Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Next time you visit Southern California, don't be surprisedif a fit-looking college student pulling a rickshaw cheerfullyasks, "Want a ride?"
"People do look at us funny sometimes, but they still gofor the ride," says Peter McCormack, the 30-year-old owner ofrickshaw enterprise Green Limousine Inc. in San Diego. Singer SarahMcLachlan has been among the customers willing to give it a go.
Green Limousine deploys a fleet of two dozen rickshaws and 100drivers at such Southern California destinations as zoos, parks andmuseums. Most rickshaws are powered by college students looking forextra cash and exercise.
The biggest challenge drivers face isn't sore muscles butthe guilt of would-be passengers. The idea of sitting in a cartpulled by another human being makes some of his customersuncomfortable. "People think it's really hard to pull arickshaw, but the secret is in the balance," McCormackexplains. "[If you do it right,] all the weight is on thewheels and the cart just rolls along."
McCormack should know: He pulled rickshaws as a college studentin Canada and, in 1992, started his own company in Winnipeg with$3,500 in start-up capital. In 1996, he headed south, choosing SanDiego for its dry, sunny climate and steady influx of tourists.
A seemingly risky pricing strategy has paid off for GreenLimousine, which earned $140,000 in revenues in 1998. The pullerslease individual rickshaws from McCormack. Tourists aren'tcharged; instead, they simply ask passengers to tip in an amountthat reflects what they feel the ride is worth. (Tips average $5per person.)
Eventually, McCormack plans to expand to tourist areasnationwide. "We want to build relationships with theme parkslike Disney," he says. Mickey Mouse on a rickshaw? Couldhappen sooner than you think.
Gray Matter
Think of Cerebellum Corp.'s educational videotapes as thefun, hip professors you never had--or, as one bookstore managerputs it, "a mix between Saturday Night Live andSesame Street." From statistics to astronomy, frombuying a car to cooking, Cerebellum explains all of life'smysteries to you through creative and amusing skits. Just clear acouple of hours in your schedule, slip in the tape and you'reon your way. (The best part? No pop quizzes at the end.)
The sociology tape, for instance, features a parody of theX-Files. In the chemistry tape, a talking green moleculeacts as professor. "Some people don't like ourstyle," admits co-founder Chip Paucek, 28--but enough do tobring 1998 sales to $5 million.
Paucek and co-founder James Rena, 30, got the quirky idea in1993 when, while reminiscing about their college days, theyrealized they could still remember the subjects taught by theprofessors who used creative approaches. After talking to collegebookstore managers and researching the competition, they decidedthey were on to something big.
The two scrounged up $80,000 from relatives, friends and"anyone who had money," says Paucek, who had a professortutor him on finance, then took five days off from work to writethe script for "The Wild and Wacky World of Finance," thefirst video in Cerebellum's Standard Deviants series.Using former classmates as actors, they scored their first 11orders at a college bookstore convention.
Cerebellum's Standard Deviants videos teach highschool and college courses; the No-Brainers series tackleslife's challenges, such as how to write a resume and coverletter, how to select wine and how to make a speech. The videos andaccompanying workbooks are sold in more than 2,000 collegebookstores and national chains, including Borders and ZanyBrainy.
Cerebellum plans to release 14 videos and 10 DVDs this year. Thenew releases are scheduled to include a testing component, whichcould lead to a new title in the Standard Deviants series:"How to Ace a Test."
Pamela Rohland (prohla@aol.com) is a freelance writerwhose work appears frequently in national and regionalpublications.
Contact Sources
Cerebellum Corp., (800) 238-9669, http://www.cerebellum.com
Green Limousine Inc., (877) 374-2574, greenlimo@aol.com
