Breakfast with the Birds

Here are a couple more examples of Australian businesses that really used their creativity, they took available resources that they already had, some of them not so obvious, and learned how to really apply them effectively.

After landing in Sydney, we hopped on another plane and flew north for about four hours to Cannes, and then we drove for about an hour north of there to Port Douglas. Port Douglas has these beautiful beaches; they’re really remote and pristine, very uncrowded. We arrived at our hotel about nine thirty in the morning. And we ask the hotel concierge, “What were some of the more popular things people do here?”

They said, “Well you have to try the Breakfast with the Birds.” And we said, “The what?” She said, “The Breakfast with the Birds.” “Yeah, it’s really popular with a lot of tourists.”

So we went on their Web site and looked at the Rainforest Habitat, which is the place where they offer us Breakfast with the Birds. And that sounded different so what the heck we went and tried it.
And I know it sounds kind of weird but it was actually pretty cool.

Essentially they had a breakfast buffet in an outdoor setting with a canopy over the eating area. All these different species of birds were allowed to walk around underneath the picnic tables and sometimes on the tables. And it was just kind of neat to get up and close and personal with them.

Then after you were done eating you got to wander around the rest of the habitat, petting and feeding the kangaroos.

You know when these guys first came up with this idea of eating outdoors with all these birds; everyone was probably trying to figure out how we keep the birds away from the food.

“Well, we can’t have birds flying overhead doing you know what to peoples’ food and that kind of thing.”

“Well how could we make this work?” That’s always a question you have to ask yourself. What would it take to make this work?
So they built a canopy and they design it such that most of the bird species can’t fly underneath the canopy, so the majority of them can just walk around.

They turned lemons into lemonade and used it as a key feature in selling their product. They took the available resources they already had and applied them much more effectively.

We know when somebody comes up with a unique concept like that there’s of course going to be copycats. And sure enough down the road we saw was a new establishment that had Breakfast with the Koala.
Here’s another great example of how to use your available resources. We had the rainforest safari always on our itinerary so we were planning to do this all along. And what we really liked about it is the way it was advertised was “Small groups only,” that they never had more then four people.

The owner, David Armbrust comes and picks us up in a jeep and we quickly figure it out it’s his personal jeep. That’s why they’re small groups because you can only fit four people in there. It’s my wife and I and this genius boy kid, Michael, that’s on this tour.
So we hop in his jeep and we drive about forty minutes up the mountains into the rainforest. We get out of the jeep and sure enough kangaroos and wallabies, birds and everything come running up to David. He has a pouch full of sweet potatoes and peanuts and he starts feeding all these animals.

And then it kind of dawned on me, I was like, “How do you have access to the rainforest?” He goes, “Well this particular piece of it I own. Basically this is my house.”

OK, so this guy basically takes his own jeep, right? He picks you up at the hotel. He takes you to his backyard and uses all available resources, stuff that he already owned, to start a business.

I asked David, “So how often do you go out and feed the animals?” He goes, “Well, I’ve been doing it everyday for twenty years.” I said, “OK, so you’re feeding them already and somehow it just dawned on you why not have some people follow along with me and I can charge them two hundred and fifty bucks a piece?”

He just smiled.

And that’s exactly what he is doing; he is booked about five days a week on this safari tour. He is using his available resources and applying more efficiently and effectively.

Then in the afternoon we went to different parts of the rainforest and he has you hop out of the jeep. He says, “This is a good place for you guys to walk and just see the view, so I’ll meet you down the road in about twenty minutes.”

Which gives him just enough time to make you a really nice lunch before you get there.

Then after lunch, you jump back into the jeep and you leave the rainforest area and go to a more barren part of the land and look at some different species and landscapes, termites, and lots of different animals.

So look at all of the available resources you have in your business and some of those resources might seem kind of invisible at first, so you might have to look for them a little harder than you think. But there are all kinds of resources that you have that you could use more effectively to market your product better or provide a better service.

Available resources—how can you best use them?