How I made 6 figures at age 20

[User62861]

Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it.

One more questions...how did you find all that places that have TVs? You call and ask if they have a lobby with unused TV?

 

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[andrewbaltimore]

Awesome story, thanks for sharing and congrats!
Are you scaling it? I see huge potential on this and even a big company buying it if you get enough market share.

 

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[Jsoh]

Love to hear the outside the box and how they pay dividends. Congrats on following your gut and making something happen. +1 from me.

Cheers from California

 

[Keith501]

I'd just like to mention that this post does not sponsor/sell any courses or get you to subscribe to blah blah blah. I've been around this forum for a few years and have yet to create a thread introducing myself so I thought I'd do it today and tell you all a short and to-the-point story of how I went from being an almost average 20 year old to making 6 figures, which I assume is definitely not a 20 year old's average accomplishment.

Quick background
I'm a 20 year old student, born and raised in the UK. I've made small mistakes, big mistakes and every sort of sized mistake you can think of and instead of whining about it, I just kept going and it got me to places I never thought I'd get to, at least not at this age. For the most part, I'm your average 20 year old. I study at university. I love computers, technology and coding and I've made a few bucks here and there selling software or software subscriptions to local businesses and clients across the globe. I also design websites, although I'm more comfortable with the backend.

So how did I make 6 figures before my 21st birthday?
Did my father give me the money? Nope. Did I get a lucky VC to believe in me? Nope. Did I make an endless amount of mistakes before hitting gold? You bet.

During the summer of 2016, I ordered a RPi. For those that haven't come across it, it's a little circuit board with computing components, in essence it's a palm-sized computer. At the time, I wanted to see what sort of gadget I could make out of it. Maybe a security camera or an AI robot, I mean whatever, it only cost like £30 anyway. After about 3 hardcore weeks of making random gadgets and getting bored, I sat there exhausted with the RPi sitting on the desk and I just thought for a moment. It's a £30 computer. It's a f*cking £30 piece of powerful equipment. Why don't I create a genuine product from it? Something that brings value to people? It was around 3 in the morning and it hit me that this moment of epiphany may be because I was high as a kite because I had no sleep so I decided to sleep on it and if I felt the same way in the morning, I'd definitely work on it.

Safe to say, that same morning, I felt the exact same way. I believed I could turn a £30 computer into something that makes me money. At the time, I was thinking a standalone product priced at around £100 which would pocket me possibly £50 or a bit less. I ended up, however, doing something a little different.

The idea that made me 6 figures by 20
Ever walked in to a public building and seen a TV with a presentation that changes slides every 5 seconds?

The formal name for that sort of stuff is digital signage. It's a form of displaying information or advertisements using TV screens, monitors, projectors etc. My idea was to use a RPi to turn any TV, monitor or projector into an advertisement displaying piece of tech. In essence, every business I approached was potentially free ad space for me. In return, I'd give them a percentage of any profits made.

So, before I approached my first client, I wanted it to look all formal, professional and the 'real deal'. I got a designer to design me an electronics-safe case for the RPi and I bought slap-on heat stickers for the brand/logo. By the end of it, I was down about £60, but I had a product which I could show clients.

I cold-called about 25 businesses on a Monday. 18 said no, 7 were interested. Out of those 7, I closed the deal with 4. One thing I noticed was these guys either were completely unaware of the benefits of technology for their business or they didn't have a TV screen/monitor, I blame the failure of those on myself. I should've done better research. Lesson learnt.

I installed and set up the product for all 4 clients, but what about ads? I mean digital signage is cool but I had nothing to show. So, during the first few days after installation, I ran non-stop 'advertise here' videos and was hopeful about someone approaching. It took about 4 hours for a local plumbing company to get in contact then another 2 hours for another local business and before 2 days had passed, all 4 screens were making money. For those wondering, I was making about £10 per client per week. Nothing life changing, but definitely a start for someone who always wanted to earn money away from a 9 to 5.

I kept repeating the process throughout the summer, winter and so on. After about 2 years, I had several hundred RPis connected to TVs and monitors all around the county and almost every single one was making £50 at the minimum, meaning the moment I set it up, I had made my money back for that product in the first week. It's worth mentioning I had to constantly reject certain businesses due to there physical location not raking in enough traffic. In other words, nobody wanted to advertise in a place where there were not many passers by.

So there's that story of how an average 20 year old made 6 figures from an idea.

I will keep updating this post as and when I can, I'm fully aware there are details omitted from this post which I'm sure would be insightful, but for the time being I'd just like to see the response I get from this post.

Of course, as always, questions are welcome. I'd also like to apologise if there are any grammatical errors or if my style of writing isn't favourable, it's my first post and I don't have much experience writing on public forums.

