New Expertiment: Sell Minecraft-themed flowers for Saint Valentine’s Day

The other day I was sitting at the dentist getting my tooth drilled (you really never know when ideas are gonna come up!) and I had an idea for an awesome gift for my girlfriend that I was sure she’d love. She’s really into the game Minecraft, things made out of paper, and gifts; so why not combine them all? I could print out a Minecraft-style red rose made out of paper, put it in some nice wrapping and give it to her for St. Valentine (not that we celebrate it, but still). Genius! I was actually so excited that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, and told her. She absolutely loved the idea. Yes, I kind of spoiled the surprised, but I wanted her opinion on what goes next.

I thought: there must be other people out there in my situation (having someone special in their life who loves Minecraft: girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, sister/brother, daughter/son, friend, etc) who would also love to do this but may not have the will, patience or time to actually do it all by themselves. After checking prices for doing it in a high quality manner (premium precision cut paper, Foldable.me style, which we also love) I quickly realized that manufacturing one or two units was very expensive. On the other hand, creating a lot of them (at least, hundreds) brought the price per unit down considerably. So I had a second idea: quickly come up with a prototype and website, promote the hell out of it and see how many sales I can have from now until St. Valentine’s (after which I presume sales would be lower). I have basically one month to pull it off. After talking to a few of my Minecraft-loving friends, I think it could be a great gift for so many people, so I’m quite excited about it. But the deadline until St. Valentine’s Day is very tight.

Yes, it’s not a million dollar idea, and yes, it’s not a business that’s gonna last for years either (quite the contrary). But I think it can be fun, I absolutely love the product and most importantly, it won’t take much of my time (as opposed to most of my ideas for new businesses). I will be reporting here every few days with updates on how the project is going, stats on traffic, sales, etc. which (if they’re good!) I hope may inspire others to pursue their own crazy ideas to make money while at the same time making other people happy.