly in the background. After my 6-3:30 shift I come home, workout, and work again until I need to sleep at around 10:30. Right now I am in the part of the circle where I want to fully invest in the shop since it seems to be the only thing that has worked well for me. My best sellers are two different cosmetic light switch covers that have designs based off of popular games. They are mounted over your light switch and you basically use the cover to turn the light on, kind of like a big lever. Over the past couple years I have sold ~1600 of these levers across tiktok and etsy. Usually what seems to work for me is I make a tiktok videos that's interesting or funny, it gets high views and the sales come rolling in. The issue I am facing is that this doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. I post videos that get high engagement and views, but the sales just don't rise with them. I even have affiliates posting and getting even more views than me, same sales. I have tried switching up the hooks, making some different style videos, running ads, after a month and a half test it doesn't seem to be moving the needle. I know my sales usually slow down after Christmas but not even my usual style videos working is what worries me. This is where my doubt comes in and I start thinking about other opportunities: Is another product better? Should I try to make some sort of service? Should I solve a problem?
Instead of jumping ship and abandoning this thing again to try and find the next shiny object. I thought I would come here and spill out my thoughts to see what you guys think, AI has helped me with optimization but I have come to terms with the fact that nothing is ever good enough and it will always try to give you one more thing to improve on. Then you find yourself with 50 copies of a damn product cover photo each having the smallest change. What should my next call here be? Is it worth perusing a product with some proven demand but that doesn't actually solve a problem in peoples lives. Is it worth going into something with a crazy tight niche as this or am I just limiting myself and who I can sell to. Please let me know your thoughts below and ask any questions if anyone is interested in more information.
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