 

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[Keith501]

Inspiring story, thanks for sharing.

 

[bublav]

wow i am so impressed with this. this is a nice idea that can be implemented in any country. thanks for sharing.

 

[KKOPPI]

@Akeem awesome post. One thing to notice is that it's clear that your success came with patience, determination and repetition. Reminds me of the Pharaoh parable in TMF .

Two questions:
1) Have you been setting up the pi's for free from the beginning? Like from the very start you approached clients with the premise "I'll install it for free but take a xx percent cut off the profit" ?
2) How do the businesses you approach find other businesses to come & advertise on the screens?

 

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[Ing]

Respect for technically knowing how to do such a thing!

 

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[KKOPPI]

Hey,

1. Yes, from the very beginning, the installation has always been free. I could, technically, start charging but it would just be a negative thing to do as I make my money back anyway so I don't want to scare potential clients away.
2. Right now, we already have a pool of clients (in the 100s/1000s) ready to spend money and advertise/promote their business so the client we install our products for doesn't look for anyone themselves.

Thanks for answering that.

4. The ads shown on our RPis are controlled by us from what I like to refer to as the "Central Computer". We have in-house designers and editors to ensure professional ads are created for "B" clients and then shown on the RPis. Due to our designers and editors being in-house, we can ensure the quality of the ads is high and that the format is compatible before broadcasting the ads to businesses which house our RPis.

This is something I hadn't comprehended, so "B" clients do not provide their own ads?Or they do off and on?

 

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[Vairavan]

.

 

[njord]

We use the same technology in the hospital to control message boards in the operating theater, cool way to monitize it!
Although i personaly HATE Adds lol

 

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[kodiak1]

Awesome thread.

About what percentage cut do you give business A who is allowing you use their TV? Is it always the same or do you negotiate based on foot traffic/number of screens?

 

[Akeem]

Awesome thread.

About what percentage cut do you give business A who is allowing you use their TV? Is it always the same or do you negotiate based on foot traffic/number of screens?

The percentage at the beginning was fixed at anywhere from 10% to 25%, however, more recently we've implemented a dynamic percentage system where the number is calculated based upon customer numbers, size of the business, number of screens they're utilizing etc. The maximum percentage that we're paying out right now is at 29%.

 

[Frede]

Damn, congrats bro!
Really inspiring to hear a young entrepreneur succeed.
I'm 20 too, and have never started any kind business before, mostly because i'm afraid i will fail, but reading this lit a tiny fire under my a$$ hehe.

Just out of curiosity, where did you run your own 'advertise here' ads?

 

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[kodiak1]

Do those percentages come from total advertising revenues at the location, or is it based upon a take-home net profit figure calculated by something like subtracting costs for whatever box/boxes are at the particular location plus splitting your payroll costs and maybe even taxes evenly among the locations? I see you were at least thinking in this direction with the plan to allow business A's without a TV to pay a TV you install off by forgoing their %.

I'm in the USA, about the same age as you, and like you I'm technically inclined. Have already bought an Rpi and set up the necessary scripts to be able to access it remotely and securely via private key stored on a flash drive and a strong password while keeping me abreast of any changes in the domain/port I use to access the system by sending me a text msg with the new info...say in the case of a reboot or an error. Obviously a setup like this is 100% necessary to scale this business.

I can't start a PM thread myself yet bc I'm new here but I would think the system would let me respond to them - can you send me a PM Akeem? I'd love to stay in touch occasionally as I get going on this if you don't mind.

 

[Akeem]

Damn, congrats bro!
Really inspiring to hear a young entrepreneur succeed.
I'm 20 too, and have never started any kind business before, mostly because i'm afraid i will fail, but reading this lit a tiny fire under my a$$ hehe.

Just out of curiosity, where did you run your own 'advertise here' ads?

Those ads were run in the very early days on our RPis which we installed at business premises (small businesses such as corner shops, take-out restaurants etc). They only ran for a few hours before local plumbers, electricians etc wanted their name on them for marketing purposes.

Do those percentages come from total advertising revenues at the location, or is it based upon a take-home net profit figure calculated by something like subtracting costs for whatever box/boxes are at the particular location plus splitting your payroll costs and maybe even taxes evenly among the locations? I see you were at least thinking in this direction with the plan to allow business A's without a TV to pay a TV you install off by forgoing their %.

I'm in the USA, about the same age as you, and like you I'm technically inclined. Have already bought an Rpi and set up the necessary scripts to be able to access it remotely and securely via private key stored on a flash drive and a strong password while keeping me abreast of any changes in the domain/port I use to access the system by sending me a text msg with the new info...say in the case of a reboot or an error. Obviously a setup like this is 100% necessary to scale this business.

