{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "Set your business up next to a river of money — a market where people are already spending freely — and a lesson from 27,000 first-time Burning Man attendees.",
  "path": "/articles/river-of-money/",
  "publishedAt": "2017-08-24T17:01:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "tags": [
    "Marketing and Growth"
  ],
  "textContent": "By the time you read this, I’ll be driving to Burning Man — a 70,000 person arts festival in Nevada.\n\nI want to talk to you about Burning Man because I find it fascinating as a bootstrapper.\n\nAssessing Your Target Market\n\nSo, 70,000 people attend each year and according to the Census Data (https://burningman.org/culture/history/brc-history/census-data/), specifically the 2016 Annual Population Analysis (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJfvV7_jqRTlpVHRWbGZIMkE/view), we know that in 2016 39.3% of attendees were ‘Burning Man Virgins’ or first-timers.\n\nThat’s 27,510 people or so who are attending for the first time. Keep that in mind: large population of first-timers attending the burn.\n\nThere are tons of questions that people have about the burn. I’m coordinating a 60-person camp this year and we have a Slack channel set up and we have first-timers and veterans asking dozens of questions. It’s a constant discussion:\n\nWhat tent should I bring?\nHow will the wind be?\nWill this costume work?\nShould I buy these glow lights?\nWhere do I rent a bike?\n\netc., etc., etc.\n\nTONS of questions about what gear to buy and what to bring. Which brings me to the second point.\n\nSet your business up next to a river of money\n\nThis is a (paraphrasing) of a quote I heard on the Tropical MBA podcast a few years ago. Dan, one of the two hosts of The Tropical MBA (http://www.tropicalmba.com/) was advocating for setting up business next to ‘rivers of money’ where you saw people spending money.\n\nSo, 27,000 new attendees or so each year. Tickets are $400 each. And that’s just the ticket, not the full packing list, including:\n\nTent\nSleeping bag\nAir Mattress\nTarps\nFood\nWater\nDrinks\nAlcohol\nCostumes\n\nEtc., etc., etc.\n\nI have 79 items on my Burning Man packing list this year. My camp co-leader has 112.\n\nThis is perfectly normal.\n\nIt’s a river of money. Virgins (and veterans) spend a good amount of money on the burn each year. So a business set up to serve people attending Burning Man (or, specifically, first timers or ‘virgins’) would be setting up shop next to people who are spending a ton of money.\n\nProductized Services on the Playa\n\nWhat’s interesting is that you can start to see the introduction of productized services — fixed price, fixed scope services — at the Burn.\n\nSet up your campsite with a tent, table, chairs, and cooler for you to use for $X\nShip you a box of essential supplies (air mask, headlamp, etc.) for $X\n\nPeople taking the market and building a service or a product to address the needs of the market.\n\nMe? I think the market is ripe for a series of guidebooks on attending Burning Man, aimed at first-time attendees.\n\nLet’s say you’re attending Burning Man for the first time. You know you need a bunch of gear, but you don’t know what to use as your shopping/packing list. And, heck, you don’t know what the recommended products are.\n\nWith 27,000 new people attending the burn each year, would some number of those people spend $19-49 on a guide that goes through the top 70 items you need to bring and gives recommendations on which items to buy (and includes Amazon links)?\n\nKeep in mind that people are spending $400 for the ticket to the event and another $200-1,000 on other supplies. Would people pay to save 2-4 hours of research? Probably.\n\nHeck, you could take it a step further: what if you set up a business shipping prepackaged kits of those recommended items to people, at a 25% markup.\n\nNow, no need to even go shopping.\n\nYou click and button and a week later a storage tote shows up at your house with all your essentials pre-packaged for you.\n\nWhen I attend, I attend for fun, vacation, and adventure — but there’s a part of me that’s always listening to hear the pains and problems that different camps or individuals are experiencing.\n\nI’m excited to see what I learn this year.\n\n)`(\n\nExcelsior!\n\nKai",
  "title": "Setting Up Business Next To A River of Money"
}