all you need is..

 

It's very easy to be fooled into not doing stuff because the conventional ways of doing it are so complex, and have such a expensive/high barrier to entry. I fall into the trap all the time. That's why I was inspired to come across this little story recently..

 

What do you need to open a petrol station?

Convention tells us a forecourt with multiple petrol pumps, a retail unit to take payment and sell associated products, staff to fascilitate transactions, signage to communicate real time prices, branding to communcate the source and authenticity of the petrolium, huge underground storage tanks, a power driven pumping system, regular tanker deliveries etc etc.

 

When you really think about this question however you can strip it down to three essential things; petrol, a vessel to hold it and potential customers to but it. The below example is of road side petrol vendors found in Vietnam. They simply buy petrol in bulk, decant it into smaller vessels and sell it where ever there is demand for the convienience of buying petrol on the go, pretty much anywhere where there is a road, at a small extra premium.

 

 

I like this kind of thinking. It's what I based my Exhibition In An Envelope on. What do you need to host an exhibition; art work and space. There's nothing stating that the space has to be a white cube gallery space in a bourgeois city with an attractive gallery assistant and a little book shop in the corner selling limited edition books and prints. It can just as easily be an envelope. I'm going to try and turn this kind of thinking into more projects next year. 

 

Comments

[FERNANDO Brittian]

Although the petrol price keeps rising, fill stations or better known as petrol stations, still make enormous profits.
We can make use of business brokers to find suitable businesses or inquire from Realtors that specialize in fuel station franchises for sale. There are several places on the Internet where we search for any commercial property we need to view the business, examine the financial records, inquire about the reasons for selling, and about the traffic flow in the area.

[Paul]

Good write up, I like the Vietnam example. It's interesting how people do things differently everywhere you go, just wondering about the legal implications of selling roadside petrol in Vietnam.