Monthly Archives: March 2007

More product ideas

It seems like I am at the same point, no matter what time it is.  I have some great ideas.  Some of them would be great products, some of them are too fuzzy to begin research on, and some of them are not-so-great ideas.  I think that I just need to talk to some people that are not power-users or programmers to see if there would be any interest.

Right now, I have been thinking of two completely different ideas.  Both of them I have some experience with.  The first idea is to write a canasta card game.  Strictly windows only, maybe multiplayer over the internet, maybe just single player.  It would be different than any other canasta program as my family plays canasta differently than you will find in any rule book.  We call it Hollywood Canasta, but the Hollywood portion probably just comes from a version of 500 Rummy that we call Hollywood Rummy.  The rules of Hollywood Canasta are not that much different from American (or Modern) Canasta that they would be difficult for someone already familiar with canasta to learn them.  The playing strategy is different though.  What I would envision doing is release Hollywood Canasta (probably named Windows Canasta or WinCanasta rather than Hollywood Canasta) first, then maybe Hollywood Rum next.  To me, these games are a lot more fun than the original versions.  For Hollywood Rum, my aunt and cousin decided the set hands were too easy, so they added two additional hands that are quite difficult!  But that is part of the fun!

The second idea is for an inventory management app for plumbing companies.  I would probably start out targetting companies doing repair work first, then expand to target companies doing new construction.  This is in reverse to what I first thought of doing, but when I thought about it some more, repair companies have a bit larger profit margin than new construction companies do.  I definitely have the background for this app, as I was a licensed plumber for a few years, working for both types of companies.  From being in the business, I know the similarities and differences between the two types of plumbing companies.  Repair companies have to stock their vehicles with a lot of small parts (or eat the time where their tech has to get parts at the supply house) and keep some inventory in the warehouse.  Since they bill by the hour, they don’t tend to keep a lot of inventory (because the inventory sitting on the shelves eats into their profit margin).  Some of the small 1 or 2 man companies don’t even have warehouses/offices and just have their trucks.  The new construction companies tend to have larger warehouses, because they tend to make their $ on the margins.  For example, I can buy one tee for $4.00 (not real prices).  If I need 6 tees for a house, that is $24.00.  But if I know that I am doing 5 houses this month, I can buy 30 @ $3.25/ea. for a total of $97.50.  If I bought 30 at the local supply house, it would cost $120.00.  So for this one part (with not real prices), I have potentially saved $22.50.  Now if I had the necessary cost supply, and could forecast how many houses I would be doing this year, I could purchase a years worth of supplies and have them on-hand.  Or maybe my supplier will only give me the special discount price for 50 tees.  How long would they sit on my shelf before I could use them all up.  How much lead time would I need to re-order?

I have worked for some companies that would have a year’s worth on hand at all times.  So if their cashflow started to suffer, they could work off of their stock until things improved.  When your profit per house is low (and generally speaking, it is lower than the per hour the repair plumber gets), you need to squeeze all the profit out that you can.

So now I just need to decide which one I want to work on.  I have had one person tell me they would want the canasta game (my mom).  I do not know what kind of market there is for the plumbing app.  So I think that I will need to do some research on that.  I keep going back and forth on which one to do.  Both of them would probably be windows apps, not web apps.  One would be B2C, probably at $25 or $30 price.  The other would be B2B, and I would have to do the research even to come up with a price point.  Well, I guess since I have a friend that owns a plumbing supply house, I will probably be talking to him soon.