This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Well, here's a fun question. Can you tell people where to find fake luxury goods? That is in fact the question that we've got today from our listener. They don't say it exactly like that, but basically they're wondering about knockoff goods. And you probably know what these are.
If you are in any city, if you're visiting, well, as I said, pretty much any big city, you go downtown, there's people selling all of these knockoff goods. Obviously you can buy them online as well. Louis Vuitton, Prada, every single luxury brand. It's like you can get fake purses or handbags or watches or all sorts of items. Most people aren't really bothered by them, but of course they're not legal, just to be clear.
And so this brings us to the business idea because this person is not thinking of selling them herself. Her idea is to help other people find them. And it would be pretty simple if she was like, "Hey, I wanna sell fake luxury goods. "Is that legal?" 'Cause we would be like, "It's actually not. "It's probably not the smartest business model." So what do we think of the business idea of not selling the items, just the information?
All right, I'll give it my best shot. Stay tuned for the full question and my answer. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Kim. And I recently found your show after my sister recommended it. Studies show that more than 60% of luxury goods like handbags and watches are designer knockoffs, which means they're counterfeits or fakes, but most people don't seem to mind.
For example, a lot of my friends have Louis Vuitton bags that look just like the real thing. Everyone knows they're fake, but no one cares. And because I live in a big city, but my hometown is back in middle America, friends there often ask me to buy things for them. I'm thinking there's a business opportunity here, and I don't mean reselling because I know that's dicey. Instead, I'm thinking of being a concierge or middle woman of sorts, connecting would-be buyers with the right markets and sellers.
I deliberately don't want to handle inventory because I want to stay out of trouble. Still, do you think I should worry about the big brands coming after me? [Music]
Well, this is one of those listener questions where it's kind of like, can you do it? Is that the right question? Or is the right question, should you do it?
And so maybe the second one is easier. Like, I don't think you should, right? I think there are many other smart business ideas you can pursue, many smarter ideas, let's say than this one. I do respect the hustle, I respect the creativity. As for whether you can do it, it's a bit of a gray area.
Like I checked with a couple of friends who have much more legal expertise than me, and they were all like, well, it depends how you do it and exactly what you say and which jurisdiction you're selling this information in and how you're selling it, like which platform and so on. It might be okay for a while, unless the business really blew up and then there might be some enforcement of it. So it may technically be possible in some ways, some cases. But again, to go back to the other question of like, should you do it? I don't know, I just think there's probably some other thing you can do.
I'm not opposed to a knockoff entirely, right? I mean, there's a whole business industry of dupes these days which are kind of like semi-legal knockoffs, I guess, some complexity there as well. So I'm not disparaging the entire thing, I'm just saying there's probably something better you can do with your time. That's my two cents. Of course, do what you think is best, and let's keep the creative questions coming because I do like hearing about different ideas.
And nothing wrong at all with just hypothesizing and asking yourself as you go through life, what might be a good idea? Hey, I'm encountering some counterfeit goods. I don't wanna get in the business of counterfeit goods, but maybe there's some other angle here. Like nothing wrong with thinking that direction. I just think when you come to the point of selecting your idea, maybe some additional filtering is helpful.
All right, that's it for now. Thank you for being out there. As always, I'm so grateful to make the show for you every day. New episodes come out every morning, download or stream wherever you get your podcasts. My name's Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
