How I made 6 figures at age 20

[Mark Trade]

@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...

I have never mentioned using a USB for "each and every one of them". Look at the attachment, look at the two USB Slots in the top right hand corner.

 

[KKOPPI]

look at the two USB Slots in the top right hand corner.

Yes, and so?

 

[Mark Trade]

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.

Yes, and so?

Go do some research. You'll work it out.

 

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[KKOPPI]

Go do some research. You'll work it out.

Classic answer..
I'd rather suggest you'd read one of the books related to this forum.

 

[pika]

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 :

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?)

 

[Akeem]

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 :

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.

 

[pipedream2017]

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

 

[Jcoil]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 ✌

 

[KKOPPI]

I faced a lot of difficulty when I tried to persuade businesses to use a monitor.

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

 

[Akeem]

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]

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.