Looking to expand PennyDrinks.com into the UK!!!

[sarmonkey17]

Hi,

I just launched my new site www.PennyDrinks.com. Basically I charge people (college students mostly) $2.99/mo. to be a member of the site and in return they can download a coupon for their first drink at sponsoring bars to be just one penny! I know. I mean who doesn't like cheap drinks right? Anyways I'm looking to bring on regional managers/partners with the right credentials.

The potential for residual income for this site is pretty astronomical. I have interns that work for me for free (if you want to know how to get that to happen email me) and I'm about to launch a pretty large marketing campaign. Anyways, check out the site and if the concept interests you let me know.

So far we've got U.S. bars in Colorado and Texas and more coming on in Florida, Washington, New York, and Maryland. I am looking to expand into the UK and am also looking for investors to help that process along.

I pay 70% commission on all revenue that comes out of a new region so if you're interested contact me at the email or number in my signature box.

[sarmonkey17]

I heard that the UK just passed a 24/7 consumption and distribution of alcohol law. Am I mistaken?

[crus]

Yes they have and I paying for my sins!

[UK2004]

Crumbs that's a good idea, I can guess how you get the itnerns to work for free, giving them loads of vouchers!!!! lol

[sarmonkey17]

Yeah they get free memberships but I also give them a badass deal for the hours they need (300 to be exact). And i'm super flexible with them. They are an extremely valuable asset to my company.

[Magsite]

Interesting concept!

Lisa

[sarmonkey17]

Thanks! Let me know if you know anyone who'd be interested in bringing this to the UK with me.

[sarmonkey17]

I just got an interview published with Malaysian Entrepreneur. Go here if you want to check it out.

http://www.malaysian-entrepreneur.c...&id=17&Itemid=1

[Robert]

You need to check out the legality of this. There are strict laws governing what promotions bars can offer which may encourage binge drinking.

[MarkPearson]

I think your business idea could do very well here in the uk.

If it is all set up properly and is kept updated.

[amcphillips]

You need to check out the legality of this. There are strict laws governing what promotions bars can offer which may encourage binge drinking.

Are you sure about this??? I thought that everybody was complaining about binge drinking and said it was because these laws did not exist??? I know they tried to get bars and pubs to effectively price fix and Wetherspoons refused becuase their whole business model is based on being cheaper than everyone else.

[sarmonkey17]

You need to check out the legality of this. There are strict laws governing what promotions bars can offer which may encourage binge drinking.

The site only allows one coupon per night per user. It's impossible to binge on this.

Go to this link for my site and all other questions you might have should be answered here: http://www.pennydrinks.com/bringtoyou.php#info

[sarmonkey17]

I believe that the UK is about the size of America's Northeast Region. This leads me to believe that one single person could run the entire UK operations.

I am still looking for an investor to put some capital into the region for startup. Anyone interested? Know anyone who might be?

[Eagle]

*
Have a chat with this guy (we're distantly related), tell him "Eagle" sent you.

http://duncan.bannatyne.co.uk/

[gary brown]

*
Have a chat with this guy (we're distantly related), tell him "Eagle" sent you.

http://duncan.bannatyne.co.uk/

JC,

Duncan Bannatyne is a dragon off Dragons Den. You need to be careful. Not sure if you get the Dragons Den programme in the States.

Gary Brown

[Eagle]

*
Sense of humour obviously lost on you guys...

[sarmonkey17]

Have a chat with this guy (we're distantly related), tell him "Eagle" sent you.

http://duncan.bannatyne.co.uk/

JC,

This is a bum steer. Duncan Ballantyne is a dragon off Dragons Den he will have your business off you soon as blink. Not sure if you get the Dragons Den programme in the States.

Gary Brown

PS a bum Steer is a dead end or a bad move in UK speak to you next week as agreed


Does he have a habit of stealing ideas? Is that what you mean?

[gary brown]

JC,

I think you should be careful.

Gary.

[Eagle]

JC, the point we're trying to make is that you're posting a potentially lucrative business idea on a public forum...

:shock: :)

[sarmonkey17]

JC, the point we're trying to make is that you're posting a potentially lucrative business idea on a public forum...

:shock: :)

So what? Take the idea if you want it. The fact is I have the system down already. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds. I'm also putting about $13,000 into one of the most intricate nightlife sites around.

