According to an article in Newsweek’s May 21, 2007 issue, William Alexander "once spent $1,219 to produce 19 perfect heirloom tomatoes in his garden.  He got a book out of it, "The $64 tomato".  This brings a knowing smile to many a gardener’s lips.  All that time and money but, at the end, a perfect tomato.  Only another gardener would understand.  Right?

But there’s More
In the same article author Linda Stein suggests saving dollars by "dividing and conquering and sharing".  She cites dividing old perennials to make more plants and, then, trading them with other gardeners so that each gets plants they might not already have.  She even suggests that neighbors each individually buy a power tool and then each swaps and shares so that dollars spent are less and the availibility of different equipment is greater.

What a Concept
What if businesses could do something similar?  Each company buy one item that is only used once in a while and then all share.  Now it won’t work with things like Watering Machines (see the Waterboy link) but for other stuff it could.  For example, years ago my Interior Plantscape Business needed a tree gantry to install some big trees in a shopping mall.  Lo and behold, instead of buying one for thousands of dollars,  we found we could rent one for $100 per day.  The rentor?  Why, our local foliage broker.  This was a service he provided to his customers and in just a few years he’d made back the original cost and was then into profit territory, plus he sure made some happy customers.  Good business and it saved us having to spend thousands for a piece of equipment we might need once a year if that much.

Stuff like this could work for lots of us.  Four IP companies in a given market could coop a piece of equipment and get usage for pennies.  It just takes a little cooperation and a little trust but it could work.  Think about it.  Who needs a $64 tomato?