Notes from Chris

Episode 363

South African engineer Colin Myburgh wanted an interesting side hustle that would one day help him quit his day job.

Obsessed with efficiency, he noticed many of the factories he worked with were using outdated systems to collect information. They had people walking around with clipboards to monitor input and output—a practice that cost them thousands of hours and dollars every year. It was here Colin saw a side hustle opportunity.

He’d been learning about the Internet of Things—connecting objects to the internet to improve their functionality, including thermostats or appliances or even your doorbell—and felt he could put his engineering and programming skills to good use. Using this know-how, Colin created his own system that factory owners could implement to increase their productivity through his new business, which he called Production Reporting.

He would go into a factory, install a simple piece of hardware that he could source locally, and have the data transmitted back to one easy to use dashboard. The hardware would monitor: cycle times, production counts, downtime reasons, and other relevant info that could be used to make better decisions.

Colin’s business works on a subscription model, which makes his monthly income much more predictable, and he charges $800-1200 for installation and around $400/month for ongoing service. When clients subscribe to his service they receive emails every morning from Colin with the previous day's reports. And, if they want, they have twenty-four-seven access to real-time data through the online dashboard. This can be accessed through their mobile phones, tablets or desktop computers. Basically, they can get their information whenever they need it.

Thanks to the subscription model, Colin has been able to generate recurring income of $3,700 per month through his business, and he continues to grow month to month.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Production Reporting: Learn more about Colin's super efficient productivity solution on his website
• Amazon Web Services: Where he got the cloud space that he used to store the data for his clients
• Upwork: The platform that Colin used to reach out to freelancers when he encountered coding hiccups

SEE ALSO:

• Forbes | A Simple Explanation Of 'The Internet Of Things': The "Internet of things" is becoming an increasingly growing topic of conversation both in the workplace and outside of it, but what exactly is it and what impact is it going to have on you, if any?
• Lost & Found: How Lost Property Helps a UK Woman Find Her Side Hustle: Tanya-Jane Park wasn’t looking for a side hustle when she went to a popular music festival, but when her friend lost her handbag, she managed to find one anyway
• Charter Bus Employee Creates PR Service for Bloggers: How a digital marketer created something for himself, then decided to try selling it other people who had the same needs. He now makes more than $2,500 a month from this side project

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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