My Favorite Books of 2007: BMOC
Continuing my list of my favorite business books of 2007 brings us to another unconventional one: BMOC. While the book, by Warren Meyer, is fictional, it does contain a number of interesting business ideas, including my favorite outlandish business opporunity of all time: fountain coin harvesting.
Warren Meyer runs an exceptional blog of his own, called Coyote Blog, and earlier this year he ran an excerpt from his book that described the business:
On the basis of this market research and his quirky insight, Preston Marsh founded 3Coins, Inc, and began an intensive six month research and development program. He hired engineers from several hot tub and spa companies that had developed the modular spa, a design where all the necessary pumps and plumbing were integrated with the tub into a single portable unit. His designers worked long weeks coming up with three modular fountain designs, driving down the estimated manufacturing cost to just $350 per unit.
Next, Preston Marsh took these fountain designs to mall owners, architects, building managers, landscapers and anyone who designed or owned public spaces. In every case, the deal was the same: Preston Marsh would give the client one or more free fountains to adorn their public spaces, and would even provide the labor to clean and treat the fountains once a week. In return, Preston Marsh literally “kept the change”. Preston Marsh paid local entrepreneurs 25% of the change drop to clean the fountains and empty and deposit the change. The rest was pure profit.
The resulting economics were startling. For each installation, Preston Marsh had up-front investments of about $750, including the $350 tub plus delivery and installation. In return, Preston Marsh gained about $50 a week in revenue, or $37.50 after the servicing agent took his 25%. Over a year, the fountain would produce $1,950 in revenue, with virtually no expenses or overhead.
After five years, 3Coins had nearly 10,000 fountains in place, generating almost $20 million in annual revenue, over half of which was profit. And Preston Marsh owned 100% of the company.
I have a copy of the book to giveaway. To enter, comment on this post with your most outlandish business idea, or subscribe to my RSS feed via email.
Publisher’s description of the book after the jump:
Susan Hunter is a brilliant but lazy student at the Harvard Business School, who has a long-term plan for succeeding at Harvard and getting a high-paying job with the absolute minimum of work. Her plans begin to awry when she receives an invitation for a job interview with Preston Marsh, the quirky millionaire who has built his fortune on oddball businesses from selling designer musical tones to harvesting coins in fountains. Marsh convinces Susan to abandon her path of least resistance to work in his new business called BMOC, which guarantees its student clients that it will make them popular. But nothing in the job description prepares Susan for getting sent to LA to investigate a young woman’s suicide. Susan has to struggle to adapt her business school training to what increasingly appears to be a murder investigation, as a consortium of media companies, tort lawyers, and even a US Senator fight to hide the truth. And that was before they started shooting at her.
Fountain photo by mscaprikell.
mike hornitos on December 10th, 2007 5:12 pm
I’m partial to the idea of finding new foods that have passed through the digestive tracks of monkeys, like Kopi Luwak.
Matthew Gibson on December 10th, 2007 7:10 pm
This one open to us canucks? I hope so, love to read this book. I have many outlandish business ideas, but my most recent one was to invent glow in the dark contact lenses, for the party kids of course :). I know these have been done before, but mine would be continually wearable instead of toss away after an hour or two.
Scott on December 10th, 2007 7:31 pm
If I could find the funding, I’d love to have a fleet of Hindenburg sized airships, that would do tours, nice and slow, and quiet, so that people could really see the scenery. Not blimp sized airships, but ones where you could have living quarters, a dining room, etc all on board, and travel for a few days to a week.
Lisa on December 10th, 2007 7:45 pm
I have this idea about a automated dry cleaning attendant. You insert your clothing into a slot, and out pops a receipt.
Later, you return and insert your receipt and out pops your cleaned clothing.
John on December 10th, 2007 8:55 pm
Not mine, but one I just read:
The Business: Family Airlines.
Description: We all know how annoying it is to fly with children, both for parents and those without kids to listen to screaming babies in closed quarters. “Family Airlines” caters to kids under seven. The plane is divided in half, with the front being normal seating for the grown-ups and the entire back half of the cabin outfitted as a standard day-care, plus games, play areas, a library, a bouncy ball cage, and trained staff.
Tickets of course will be more expensive than a normal flight, but perhaps many parents will go for it knowing they will have a more peaceful flight knowing their kids are being entertained.
Target Market: Parents of children under 7.
Chuck Fesperman on December 11th, 2007 12:16 am
I agree completely. This book definitely gives some great ideas, even though it is fictional. Good reading and insightful.
John on December 11th, 2007 12:47 am
Sounds like an interesting book, I can imagine that actually running such a business would upset a few people however.
pete suearez on December 11th, 2007 11:03 pm
i have an idea about video taping high school graduations from multiple angles and then editing them into a customize individual movies.
Angela on December 12th, 2007 11:12 pm
Sign me up!!
I did blog ya :)
http://contestaddict.blogspot.com
janet on December 13th, 2007 6:38 pm
love to win
glitter on December 15th, 2007 9:09 am
I’m in!
amir on December 16th, 2007 7:23 am
how much is my blog ?
j&b publsihing on December 17th, 2007 3:41 pm
the main thing this proves is that random dimes and quarters can add up if you have a way to collect them.
Anthony Donnelly on December 17th, 2007 4:47 pm
Not sure if this constitutes as outlandish, but it’s an idea I’ve been bouncing around, but don’t have any spare time to work on. In essence it is like match.com but for businesses – based on a statistic I read many years back that most employees are unhappy with their jobs (over 50%). It’s a website that employees can list their attributes and wish list for perfect career, and business owners can do likewise. Using similar filters and questionnaires like e-harmony.com it would potentially match up job searchers with employers. It could save HR people a ton of time and money ploughing through unacceptable resumes, and put the right person in the right job, thus improving efficiency all round. A happy workforce = a happy company.
More free books…! That’s my coin in the fountain.
Owen on December 20th, 2007 1:54 pm
My idea is a dog poo zapper. Walk the dog, he does a poo. Instead of collection, I would zap it with an electronic device or pour some liquid on it and make it disappear in front of me. Then move on with the dog!! Wow!!
intinfos.com on December 21st, 2007 1:11 am
I have just read the article and it inspires me in making more and more business ideas. Of all books I have read, here I goes back to “The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind” … powerful and inspiring indeed.
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