I can't start a PM thread myself yet bc I'm new here but I would think the system would let me respond to them - can you send me a PM Akeem? I'd love to stay in touch occasionally as I get going on this if you don't mind.

It all depends on the package/plan they choose. If they don't have a TV/monitor, we generally advise a business check first. This is to ensure it's worth our time and theirs for buying and setting everything up. If there's enough traffic, we give the green light and purchase the necessary equipment and then charge them and take full control of the screen(s) in question until the TV/monitor is paid off. Once all that's out the way, it's a simple case of paying them a percentage depending on various factors such as number of customers that see the ads (best approx.) and where the business is located, screen size etc.

Hope that answered your questions + I'll try PM'ing you now.

 

[Phil K]

Thanks @Akeem ! That really cleared it up for me. Way to go - that's a great little money machine you've made for yourself. Congrats!

 

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[KKOPPI]

One other element that might not be clear for me..the screens are mainly located indoors, is that right?

 

[Akeem]

One other element that might not be clear for me..the screens are mainly located indoors, is that right?

Yes, although ads could be shown outdoors - I find that most business' monitors/TVs aren't bright enough so their would be no point. Typical monitors and TVs are around 200 to 300 nits, which makes them perfect for indoor use. However, for outdoor use you need a screen that produces around 1000nits and there aren't many non-commerical screens that can boast them sort of specs.

 

[Mark Trade]

Or you could just insert a USB Stick in the USB slot on the back of your TV, go to the TV menu, select photos and press go. Cost $0.00

 

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[KKOPPI]

Typical monitors and TVs are around 200 to 300 nits, which makes them perfect for indoor use. However, for outdoor use you need a screen that produces around 1000nits and there aren't many non-commerical screens that can boast them sort of specs.

Makes sense. It strikes me how furiously bright outdoor screens are, especially when you walk past them at night.

Or you could just insert a USB Stick in the USB slot on the back of your TV, go to the TV menu, select photos and press go. Cost $0.00

Not sure if trolling..

 

[Mark Trade]

Makes sense. It strikes me how furiously bright outdoor screens are, especially when you walk past them at night.




Not sure if trolling..

I'll make it simple for you, a USB Stick or a USB Drive, will do exactly the same thing. If he was to approach my company and give his sales pitch, the reply would still be the same, we could just use a USB Stick..

 

[Mark Trade]

It may work for your business if you simply want the TV to display certain photos or a video repeatedly, however, it doesn't stand a chance in working (even a tiny bit) if you have hundreds upon thousands of businesses wanting to advertise on that screen.

A USB stick/drive has absolutely no value when you need to change the content dynamically, at any time.

Also, no. Either I think you've completely mis-read my entire initial post about what my business does or you're extremely unknowledgeable in the capabilities of a USB

The chances of hundreds upon thousands of businesses wanting to advertise on a single screen as you put it, isn't going to work. There's only 24 hours in a day, so the chance of a certain target market walking past a single screen and seeing a certain ad, isn't going to happen.

USB Sticks were invented back in 1999 and now we have the USB Drive, which can be loaded with any operating software to make it accessible from anywhere around the world. The latest smart TV's, are also Internet enabled, which allows me (should I wish) to add my content or a partners content from anywhere in the world using a connected USB Drive or USB Stick and target anyone we like. Smart Businesses and Companies already do this. All we need is a telephone socket and an Internet account. I can change the content from home, by simply accessing the drive through the computer.

Your Raspberry Pi, or Rpi for short was thought of back in 2012, I know, I still have the original magazine, that it came out in, with pre-editions featuring both it's development and it's progress.

I also have a wonderful IT Dept headed by an ex Ubuntu Software Developer. So yes, I know all about USB Sticks and USB Drives and what can be placed and uploaded onto them..

 

[Mark Trade]

Here's a little light reading for you. It explains how to do advertising using a Raspberry Pi or Rpi and a TV set. This was thought of back in 2014.

Creating Raspberry Pi Advertising Displays | Envato Tuts+

Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi is a £25/$35 computer that was originally created to help solve the issue of a decline in the computing skills of children in the UK. It has since been re-purposed...

computers.tutsplus.com

 

[KKOPPI]

Here's a little light reading for you. It explains how to do advertising using a Raspberry Pi or Rpi and a TV set. This was thought of back in 2014.

