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How I made 6 figures at age 20

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Akeem

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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.

I never claimed that I was the original idea creator, all I stated was that I thought about the idea and executed. Please stop trying to dig further to cause unnecessary debates, especially over petty little things like that.

"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.

I literally laughed at this, wow. I think all your years of living life have really got to you my old friend. I'm fully aware of what a USB can store and what a USB can do for a RPi, so you don't need to keep adding attachments as a reference thinking they might get you some brownie points.

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.

I never claimed to have been the original creator, in fact, I couldn't care less if the original creator was you, despite the obvious lack of knowledge you possess.

EDIT: Thank you for providing the entertainment for today. It's obvious your only goal is trying to prove irrelevant points using references and your old magazines. This reply will be the last reply you'll get from me. If you want my advice, I'd suggest you better spend your time doing something more valuable, perhaps spending more quality time with your ex-Ubuntu Software Developer :playful:
 
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pika

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Sep 14, 2019
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Hi Akeem, I just read the whole post and I'm really impressed, congratulations!

I got a couple of questions, maybe you'll be able to answer them :smile::

1. How did you come up with the prices you charged for the advertising? Are you charging more now that the business has grown?

2. A tech question: Is the Rpi showing in kiosk mode a web managed by you and you handle all the advertising through the web or do you have your own software installed in the Rpi which downloads the advertising images/videos and shows them without using any browser? (if you are using the second option, how do you handle the software updates?)
 
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Akeem

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Hi Akeem, I just read the whole post and I'm really impressed, congratulations!

I got a couple of questions, maybe you'll be able to answer them :smile::

1. How did you come up with the prices you charged for the advertising? Are you charging more now that the business has grown?

2. A tech question: Is the Rpi showing in kiosk mode a web managed by you and you handle all the advertising through the web or do you have your own software installed in the Rpi which downloads the advertising videos and shows them without using any browser? (if you are using the second option, how do you handle the software updates?)

1. At the beginning, it was more of a fixed rate for a certain time period. For example $5 an hour. Fast forward to today, it's more along the lines of a promotional campaign for a certain time period and X amount of reruns of the ad. In other words, we now offer packages instead of the traditional $5 for an hour example.

2. At the beginning, yes. We used to use kiosk mode that would connect to the front end of the system (Chromium would start automatically). However, we have since been using a custom operating system in order to fully make use of all the features of our RPis. We handle software updates as usual, so when we need to update the RPi, we send out the update and it pauses the ads, updates, restarts and resumes it's job.
 

Low Chi

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thanks for sharing. Do you want to franchise it to other countries?

I think your control process of the RPI devices could also be licenced to advertising panels manufacturers (e.g. large outdoor panels or ad panels in sports like in soccer games -> see e.g. prodisplay), if adopted to their needs of the control process and harvesting the feedback loop of endcustomers.

Good luck to 7-figures!
 
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KKOPPI

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What still puzzles me is the concept of A companies willing to have OTHER companies' ads in their place.
 

pipedream2017

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Wow, great business. Well done. I have a couple questions for you

1 - how much do you typically charge for a business to advertise for a week? Or month?

2 - what size screens do you use ?

3- what types of businesses are you advertising in? Cafes.. etc

4- how many businesses do you advertise on one screen

5- who is liable for the VAT
 
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Jcoil

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I love this idea, it's really exciting to read through this thread and hear about how you executed.

My questions are these:

1. I'd like to know more about how to decide what to charge the businesses that are buying advertising space. Is it something like, charge per hour the business is open? Or is it more like charging per week?

2. You mentioned at least initially you would run a "your ad here" image on the device and people started calling you. Have you evolved this process at all? Have you included different tactics into your sales funnel like running targeted google/facebook ads or have a website with a contact form?

3. What RPi did you use, the RPi 4? How many gigs of RAM?
 
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Akeem

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What still puzzles me is the concept of A companies willing to have OTHER companies' ads in their place.

Weird when you think about it, however, it's a good point and a valid thought to have.

To put it simply, advertisers can't advertise in a business in the same niche. That's something that I thought about early on and implemented in the first 6 months, it's only reasonable and logical. For example, a business selling burgers £1 can't advertise in another business selling burgers, however, a drinks company can (even though they're all in same food/beverages industry).