It's easier for people to just let me do it the way I know it works and buy into it rather than start the whole thing on their own and have to figure it all out as they go.

Even if someone stole the idea in the UK I'm not too worried. Texas is bigger than the UK so my American market (and Canadian soon) is much more lucrative. But the UK would be a nice market to get into and if anyone is interested in investing the money than I'll make it work.

[sarmonkey17]

JC,

I think you should be careful.

Gary.

I'll take your word for it. I have enough people interested to where I don't have to prospect people that I've been warned about. Thanks for the advice.

[Eagle]

JC, the point we're trying to make is that you're posting a potentially lucrative business idea on a public forum...

:shock: :)

So what? Take the idea if you want it.
No thanks.

Only trying to be helpful - no need to get a monk-on.

[sarmonkey17]

JC, the point we're trying to make is that you're posting a potentially lucrative business idea on a public forum...

:shock: :)

So what? Take the idea if you want it.
No thanks.

Only trying to be helpful - no need to get a monk-on.

Oh sorry, I didn't mean you in particular. I meant people in general.

[Eagle]

Okey-dokey! :) :)

[theMBA]

J.C.
The concept seems attractive.

But what's the risk of saturation of an area, so that all the bars are then offering the same free first drink, and therefore none of them has a benefit from the scheme? To them, can it just become a common cost of competing? If that becomes the case, won't they all gang up on you (as a group) and agree to cut you out of their area?

How does your business model deal with this, apart from geographic expansion into areas not already saturated?

[sarmonkey17]

J.C.
The concept seems attractive.

But what's the risk of saturation of an area, so that all the bars are then offering the same free first drink, and therefore none of them has a benefit from the scheme? To them, can it just become a common cost of competing? If that becomes the case, won't they all gang up on you (as a group) and agree to cut you out of their area?

How does your business model deal with this, apart from geographic expansion into areas not already saturated?

There is nothing to prevent them from offering the same deal but they would have to pay for the advertisement and implementation of the system. I provide this for them. They don't have to do anything but sit back and wait for people with coupons to come in.

Bar/club owners are extremely busy and if someone's going to offer them a free service it's not in their best interest to spend the time to copy it. Fact is I give them too much to say no. And about 95% of the bars/clubs I've talked to have said yes.

[Hedgehog Toys]

Could you not just go on a pub crawl from one pub to another and use a voucher in each one....cheap night :D :x :D :D

[sarmonkey17]

Could you not just go on a pub crawl from one pub to another and use a voucher in each one....cheap night :D :x :D :D

Nope. You can only download one coupon per night period. My system locks users out after they print one until the next day.

There are other counter-measures as well. Go here if you want to know more: http://www.pennydrinks.com/bringtoyou.php#info

[Mwebb]

You need to check out the legality of this. There are strict laws governing what promotions bars can offer which may encourage binge drinking.

The site only allows one coupon per night per user. It's impossible to binge on this.



won't work with British students then!!!!!

[Mwebb]

[quote=theMBA]J.C.
The concept seems attractive.





Bar/club owners are extremely busy and if someone's going to offer them a free service it's not in their best interest to spend the time to copy it. Fact is I give them too much to say no. And about 95% of the bars/clubs I've talked to have said yes.

Once you are in a bar...you never have just one drink....that is why they are saying yes.....you will spend more than that "1 penny drink" costs them

Great idea i think...sorry about sarcastic reply above!!

[sarmonkey17]

Yeah that's what I pitch to the bars. That it won't just end at that first drink.

So is anyone actually interested in investing in a badass concept run by an intelligent, driven entrepreneur?

[theMBA]

[quote=theMBA]J.C.
The concept seems attractive.





Bar/club owners are extremely busy and if someone's going to offer them a free service it's not in their best interest to spend the time to copy it. Fact is I give them too much to say no. And about 95% of the bars/clubs I've talked to have said yes.

Once you are in a bar...you never have just one drink....that is why they are saying yes.....you will spend more than that "1 penny drink" costs them

Great idea i think...sorry about sarcastic reply above!!

