17.1 Creeping Debt Calculator

Description: An app to show where you are getting into more debt and how much, calculated at chosen intervals (daily, monthly, yearly). It links to anything showing expenses (online banking, visa, quickbooks) and cash expenses have to be entered manually or receipts scanned.

It helps organize and show how debt increases, how each form of debt changes with interest rates, new terms of service, etc. It can be used to manage multiple layers of debt (paying a car loan with a visa which is paid by a HELOC which is paid by a chequing account). It also breaks down types of debt (unsecured, secured, asset/liability types) and shows how long it will take to pay off.

This needs to be more flexible than current debt app offerings as they focus on common strategies.

Pros: There is a need for a better, more complex, debt app. Personal debt is becoming more of a problem in North America, this will help avoid the traps of it.

Cons: there is already competition in this field.

17.2 Portable Incinerator Power

Description: Rentable portable incinerator that generates electricity and or heat for brush clearing. Useful for remote locations and off grid living. It has to be small enough and light enough that one person can lift it (or each component) on and off a truck by themselves. The unit can be used indoors as heat while generating electricity using this heat. The power is stored in a battery to be used as DC or inverted to AC power. The battery would use residual heat/proximity to the burner to stay charged in low temperatures.

Pros: provides a power source and heat source in remote locations. Useful for logging crews, off grid homeowners, cabins, mining exploration crews, work camps, boats and homeowners who have a lot of brush to dispose of. Can be a lower cost/lower emission version of waste disposal as opposed to removal by boat or truck.

Cons: combustion creates greenhouse gasses, this can deter sales and regulations. Some garbage shouldn’t be burnt as the fumes given off are harmful.

17.3 Tough Old Guys

Description: An app or analog connecting service that connects former athletes to up and coming young athletes. The older athletes need to be criminal record checked and their athletic accomplishments and/or work experience verified. Work experience that would count is jobs that require above average mental and physical strength such as bricklayers, avalanche rescue personnel, military members, concrete finishers, etc.

The young athletes would be competing with the older ones and learning older training techniques that may still have some use.

This gives young athletes an option for more training partners and/or training outside of work hours. There would be a paid and free option with this service.

Pros: This gives retired athletes who don’t already coach/train some way to share their skills without it being a high cost structure that many aspiring athletes and their families currently pay. There are many former athletes that can only coach/train/help part time or their day job pays more than a coaching job ever could. Young people are motivated by not being beaten by someone older than them. Older athletes are motivated by once in awhile beating a younger opponent.

Cons: parents of young athletes may think their children can only benefit from the “best” paid professional coaches. This business would need a proof case of an athlete going pro after using this service as part of their training.

17.4 One Night Only

Description: One night only. A tour bus (or busses) brings a few bands and gear to play the same town on the same night. Multiple bands playing multiple bars on the same night could create an event (bar hop) for each of these towns. “The greatest Tuesday night ever in (name of town)” etc.

The event would provide transportation and lodging while the bands would handle everything music related. This could change as the event could provide quality sound guys, speakers, amps and other basic equipment to create a great experience.

The focus would be small to medium sized cities that don’t draw big acts but have a few smaller bars that can accommodate live music.

This may work best in winter as summer festivals and outdoor activities would be competing for people’s attention.

The event has to pay the musicians part of their earnings, the bar pays the rest. This is to be able to pick quality, lesser-known acts and pay them well as opposed to trying to get low quality “bargain musicians”.

Pros: In small cities this event can become a big deal or a highlight of the winter season. Smaller cities are often starved of good live music. Taxi companies may like this as it encourages pub crawls to see multiple acts.

Cons: the margins for bars and live music can be slim, profit may be an issue. With the wrong management, bands can be taken advantage of, working for low pay. Bars may not like the idea of competing directly on the same night. The police may suspect increased public drunkenness and oppose this.

17.5 Sacred Texts Music

Description: Analyze each Bible book and pick the genre of music that best represents it. Contact musicians who are Christians and play that style or can play it. Make albums fitting the books or parts of Bible books. Examples can be Revelation-Heavy Metal, Song of Songs-Pop Music or EDM, Psalms-Gospel, Proverbs-Folk.

This could be expanded to other sacred texts if this wouldn’t be considered offensive by the followers of that religion. The book of Mormon, the Quran, the Vedas are all examples.

Pros: more than half of the earth follows a religion, very large market.

Cons: there may always be people in every religion who would be offended and protest against this idea. In some form, this has already been done, though not combined into one series/album.

17.6 In Car Vacuum

Description: Car vacuum that can run off the engine/battery of the car. Sell to cab companies, fleet vehicles, truck rental agencies. This would be an aftermarket add on. Packs into the car, hidden most of the time. Uses the cars engine or battery to power itself. The hose would extend and retract as needed and have multiple, car specific shaped heads.

There could be steam cleaner style attachments for the fabric of car seats and to clean up vomit/spills.

Pros: makes good use of downtime employees have (waiting on something, on a ferry) to keep the vehicle clean. Allows a taxi driver to clean up a mess without having to drive somewhere inconvenient during a shift.

Cons: fleet businesses may not see the worth of this, they have a way to clean the cars already, may not see the point of changing.

17.7 Sleeper Travel

Description: Air travel is getting less predictable, more expensive and there are less routes in Canada. Many bus routes are already reducing service.

A solution could be using electric pickup trucks to pull sleeper trailers instead of a long or medium distance gas/diesel powered bus. Have 1, 2, 4 person units where they have privacy and enough leg room to sleep. It would be a large trailer possibly double decker.

Existing RV trailers could be converted to this use instead of having to build purpose-built trailers from scratch.

Pros: Cost is saved on fuel, the environmental angle can be used as a selling point. Re-using trailers is also environmental. The drivers can use a standard license to drive a truck and trailer.

Cons: delivering people by trailer may not be legal, this may require purpose-built units and therefore higher costs. The initial cost of an electric truck and the fluctuating cost of electricity could be a risk. If using RV trailers, accidents could be more dangerous than a car.

17.8 Phonebooth MMA

Description: a company that designs, manufactures and sells MMA training equipment that can be used in small spaces. Some equipment can be designed to be quiet, some to avoid shaking/vibration of what it’s attached to. The use is for apartment dwellers to be used in their apartment, storage space, small backyard and/or wild areas, parks, the woods.

Pros: Canada and parts of the US are becoming forced by pricing and wages to be apartment dwelling. Smaller units are becoming more common and MMA training is expensive. This is a lower cost DIY version. Allows people to bring their training gear on the road to stay in shape as they travel.

Cons: Apartment dwellers may not want to workout/train at home. People prefer training with other people and coaches as opposed to solo.

17.9 Camino de Canado

Description: build a “pilgrimage” trail through the Canadian/US Rockies similar to the Camino De Santiago in Europe. Some routes would have hostel style beds, food, water. Others would be more bare bones with only caches of dry food you cook yourself, creek water source, outhouse, no staff and basic unheated shelter.

Labour in Canada and the US is expensive, re-stocking may have to use drones or drones and people. Or volunteering and/or labour sharing.

The shelters could be placed in areas currently partially accessed by logging roads.

Pros: more people would do multi day hikes if they didn’t have to carry everything with them. Currently there are few multi-day hikes with shelter/food through the Canadian Rockies. The Rockies are beautiful, the tourism profits show the demand.

Cons: Cost, the labour to create and maintain this may take years to recoup. Hikers are price sensitive, can you charge enough for things in the shelter to cover costs.