I’ve written quite a few articles about using the combination of the Internet and video to make or expand a business.  This can certainly work for you in the US or in the Philippines or when dividing one’s time between two countries, as many of my readers want to do.

One thing there is a demand for … as in people buy … is home or business security and monitoring.  In particular there is a market connected with the Philippines for three categories of folks that come to mind immediately:

• Folks who have a house or business in the Philippines, but want to travel for days, weeks or months at a time.
• Folks who leave a house or business behind in the US or other home country and want a way to keep a ‘virtual eye’ on their property while they are in the Philippines.
• Filipino residents, especially businessmen or women with property or businesses in different parts of the Philippines who want a ‘virtual security guard"’.

The business plan?  Simple.  Either provide the equipment, hookups and training for any of these potential clients whom you decide to target and let them arrange their own monitoring.  To many of you this may sound foolish, because if you can do it (and you probably can. if you know enough Internet and computer technology to be reading this post, you can learn easily), then why wouldn’t the potential clients do it themselves?

Well the reason people will pay for the service is the same reason people will pay for snowplows to clear their driveways, janitors to clean their offices, mechanics to change the oil in their cars, etc.  They value their time doing something else or they would rather someone else get their hands dirty.

The other way I see a huge opportunity here is that there are thousands of potential clients in the US, the Philippines and other countries who just want someone to watch and call the police if things go wrong.  There are dozens if not hundreds of companies in the YS making a good business from this need.  If you are already living in the Philippines or are able to set something up here, you are miles ahead of any company who pays ‘screen watchers’ in the US.  You can set up a monitoring station here for systems you sell yourself, or outsource yourself to companies already in the business in the US.  Hey, after all, people are already operating call centers just to take orders ay McDonalds drive thru windows, this job is simpler.

The last time I suggested something along this line there was a bit of discussion regarding liability and bandwidth,  Let me address both those issues briefly:

• Liability: I may be naive, but I see no large liability issues here.  The service will always be provided on a ‘best effort’ basis.  In my last consulting job back in the US I worked a security contract with a top US form to monitor our software development and server facility.  Believe me, they were responsible;le for nothing except doing their job to the best of their ability.  All you need is a good lawyer to write you a tight contract (remember, I am not a lawyer and you need a lawyer for legal advice) … and for many of us who live here in the Philippines, what is anyone going to be able to sue us for, anyway?
• Bandwidth: As soon as you mention video many people get up in arms about server loads, time for windows to open, etc.  Many of these concerns are valid, but only if you do video ‘wrong’.  When I talk about monitoring surveillance cameras and other alarms at a customer’s premise, such as motion sensors, window or door switches and such. I am talking about:
  • Having a DVR (Digital Video Recorder … Tivo is a common brand name but there are much cheaper Tivo substitutes out there) that spools the video to disk, on site.  There is no reason for ‘full period’ video to ever have to cross the ‘net to your monitoring computer unless and until an ‘event’ occurs at the client’s site.
  • There are many different security management software packages out there that will slow down the frames per second from cameras until something in the field of view changes, manage multiple cameras on one screen, and so on.  Google is your friend.

So, there’s some thoughts for making a business today, prompted by this video of a real world housebreaking, caught by the owner who was monitoring remotely over the internet and simply called the police when she saw the intruder.  The video doesn’t make it clear but the report I read said the police arrived in time to catch the perpetrators in the act … thus not only was the lady’s property protected, but two nasty customers won’t be breaking into your house or mine.  Video monitoring works.