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6 hours ago
Friday, December 4, 2009
business idea
Recently I was locked out of the apartment I share with a friend. While I waited for said friend to arrive with keys it occurred to me that there might be a kernel of a business idea there. Would people pay a small fee to have someone store a copy of their keys and deliver them in person whenever required, incurring a per-incident fee?
Billing should be automatic and require a credit card. After all, it is possible that in such a situation the key-owner may not have any form of payment capability with them. In my case I was stuck outside with just shorts, t-shirt and one of my mobile phones -- not even a shoe!
To identify the rightful owner of the keys one might use fingerprints, a photo and perhaps some kind of password. The key delivery service should never know the address associated with the keys, to protect against rogue employees. Perhaps encourage customers to use a PO Box.
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I know a guy that runs a similar service, but he doesn't need your key, and for an extra fee he has never seen you before in his life ;)
ReplyDeleteThe use of a PO box kind of invalidates the whole enterprise, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, a locksmith (your primary competition) will charge about $90, so that's your price point for an unplanned lockout...
i'd shelve it.
PO box for billing/statement address, nothing more. Yes, I hadn't forgotten about locksmiths when I wrote it.
ReplyDeleteA locksmith doesn't really provide an equivalent service, though. It might be rather more convenient to have the key come to wherever you are (your workplace, perhaps?) so that you don't have to wait for a locksmith to turn up when you get home.
Yeah, it's rather tenuous. I rather like being an employee, so this was only ever idle speculation, of the sort that one might have while locked out of one's house :-/