Subtitled: The Dreamers & Entrepreneur Unification Project. A ‘dumping ground’ for business models that have yet to see the light of day.
Every once in a while, a new business idea will arise and I end up concluding: If Suds –n- Buds Laundromat & Tavern can make a profit, these business ideas are all but guaranteed to succeed. My three most recent business model ideas (from the inane to the more serious):
1) Silver Spoon Pawn Shop: As a rule, pawn shops are in the seediest parts of town. Offering such services as; check cashing, lottery ticket sales, electronics rentals, warm jewelry & handgun hocking - the hoi polloi have a business that perfectly suits their ‘quick fix’ financial needs. Whether out of fear, or common sense, the one thing I’ve noticed on the handful of occasions I’ve been in a pawn shop is I’ve never seen middle or upper class clientele.
Let’s say you find yourself in financial straights. Your credit sources are tapped out and you need money quickly. When the middle class needs an infusion of cash, they have a garage sale. When the wealthy experience a crunch in cash flow, they sell their wares thru Christie’s Auction House. But in both instances, the possessions they sell are gone forever.
An upscale pawn shop - on let’s say, Park Avenue, would enable clients to hock their art collection, antiques, coins, stamps and family heirlooms thru a reputable appraiser at an interest rate lower than the cash-advance on most credit cards – and enable the cash-strapped seller to buy them back when they’re out of financial trouble.
2) Speed Trap Alert Services, LLC: Radio & cable TV stations across the country subcontract their traffic reports out to companies like Metro-Chopper. What they pay for these usually outdated and inaccurate reports (with the helicopter sound FX tape in the background) is something I’m not privy to. Some of the more progressive stations go so far as to offer listeners a toll-free cell number that motorists can call to from their cell phones and report a jam.
Considering the fact most radar detection devices don’t work well – or start beeping when the driver two car lengths behind you sneezes - I’m convinced there’s a market for commuters who need up to date police speed trap notifications. With today’s wireless video technology, it should be fairly easy to set up cameras near all the overpasses, inclines, wooded areas and highway signs traffic officers use to hide. If you have to lease space atop tall buildings near the highways – or from Clear Channel’s Billboard Division, so be it. The costs involved pale in comparison to the value this information.
3) YourManual.com: Pretty self-explanatory, but no, not a porn site. I can’t count the number of times I’ve needed to refer to a product manual only to discover it was apparently sucked through the vortex known as my junk drawer. (As a small hijack, I’m not too certain my family’s tradition of having one kitchen drawer to keep all your miscellaneous ‘junk’ is as widespread as I once assumed – do you have one?)Need to find which fuse to replace to get the reverse lights working again?
How do you turn off the ice maker on your refrigerator’s freezer?
Just what does that DTHC1 button on your stereo do?
How do I delay record on that VCR?
Can I run delicates on this cycle in my washing machine?These answers and many more are all contained in the product’s manual that you either misplaced, tossed out or never had because you bought the item second-hand. I’m surprised no one with a lot of time on their hands, a scanner and a server has yet to electronically archive product manuals on the internet. The manufacturer’s rarely do it, so someone ought to step up to the plate.
So dreamers, visionaries or smart-asses, do you have any business models you’d like to propose. You never know, some lurking entrepreneur just may pick up the ball and run with it.