Michael Girdley: 05/01/2005

western conference finals

Ideas

Ian asked me if I had any good business ideas lately... This is what I wrote to him..

1) Been interested in Solar power. Considering doing a side project to convert a car to electrical only power for shits and giggles. Adding solar power to your house is really hard, but it shouldn't be. Think there is a market for "low-impact" solar systems. For example, an integrated system where you unroll it on your roof, tack it down and have an electrician wire it into your meter. It wouldn't convert you completely from the Grid, but it would be something that people would buy either for a tinker toy or just to lighten the load on their electrical bill.

2) Been interested in (commercial) banking, mainly the idea was to start a commercial bank that focused on "unique" loan opportunities with non-conventional collateral. For example, timber land as collateral for loans to a timber company. Beal Bank does this already, but it is a largely untapped market methinks.

3) There are tons of people w/o bank accounts who blow money on check cashing services (who charge 2-3 percent). If someone could develop a way for employers to make money off of that fact and cut out the check cashing places, it would be a goldmine. Idea is to sign up employers and they get paid 1% of employees checks. Employees pay 2% of each paycheck to receive an atm card to get their money straight out of an atm with no bank account. Or, you could charge them atm fees for withdrawal and then give some of that to the employer.

The big money comes in when you start to do payday loans... A typical payday loan company charges $15-$25 per $100 borrowed for a TWO week loan. If you were to allow the employees to make withdrawals from the ATM card against their next payday, life would be good. One worry about the payday loans is if the employee quits, then you are screwed. But, if you rope in the employer, then you can incent them to let you know if/when the employee quits.

Employers would be interested because they could be let in on the payday loans. If you could go to an employer and say, "Would you like 3%-5% of your payroll back every week?" Many would consider the hassle of direct deposit+distributing ATM cards to be worth their time.

4) Oil Rig idea. Purchase an abandoned oil platform more than 7 miles offshore. Turn it into the "AMSTERDAM OF THE WEST" with legal casino gambling. Allow people to consume "illegal" drugs on board like pot or heroin or whatever they want. Fly people in on helicopter. Or, do the above with a boat that never enters port..