Seeing a blank market, a 17-year-old high school student works for Amazon and earns 3 million yuan a year

According to relevant statistics, in the past 2023, Amazon earned an average of US$636 (581 euros) per second, exceeding the total of Alibaba and Pinduoduo.

Cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Walmart, and Etsy have given many people the opportunity to start their own businesses. Regardless of age or educational level, everyone has the potential to succeed on them. Even though competition in many categories is already very fierce, people are still constantly discovering new business opportunities from them.

Playing the EQ card game, the mother of three children earns more than $1.71 million a year

In 2018, Jenny Woo, who was still pursuing a master's degree at Harvard University , took out $1,000 from her savings to register a company (Mind Brain Emotion), and then sold emotional intelligence-focused playing cards on Amazon. Last year, this business generated more than $1.71 million in GMV (average weekly revenue of about $32,900) and a profit margin of 40% ($684,000, about 5 million yuan). And with three other part-time jobs, she only needs to work 3-30 hours a week, which allows her to spend plenty of time with her three children.

The origin of this business is closely related to her major. Jenny studied emotional intelligence and child development at Harvard . One day, her professor gave her a deck of cards to play with in class, and at that moment she had an idea: she could make a card game related to emotional intelligence.

With a direction in mind, she worked on it. In the next three months, she developed the product at Harvard Innovation Lab. Her first product is called "52 Essential Conversations." Each card has two questions: an icebreaker question and a prompt to promote a deeper conversation. Players flip the cards and take turns answering the questions.

For example, on one card (the Five of Spades), the icebreaker question asks to describe who you are and how others describe you, and the prompting question asks you to think of two other people you know and consider their similarities and differences.

The company now sells 11 varieties of card games that help people of all ages learn concepts such as interpersonal skills, critical thinking and even job interviews.

Studies have shown that people's emotional intelligence has declined compared to the past decade, communication between people is becoming more and more like social media, full of abbreviations and emoticons, and loneliness and stress are increasing.

Perhaps because she hit this pain point, Jenny's business on Amazon developed rapidly, and she earned six-figure revenue in the second year of her entry.

You have to know that the field she chose is already very saturated. According to searches, there are as many as 12 million products in the game and toy categories on Amazon alone. If you want your product to stand out, it must have some characteristics.

In addition to the product's resilience, Jenny also mentioned that although the entry threshold to Amazon is not high, with a monthly commission of only US$39.99, and anyone can sell on it, in order to do well, one still needs to be proficient in advertising campaigns, search engine optimization, and master new features on the platform.

Currently, in addition to Amazon, she also sells through platforms such as Walmart, Faire and her own independent website, but the sales revenue from these channels is far less than that of Amazon.

It can be said that Jenny successfully "stole" the wisdom and research results on emotional intelligence from colleges and universities, packaged it, and provided it to people outside the "ivory tower" of higher education, and she also earned a lot of money in the process. Now sellers are all having a headache about developing new products, and in fact, they can get some inspiration from Jenny.

17-year-old high school student makes $410,000 a year by making "odorless" cages for guinea pigs

Compared with Jenny, 17-year-old high school student Bella Lin seems much younger. But despite her young age, she has already worked at Amazon for more than a year.

In November 2022, Bella founded a brand, GuineaLoft, with $2,000 in start-up capital and began selling guinea pig cages on Amazon. Last year, this business brought her $410,000 in revenue, with a profit margin of 25% ($102,500, about 740,000 yuan). Like other sellers, she also invested the money she earned in her Amazon business.

Success is not accidental. Unlike many high school students, Bella had accumulated rich entrepreneurial experience before starting Amazon. When she was in seventh grade, she had already founded a company specializing in selling leggings. At that time, the company's annual revenue had reached 300,000 US dollars.

Although the company did not make a profit due to fierce competition in the clothing market, this experience enabled her to accumulate a wealth of experience and resources.

Therefore, after the company closed down, she was able to quickly start her second business. As a long-term guinea pig breeder, Bella knew that traditional guinea pig cages not only smelled bad, but also had limited space for movement, so she tried to develop an open-air cage. The result was obvious, and she succeeded this time.

Many people don't understand why she chose such a niche track. Bella said that this is a blank market that has not received much attention. Since the small pet cage was developed, there has been no change, and no one has created new things. This is a business opportunity. She regrets not doing this when she was in junior high school.

Now Bella has also encountered the problem of plagiarism, but she is not too worried about it. "I personally bought and tried four of them. They are not of high quality and have poor reviews."

She also said that these products are launched by sellers in other categories, such as garden furniture and wedding accessories, who are not as focused on small animals as she is and are constantly innovating.

55-year-old "worker" quits his job to make pet tombstones, earning more than $200,000 a year

Like Bella, 55-year-old Rodney Melton also focuses on the pet industry, but he sells on Etsy. As we all know, Etsy is an e-commerce platform that mainly sells handicrafts, so Rodney's business is also related to handicrafts, but it is a special kind of handicraft.

Rodney sells pet tombstones. The opening of this business was full of accidents, but also inevitable. In 2020, after Rodney's mother passed away, he began to make small souvenirs such as concrete crosses, 3D roses and plaques.

Until one day, his friend's dog died. In addition, he had been working in a pet care company before and often thought about people who lost their pets. He came up with the idea of ​​selling pet tombstones for people who lost their pets. So in March 2021, he started selling sculptures and engraved pet memorial tombstones on Etsy.

Although he spent a lot of money on tool investment in the early stage, the rapidly growing business soon earned back the cost. For example, in May 2022 alone, his Etsy store brought in nearly $20,000 in revenue. It was also at this time that Rodney quit his job and devoted himself to this business.

It is reported that last year, his income on Etsy exceeded $207,000, of which about two-thirds was profit ($138,100, about 1 million yuan). Unlike the previous two entrepreneurs who worked alone, he runs this business with his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law.

When families work together, conflicts are inevitable, but there will also be some sparks. For example, one day when Rodney and his family of three were brainstorming about work while eating lunch, his daughter suddenly came up with the idea of ​​making concrete molds in the shape of dog bones. Thanks to this idea, Rodney sold products worth thousands of dollars.

Rodney said the business has helped his family tremendously. "My daughter was unhappy with where she was working and my daughter-in-law, who helped us design the templates, is a stay-at-home mom who wanted something to do. Not only does she make a few hundred dollars a week now, but she doesn't have to pay for daycare because she can work and take care of her kids at the same time."

High School Students

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