[sudo-discuss] Sudo Locksmiths' Co-op: right-livelihood work.

Sat Mar 2 17:52:18 PST 2013

Re. Anthony, re. "how to present this to the community we would seek to
serve."

Let's not be squeamish about using the word "marketing";-)

1)  Use the current publicity on our behalf.  "Why do you think we're
teaching this class?  We're planning to put the skills to work starting
a security services co-op.  People shouldn't have to pay $200 to get let
into their house..."

2)  Judging from the Yelp results that Rusty brought in, word-of-mouth
from referrals will be priceless.  Imagine seeing this in Yelp:

"I was locked out of my house late Friday night.  I called 510-555-SUDO
and left a message.  Fifteen minutes later someone texted me "Alice at
Sudo here, call my mobile," and her number.  A half hour after I called
her back, she shows up, dressed in all-black and riding an electric
scooter.  I was starting to get skeptical, but she picked the lock in
less than a minute (no damage to the lock), so I was back in my house in
less than an hour from when I called.  Best part is they only charge
fifty bucks, even nights and weekends.  They're unorthodox but they know
what they're doing, and the price is right.  Highly recommended!"

3)  Word will spread like a viral meme. 

4)  This will also get press coverage _because_ it was already a news
story when we did the training sessions this weekend.  "Hello, is this
Bob at CBS Radio News?  This is Carlos from Sudo Room.  Remember that
story you did on the lock-picking class?  Well, we wanted to do a
follow-up with you...."

--

Seriously: if ever there was an opportunity to a) launch a bunch of
right-livelihood jobs, b) get good publicity for SudoRoom, c) get good
publicity for the hacker culture, d) shake up the local "establishment"
a bit, and e) end up with city officials supporting us as well (if for
no other reason, to work off the embarrassment from having done a
foot-in-mouth maneuver).... this is definitely it. 

But we need to pounce on this one like a cat chasing a laser-pointer. 
The faster the better if we want to take advantage of the current news-buzz.

-G.

=====

On 13-03-02-Sat 5:26 PM, Anthony Di Franco wrote:
>
> I don't know that I would participate myself but I would love to see
> this tried and think it would be an interesting and significant
> experiment in how sudo room might help people make livings.
> Further thought is needed about how to present this to the community
> we would seek to serve.
>
> On Mar 2, 2013 5:18 PM, "Anon195714" <anon195714 at sbcglobal.net
> <mailto:anon195714 at sbcglobal.net>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     Yo's-
>
>     I should have started a new thread with this to begin with, sorry
>     'bout
>     posting this twice, but there's some new stuff toward the end:
>
>     Opportunity for right-livelihood jobs:
>
>     Sudo Lock Services Co-op.  "Fifty bucks gets you in."  Charge $50 for
>     simple lock picking, no charge if we can't pick it.  "Try us first!"
>
>     Pretty quickly the income gets sufficient to support keeping a
>     stock of
>     common locks on hand, and drills: so if we can't pick it and have to
>     drill it, we can replace it on the spot with at least something that's
>     sufficient to provide security until we or someone else can come
>     back in
>     to install the original type of lock or better.
>
>     Over time we can add more services, for example complete assessment of
>     home security, small business security, and naturally, computer
>     security.  At which point change the name to Sudo Security Services
>     Co-op (or use a name like that from the beginning?).  And charge
>     higher
>     rates for businesses and computer security.  The latter can go up into
>     the three-figure hourly rates per person, depending on the project.
>
>     Many of us are naturally nocturnal, so 24/7 service can be offered
>     easily.
>
>     Many of us around here are also unemployed, under-employed, or
>     borderline homeless.  Billing the client $50 translates to being
>     able to
>     allocate $40 - $45 of that to the member who picks the lock, and $5 -
>     $10 toward the overhead costs of the co-op.  Every additional $40
>     - $45
>     of income really counts for a lot of folks here.
>
>     I've already got a job but I'd be willing to help organize this, do
>     basic business planning & spreadsheets, and so on.  If/when Eddan is
>     authorized to practice law in California, he might be interested in
>     doing the legal work to set up the entity.
>
>     And since SudoRoom has hella' publicity right now, that publicity will
>     go a long way toward starting a marketing buzz that could bring in
>     customers.
>
>     New stuff:
>
>     I can build the telephone infrastructure for automatically processing
>     calls from customers to co-op members including overnight calls.
>      There
>     are lots of folks here who can design & build the computer
>     infrastructure for handling email & text messages from customers to
>     co-op members.
>
>     The goal here is, someone contacts us by phone, email, or text, the
>     message goes to whoever in the organization is remotely logged-in to
>     work at the moment (via whatever devices they use e.g. laptop,
>     landline,
>     mobile), someone who is geographically near the caller picks up the
>     ticket and scoots off to pick the lock.
>
>     It would be a hella' cool enhancement if the infrastructure could also
>     use geographic location to find the co-op member who is closest to the
>     customer and available to go to the site.  This could be done with
>     caller ID, zip code, GPS, and/or other methods.  Alternately, we could
>     allocate jobs on a round-robin system, so each person gets a roughly
>     equal number of jobs per month.
>
>     The invoice & payment system will need to handle multiple options:
>     cash,
>     checks, credit cards, electronic payment systems (PayPal, WePay,
>     etc.),
>     and even paper invoices that the customer signs when they make payment
>     (that can be entered into the online system the next day).
>
>     Transportation to job sites: some folks here use bicycles, scooters,
>     motorcycles: make that a marketing point, that our overall carbon
>     footprint is low.  "Your Sudo Services Co-Op locksmith may be
>     showing up
>     on a bicycle..."  This also converges with the "geeky / hackerish /
>     unorthodox" image and marketing approach, so it works in our favor.
>
>     Toolz:  Once this gets going, there's legitimate reason to buy all the
>     lockpicking tools needed, including pick guns that make the job go
>     much
>     faster (it's a device with a spring-loaded trigger to operate the pick
>     in a manner similar to the more recent "bump key" technique, and
>     yeah it
>     really works well, to the point where you could get lazy with your
>     skillz if you use it too often;-)
>
>     Other misc. costs for starting & running this will include:  cost of
>     setting up the co-op legal entity, getting the members bonded to work
>     legally as locksmiths, and routine bookkeeping & tax preparation each
>     year.  But those are very low overhead costs compared to anything that
>     runs out of a storefront.
>
>     What do y'all think?
>
>     -G.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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