A good nose for a business opportunity

The Sunday Times Idea of the Week is even wackier than normal this week, but absolutely ingenious -

Aroma Tours, an Australian company, organises holidays to nice-smelling places. Imagine frolicking in fields of lavender, walking through the scent markets in Turkey, or enjoying an aromatic massage in Bali.

Zeck and Llewellyn [the firm's owners] promise “to satisfy the senses and soothe the soul of even the most seasoned traveller”. They organise schedules around the seasons, and to meet demand. According to their website, most tours are booked well in advance, and there are many repeat customers.

What I love about this is that anybody, absolutely anybody could have thought of it. Many probably did, but fleetingly, and then quickly consigned it to the rubbish bin in their brains as a silly flight of fancy. But here are two guys who ran the gauntlet of mockery and made a success of a totally whacked out idea; an excellent example to any entrepreneur.