This morning as we were going to the farmer's market I thought "they should really sell pancakes." Is this something that I am going to do at the farmer's market? Probably not. Do I know anyone who would do this? I doubt it. This got me thinking about how many of these sorts of ideas people have and just never act on.
Wouldn't it be better if someone else had access to these ideas and could act on them if they were so inclined? The way this usually works now is by word of mouth, which is not very efficient for the sort of situation I described above. My friends do not sell things at the farmers market. They have regular jobs that pay well and they are unlikely to drop everything to pursue a career in pancakes.
When my office moved over to the West side of Santa Cruz in a new, large building I was thinking that someone should really have a coffee cart or cafe right next to the building. Again, I wasn't going to do it, my friends weren't and the taqueria next door wasn't interested in my idea of a coffee bar. I know the idea works because at another of our offices they have a coffee cart and they seem to do very well.
Isn't the bottom line that it is better for me to give the idea away in order to see it happen because it is the sort of thing that I would like? I don't need to hang onto it or copyright it, trademark it or otherwise call "dibs" on this thing that will never happen.
What if there was a forum, local or not, I don't know what's best, where people could post their ideas and entrepreneurs could adopt and adapt them as they saw fit? Would this be a branch of Craigslist or is there a better way? A facebook page? Something else?
In the era we live in with businesses like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc. I think that it is good to share these ideas as efficiently as possible so that the economy can be active and people can create the jobs/businesses they want rather than settle for something just because it is already there.
There is a movement called Creative Commons where you can reserve some rights to things, but give people relatively free reign to use, copy and distribute them (i.e. songs, books, software). Maybe the ideas should have the sole right reserved that you can't just claim ideas posted on this prospective forum and sit on them. The first one to put an honest effort into making it happen can run with it without fearing too many local copycats. Maybe no one should be able to copyright anything and have it be a free-for-all. That would favor small businesses over businesses sitting on a large bank roll, which I prefer. Libertarians would love it I think, but would it work? I'd like to hear what people think about this and how it might happen. It is probably not a bad idea overall, but it would need some refinements. If it was a pancake I think it would be in the uncooked batter stage right now. Potential pancakes are a wonderful thing.
Business Ideas Forum?
