A business was born this weekend.
This weekend, my wife and I started our move to a nice place in Langley. I called a buddy of mine to come help out with moving things. It wasn’t supposed to be anything too heavy: just a sofa here, a desk there.
Midway into our work, he made a remark: this is a light move. We should make this a business: Light Moves Only.
I loved it! Over the new few hours, I kept spinning the idea over in my mind. I told him how we would charge: premium fees only. “This is not a traditional service,” I said, “We are helping elite households who want two friendly guys and a lot of charm.”
I started talking about pricing. He suggested I look at local rates to make a comparison. Fair, but I said No! “A thousand dollars minimum for us to show up. This isn’t our primary income source, and we’re educated folks. If we do it, it has to be worth it for us.”
We kept talking, and before long, I had coined three subsidiaries:
Light Cleaning Only (I can finally monetize my love for chores!)
Light Entertainment Only (with me being the Compere and my friend being the DJ)
Light Catering Only (with my wife being the chef)
It started as a casual idea but I seized it and gradually dreamed into a real possibility. It felt real towards the end of the day and I started telling my friend how splits would look like: with me taking 60% since I’d be doing the marketing and customer communication. He agreed that I should get more, but felt 60% was too much more. We agreed to adjourn and revisit the topic later. I said we had to be careful because this is where friendships tend to become fraught—in the face of business and gains.
It felt like a natural event, this collaboration. He and I get along so well. Our mothers are as close as sisters, and he and I were born the same month, same year, within days of each other. So we’ve always been touted as twins (triplets, since I have a twin). Beyond that though, since we reconnected as adults, we built our own real friendship around shared values and interests, and really meshed. It’s not the first way we’ve explored collaboration, but it might be the first concrete, profitable one.
This is how ideas are born though. The thought of starting a small physical business is thrilling. Years ago I might’ve thought it was beneath me but now all I can think of are possibilities. Creating something real is always dignifying and incredible. More income never hurt anyone.
When we finally pulled out of the driveway towards our destination, we forgot to roll down the rear door of the truck. We were just a foot forward when I heard loud shouts from a pair of men down the street. I hit the brakes immediately, and jumped out, ready for whatever. Our lovely white TV cabinet had rolled out of the truck and unto the street! And it got a little crack. My wife joked “And you call yourselves premium movers?” Well, now we know we’ll always make sure the back is closed before we pull out. Can’t be harming our premium customers’ precious items.
Light Services Only is shaping up to be a small but effective holding company. I may be delusional—maybe in two weeks I’ll wake up from this reverie. Maybe I won’t. But cheers to growing in market-mindedness and entrepreneurial agility.
