Page 21 - Like No Business I Know

Chiropuncture

4. Erotic massage: we can play this angle for all it’s worth. Research
shows that virtually anything on the epidermis can be translated into
the kind of sex that sells soap. This could get us a secondary market
in books and videos, with maybe a celebrity showing how it’s done.
No limit to this audience.

5. Alternative medicine: your data show the growing number of
people willing to go outside the orthodox medical profession for
relief of real or imagined ills. Chiropuncture will deliver the goods, if
only a placebo effect, by following the acupuncture meridians or any
other sufficiently credible mapping of somatic systems.

6. Eastern mysticism: like a host of historical fads, this one will gain
legitimacy in certain quarters by linking its technique and outcome
with Orientalism. The patina of mystery and antiquity already
associated with “qi” energy will help sell chiropuncture to anybody
enamored of deeper meanings and macrocosmic correspondences
with the human microcosm.

7. Feminist enterprise: our establishments will target the “women in
business” crowd. The technicians can be drawn from the pool of
females looking for a way to start their own small business. We can
even unofficially let it be known that women have a special aptitude
for giving this kind of sensitive and personal treatment.

8. Franchising: finally, and most critically, we can sell the whole thing
like hamburger stands or gas stations. The demand, once created, will
drive investors into our contractual arms. We’ll have the better
mousetrap, and the self-generating enthusiasm of fads cannot be
marketed better than by franchising. Virtually no labor or risk for us.
Pure gravy until we sell the rights to the highest bidder at the peak of
the craze.

So let’s get a lawyer and a business adviser and do it!

mark@fichenet.com
09/18/98

This is my last message, old buddy. You can do what you think is
best, but I’m heading for the airport. I don’t want to spend the rest of

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