Daniel Buckingham, age 16, is a young entrepreneur living in Palmer, Alaska with a unique idea for a home business. He builds and sells outhouses in Alaska!

Down here in the lower 48, that idea may sound absurd, but in Alaska, there is still a great need for the “little shack out back” since so many Alaskan’s are living off the grid or in “the bush”, as they say up there. Some urban Alaskan’s might even add a token outhouse to their landscaping just to give an Alaskana effect along with a dog sled and a cache (a little log cabin on stilts for storing food and supplies).

Daniel sells a standard 4′x 4′x 7′ high basic plywood design for $299. It comes with a hinged door, toilet box with hole and a toilet seat. But he’s more than willing to incorporate any custom features you might envision for an extra charge. One thing not available, however, is delivery. If you want one, you need to come and get it. At least for now.

According to the 2000 US census, one in four homes in Alaska is without indoor plumbing. It’s obvious Daniel had chosen a product that fills a need, and I can only guess that there is not a lot of competition. He seems to be willing and able to put the hard work required into building a quality product, so he could do well with this venture.

His next step will be marketing. Right now he’s only using Craigslist and word-of-mouth to promote his outhouses, which has yet to bring much success. What he needs now is a full blown web presence and a marketing campaign to get the word out in areas where indoor plumbing isn’t an option. The domain names he might choose from are probably endless! With over 10 years experience in Internet marketing, I’d love to talk to him about the possibilities. So Daniel, if you read this, shoot me an email!

Daniel’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. He received some great publicity today from an article in the Anchorage Daily News. So now it’s the time to capitalize on that and get to building for your future!

So What’s the Take Away?

My guess is that many of us wish we could come up with a great new idea or product that we could develop into a million dollar home business. I think the lesson learned from Daniel is that if a 16 year old, home schooled kid can come up with a unique idea like outhouses, we certainly should be able to think of something that can fill a need in our marketing radius. But conversely, if you think you’ll turn your product into a million dollar business overnight, it just isn’t going to happen. Daniel’s outhouse idea has still not really taken off, but he has his product and his goals in place. Now it’s time go to work on the marketing, and maybe someday he’ll have made enough to finance his college education. He says he’s not trying to make a career at it, but it’s sure good preparation for what ever he does decide to pursue in the future.