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This is a long post, so here is the TL/DR:
Hey Everyone!
Welcome to my new progress thread.
I have a couple existing progress threads on the INSIDE, but it's time to consolidate and share more now that the forum is private.
It's been five years since joining the forum, and these are some of the things I've worked on since then:
Complimentary van picture:
After the Van Business
In the past year and a half (after stopping the van business), the focus has been completely on my nonprofit and fixing some urgent things in my old-a$$ house that I bought (sill beams so rotten they practically turned to dust...AGH!) Getting the nonprofit off the ground was a much bigger endeavor and time commitment than I expected, but I think it's worth it.
Honestly, these were just a higher priority at the time, so business stuff has been on pause since then. This was stressing me out for a bit, but I've realized it's OK and life has its seasons.
I can't really talk about business endeavors without bringing the nonprofit into the picture.
This endeavor is so fulfilling, I'm deeply invested in it, and it's really the primary impact I want to have moving ahead in life (a major WHY for me).
For the past two years, the nonprofit has brought a group of high-school aged orphans from South Korea to the US during the summer for a language/culture program. Without all the details, the trip has a surprisingly big impact on the kid's outlook, goals and life dreams. The future aim of the organization is to continue and grow our program, but also support lots of kids across Korea each year as they age out of the orphanage through scholarships and study abroad programs.
Highlight of my year:
Back to Business
Back to the business side of things, a couple months ago I had a very helpful conversation with @ZCP (thanks again BTW) and took some time to refocus and consider what end result I'm aiming for and how I can leverage existing opportunities and skills.
The end result I'm envisioning is a business that provides the finances and flexibility to own property in Korea, travel back and forth freely and finance major portions of the nonprofit.
If I can make products that sell well, as this scales I'm envisioning a highly automated facility with a few employees that build the products.
CREATING physical products that people LOVE and get excited about is another huge part of it.
I've experienced this through a variety of ways, and it's truly an amazing feeling.
I'm good at it and believe this is the best way I can create value.
All that to say, I'm now in a place where I'm ready to get back into it and approach this with more strategy, time-management and long-term vision. The past projects have provided invaluable lessons as I move ahead and focus on one area for the next 5+ years.
Area of Focus: Physical Product Design & Manufacturing Business
To get more specific, out of many different product ideas there are now two that I am focusing on.
RV & Camper Van Products
This would be the pivot from the camper van conversion business. The plan is to start with one product (an electrical component/assembly) where I identified a need during building and see opportunity for value skew. This product has a few thousand Google searches per month, and similar volume of similar products being sold on Amazon each month.
There is a lot of potential for future growth in this business. I have numerous other products to create based on real needs that I discovered during the van building process.
This is also a growing market. Although the demand for conversion services has gone down significantly in the past couple years, and numerous conversion companies have gone out of business, more people are just going the DIY route. This overall trend is still going up though, so selling products should be a good bet. Either way, I can sell DIY customers directly to businesses that build RVs and camper vans.
I have some momentum in this area already, and my van YouTube channel gained 1100+ subscribers from just one video that I posted and ghosted.
These are not paying customers (yet), but it shows there is potential here for a great marketing channel. People love the van content and get very invested.
On top of all that, this is an exciting and fun industry to be involved in.
Industrial Vision System Accessories
This need was discovered through my day job as an engineer where I design a variety of custom machines and equipment for different customers.
The accessories would be off the shelf products for many different brands of machine vision cameras, lights, and other components.
I spoke with a vision system sales rep about this already, and he agrees there is a need in this area.
As far as specific demand, it's hard to tell. People don't really search for this much online, and the primary sales channel would most likely be through company reps or distributors.
This is a bit less exciting than the van stuff, BUT selling to businesses like this is appealing.
Prices would likely be on the higher side compared to the RV products since this would be targeted toward higher-end manufacturing.
This is another industry where I have experience and more ideas for equipment to sell.
I decided on something that is on the smaller size and easier to manufacture/ship, and save the bigger equipment for down the road.
Why These?
I can design and manufacture both of these products with fairly low startup costs (I have free access to a full machine shop), they would both scale well with plenty of opportunity for growth in the industry, and both options also play well into my skills and experience of designing, building and selling products.
What's Next?
Confirm these solve a true need and that there is demand as quickly as possible by engaging with the market.
Get some data, then choose which one to focus on.
Going forward, I'll post updates in this thread to track progress.
Feedback, criticisms or advice are welcome.
- Consolidating progress threads (some on the inside) after 5 years on the forum.
- Previous major business projects include two failed businesses in Korea, freelance engineering, and a personal care invention
- Also started and stopped a camper van conversion business
- For the past 1.5 years, been focusing on my nonprofit organization and rebuilding a house
- Refocusing now with 2 paths ahead
- RV & Camper Van Products: Pivot from van conversion business. First product will be commonly used electrical component
- Industrial Vision System Accessories: Products for machine vision systems. Targeting higher-end business market.
- Next Steps: Validate market need by creating product rendering and trying to pre-sell, the decide on one of the two options
Hey Everyone!
Welcome to my new progress thread.
I have a couple existing progress threads on the INSIDE, but it's time to consolidate and share more now that the forum is private.
It's been five years since joining the forum, and these are some of the things I've worked on since then:
- Attempted to start two businesses while living in South Korea. They both ended prematurely because of work visa issues.
