#fullofideas

A friend of mine who, unlike me, has taken an idea she had and turned it into a business, made a comment I find inspirational, so I thought I’d share her wisdom…

She’s had lots of ideas that she’s started researching before but until now has stuck to a successful career working for others, so when asked about taking the huge leap off the cliff of a reliable salaried job into the murky waters of running a business with unpredictable rip tides, she told me:

‘With each idea I have I pick it apart, step by step, and try to foresee every potential problem and solution. This is the first one where I came out the other end and thought, yes!’

It’s early days for the business but it’s a great idea with such quality and attention to detail. Word has already got round with regular orders, so I think she’s on to a winner. (It wouldn’t be right to steal her wisdom without a shout out for the fab Taylor’d Bundles!)

You know how we attach bells to animals collars so we can hear where they are if we lose them, well I had an idea for keeping track of your toddler that combines this premise with the key fobs you can buy to find lost keys.  It links to an app on your phone so you can ring them.

This idea came about during Easter when we were given a Lindt rabbit with the little bell round its neck.  My daughter was running around with it on her wrist and we thought wouldn't that be useful out shopping when she suddenly darts off and is quickly consumed by the crowd, a major probably when only knee high.  At least we'd be able to follow the tinkling.  

As the major drawback would be the annoyance of the constant jingling and the fact that if several children wore one you could end up following the wrong sound, I thought why not design something where you could customise the sound it made.  Bingo, some sort of tagging device for toddlers, no ASBO necessary.  Instead of a real bell, you could attach a fob to their clothing and set your choice of sound/music and also an alarm if they move over a certain distance away from you.  If you were really cruel, rather than a light jingling noise it could blast out Agadoo until you track them down.  Just remember to turn it off when you drop them at nursery! 

This was to be called the 'Child Farm' idea, but this would, perhaps, have been misinterpreted due the rather sinister connotations it implies -  far from the truth of the idea.  It was just a play on 'wind farm' as a way of harvesting energy.

Those of us that have had the misfortune of having to spend large quantities of our child's younger years at soft play centres (we all know that life is more relaxed and pleasant if our children are happy and entertained, even if that does mean enduring that wall of sound and hyperactive madness!) will be familiar with the dizzying, stifling heat that is generated there.  So why not harvest this?  

If the London Underground is able to use the large amounts of generated heat and pipe it into a heat network which warms local homes, then why can't other heat sources be used?  Soft plays have sprung up all over Bristol so there should be enough heat generated by excited toddlers to keep most of the south west warm and cosy!