Dale's Business Marketing Scheme --- A work in progress.

Running regular (weekly/twice-aweek) bus runs from city to farm(s) for the sole purpose of taking people to buy produce? Presumably there would need to be something else at the farm end in addition to just the food in order to compete with the traditional farmer's market in town - maybe the pick-ur-own format? Has the potential of regular bread/butter.

In SF there is/was an individual Phillipino guy who bought one rickety old 30 passenger school bus, painted it blue, and started picking up commuters at the local commuter rail station and moving them into downtown (about 1/2 to 1-1/2 mile), stops at any corner. He charged about $1 ea and that was 15 years ago. He was still working the same format 5 years ago, last I saw him (think it was still $1); he may have got one more bus and a helper now but maybe not. Don't know how he got past the city - maybe because he moves 500+ people each morning rush hour (he only runs _from_ the station AFAIK) and the city got an ear-full when it hassled him... The customers don't know him from a walnut but they _vehemently_ love his product! I'm sure there's some "interesting" details about how/why he gets to continue and why he does not appear to have any competition - maybe because of the price.

Anyway, just thought I'd add a working example of a tiny bus business. <g>

Rufus

The bus is my ticket off the treadmill, so I will not look to transport commuters or involve myself in any other "daily grind" type of travel. In Victoria we have guys who do charters to a different fun event each day(good) and we have guys who drive back and forth on a 4 lane hiway between the city and the airport. (bad)During their "breaks" they park in giant asphalt lots. Not my idea of a life.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a copy of an ad that I put on Used Victoria. Craigslist has lost out to this site around here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Free Bus Trips for Volunteers.

Victoria Camping Bus and Charters is offering unsold seats to many of our community's volunteers. If you are part of a volunteer organization, get in touch with me. I'll leave it up to your volunteer coordinator to nominate worthy candidates as the “Volunteer of the Month”.
We'll keep the names on file and call whenever there is room on the bus, during local day trips.

The volunteer will be contacted on the evening before or the morning of the event. Short notice is unavoidable. Some trips may require a degree of fitness but others are tours or stops at theatres or other shows. Passing on a given trip does not move them to the back of the list.

This offer is for travel only so that my costs are not driven sky high. If the trip involves entry fees or a restaurant stop, the volunteer would need to cover that. Most stopovers are not expensive.

There may be an opportunity for your representative to use the PA system to tell the regular passengers a little about your organization. No Soliciting (:

I don't personally have much time to donate to worthy causes, so I hope to do my part by offering regular rewards to Victoria's volunteer community.

Thank You: Dale Hodgins – Owner and operator of Victoria Camping Bus and Charters.

Phone - 250 588 3366 e-mail - dalesbus@live.com-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three calls in the first half hour. This will lead to some good exposure. If my past experience with old ladies holds true, it may result in regular baked goods as well.

Winter, and other work has stalled the bus business, but I'm starting the tourist season in a strong financial position. Last year I was just about broke from buying all of the stuff.

I decided last week to try to get myself some free media exposure by becoming a regular caller to a morning radio show. I have an opinion on just about everything, so this sort of thing is enjoyable to me, although I've never done it before. I called in three times and they ran it and then the fourth time, nothing. I figured they ran out of time to run my prerecorded comments. I took this horrible blow to the ego like a man. Then the next day, they ran an add for the show using my content as the teaser. All was right with the world after that.

I plan to become a regular on a few other shows, and to include as much business info as they'll stand for. All of the hosts from these and other local radio and TV programmes will be offered a free weekend excursion on my bus. Our small media market means easier access. I've spoken to four of them this week on issues not related to my on air foray. There's no secretary screening who gets access.

I doubt that Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer need to save $100 by going on a free trip with me. Here in our market, these folks need to save a buck just like anyone else. The university has a radio station with volunteers who are still in school. Along with the on air people, I hope to host those in charge of selling adds and more importantly, those who present public interest stories that are aired for free.

Time will tell whether or not this works for the business. Either way, I've found a fun way to express myself to those beyond earshot. Soon, everybody with a radio in Greater Victoria will have the opportunity to listen to me blather on a wide range of topics. I wonder if they all get together sometimes to compare notes. If I took to calling five different shows, it is possible that the Dale show could be blacklisted. I know they don't let the same people win all of the free concert tickets. I suppose someone might cry foul if I garner too much air time. Well, it looks like I've figured out how to spend my free time without blowing a lot of money. If the time spent on this hobby brings in business, I'll stick with it. ------------------------------------------

I plan to become a boorish, blow hard at gatherings by regaling listeners with whatever I said on the radio that week. My ability to turn off the brain to mouth filter should help in this regard and it may affect whether or not I get on air as well.