On Monday I had to visit a customer in London and while browsing the bookshop at Paddington station I came across the book of Kyle MacDonald’s One Red Paperclip. It’s an amazing story of how MacDonald made a series of trades starting with a single red paperclip and ending with a house.
SwitchPlanet.com is a new website that might have saved him some time, it’s basic premise is:
Trade the stuff you have to get the stuff you want…all for FREE!
While there’s no fees for using the site, users are encouraged to make a donation, the donations will the be distributed to a range of charities and non profit organisations. I like the ethos of the site “Use more…waste less.” combined with the views on corporate social responsibility it’s a refreshing change.
The site itself has very clean design and is easy to use. At the moment it only directly supports the trading of DVDs, CDs, Books and Games but I there’s certainly an opportunity to expand the business to cover a wider range of items. It’s a novel idea to include not just the details of what is available to trade, but also what has been popular in past trades and what people are currently interested in trading their stuff for.














This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.


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