Cars and guitars

One garage near me has been branching out recently. Bond Motor Services in Bristol don’t just do car repairs and sales, they also do guitars. Cars and guitars. Get it? It even rhymes. Genius.

I think this is pretty cool idea, although I do worry that I’d end up taking my car there for a service and ‘accidentally’ trading it in for a Fender. I can picture the scene now…

“How did the car get on in its MOT darling?” says boyfriend, and owner of said car.

“Oh yes, fine, no problem,” I say, trying to act casual, hoping he won’t notice the guitar case on my back…

I thought this was such a good idea though, that it got me thinking about other things that could be paired up. There are some obvious ones, like books and coffee, retro video games and personal stylist services, but there must be plenty of other gaps in the market. Thinking about it as I walked home from school this morning, I came up with a couple of my own.

Au pairs and affairs

This is a nanny agency with a difference. Not only can you source highly trained and experienced child care providers, but there is then a Tracey Cox style flirt coach on hand, with all the techniques you need as a middle-aged, chubby, slightly jaded parent to appear wildly alluring, in a casual around-the-house sort of way, to a 20-year-old, bronzed and toned Swedish nanny.

I was then thinking as an extra spin-off, you could have a private detective agency on the side, to help the other partner catch their spouse in the act of cheating. Then maybe a firm of family lawyers. The possibilities are endless.

Pets and regrets

You’ve reach that point in your family life where you need to inject something new, but you can’t afford a holiday and you really can’t be bothered to have another child. What do you do? You pop along to your local pet shop and get a cat! It seems like a brilliant idea at the time, as do children, and you imagine spending cosy evenings with your new bundle of fluffiness sat contentedly on your lap, gazing up adoringly at you while you watch Masterchef. Again, a bit like planning for a baby.

Only neither work out quite as you imagine do they? Instead what happens is you come home from work one day to find your sweet new kitten has ripped your very expensive sofa to shreds. It’s at this point that you go back to the pet shop, and make use of their furniture reupholstery service.

These are just a couple of the myriad potentially ground-breaking money making ideas that pop into my head on a daily basis, but can you do better? Which two products or services would you combine into one? Mr Shev, this is definitely one for you. Go on, do me proud…