<div dir="ltr">wow pretty awesome</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 5:52 PM, Anon195714 <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anon195714@sbcglobal.net" target="_blank">anon195714@sbcglobal.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<br>
Re. Anthony, re. "how to present this to the community we would seek
to serve." <br>
<br>
Let's not be squeamish about using the word "marketing";-)<br>
<br>
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..."<br>
<br>
2) Judging from the Yelp results that Rusty brought in,
word-of-mouth from referrals will be priceless. Imagine seeing this
in Yelp:<br>
<br>
"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!"<br>
<br>
3) Word will spread like a viral meme. <br>
<br>
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...."<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
=====<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 13-03-02-Sat 5:26 PM, Anthony Di
Franco wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p>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.<br>
Further thought is needed about how to present this to the
community we would seek to serve.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mar 2, 2013 5:18 PM, "Anon195714" <<a href="mailto:anon195714@sbcglobal.net" target="_blank">georgio510@sbcglobal.net</a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
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<br>
<br>
Yo's-<br>
<br>
I should have started a new thread with this to begin with,
sorry 'bout<br>
posting this twice, but there's some new stuff toward the end:<br>
<br>
Opportunity for right-livelihood jobs:<br>
<br>
Sudo Lock Services Co-op. "Fifty bucks gets you in." Charge
$50 for<br>
simple lock picking, no charge if we can't pick it. "Try us
first!"<br>
<br>
Pretty quickly the income gets sufficient to support keeping a
stock of<br>
common locks on hand, and drills: so if we can't pick it and
have to<br>
drill it, we can replace it on the spot with at least
something that's<br>
sufficient to provide security until we or someone else can
come back in<br>
to install the original type of lock or better.<br>
<br>
Over time we can add more services, for example complete
assessment of<br>
home security, small business security, and naturally,
computer<br>
security. At which point change the name to Sudo Security
Services<br>
Co-op (or use a name like that from the beginning?). And
charge higher<br>
rates for businesses and computer security. The latter can go
up into<br>
the three-figure hourly rates per person, depending on the
project.<br>
<br>
Many of us are naturally nocturnal, so 24/7 service can be
offered easily.<br>
<br>
Many of us around here are also unemployed, under-employed, or<br>
borderline homeless. Billing the client $50 translates to
being able to<br>
allocate $40 - $45 of that to the member who picks the lock,
and $5 -<br>
$10 toward the overhead costs of the co-op. Every additional
$40 - $45<br>
of income really counts for a lot of folks here.<br>
<br>
I've already got a job but I'd be willing to help organize
this, do<br>
basic business planning & spreadsheets, and so on.
If/when Eddan is<br>
authorized to practice law in California, he might be
interested in<br>
doing the legal work to set up the entity.<br>
<br>
And since SudoRoom has hella' publicity right now, that
publicity will<br>
go a long way toward starting a marketing buzz that could
bring in<br>
customers.<br>
<br>
New stuff:<br>
<br>
I can build the telephone infrastructure for automatically
processing<br>
calls from customers to co-op members including overnight
calls. There<br>
are lots of folks here who can design & build the computer<br>
infrastructure for handling email & text messages from
customers to<br>
co-op members.<br>
<br>
The goal here is, someone contacts us by phone, email, or
text, the<br>
message goes to whoever in the organization is remotely
logged-in to<br>
work at the moment (via whatever devices they use e.g. laptop,
landline,<br>
mobile), someone who is geographically near the caller picks
up the<br>
ticket and scoots off to pick the lock.<br>
<br>
It would be a hella' cool enhancement if the infrastructure
could also<br>
use geographic location to find the co-op member who is
closest to the<br>
customer and available to go to the site. This could be done
with<br>
caller ID, zip code, GPS, and/or other methods. Alternately,
we could<br>
allocate jobs on a round-robin system, so each person gets a
roughly<br>
equal number of jobs per month.<br>
<br>
The invoice & payment system will need to handle multiple
options: cash,<br>
checks, credit cards, electronic payment systems (PayPal,
WePay, etc.),<br>
and even paper invoices that the customer signs when they make
payment<br>
(that can be entered into the online system the next day).<br>
<br>
Transportation to job sites: some folks here use bicycles,
scooters,<br>
motorcycles: make that a marketing point, that our overall
carbon<br>
footprint is low. "Your Sudo Services Co-Op locksmith may be
showing up<br>
on a bicycle..." This also converges with the "geeky /
hackerish /<br>
unorthodox" image and marketing approach, so it works in our
favor.<br>
<br>
Toolz: Once this gets going, there's legitimate reason to buy
all the<br>
lockpicking tools needed, including pick guns that make the
job go much<br>
faster (it's a device with a spring-loaded trigger to operate
the pick<br>
in a manner similar to the more recent "bump key" technique,
and yeah it<br>
really works well, to the point where you could get lazy with
your<br>
skillz if you use it too often;-)<br>
<br>
Other misc. costs for starting & running this will
include: cost of<br>
setting up the co-op legal entity, getting the members bonded
to work<br>
legally as locksmiths, and routine bookkeeping & tax
preparation each<br>
year. But those are very low overhead costs compared to
anything that<br>
runs out of a storefront.<br>
<br>
What do y'all think?<br>
<br>
-G.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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