There is a small poster at the community mailbox featuring a picture of a missing cat.
The owners seem somewhat resigned to the worst. In effect, they are offering $100 if you find their cat alive ... or dead!
They even speculate that yon tabby might be at the bottom of your pool. And you might just not know it. (!)
From a business perspective, this might not be all bad. There is definitely room for a lot of upside. The question is just how much.
The theoretical limit is a profit of $100. That assumes that you either come across:
- the cat in question
- a reasonable likeness of the cat in question, either alive or dead. In theory, it would preferably be dead so that the cat couldn't rat you out. That position depends on the theory that living cats are personable entities that are fully able (and willing!) to communicate with their owners. The reality is that most cats couldn't be bothered and the chances of the aforementioned cat grassing* on you are infinitely remote.
But it's winter, and thee are just not that many cats going around, alive or dead. The living ones are huddled in doors, while the dead ones are either buried under a snow drift, or shiver the thought, at the bottom of your pool.
So what are your options.
Well you could steal a cat. But then that would mean you have to find one. Back to square one.
You could buy a cat though. Now the price of that cat could effectively be any price between $1 and $99, though preferably closer to the first than the last. Your profit would be the difference between $100 and the cost of the cat.
Now this strategy assumes that the cat you found bears a reasonably close resemblance to the tabby on the poster. If that is not the case, than you might have to spring for some paint, which would cut into your margins.
Unfortunately, time does not permit me to explore the possible upside of borrowing the funds to purchase a cat or some paint should a suitably similar cat not be readily available. Needless to say, the returns of such a leveraged approach would be eye-popping to say the least.
'nuff said.
* = Scottish term for ratting out your mates