MWebb,
Just in case there is any confusion, the quote above isn't all mine. I did comment that the concept seems attractive, but the rest of the quote (starting "Bar/club owners ...") is not quoted from me = you must have copied that into the box from someone else's posting.
I went on to query whether saturation of a geographic area might become a problem - I assume the basic idea is to attract drinkers who might otherwise have gone to a competing bar; therefore when nearly all bars in a particular area are offering this first free drink, it's no longer a differentiator between them, which defeats the original purpose of the promotion. Without saturation, I can see that it might be a good differentiator. But if there is saturation, it would be in the interests of all the bars to come to an agreement with each other and oust PennyDrinks.com from their market, to eliminate the cost all of them are incurring (as this cost is gaining no benefit in terms of differentiation from their competitors).

And, in case there's any doubt, my first comment about the attractiveness of the concept was not a sarcastic one. I can see it as attractive where a geographic area is not already saturated. Perhaps the concept provides most benefit in markets which are still developing or where the concept hasn't already been tried.

[Mwebb]

MBA,
sorry i am getting used to using this quote thing on the forum, i obviously deleted a bit that left you as the the person being quoted.

Also to clear everything up, i meant my sarcastic quote

"won't work with British students then!!!!!"

sorry for mis-quoting and any mis-understanding

michael

[theMBA]

That's OK Michael,
I thought it was probably something like that.

[sarmonkey17]

So here is the REAL forum for PennyDrinks.com. Mark Pearson has decided to solicit me for INVESTING in my site for the UK and has now taken the information exchanged and literally copied it to a T for his own personal gain.

Anyone know the laws governing such an act?

[SillyJokes]

Did you get him to sign a non disclosure agreement?

I think looking back at the beginning of this thread Eagle and others told you this would happen.

Also you said this it didn't matter/you weren't worried if someone copied you.

[Rob Holmes]

So here is the REAL forum for PennyDrinks.com. Mark Pearson has decided to solicit me for INVESTING in my site for the UK and has now taken the information exchanged and literally copied it to a T for his own personal gain.

Anyone know the laws governing such an act?

The law will probably see your statements earlier in the thread..

So what? Take the idea if you want it.

It's easier for people to just let me do it the way I know it works and buy into it rather than start the whole thing on their own and have to figure it all out as they go.

Even if someone stole the idea in the UK I'm not too worried.

In my books the "Take the idea if you want it" is permission to use the idea - it does not give permission however for someone to copy your website, your website code or your literature or logos.

Rob

[Top Hat]

Did you get him to sign a non disclosure agreement?

I think looking back at the beginning of this thread Eagle and others told you this would happen.

Also you said this it didn't matter/you weren't worried if someone copied you.

I think he's justified in being a little bit miffed.

Still PennyDrinks knows how to do it, is already doing it and should be able to grab market share, if he does not hang around too long.

+ IMHO the idea has huge internet potential.

[Rob Holmes]

oh - I would be miffed - but more at myself for giving public permission for someone to use the concept.

Rob

[Rob Holmes]

But saying that..

I don't know for sure that it would stand up in court..

Maybe some legal eagles will be around later (if the thread doesn't get out of hand and deleted) ;)

Rob

[SillyJokes]

I think its a little arrogant to assume that no one else could make the idea work and that the UK is a little country just off the coast of the US which could be covered by one person with little effort.

Perhaps Britain isn't as big as Texas :roll: but with a population of nearly 59 million theres a lot of profit here for someone who can put in the time to develop the idea here.

Of course someone was going to take the idea and run with it if there is enough money to be made.

What you should be worried about are the people who are now also doing it but haven't been fool enough to post on here, Duncan Ballantyne included.

[sarmonkey17]

I'm not contesting that the idea was free info, hence a public forum.

What I'm contesting is the ethics and possibly legalities of posing as an investor with the intent of getting further, more detailed information on how the operation works (which was not posted) so he could reproduce the idea down to the T.

Any comments?

[Cornish Steve]

JC,

The ethics of the matter are one thing; the law is quite another. I'm sure we'll each draw from this sequence of events our own conclusions about the protagonists involved.

In the true spirit of competition, the market is there for you to win or lose. Go for it, my friend.

[sarmonkey17]

Oh don't worry. I have every intention on being in the UK very soon. And with more innovative ideas than Mark will ever be able to keep up with.

Anyone interested in joining a winning and ESTABLISHED team?

[Fusu Group]

Barvest and Luminar leisure two chain nightclubs with over 40 venues between them already have this marketing scheme in place and have run it for at least four years, originally through email campaigns and then through mms and sms messages to their members.

