Posts Tagged ‘business’

How much money is there in bumper stickers?

A friend of mine had a pretty awesome bumper sticker idea last weekend; I could see it going over well.  And then it turns out that he’s had this idea for a while.  I wonder where it could go if he would follow through.  Ideas are pretty valuable things – I would rather have a good idea than a good thing.  The guy who first put water in a bottle is a lot cooler than a guy who just has water in a bottle.  Or perhaps that’s a bad example; I mean, water and things to hold it have been around for a long time.  Maybe it would be better to say that the guy who thought up the helicopter (I’m looking at you, DaVinci) is a lot cooler than a guy who just has a helicopter.  You get the point.

So is there any money/glamour/future in the idea of a bumper sticker?  One could sell the idea to somebody who is already in the business of making stickers (deal with nothing but the idea), or make some stickers and sell those.  How much money do you think a good bumper sticker makes?  I wonder if the guy who made the “Endless—-this war” sticker (the most popular one I see) has retired off of the profits.

Okay, probably not.  But I wonder how many of these other ideas I can find if I start looking around for them – ideas that are good, and could be marketable with a little work.  Of course there are people who do make their living by providing the drive and perspiration for other’s inspiration – people like editors or agents, for instance.  I’m probably terrible at it – after all, I can’t usually turn my own ideas into reality – what are the odds I’ll have the follow through to work on someone else’s?

I’m off to see if I can turn somebody else’s inspiration into money.  Chances are I will give up and it’ll have just been an interesting exercise.  But if not… today, a bumper sticker.  Tomorrow – who knows?