The Most Stupid Business Ideas Ever

November 3, 2007

We all have stupid ideas from time to time. If we didn’t - we’d never even come up with one single decent idea. So, it’s important to brainstorm freely and not care if 99% of what you come up with is rubbish.

And remember, one man’s stupid idea could be another man’s fortune. I was reading an article a few months ago in Forbes. Some old billionaire was asked what was the silliest business idea he’d ever heard. And he said many years ago, he’d heard about someone who wanted to build an amusement park and call it Disneyland and it was the most ridiculous idea he’d ever heard.

Shoemoney shared some pretty outrageous business ideas in his post: My Top Ten Worst Ideas To Make Money, and it really is worth checking out. The wackiest one has to be the convent restaurant, although the garage giving away free gas comes a close second.

Anyway, here’s a challenge. Let’s help make some crazy person rich and famous. Brainstorm for a little while and share some crazy business ideas.

Here’s a few I’ve been thinking about lately:

1) A doggie bag service. You collect food that others don’t want from restaurants and deliver it to pet owners (for a small fee of course). The restaurants benefit because they get to have their logo on the outside of the bag.

2) Vegenosis - A hyposis program that convinces kids to love vegetables. My son think this is unethical and would probably be banned from the outset.

3) Winter Sunshine Hotel - A hotel which has a winter theme in the Summer with amazing indoor ice sculptures, daily artificial snowfall in the lobby etc, which transforms into a tropical paradise in the winter, complete with indoor beach etc. I thought this one would please those of us who are never happy with the weather.

4) World Jogger - A revolutionary treadmill in a compartment which you can program to jog anywhere in the world. In addition to visual effects, you would be able to jog in real wind, heat or even snow. You’d never get bored as you would actually feel like you were in another part of the world.

Now, it’s your turn. Have a think, and see what completely crazy business ideas you can come up with. Then share one or two. You never know - we could help make someone rich and famous.

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas

Comments

12 Responses to “The Most Stupid Business Ideas Ever”

Asako on November 4th, 2007 12:12 am

Hello Catherine,

Your Doggie Bag Service idea is truly crazy!! Although that is really bad to pet health… Many pets who are fed with human food get sick… I agree how can we utilize these excess food that is wasted. Let me think.

World jogger is not a crazy idea. Actually, I heard some gyms are seriously considering that kinds of concepts. It is like the Japanese Karaoke box, but instead world jogger box.

Winter Sunshine is also not crazy. We have indoor ski slopes and indoor beach in Japan….

You can definitely make these ideas happen…if you could get a starting capital! (Maybe, I should have you guest write your idea on my blog)
shy guy on November 4th, 2007 7:33 am

Hm.. I don’t have any idea to think now..
Maybe a blogger that using his boring time to write anything about money.. Ha ha ha
Sonnie on November 4th, 2007 10:30 am

I have to squeeze my creative juice to think of one. This post challenges your readers to think as entrepreneur– look for opportunities
cathlawson on November 5th, 2007 8:49 am

Hi Asako - I knew you wouldn’t like the doggy bags for dogs. I have to agree, it is cruel giving them the food we eat.

It is brilliant that in Japan you already have indoor beaches and ski slopes. I am planning to visit there one day, as I think it would be a brilliant place for inspiration.

I think world jogger would require a heap of starting capital and winter sunshine would need an obscene amount. One day I would like to open a hotel and I will definitely be asking for your advice on raising the cash.

Also - I would be happy to guest blog for you, but I think I will have to do a little more research first.

Hi Shy Guy - Ideas don’t always come straight away. You should keep a notebook with you to write them down.

Sonnie thanks for posting. Don’t forget to share your ideas when you’ve squeezed your creative juices.
Ian Denny on November 5th, 2007 1:37 pm

I think they’re all fantastic ideas!

There’s definitely something in the doggie bag idea.

I love the bag with logo on the side. There has to be some way of making this work.

I just love the idea of transferring potential waste into something good. It seems a crying shame when people wither over-order and don’t even touch some fo the dishes ordered, or just take a fork-ful or two from an entire dish.
Barbara on November 5th, 2007 9:29 pm

Catherine,

You get us thinking. That’s great. And brainstorming has often led to million dollar ideas.

I think it’s amazing how one person’s idea of a successful “business”, makes others react in a negative way. Look at the young geek Bill Gates….who’s laughing now?

Re: #3…Recently, two cookbooks were published on how to “hide” vegetables in your children’s food. When the foods were tested on young ones, they loved it.

Here’s my idea…A conveyor belt system, attached to your kitchen, that takes your garbage and dispenses it into the appropriate “bins” (that are located elsewhere), such as recycling (glass, tin, paper), composting, or just plain garbage.

I spend a lot of time “sorting” recyclables, and would love to find an easy way, so I’m not handling things more than once.
Asako on November 10th, 2007 8:14 am

I like the conveyor belt system idea, Barbara!

Will World Jogger require a significant capital? Yes, that’s true at this moment. Probably, once electronics world makes more progress, it becomes easier.

These days, all electronics players are studying curtain displays, wall paper displays, etc. Also another way is you can have LCD displays with ambient lighting that resonate with the images to create overall atmosphere in the room. I actually think it could be done. The issue would be the real estate side. In any case, it is an idea you can not bootstrap…
grandinis on November 30th, 2007 11:17 pm

i have an idea! lets make the biggest advertisement in the world. it woul be 1 kilometer on 1 kilometer. how about that?
cathlawson on December 1st, 2007 5:10 am

Hi there - I’m just trying to imagine what it would look like. It would be pretty huge. Where do you reckon the best place would be for us to put this ad and how would we go about making it Grandinis? It sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
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