13.7.2009

I have suffered a little from boredom over the last week or two as I alluded

to in my other post ‘Wearying’, and have been chewing on how to overcome it.

I began to ponder starting a little business enterprise while on the road. I

realize this isn’t what everyone would do with their holiday, but I do like

to experiment…

Given that good coffee is rare in these types of places (and good coffee is

what we do well), I figured I might set up a coffee stall for an hour or two

each day for the dual purpose of helping people connect and maybe even

making a few extra bucks.

I pondered it for a while (probably a good 4 or 5 hours in all…)and

decided there was nothing to lose except maybe a little pride (if no one

turned up) and yesterday gave it a whirl. I considered asking the camp

managers for permission but quickly decided that it might be best to fly

under the radar. It’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission, so I

decided to set up quietly in the picnic area and allow people to give a $2

donation if they wanted to – technically not a business, but a community

service…

A quick wander around the campground was the advertising and then I waited

to see what developed.

We finished up with 7 or 8 people who joined us at 3.00 and sat around till

5.30 starting with coffee and finishing with other kinds of drinks. On the

community building side it was a real win but obviously ‘day 1’ is not the

time to assess any business potential!

It has struck me that if I could get 80 customers a day then we would easily

cover our daily living expenses but the challenge is ‘getting known’ in a

transient market when we are also transients. There are some ideas

percolating for how we could make this a winner.

Anyway it’s a new adventure and we’ll see what develops…