- Started doing freelance mechanical engineering for US clients while in Korea. Made some profit and did a variety of interesting and strange projects.
- Moved back to the U.S. and started pursuing an invention (personal care product). Hit a dead end with the patent process last month and decided to move on for now (the product is too easy to copy and the investment to get it off the ground is too risky without IP protection).
- Started a camper van conversion business.
- Bought, converted and sold my own van (plus a 3 month road trip somewhere in between), then converted a van for a complete stranger.
- Made some money on this, the customer loved it, and (most) people on YouTube love it. Of course there are some haters, but I consider this a good sign.
- Stopped this project last spring after the second conversion for a few reasons and likely won't continue.
- This type of business doesn't align with my long-term goals, but I still consider it a success and learned a ton.
- One of my next potential projects is a pivot on this business, but more on that later.
Complimentary van picture:
After the Van Business
In the past year and a half (after stopping the van business), the focus has been completely on my nonprofit and fixing some urgent things in my old-a$$ house that I bought (sill beams so rotten they practically turned to dust...AGH!) Getting the nonprofit off the ground was a much bigger endeavor and time commitment than I expected, but I think it's worth it.
Honestly, these were just a higher priority at the time, so business stuff has been on pause since then. This was stressing me out for a bit, but I've realized it's OK and life has its seasons.
I can't really talk about business endeavors without bringing the nonprofit into the picture.
This endeavor is so fulfilling, I'm deeply invested in it, and it's really the primary impact I want to have moving ahead in life (a major WHY for me).
For the past two years, the nonprofit has brought a group of high-school aged orphans from South Korea to the US during the summer for a language/culture program. Without all the details, the trip has a surprisingly big impact on the kid's outlook, goals and life dreams. The future aim of the organization is to continue and grow our program, but also support lots of kids across Korea each year as they age out of the orphanage through scholarships and study abroad programs.
Highlight of my year:
Back to Business
Back to the business side of things, a couple months ago I had a very helpful conversation with @ZCP (thanks again BTW) and took some time to refocus and consider what end result I'm aiming for and how I can leverage existing opportunities and skills.
The end result I'm envisioning is a business that provides the finances and flexibility to own property in Korea, travel back and forth freely and finance major portions of the nonprofit.
If I can make products that sell well, as this scales I'm envisioning a highly automated facility with a few employees that build the products.
CREATING physical products that people LOVE and get excited about is another huge part of it.
I've experienced this through a variety of ways, and it's truly an amazing feeling.
I'm good at it and believe this is the best way I can create value.
All that to say, I'm now in a place where I'm ready to get back into it and approach this with more strategy, time-management and long-term vision. The past projects have provided invaluable lessons as I move ahead and focus on one area for the next 5+ years.
Area of Focus: Physical Product Design & Manufacturing Business
To get more specific, out of many different product ideas there are now two that I am focusing on.
- RV & Camper Van Products
- Industrial Vision System Accessories
RV & Camper Van Products
This would be the pivot from the camper van conversion business. The plan is to start with one product (an electrical component/assembly) where I identified a need during building and see opportunity for value skew. This product has a few thousand Google searches per month, and similar volume of similar products being sold on Amazon each month.
There is a lot of potential for future growth in this business. I have numerous other products to create based on real needs that I discovered during the van building process.
This is also a growing market. Although the demand for conversion services has gone down significantly in the past couple years, and numerous conversion companies have gone out of business, more people are just going the DIY route. This overall trend is still going up though, so selling products should be a good bet. Either way, I can sell DIY customers directly to businesses that build RVs and camper vans.
I have some momentum in this area already, and my van YouTube channel gained 1100+ subscribers from just one video that I posted and ghosted.
These are not paying customers (yet), but it shows there is potential here for a great marketing channel. People love the van content and get very invested.
On top of all that, this is an exciting and fun industry to be involved in.
Industrial Vision System Accessories
This need was discovered through my day job as an engineer where I design a variety of custom machines and equipment for different customers.
The accessories would be off the shelf products for many different brands of machine vision cameras, lights, and other components.
I spoke with a vision system sales rep about this already, and he agrees there is a need in this area.
As far as specific demand, it's hard to tell. People don't really search for this much online, and the primary sales channel would most likely be through company reps or distributors.
This is a bit less exciting than the van stuff, BUT selling to businesses like this is appealing.
Prices would likely be on the higher side compared to the RV products since this would be targeted toward higher-end manufacturing.
This is another industry where I have experience and more ideas for equipment to sell.
I decided on something that is on the smaller size and easier to manufacture/ship, and save the bigger equipment for down the road.
Why These?
I can design and manufacture both of these products with fairly low startup costs (I have free access to a full machine shop), they would both scale well with plenty of opportunity for growth in the industry, and both options also play well into my skills and experience of designing, building and selling products.
What's Next?
Confirm these solve a true need and that there is demand as quickly as possible by engaging with the market.
Get some data, then choose which one to focus on.
- For the RV product, I will create a few product renderings and pre-sell them on Facebook groups or other communities.
- For the vision system accessories, I will do something similar. Create 2-3 initial concept designs and renderings, then present them to sales reps to get their buy-in.
Going forward, I'll post updates in this thread to track progress.
Feedback, criticisms or advice are welcome.
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