This is the disease I have. (Not an actual disease)
I rarely can have a conversation where my mind doesn’t go down the rabbit hole of “oh that could be a cool business idea.”
Last night.
Next door neighbor’s kid Ben comes up to me outside and says, “I’ll take your trash cans to the curb for 25 cents”
Of course, I say sure, because well, it’s only 25 cents and frankly I support his effort to make an extra buck.
Few minutes later I’m in my think tank (the shower) and my mind has this little conversation:
“Ben should charge $1/month to take out my trash cans every week.”
“There are two cans though, so really he should charge $2/mo for both cans.”
“I bet if he really wanted, he could go to everyone on the street and say, for $2/mo I’ll take your trash cans out to the curb every week.”
“He’s a kid though, so I bet folks would pay twice that to support a neighborhood kid.”
“Managing a bunch of $4 payments every month would be cumbersome.”
“I bet I could set up a web page for him, where folks could subscribe and pay $5/mo for Ben to offer this service. The extra dollar covers hosting and credit card fees. Could even design and print him a business card so he could hand it to folks.”
“I bet there are kids in a lot of neighborhoods that would do the same thing.”
“Kids can offer other services too like lawn mowing, dog walking, house sitting, etc.”
“So a web service that promotes entrepreneurship amongst children, and gives them a quick and easy way for kids (well, mostly parents) to setup a recurring service business.”
“There has got to be something out there already.”
Half-hour on Google yields, well, not much really.
“Hmmm.”
“Hmmmmmmmm.”
“So, Ben (with his parents) creates a business on this site, and gets his own domain (say like, ben.kids.business), picks what kind of business he wants to start, how much he wants to charge, a few other details and boom, he has his own website. When he goes around the neighborhood he has an easy and impressive way to sell his service. I’m guessing leads, payments, communication would filter through the parents.”
“That would be cool.”
“I want this for my own kid.”
Reality check.
“Dang, my existing list is towering. On to the ideas Trello board it goes.”
So, for Ben, or whomever actually reads this. I love it when a child get’s excited about making money and goes out and actually tries to do it. I know as a kid you typically have a motive in mind, like ice cream or video games, but it’s a fantastic thing to spend your time doing. As a child, receiving money in exchange for work is a valuable lesson that builds character and teaches you that money is hard earned.
Also, I don’t know if this service is out there already (let me know if there is) or if I’ll ever build it, but let me know what you think.
Until that time, Ben, $2/mo. Deal?