Business Opportunities Weblog

August 8, 2006 by Dane Carlson | 0 Comments

My next participant in the 30 Second/One Question Interview series is Michael Cage. I asked:

One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure. What product or service have you imagined would be a good business opportunity, but you’ve rejected because it’s too off the wall?

Michael responded on his blog:

I have to admit, I had some trouble with this question.

Everytime I thought of a crazy business opportunity that I passed up on, I found someone … somewhere … who was doing it anyway. So, and I hope Dane won’t mind this, I’m going to answer with the business opportunity I rejected that I wish someone in my area would execute really well.

One of the biggest trends of the last decade has been the emergence of the “mass affluent.” Households bringing in 6-plus-figures per year, who are willing to pay premium prices for specific experiences. In this group you have a healthy number of small business owners, dual-income professionals and others who share the following traits:

• They are short (or worse, negative!) on time
• They don’t want to (or don’t have time to) handle household errands
• They have an excess of money available for the right services

Businesses that serve people who will happily trade money for a little more free and/or productive time are poised for enormous growth now and in the future. After all, if it’s a choice between paying an extra buck or two per shirt for dry cleaning or having an extra half hour with little Johnny and Susie … is there really any competition?

So, the biz opp I passed up that I (selfishly) hope someone takes advantage of (specifically in the Fairfax County, VA … Reston, Herndon, Chantilly area … ahem) is a personal concierge service.

Make sure and click over and read the rest. He offers some excellent suggestions about how to do this idea right.

Thanks for participating, Michael!

Photo by By TheeErin.

In Ideas | 0 Comments