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Post Info TOPIC: Feedback on Business Concept to Help Those Struggling with Alcohol?


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Feedback on Business Concept to Help Those Struggling with Alcohol?
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I am currently evaluating the following business concept, and I'm not sure whether to continue evaluating it.  I would really value your feedback!

The business will be the best in the world at creating and delivering low-cost, anonymous accountability programs that help alcoholics win against addiction.

 

Customers come to us because they want to privately regain control over their lives by becoming free of alcohol dependence at an affordable price.

 

The business will be modeled on the very successful 24/7 Sobriety programs that have been implemented in some states for DUI offenders.  These programs require that offenders show up twice a day for drug and alcohol testing, and if they ever miss or fail a test, they are put in jail for a brief period of time or penalized in some way.

 

Customers will self-enroll with our company online and pay an upfront deposit, perhaps $1000, which will be held in escrow and used as the reward/penalty for their compliance with the agreed-upon testing plan.  They will also pay an upfront service fee and security deposit for the mobile testing device.  They will then receive a mobile testing device in the mail, and they will be required to comply with the agreed testing regimen in order to get their escrowed money back in a timely manner.  A commercially available, law-enforcement grade mobile breathalyzer system with facial recognition will be used to carry out the testing and report back results to our company to confirm compliance.

 

 

An example testing plan might be for the customer to pass two tests per day at specified times for 365 days.  As soon as they complete 365 consecutive successful days, they get their escrowed money back.  If they never achieve this, then their escrowed money will be released to them after a period of, say, 10 years.  They might get periodic rewards along the way, too.

 

Note that the company shall never benefit from the escrowed money.

 


Thanks!!

 

Will B.



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MIP Old Timer

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Hi Will, ... your business has at least one major flaw that I can see ... you stated:


Customers come to us because they want to privately regain control over their lives by becoming free of alcohol dependence at an affordable price.


It has been my observation that alcoholics come to AA and recover by letting go of this idea of gaining 'control' of their lives ... that's why they're in trouble to start with, they wouldn't turn this 'control' over to a 'higher power' which frees them to learn to love life and learn to enjoy it ... if I ever start to think I'm in control again, then I'm headed for big trouble ...

And why pay for something that is totally free for the asking in AA ??? ... ... ...


Sorry, I don't see where this 'business plan' of yours would ever fly ... ... ...


Just an opinion of an old drunk ...
Pappy



-- Edited by Pythonpappy on Monday 28th of September 2015 09:19:43 AM

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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'



MIP Old Timer

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When we try to 'sell it' the spiritual concept dissaptes, and that is THE thing an alcoholic needs an example of. All the knowledge, money, support and love in the world can't help someone dying from alcoholism IMO. A spiritual awakening can. I found people trying to sell information that is free to all humanity like air... can not be all that spiritually illuminating for themselves let alone shine a light for others to embrace. I could be wrong.

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MIP Old Timer

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Such systems are already in use as monitoring systems used by courts and law enforcement to enforce court mandates that a person remain free of alcohol or other substances. If a person fails a test, they are violating a court order and can be jailed. That's very different from what you are proposing.

You are proposing that this monitoring system be used as a stand-alone private business, and that would not allow the person to be jailed, it would only allow them to forfeit the money they had paid. But more important, your proposal does not include any mention of any way to actually TREAT ALCOHOLISM and allow someone who has alcoholism to undergo the types of changes required to allow them to live sober on a daily and ongoing basis other than just the threat of losing some money (which is no threat to an alcoholic who has not received the necessary treatment) and/or mere 'white-knuckle' reliance of self-will on an ongoing basis, and that is not a viable solution. If it were, alcoholics would just do that in the first place.

Without real treatment to bring about the changes needed for an alcoholic to live comfortably without drinking, the system you propose is likely to result in people simply drinking during the program and forfeiting the deposit, and almost certainly drinking again AFTER the program has ended, since they have not received any treatment to prevent that. 

So it might be a windfall for the business in the short term, as people drink and forfeit the deposit, but the long term success rate of people staying sober will likely be about as bad as if they never enrolled in it in the first place. So the long term prospects of using this monitoring system, which is intended to be used as a tool to assist law enforcement and the courts, as a stand-alone system intended to help alcoholics achieve and sustain sobriety, but without any form of actual treatment for alcoholism to do this, is a fatally flawed business model. 



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