Wow, great business. Well done. I have a couple questions for you

1 - how much do you typically charge for a business to advertise for a week? Or month?

2 - what size screens do you use ?

3- what types of businesses are you advertising in? Cafes.. etc

4- how many businesses do you advertise on one screen

5- who is liable for the VAT

1. This is all depends on the promotional campaign/package they choose alongside any custom preferences they have, on average, businesses tend to pay about 10/20 per week.

2. Screen sizes depend on the business' screens. At the moment, it ranges from a minimum of 20" and I believe the biggest screens we're advertising on are billboard sizes (I'll let you figure out the size of those..).

3. Cafes, restaurants, takeaways, mechanic garages, hotels, bars etc. Any business that has a screen and wants to make better use of it, can sign up and join.

4. This can range from 1 or even to 25. It depends on the size of the screen in the business, the type of business, the rough amount of ad traffic that business generates etc.

5. Us.

I love this idea, it's really exciting to read through this thread and hear about how you executed.

My questions are these:

1. I'd like to know more about how to decide what to charge the businesses that are buying advertising space. Is it something like, charge per hour the business is open? Or is it more like charging per week?

2. You mentioned at least initially you would run a "your ad here" image on the device and people started calling you. Have you evolved this process at all? Have you included different tactics into your sales funnel like running targeted google/facebook ads or have a website with a contact form?

3. What RPi did you use, the RPi 4? How many gigs of RAM?

1. At the beginning, it was simply X amount of cash per week for however many ads and however much ad run-time. Since then, we've integrated algorithms and automatic payment systems into the working sphere, but the fundamental concept stays the same: X amount of cash per week.

2. Since we already have ad space, we don't spend much on marketing. Other than outsourcing social media marketing to those that are better at growing us on social media, we don't spend any cash on Facebook/Instagram ads. We do make use of Google ads, however, still not as much as you'd think.

3. I believe it all started on a RPi 3 B+ with around 1 or 2gb of RAM. Not much for a computer but more than enough for the purpose that I needed it for.
 

pipedream2017

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Thanks for your reply I thought of another 2 questions if you wouldn’t mind

1- do you think your business idea could work with 10-15 inch tablets? Places by the cash register for example.

2- what part of england are you from and are you willing to share the Instagram/Facebook of your business?

Thanks :)
 

Akeem

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Thanks for your reply I thought of another 2 questions if you wouldn’t mind

1- do you think your business idea could work with 10-15 inch tablets? Places by the cash register for example.

2- what part of england are you from and are you willing to share the Instagram/Facebook of your business?

Thanks :)

1. IMO, I'd say it'd be far more difficult to make a success out of 10-15 inch tablets. It could work, but it would come with a lot of criticism and negative feedback. I faced a lot of difficulty when I tried to persuade businesses to use a monitor, I couldn't imagine proposing the idea of a 10-15" screen, at least not in the city that I started my business in.

2. London/Manchester/Cheshire - All places I work and stay at. I won't share it publicly, but I will message you privately.
 
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pipedream2017

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1. IMO, I'd say it'd be far more difficult to make a success out of 10-15 inch tablets. It could work, but it would come with a lot of criticism and negative feedback. I faced a lot of difficulty when I tried to persuade businesses to use a monitor, I couldn't imagine proposing the idea of a 10-15" screen, at least not in the city that I started my business in.

2. London/Manchester/Cheshire - All places I work and stay at. I won't share it publicly, but I will message you privately.

Okay cheers mate ✌:)
 

Akeem

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An entire book could be written about this part alone. The art of enduring that exact process..

Indeed. I might look into this and if I can spare some time, a very short book or thread will be posted.

Thanks for the idea.
 
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KKOPPI

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Indeed. I might look into this and if I can spare some time, a very short book or thread will be posted.

Thanks for the idea.

Thanks a lot for considering. Would inspire a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs.
 

GatsbyMag

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Congratulations Akeem,

On behalf of everyone on the forum, I apologize for the bombardment of questions (and even cynicism!) you're receiving. There will always be lames looking to either copy your idea/model or find some point of criticism.

You've done such a great job at such a young age, there's a lot of value in the gold threads made by the more successful members of this forum that you can use to possibly expand your business.

Onwards and upwards!
 

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