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-   -   Great business - dealing with bureaucracy! (http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7914)

Dien Rice January 4, 2012 08:14 PM

Great business - dealing with bureaucracy!
 
This is a great and unusual business idea...

If you want to travel to certain countries, you have to get a visa.

However, dealing with the bureaucracies of other countries, believe it or not, can even be worse than dealing with US government bureaucracy! (Even the "local" version, at that country's local embassy or consulate.)

One man wanted to get a visa to travel to China. However, the hassles of the forms caused troubles! And the Chinese consulate didn't want to go out of their way to be helpful.

He realized others had the same trouble. So, he set up a van outside the Chinese consulate in New York, where he helps people fill out the right forms to get their visas!

He charges $20 per person - and it's turned into a successful business, where he can make up to almost $500 a day! ($500 would only mean 25 customers. Even to just make $200 a day - which is not a bad income - would take just 10 customers per day.)

Here's a picture of the inside of his van (not flashy, but it gets the job done)...



Here's the article (with more details)...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/...-business-plan

(This also proves that the existence of a problem, especially if many people have the same problem, often also means that there's a hidden opportunity!)

Best wishes,

Dien

Phil January 5, 2012 12:28 AM

Invisible Donkey Removal, Impossibottle! Fill-in-my-Form(dot)Com, Linestanding.com...
 
Someone Needs to Develop a More Innovative Forum Headline Subject line Character Allowance System! ...

Great Find Dien,

Thanks for the Brainstorming Tools/Keywords! ... Next... Next... Next... :)

Endless Creations & Idea(s) Just Waiting to be Developed and Kicked around World-wide {E-And/Or-Geographically} Brokered, Outsourced, [VA] Virtual Assistant(s) etc. etc...

Years Ago... Marriage related Form Filling Services for Newly Married Couples were a Hot Selling business Money maker... Business Model! ... SIN Card Requirements and The {Mystery} of How to Find (or) Not Find the Specialized Form, Soo... Many Needed! ... But only Particular, Select people Knew How to Go About Finding! ...

Unfortunately! ... Way Too Many People Getting into businesses Over-all with So-Called Entrepreneurship ideas... But Don't Think, Plan or Work Towards Any Long-Term Goals, Growth including their Very important Future...

Fail to Keep their Business idea(s) and Personal Motivation(s) Going ... And Accelerated at the Highest Speeds possible... For a Mix of Various Unfortunate Reasons...

If Some of Them would just Hang in There a little bit Longer... They Just Might become the Next Success Story(s)... Of and into the Future... Viral Opportunties and Possibilities Too! ...

Hopefully a few Reading and ''Digging'' into & Through-Out... The Following... Understand and Get My Suggested Message and Think Real Hard as They Re-Work and Develop their Own Idea(s)...

Leaders in Line-Standing since 1985... :cool:

Quick Food for thought and A {Hole} Lot More if You Can Read Through All the [Linky] [Linky] Lines... ;)
http://www.google.com/search?q=http%...ient=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=stata...0&bih=672&bs=1
http://digitaljournal.com/article/116409
http://www.google.com/search?q=stand...ient=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=http%...ient=firefox-a

Online Goods and Services that are Just a Tad Nutty...

Interestingly, they claim to be the Leaders in Line-Standing since 1985, which leads us to Wonder who, Precisely, is Competing with them...

Invisible Donkey Removal? ...

Have you been hearing noises in the night? Are your phone and power bills unusually high? Chances are your house is infested by invisible donkeys. Fortunately, there is a solution. For the small price of $300, the IDRS (Invisible Donkey Removal Services) will come to your apartment and remove up to 15 invisible donkeys. Then, for a further $25, they’ll give you a certificate which verifies that your place is now invisible donkey free. But don’t worry, the invisible donkeys are tranquilized and relocated to an Invisible farm... How Cool is That? ... :D
www.tetragrammatron.com/idr.html
http://editor.actrix.co.nz/byarticle/1010atadnutty.html

Get Busy! ... A Tad Nutty! ... [Specialization] No matter Services, Consultant related, Hard Goods, Soft Goods, Software, Plugin-in(s), Apps, Inventions, with Just about Everything these Days being ''One'' of the Key Factors to Seriously Consider, {E-Or-Geographically} Nichified & ''Spinning'' The Impossibottle for The 24/7/365... 2012 Marketplace! ...

