Ridiculous Small-Business Plan Encouraged By Friends

The idea seems plausible, but is it something that some random person at home can execute on? The numbers didn't look good.

Okay... on the one hand, I can see how someone could build a successful business around this.

On the other hand, if your business idea doesn't create and capture more value for humanity than this, I'd suggest going back to the drawing board.

Your standards may be too low, aim higher.

Had this been a real front page article in New York Times or LA Times, she would have other newspaper and television companies contacting her to feature her story. She would also easily have enough orders to reach $100,000 in the first year. There are a lot of very, very rich people with dogs who would be in the market for this for novelty as well as health reasons.

And since she's making them by hand, she could customize each order with the owner's suggestions about what their dog likes.

For satire, it could be written better, without the "terrible idea" or "ill-conceived" remarks made by the author. There are a lot of stupid, low-volume ideas like this that aren't well-thought through and are just done almost as a hobby, without a business plan or addressing scalability, that can generate full-time income after a big media story about it. Sometimes the novelty of an idea, and reliance on one person, actually gives the person a "moat" and a small niche, both of which make it hard for big established companies to compete, as well as the credibility from having been the first person to get major press coverage about it.

Starting in Montana could also be smart, since it's a mail order business and she can likely get her ingredients much cheaper there, even though most of her big ticket customers would be in big cities across the US.

If this somehow didn't generate enough sales, she could use her new-found expertise as a "nationally-known dog chef" and work for somebody rich like Donald Trump, or even release products under the Donald Trump name.

The reason she would be an expert, by the way, is because by working on something full-time, even if she ends up making less money than expected, she would have become skilled and recognized as an expert, rather than a 2nd shift clerk at a store, or any other job you she have held before.

It's not the idea per se thats bad. There are a number of stories on YC which point to this problem: Most ideas are nothing without execution. (most recent: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=237096 )

Make something dogs want.