There were 3 Spanish guys on a bus …

I was on the bus at about 2:00am in the morning coming home from my friend’s birthday at Gilgamesh in Camden Town when I eavesdropped on a bizarre argument between these 3 Spanish guys. At times it was really heated and they were screaming and swearing at each other because there was a difference in opinion or one spoke over the other and vice versa.

They were arguing for about 30 minutes and because they were talking so loud I had to eavesdrop and gather what they were talking about. The trio are heading to South America soon for about 1 month and with a low bank balance, they were discussing a business idea to earn some money while they’re there.

The idea that they had is to translate menus at local restaurants to English and publish or display these English menus on the internet. The business pitch was for the business owner to pay about 20-30 Euro to get their menu translated and have an accompanying internet site to advertise to the world and travellers like themselves to go to these eateries.

It sounds like a good idea to me but it has been done before but that’s not what this argument was about. These guys were adamant that this is a great idea and that this idea would make them rich. They had the argument over how to go about publishing each restaurants web site. Being a Web Developer myself, I was interested in what they were saying and I knew what the best strategy was and I knew which guy had the right idea.

The two guys who had differing opinions were in a slanging match while the third guy was the mediator calming them both down and suggesting a way forward, Perhaps an analogy could be two programmers with different views to solve a problem and a project manager or team leader weighing up the options.

Spanish Guy #1 came up with the approach of securing the deal with the business owner and then publishing the business’ translated menu on a website. The website will be hosted by one of those free hosting companies with all the advertising. So his idea is that each business would have their own different website and they can be found only through the Google search engine.

Pros:

• Each business will have their own website with a unique layout.
• They can add or amend anything to this website as it will be their content.

Cons:

• If 50 businesses purchased this service then that would mean Spanish Guy #1 would need to make 50 websites and 50 different layouts. If you were one of these businesses and you had a layout the same as another business next door, you wouldn’t be happy.
• Free website hosting is crap and unreliable.
• Maintenance would be a nightmare, 50 different accounts and 50 sites to update if they offered this service.
• Spending more time creating websites then actually having a holiday!
• Impossible to search for this site through a search engine if the site isn’t added to a search engine

Spanish Guy #2 came up with the approach of securing the deal with the business owner and then publishing their menu, business profile and any other content on a central website. So the idea is to have a website and a business would have their own profile, their menu displayed, comments and feedback, and other information they wish to add, quite similar to say having a Facebook profile or a MySpace page. When you search for a restaurant, go to the website and then search the site for a restaurant in country x or restaurant y. I’ll forgive this guy for not get the technical terminology correct but I was getting his drift.

Pros:

• Easy to maintain
• Scan the menu, translate the menu and create a profile in a matter of minutes therefore more holiday time
• Business can look after their own profile (if they’re computer literate)
• Site can have different or custom layouts which business can select from
• Easy to search restaurant at different locations
• Only one website to remember and not 50

Cons:

• Expensive to start up the idea with servers and developers to build

To summarise, Spanish Guy #2 had the best approach. Spanish Guy #1 had the novice approach and he of course was the most aggressive in this argument. It was his way or the highway and it was him who swore the most, spoke the loudest because he thought he was right and that his way was the best approach.

It was a funny way to end off the late night and I must have listened really well if I could analyse their arguments and dissect what they had to say. Good luck to them in South America and I do hope they take Spanish Guy #2’s approach.

If you want my Business Analyst services, please take me out to dinner (you pay), have a few drinks then we’ll catch the bus home together and discuss your business ideas. Otherwise I charge £199.99 per minute + VAT.

smiles