Phil

Dien Rice January 6, 2012 09:26 PM

How a restaurant profited from invisible fish!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil (Post 29831)
Years Ago... Marriage related Form Filling Services for Newly Married Couples were a Hot Selling business Money maker... Business Model! ... SIN Card Requirements and The {Mystery} of How to Find (or) Not Find the Specialized Form, Soo... Many Needed! ... But only Particular, Select people Knew How to Go About Finding! ...

That sounds like it would have been a good business to be in...

I only recently realized that bureaucratic "red tape" could be a business opportunity.

Apart from filling in forms, another guy who has made a mint from bureaucratic red tape is British entrepreneur, Duncan Bannatyne.

(He's one of the "dragons" in the British version of the show "Dragon's Den" - equivalent to the Canadian show of the same name, and the American TV show "Shark Tank".)

Last year, I bought and read his book, "Anyone can do it."

He made his multi-millions mostly in areas that had government regulation... Such as nursing homes/aged care homes (at one point), for example.

These are highly regulated in the UK. You have to have a certain number of nurses per resident, certain minimum room sizes, and so on.

Anyhow, he started from scratch, and worked with an architect to design and build nursing homes so that they were extremely efficient with regards to the existing government regulations. Other nursing homes were not generally designed from the ground up to be nursing homes, especially with regards to maximum efficiency relating to the regulations, so they were less efficient (and less profitable).

In his book, if I remember right, I think he said he was getting around a 30% annual return on the money he spent building nursing homes. With that kind of return, he just kept building more and more (until he eventually sold the whole business).

The point was that - the existence of certain bureaucratic regulations meant that other nursing homes were not at optimal efficiency, given the restrictions. However, by paying close attention to the bureaucratic regulations in this area, he could build more efficient (and profitable) nursing homes than anyone else had done so far - and outcompete them on that basis.

(Read his book for more details.)

Quote:

If Some of Them would just Hang in There a little bit Longer... They Just Might become the Next Success Story(s)... Of and into the Future... Viral Opportunties and Possibilities Too! ...

A lot of successful people seem to mention "tenacity" as a big reason for their success...!

Quote:

Quick Food for thought and A {Hole} Lot More if You Can Read Through All the [Linky] [Linky] Lines... ;)

There are some good links there!

With "customer service" going down the drain in some businesses, it's no surprise that "stand in line for you"-type services could become more popular!

(This is also part of what personal concierges can sometimes do, too...)

Quote:

Invisible Donkey Removal? ...

Have you been hearing noises in the night? Are your phone and power bills unusually high? Chances are your house is infested by invisible donkeys. Fortunately, there is a solution. For the small price of $300, the IDRS (Invisible Donkey Removal Services) will come to your apartment and remove up to 15 invisible donkeys. Then, for a further $25, they’ll give you a certificate which verifies that your place is now invisible donkey free. But don’t worry, the invisible donkeys are tranquilized and relocated to an Invisible farm... How Cool is That? ... :D
www.tetragrammatron.com/idr.html
http://editor.actrix.co.nz/byarticle/1010atadnutty.html
This reminds me of the "invisible Brazilian fish" restaurant promotion which I read about recently!

The short story is, a restaurant (back in the 1920s) wanted to know how to attract customers.

It was suggested to them to put a clear fish bowl (filled with water, but no fish) in the restaurant window.

They put a sign next to it, saying - "The only living Brazilian invisible fish." They also placed there a little hidden fan, which would blow ripples on the water.

Crowds flocked to see the "Brazilian invisible fish!" (And the restaurant increased their sales!)

The promotion kept working - until the restaurant tried to serve the invisible fish as a meal!

More details here... http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/a...invisible_fish

Best wishes!

Dien


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