Tweet

Home Based Business Spotlight--The Love Maine Lobster Claw Game

Written by: Candice Clem

Article Overview: There’s nothing better than operating a business that stands out for its extremely creative product. Here is one business that has perhaps reached the pinnacle of creativity.

Home Based Business Spotlight--The Love Maine Lobster Claw Game

Internet video sites offer a great variety of streaming media, ranging from long-forgotten black-and-white films to home movies of people with their cats. Something you’re not likely to see getting much screen time on these sites, however, are franchise businesses, with one very memorable exception: The Love Maine Lobster Claw Game. In its home state of Maine, this business made the local news just over a year ago, when a franchisee arranged to position one of his machines in a neighborhood convenience store. The report, which has since been copied to several internet video sites, gave momentary spotlight to this rather interesting machine, which was receiving a good deal of local fanfare.

At first glance, the machine stirs curious stares and chuckles from store visitors: it looks more like some kind of arcade attraction than a vending machine. And, in fact, it is more of an arcade attraction than a vending machine; though paying customers do get to take home the live lobsters that they’ve purchased, they only get to do so after grabbing the desired lobster from its tank using a joystick-controlled, mechanical claw that dangles over the water. By design, the contraption is part vending machine, part aquarium, and part arcade claw game, and because it’s such an unorthodox crossbreed of a machine, people love to play it.

Currently found in restaurants, bars, and casinos, The Love Maine Lobster Claw Game is the perfect vending franchise for busy, public meeting places. Any place where people are likely to be looking for a way to entertain themselves while waiting for a table or a drink is precisely where this machine does its best, filling those spare minutes with its very novel form of amusement. And as current experience shows, other nearby patrons are very likely to cruise over behind the player, enjoy watching him be repeatedly evaded by some slippery crustaceans, and eventually try it themselves. In no time at all, these machines have a propensity to draw the attention of an entire room, eat dollar after dollar from the hands of hopeful claw operators, and quickly pay back their owners and the establishments that house them.

It sounds like fun, but a wise entrepreneur is sure to ask just how costly such an outlandish home based business is when it finally comes down to money and time. As far as financial costs are concerned, the cost is relatively low, coming in at a little less than $15,000 as an initial investment, after which, the only real overhead costs are restocking lobsters (which are rarely actually caught) and paying a meager rental fee to the establishments housing the machines. The initial franchising fee pays for a single machine and 12 lobsters, and is usually capable of paying for itself in the first 10 months, taking in roughly $500/wk.

But, of course, for the entrepreneur that wants more than a simple work from home starter package, The Love Maine Lobster Claw Game also provides a larger plan that includes 10 machines. And though the $175,000 price tag on that arrangement may sound high, it’s really not, considering all that’s included in the purchase price. For the convenience of the franchisee, the franchisor takes the time to place all 10 machines in willing restaurants, bars, shops, or casinos in the area of the new franchise business, leaving weekly upkeep as the only remaining responsibility on the shoulders of the franchisee. The franchisor even takes care of the first stock for all the machines, pays the first two weeks of rent for them all, and equips each location with a "Claw of Fame" plaque, so that everyone will know who the local champion is.

The backbone of this great home base business, the machine itself, is quite an achievement, successfully combining two different kinds of devices that would never otherwise even be in the same room, and doing so successfully. Standing at roughly 7’ tall, 4’ across, and 3’deep, it has a tank capable of housing up to 30 pounds of lobster, supported by a filtration system vastly superior to the home-aquarium-quality systems that similar lobster tank manufacturers often use. The joystick and claw are top of the line, designed to make catching a squirrely lobster possible, but not easy. And when someone does manage to snag themselves a lobster dinner, the bagging system in the drop chute packs it up and makes it ready to take home or toss into the kettle right there at the restaurant.

Best of all, the tank, the device, and the business are all humane for the lobsters (despite the fact that losing lobsters are eventually eaten). The number of lobsters in the tank is always kept in a healthy range, claws are all banded to keep them from harming each other, the collector claw is gentle on them, and they are fed and housed properly right up to the day that they’re finally caught.

Whether you own the work at home business, rent out space for a machine, fight for lobster rights, or simply pop in your money and play the game, there is no doubt that this business for sale is one of those business opportunities not to be passed up. Franchises come and go, but solid businesses that offer a unique and desirable product or service stick around. If you can’t find one near you to try, get online, check out the video, and you’re sure to like it as much as everyone else has.

Related Articles
  Home Based Business - The Perfect Choice For Retirees
  Home Based Business Opportunities that Put the Salesman to Use
  5 Home Businesses That Make Money While You're Away
  Best Work From Home Business Opportunities You Didn't Know About
  Hottest Vending Machine Home Based Businesses

Article Tags: contraption, crossbreed, crustaceans, dangles, first glance, franchise businesses, franchisee, live lobsters, lobster claw, maine lobster, mechanical claw, neighborhood convenience store, place where people, screen time, spare minutes, state of maine, store visitors, vending machine, video sites, white films



Related Forum Posts
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Elevator Pitch in 10 Words - "Winning Business Design For Aspiring Entrepreneurs Based On Their Idea"
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement
Re: How do you budget your life? - Here is my financial management categories for today: 15% Long Term Savings; 10% Home Expenses; 45% Business and Marketing charges; 10% Friends (Meeting); 20$ Scientific and Law Books. But this will change when it is August or September. Orxan
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ten Things You Can Do To Be a Better Leader

Are You Fulfilled

Let's Skip the Offshore Horror Stories

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.