My Craziest Idea Yet | (potentially) Profitable Business Ideas

By On · 82 Comments · In Awesome Sauce

Okay, so I was just sitting here, in Starbucks, listening to Yaro Starak’s free blog blueprint (it’s very good by the by, get it here & its free) and it hit me… I want a Cadillac Escalade. So I looked it up… for a 2007-2008 used one its around $44,000. Hmmm… Lets say I put a few grand down to get it to $40k and divide it over 60 months without interest payments or any other add ons. Now its $666.67 a month (Aah!). So maybe that in and of itself tells me its a bad idea,but I want regardless and yes I’ll try to find a hybrid.

Anyways I tell you this, to tell you this… So I was thinking $700 a month, that is ridiculous, I don’t want to pay that. Instead I need to find someone to pay it for me. Maybe many someones. No not a sugar daddy, I’m no trophy wife/girlfriend, I work my little butt off all day growing my business. Instead I got an idea from the guys at www.iwearyourshirt.com who wear brands & businesses’ shirts 365 days a year and get paid for it. Well why can’t I do that with the Caddy?!

So here is the plan… tell me if it sounds crazy but darn it I bet it could work. To afford a $700 a month car payment I need: 10 silkscreen ads at $70 bucks a pop or 100 bumper stickers at $7 bucks a pop! I could even make some money if I rent out the back window for a silk screen ad at a few hundred a month (which is pretty standard). Here is the thing, I drive A LOT, like a crazy amount. So I install GPS on my Caddy and have it link to a map at my site for this shindig… then my ‘renters’ can see where my big ole sticker filled Caddy is at all times and know that they are getting some serious press.

This is kind of similar to the crazy kid who put up a website and sold a pixel for a buck, when he was done he made $1,000,000 and was an overnight marketing sensation.

So what do you think? Should I do it? Obviously I would not buy the car until I had all the advertisers locked in for at least a year. But who wouldn’t spend $7 a month to get some extra publicity, I will even throw in some added ones like doing a youtube video on each bumper sticker that gets added to my car and the business behind it.

Please let me here your comments, unless your going to say “buy a more fuel efficient car…that isn’t such a tank” < for you I say, have you ever been in an accident? If you have you will want a major tank protecting you from now on. They aren’t fun and I am just looking out for my own safety so bite me (kidding! I love you even if you hate my love of the Escalade).

Yours in shameless entrepreneurship,

Maren Kate

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  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

    thanks so much for the encouragement! I am going to be doing a follow up post on my progress pronto!

  • http://mma.bs/ Fuzzylogic

    That's a real interesting idea and makes me think.

    I'd been planning on turning my '06 Outback into a slick looking taxi. Over here in Eugene, Oregon there is a huge population interested in biking, hiking, camping and I figured I could also cater to those with a rack on the top or rear. They're comfortable inside, get decent gas mileage and the maintenance isn't too bad, so I figured I'd test the waters and keep the laptop in the car with me. Figured a second vehicle could be a Prius or something, haha.

    Not sure how advertising works on taxi vehicles, but an angle I hadn't considered as far as helping with costs. And I can think of local sporting goods places that probably would be interested…

    Boy, starting my research into CommentLuv and Disqus 12 hours ago really paid off, haha. They really do work…

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  • matthewneedham

    HI Maren, I think this is a fab idea – it's basically taking what taxis have been doing for a long time. One point. If you're driving around all the time you're going to use a lot of fuel so you might want to factor running costs in to. However, you could always park it in prominent spots when you park up.

  • matthewneedham

    James, is right. What he's not mentioned is that you get a fraction of the space in the UK that you would get for similar money in the US.

    I have taken this lifestyle thing and monthly cashflow a bit far. I rent the house I live in because I get better value for money and a bigger house that I could get on a mortgage. I do however own properties which I rent out so the tenants pay the mortgages and contribute towards my rent…

  • matthewneedham

    I've had another thought after reading some of the comments on here about not knowing how effective it would be. If you got enough stickers on the car and promoted it like anything (say through a website) then then the advertisers would get twice the value and maybe even 'meet the car' for photo opportunities etc when you're out partying.

    I'm begining to think that $7 is way too cheap…

  • http://www.theinfopreneur.net/ TheInfoPreneur

    Hey Brother,

    Yeah it's crazy the price on land etc in the UK, parts of london can cost you 100k just for a garage that's not even attached to the house!

  • ralphcarlson

    How are you planning to sell those ads? Maybe you should start with the Cadillac dealer. Cadillac as been trying to go edge for some time. Maybe you can do some kind of contest about where Maren Kate will be (or is). If people are interested in finding your car, then they can see value in having their name on it. Besides the ads, what else can you do to make people look for it. I'm not clever enough to figure it out but you seem to be good at this edge thing.