Creating Raspberry Pi Advertising Displays | Envato Tuts+

Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi is a £25/$35 computer that was originally created to help solve the issue of a decline in the computing skills of children in the UK. It has since been re-purposed...

computers.tutsplus.com

You're probably completely missing the point. As @Akeem018 puts it, all his ads are being run from one central point, and for the hosting companies it all needs to be as easy as turning on their screens...end of the story.

2019 there's tons of possibilities to have custom signage servers, combined with (for instance) hidden YouTube playlists that you can edit from your central headquarters at any given time.

 

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[Mark Trade]

As I assumed initially, you've mis-read my original post.



"The chances of hundreds upon thousands of businesses wanting to advertise on a single screen as you put it, isn't going to work."

This isn't an ideas thread, the idea has already been executed and the results have come in. The chances of clients wanting to advertise on a single screen in hundreds of thousands of businesses is proving to be working.

There's only 24 hours in a day, so the chance of a certain target market walking past a single screen and seeing a certain ad, isn't going to happen.

This was thought about in the early days of the company's birth, however, the conclusion we came to was that we can't ever really narrow down where each target market is going to be and what precise time. The best we can do is to categorize the screens based upon their location and run the ads non-stop. If the screen is located in a restaurant, we can show ads that are food/beverage related.



So you expect every business we approach to possess a Smart TV with internet capabilities in order to stick a USB with an OS in to show ads.. right, got you.

Personally, I prefer giving power to the RPi (as the brains of the whole thing) to do the work for me. If things go wrong, the RPi knows the procedure. If things slow down, the RPi knows what to do. If it overheats, it shuts itself off for a period of time to cool down and then turns itself on again once it's safe to do so. All this is happening automatically, everyday, and we're able to track every little action, wherever we may be. On top of all of this, let's not forget the ads that didn't play that our clients had already paid us for. The RPi took notes of this and did the work for us so that the ads that did play, expire as they should and those that didn't, automatically get their airtime extended. Let me see you achieve this sort of advanced functionality on a USB.. it simply can't be done because a USB is a storage device and a RPi is a computer. Let me repeat, a USB is a storage device and a RPi is a computer.



That's fantastic to hear!



Awesome, wish the best for you and your ex-Ubuntu Software Developer!



I get a feeling you think I'm taking credit for thinking of the idea.. which isn't true. I simply took the idea and executed it in my own way, for my local area and it worked. Thank you for the research though, it'll prove insightful for anyone reading this thread.

You need to re-read your first post, perhaps if you had done some research first, it might have been beneficial. Do I get the feeling your taking credit, no, youv'e already taken credit, for someones idea. That idea has also been improved upon, ten fold, however you have yet to catch up. To prove my point, a tender was awarded in Sydney for the amount of $500mil using that same Rpi system, that your now spruiking as your own.. Yours rakes in a $1mil, (so you claim) your way behind in the tech field. Taking on an ex-Ubuntu Software Developer, to head up our team, was worth it's weight in gold. Try working with one, you might learn something.

Oh, just to go back too my first point above, in your first (1st) post, you say "My idea was to use a RPi to turn any TV, monitor or projector into an advertisement displaying piece of tech". Your words. So are you taking credit or not.!!!! Just requires a simple Yes or No.

If you cant find that quote, I have a screen shot for you.!!! (yes...proudly bought to you by Ubuntu software).

"Let me repeat, a USB is a storage device and a RPi is a computer". Yes, it is, that was never in dispute, but if you had done your research (again), you would find that data, can be stored on these. For what purpose, you may ask. I added a little pic for you. See attachment.

There is also a magazine you might want to buy, see the attachment.

 

[Mark Trade]

Here's the second attachment for you.

 

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[KKOPPI]

@Mark Trade not sure where you're heading. First of all the concept of an idea is not necessarily the idea in itself. Read TMF and understand this. MJ wrote 'coffee existed long before Starbucks'. Ideas evolve through people.

Moreover your USB story still makes no sense. Try to manage the ad campaigns of 100+ companies with physical USB drives for each and every one of them, good luck...

 

[Mark Trade]

You're probably completely missing the point. As @Akeem018 puts it, all his ads are being run from one central point, and for the hosting companies it all needs to be as easy as turning on their screens...end of the story.

2019 there's tons of possibilities to have custom signage servers, combined with (for instance) hidden YouTube playlists that you can edit from your central headquarters at any given time.

The same system, that akeem claims to have thought up, was already being used by one of the worlds largest advertising agencies, plus they still use it today......end of story.

 

[KKOPPI]

The same system, that akeem claims to have thought up, was already being used by one of the worlds largest advertising agencies, plus they still use it today......end of story.

There's thousands of instances doing digital signage indeed. akeem carried out a very interesting and educational approach. It gives us a valid example of the Commandment of Scale.

 

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