As I told Mark there is nothing new here in terms of the idea (which i am not disputing is a good one) only the fact that it will be nationwide and will be a subscription service.

Just a word of warning for you both but I have been a club a promoter for 5 years and have run this numberous times sometimes to good effect sometimes none, but remember this has always been an option available to us so you may find it a difficult pitch with the clubs and bars.

Best of luck though as its going to be a hard cookie to crack with the increase in services like skiddle.com and whereuat who both do discount drink and entry price incentives for free and who do not charge the club either, it is their website ads which draw in the revenue.


Nathan

[sarmonkey17]

Well that's the fun part about new business. I get to take a chance at reinventing the wheel. :)

[sarmonkey17]

Well so much for Mark's thread. It's gone now. Did a moderator delete it or is it possible to delete your own thread?

[sarmonkey17]

Well I've had interest from regional managers in both london and manchester and already have one who will be taking over the nottingham area.

Is anyone else interested in any other cities?

Also, I am eagerly looking for a Director of UK Operations. This person would literally be in charge of ALL uk operations from management of regional managers to marketing/advertising, to acquisition of investors. This person would be entitled to a large portion of all revenue generated from the UK.

If you're interested let me know but only the most qualified and experienced applicant will have a chance.

Warm Regards,

JC

[adam]

Get in touch and I will think it through having a history that may benefit the concept but time is very limited.

Who is this Mark person and what has he done with the idea?

[sarmonkey17]

Get in touch and I will think it through having a history that may benefit the concept but time is very limited.

Who is this Mark person and what has he done with the idea?


I sent you a private message. I'm interested in seeing how we can work together.

Anyone else interested in bringing the original PennyDrinks idea to the UK?

[freecybermag]

Would you be interested in running Penny Drinks in Switzerland. I need to make some extra cash :biggrin:

Chris

[adam]

This has been picked up on Shell Livewire now - http://www.shell-livewire.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11982

Mark is a member there and has announced his "new venture".

[Faith28]

He announced it here too but I think its been removed??

[sarmonkey17]

Would you be interested in running Penny Drinks in Switzerland. I need to make some extra cash :biggrin:

Chris


Actually that wouldn't be the worst idea. Maybe I can hide my money in your banks! haha.

Does Switzerland have a Penny in it's currency?

[sarmonkey17]

He announced it here too but I think its been removed??

Yeah it just dissappeared suddenly. Maybe the moderators can't stand people like him.

But he's posted another one without putting his website in the subject line. It got caught right away and he got called out on it. Pretty funny if you ask me.

[sarmonkey17]

This has been picked up on Shell Livewire now - http://www.shell-livewire.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11982

Mark is a member there and has announced his "new venture".

Yeah i was sure to post on his thread there too.

[Learning!!]

A quote springs to mind.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. Machiavelli.

[sarmonkey17]

A quote springs to mind.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. Machiavelli.


Maybe. But for my business in particular it's not something that can be kept a secret. It needs to be talked about and people need to come on as regional managers in order for it to work.

But don't worry. There are certain parts of my site that I haven't told a soul about (except my web designers of course). :)

[JustOneUK]

This thread makes for an interesting read...and let it serve as a lesson to everyone.

Non disclosure agreements rule.

Shame to see a UKBF member get burned in this way.

James.

[sarmonkey17]

This thread makes for an interesting read...and let it serve as a lesson to everyone.

Non disclosure agreements rule.

Shame to see a UKBF member get burned in this way.

James.

Point taken and lesson well learned. I've used NDA's ever since my encounter with Mark Pearson.

[MarkPearson]

I wish you good luck JC, We know that you have been playing very dirty games with our 'missiontoparty' venture. (snapping up all realated domain names and endless email spam, oh and not forgetting the 'hacking' allegations!!) lol :-)

When we spoke x3 very brief 2 liner emails, you never divulged any information that no one could not see on your website.

Our sites are very different and we have a webdesigner adding some very interesting new features, we will be the new myspace of nightlife and have many new features to take the idea of a penny drink voucher onto the next level.

Please don't try once again to dirty my name on here or shell, I think you should be spend your time on your own business, than trying to put a stop to my similar venture and dirty my name.

This post is only a method to put my side across into the debate, im not looking for another slanging match (its not my style)

Mark

[DuaneJackson]

Thread locked - I think it's run its course now.