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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Cactus Thieves Inspire Three Business Ideas

In the Arizona Republic today there is an article titled “Cactus Thieves Beware: Saquaros get Microchips”. Apparently people are stealing cactuses, or cacti as some people say. In fact, in January 2007 alone, there were 17 stolen. The state is looking to implant microchips in medium size cacti between four and seven feet tall. Saquaros take dozens, even hundreds, of years to grow, and if someone wants to buy one for landscaping they can cost $100 or more a foot. This article leads me to three possible business ideas:

  1. Manufacture the microchips, similar to those found in dogs and cats. These microchips can be used to tag cacti, pets, elk antlers, and even elephant tusks – basically anything that is worth lots of money.
  2. Learn how to implant the microchips in cacti and be the vendor for the state. Government contracts are not as difficult to obtain as it sounds – most often being the lowest bidder and minority or women owned businesses have a huge advantage in many local government contracts. You can register online for most government agencies and receive bid opportunities via email. While this article is about saguaro tagging, you can register to bid on just about any commodity for the government (state, city or federal).
  3. Buy land with lots of saguaros already on it and sell them at $100/foot. There is land throughout the state of Arizona with hundreds of cacti. You need a permit and to pay the fees to move the cacti – see the following link – but once the land is stripped of the cacti and sold to landscapers, the land is still valuable as land. Land is selling cheaper these days in AZ than a couple years ago so this is a good buying opportunity.

Has this article inspired anyone else?

2 comments:

Mommy Meryl said...

I can't even figure out how to find my cell phone at the bottom of my purse - I don't think this business idea is for me to create!!

t said...

How utterly sad that people are so greedy as to get rid of these cacti that take forever to grow, so they can "landscape". Unbelievable.