My dad's business partner 'David Rubin' one of the richest businessmen in the world (who also owns the company I work for). My dad's gonna grab a private jet with him next week and asked as a joke if I had any business propositions for him, and I just thought hell yeah! Been thinking of this idea for so long, only really rough atm (knocked it up just now), especially the drawing which I'll re-draw when I get back, but anyway, give me some feedback pls if u want ur freakin mansions!
Business Proposition – JR Lounge
Explanation of the name: The inspiration behind the name stems from the main train line in Tokyo, the famous ‘JR Line’. In this case ‘JR’ stands for ‘Japanese Recreational’ making the unabridged name ‘Japanese Recreational Lounge’. The ‘Lounge’ part was decided upon because that’s exactly what the establishment aims to be, a warm, inviting area of recreation for a growing untapped niche in the market. It also ties in with the train theme in correlation with the lounges you would find for upmarket airlines/trainlines.
What it is: The best way to illustrate this is through a drawing, with the advantage of each aspect explained below.
Why it will be a guaranteed success: Just walk into any trendy clothes store and half the clothes will feature Japanese text. Japan-mania is quickly saturating the UK, but it is still an untapped area of the market; although I doubt this will be the case for long.
The recreational options for young adults in this country is extremely limited at the moment, pretty much comprising solely of bars and clubs; which doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially as young people are becoming a lot more drink-conscious. Japan is decades ahead of other major countries with its recreational offerings. Tokyo is saturated with arcades (which are nothing like their English counterparts), karaoke bars (the same applies here), manga cafes and maid cafes. I believe it’ll be easy to combine these areas in a limited space thus offering the complete experience of modern Tokyo.
I will detail why each of these four ideas could be a success in its own right:
· The Arcade – Arcades in this country are a thing of the sixties, in which they were implemented. The interesting this is although they have been sparsely updated, if in a key location, they are still extremely popular. Take the arcade in ‘Trocodero’ for example, although outdated, it is still constantly full and makes a fortune from its over-priced offerings. By releasing the most popular machines from Japan and with the same pay-schemes as the Japanese market (closer to 50p as opposed to the £1-2 of its UK counterpart) then it’ll be possible to dominate the market. Another feature of later Japanese arcade machines is the ability to write your saved data (game-progress) onto a card which you can bring back to carry on where you left off. This system will bring the majority of gamers back, if the game’s content is good.
· Karaoke - This feature will be the least-explored of the four, with a karaoke night being held once or twice a week, using the latest Japanese karaoke technology. The waitresses could participate with the customers if requested.
· Manga – There will be shelves of the popular written media ‘manga’ available freely for customers to read, obviously the waitresses would have to make sure they had a drink with them at all times; the books would also be security tagged. I would initially order 2 copies of every book (and 3 of the first 5 books from every series), giving customers the option to buy a copy at an extremely competitive price if they desired.
· Maids – Maid Cafes are extremely prominent in Japan because the idea is so clever. The basic concept is that all the employees are attractive females dressed in French-maid outfits and have a servant/master relationship with clients. It is an innocent concept aimed towards businessmen who maybe don’t have time for girlfriends and desire that relationship; as well for young men who don’t have the confidence to talk to girls. It of course has a universal appeal as what man wouldn’t like being doted on by an attractive, subservient female? Girls will also find the maid’s attitudes/apparel cute and may wish to purchase merchandise to give to their boyfriends. As in Japan, customers will be able to request a Polaroid of them with their favourite maid (for a price of course). If the waitress receives a portion of this money it’ll also provide a strong incentive for them. Every employee will have be warm, friendly, attractive, of asian decent and aged between 18 and 30; it is not vital for them to speak English fluently as they will only need to greet customers and take orders. The maids will be a key theme of the cafe with pastries and drinks named after them. The maid concept can be taken further with such things as every girl could choose a different cute Japanese badge to wear on their apron to add a bit of their personality in. There could be special days/nights when their outfits change as well, for example, on Halloween it could change from a maid to a vampiress theme.
There will also be a TV area (with a coffee table for drinks) which will constantly be playing anime, and leaves the possibility of ‘movie nights’ open.
The large number of asian students living in London would instantly feel at home in this space as well as it being a hotspot for westerners.
By bringing these themes together in a cool, young, sexy yet still inviting and cosy space I can really see the JR lounge becoming a roaring success, I hope you share my vision.
(90% of that has indeed been based around what I've learnt from the apprentice lol - didn't even know what 'business acumen' meant until I watched that program ¬.¬)
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