  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

    Hey I like it!! You are right maybe I should go right up the ladder to the Cadillac execs and pitch them my idea, maybe they'll give me one :) lol… I do love that idea though, I'll have to sleep on it and get back to you with what I figure out.

  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

    that is a GREAT idea!! I love it, you are catering to two different markets in one business opportunity! Let me know how it works :)

  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

    Like Valet!!

  • http://www.Escapingthe9to5.com/ Maren Kate

    wow other people's feedback has been SO helpful to me, especially your mention about the promoting it through a website or other form :) I like it, so you think 7 is too cheap> what about $10 a month = $120 up front for the year in advance?

  • matthewneedham

    You just don't want to attract a load of stalkers though Maren!

  • matthewneedham

    Yeah, you don't want to be cleaning yourself. Especially with all that sand in Vegas (not to mention the heat!)

  • matthewneedham

    Or you could make it really attractive by charging $120 up front for 12 months and (say) $12.50 a month ongoing.

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  • paulszyarto

    Maren, as with most new entrepreneurs, I think you are failing to see the opportunistic cost with this idea. What is it going to cost you to make the $700 per month starting this new idea vs just working an extra few hours at what you do best to pay for the truck. It will cost you more time to start and maintain this “new idea” than it's worth in the end.

    In addition, there are several companies that already have this in production, check out cashtoride.com.

    If you are looking to offset your costs with minimal effort, I think you are better off dealing with a company like this with one sponsor who pays $700 per month vs 10 or 100 that you need to spend time maintaining on your own. For even 10 sponsors you will need to work several hours a week to maintain and I'm sure your hourly rates focusing on what you do best are worth more than this.

  • paulszyarto

    Maren, as with most new entrepreneurs, I think you are failing to see the opportunistic cost with this idea. What is it going to cost you to make the $700 per month starting this new idea vs just working an extra few hours at what you do best to pay for the truck. It will cost you more time to start and maintain this “new idea” than it's worth in the end.

    In addition, there are several companies that already have this in production, check out cashtoride.com.

    If you are looking to offset your costs with minimal effort, I think you are better off dealing with a company like this with one sponsor who pays $700 per month vs 10 or 100 that you need to spend time maintaining on your own. For even 10 sponsors you will need to work several hours a week to maintain and I'm sure your hourly rates focusing on what you do best are worth more than this.

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  • http://www.homebasedbusinessmentor.com/ Home Business Ideas

    Sometimes money shows not on big business but also unusual business as well.

  • Womenwhowow

    Michael,
    So cool to see you on this blog! =) =) Hows your big idea going??? Talk to you soon, Michelle

  • http://www.escapefrom9-5.com Work Sucks

    I'm going to make Shameless Entrepreneurship my new life motto!! Love it!!

  • http://www.thesoutherninvestor.com TheSouthernInvestor

    Ahhhh…..I see! So you were on your game with the pixel kid. I remember reading about the guy and the t-shirts about a year ago as well. A local branding company in my town actually had him wear one (I think how I heard about it). Your Caddy — tracking via your GPS sounds like a pretty good idea — is that going to go somewhere?

  • Sumit Sharma

    This is really one of the craziest ideas I've ever come across. Keep it up Maren.

    Home Business Ideas and Opportunities

  • http://sticker12.blogspot.com/ online stickers

    Stickers play very important role to promote business.

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  • http://chrisalta.com Chris Alta

    haha this is such a dope idea! I know I’m over a year late on the conversation but I was just checking out your most popular posts and had to stop by when I saw the title of it.

    If you haven’t already done it I’d say definitely do it! I mean what have you got to lose? That pixel guy was a great example, just $1 for some pixel space but reoccurring, could definitely work with yours. The only thing that he had the upper hand on is that his website was live for 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year year and had the potential to reach millions of viewers.

    Your idea on the downside would only be able to reach the people that are around. I’d say 3 to 5 thousand people per day depending on how much you drove and on how many people say it.

    One thing you do have over the pixel kid is that you could talk people into certain logos via word of mouth because you’re right there. Kind of like a spokesperson except you’re only telling them to visit the site and can’t really give them too much information on it..that is unless you did tons of research for 700 bumper stickers lol (Information OVERLOAD AHH)

    All in all though it’s a great idea, try it out and see what happens? Maybe start with local businesses first and get that $7 per month from that up front or monthly depending upon the agreement you come up with. Personally I think it would work better with local folks and their businesses since that’s where you live and that’s the immediate community they’re going to want to reach. Plus it’s always good to help grow your community and make it a better place :)

    Great idea though!

    cheers!

    -Chris Alta

  • http://chrisalta.com Chris Alta

    Oh and another thing you could do would be to actually make a website for the car. So since you live in (wherever you live lol) we’ll say Los Angeles and you drive a hybrid. You could make a website called idk? and this is just off the top of the head..

    http://www.HybridLAStickies.com hahahah (I don’t know what I”m saying lol give me a break)

    just thought I’d add to the conversation a bit!

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