Money In High Places

Many, if not all humans, have a sense of need to go or climb high places. This is the reason why for example, many mountaineers spend a lot of money and time climbing such high mountains as Nepal’s Mount Everest.

And they don’t only spend a lot of money and time pursuing such a seemingly useless activity, but they also risk their lives doing so. It is a well-known fact that many mountaineers die every year trying to scale the peak of Mount Everest.

But let’s forget about mountains for a while and turn our attention to closer high structures that are in our very midst. That’s right, people are also climbing tall buildings although most of these people are illegally doing it.

There are even building climbers and mountaineers who do it on a professional basis. I for example have seen on television news a building climber who upon reaching the top of a building, unfurled a banner of the company which sponsored him.

It is no secret that there are businesspeople especially building owners who have capitalized on the fascination of humans for height. In Wikipedia alone, there is an extensive list of Revolving Restaurants which can be found all over the world.

I don’t think this list though is a good index of the popularity of heights in the restaurant industry. All you need to do is to go to for example at a few levels of any building tall and short, and you would find a lot of restaurants with views that accentuate their elevated location.

The Burj Khalifa in Saudi Arabia for example, is the tallest building in the world and the owners of the building and even Saudi Arabia itself is capitalizing on this fact about the building.

There have been many movies which featured the building which accentuates it’s height. The movie Mission Impossible for example shows the lead actor of the movie, Tom Cruise, scaling the outer walls of the building.

There are also many social media influencers and wannabes who have blasted our social media apps with their images and selfies highlighting the magnificent views of the building. In short, tall places are attractive to humans which means money for businesspeople who can capitalize on it.

One product that developed as a result of people’s fascination with heights are tree houses. There are people who commission home building contractors to build them tree houses and pay good money to them for the service that they provide.

Tree houses can be your average DIY tree houses which are nothing more than a square wooden box with a window and a small door and accessed via a simple ladder. Some are so simple that they don’t even have walls to begin with, only a small wooden floor.

Other tree houses are so elaborate that they could serve as a second home almost to their owners. Some come complete with bedrooms, electricity and an elevator instead of a ladder. If you are a home building contractor, this may be a service you can offer besides building real houses.

And there are hoteliers who have also capitalized on the vacationer’s desire to experience sleeping in a tree houses. There are already many tree house hotels around the world, but the images I found online are mostly elevated houses which are tree level.

This is proof that there is a definite desire for these kinds of temporary dwellings. If you happen to own a piece of property with many trees, especially tall and sturdy ones, perhaps it might be time for you to consider renting these trees out temporarily as tree houses.

I had the opportunity to visit the Sydney Gardens of Sydney, New South Wales and I had a magnificent time because I have interest in plants and trees. Some of the trees in this garden park amazed because they were very tall and very broad.

Merely looking at how tall, broad, leafy and green some of the trees were made me want to climb inside these trees to see what was inside them. Maybe there are birds and insects living in these trees and maybe even small animals.

Of course, I wasn’t able to have a look inside these trees. The broadness of the trunk of these trees and not to mention the lack of low hanging branches prevented me from doing so. But if there were ladders, steps and stairs in these trees, I bet many people would climb them.

And this got me thinking. There are many tall and broad trees that can be found not only in the national parks and garden parks of Australia, but in the urban streets of Australia as well. Wouldn’t it be nice if one can climb these trees even only at a low altitude?

In fact, the many Street Walking videos I watch in YouTube shows many places where tall trees can be found on the streets of many developed countries. These tall trees can be made into attractions or vantage places for the many people who want to take pictures with elevated backgrounds.

In essence, these tall trees can be made into tourist attractions in our society where one of the fastest developing hobby or activity is taking selfies of themselves behind unique or pretty backgrounds.

But, could you monetize this desire of people to climb trees with almost no difficulty at all? If you ask me, I’ll go as far as charging people a small amount of money for them to have the opportunity to reach the top of a tree, especially one with a beautiful vantage point.

But let me be conservative, I’ll just recommend that they can be attractions or come-ons for your business especially if you are in the business of selling tourism destinations. Let’s assume that you are a tourism company that has bird watching facilities.

You can charge your bird watching clients extra for the opportunity to climb trees and have a much closer view of the birds. But we don’t have to look far, as I have said, there are trees that are settled within the streets of our major cities.

If these trees are located along a shopping district, they can be used as attractions to passersby to persuade them to stop and perhaps have a look at the top of the trees. This could be an opportunity to turn a passerby into a buyer for your products.

But let’s forget about trees for a while. Afterall, there are many tall places already that exist besides trees. And, as discussed earlier, there are people who climb buildings both as a hobby and as a job.

There are now even health and exercise related businesses that offer Climbing Wall facilities. This has become such a thing that there are even competitions held for it. These competitions are even televised.

But honestly, it’s not expensive to setup such a facility. All you need is a wall which is preferably tall. You don’t even need a smooth wall. In fact, any person living near a cliff like location can setup this kind of business for almost no capital.

And what about the outer walls of your urban house or your building? Or what about the wooden electricity poles in an area? Although I won’t advise climbing as far as where the electrical wires are.

Imagine if McDonalds for example have climbing walls that just happen to be a few feet high and not overly high. A morning jogger or anyone interested in exercising can just stop by at McDonalds to exercise and have their breakfast there as well.

But let’s stop for a while to discuss the possible danger of climbing which is falling. Everyone knows that falling can be a hurtful and even dangerous experience which increases the higher a person falls.

This issue cannot be underestimated. There are people who die from the mere act of slipping. If people can die just from slipping, then how much dangerous is falling even from a short height only.

Safety nets and safety ropes are some of the tools a business can use to prevent their customers from getting hurt or even die if they happen to fall whether it be by accident or intentionally.

Safety nets are especially very helpful if they can be installed. These tools do not only have the capability to prevent a customer from getting hurt or killed thru falling, but it can also prevent the belongings of your customer from being damaged.

Two things that would readily come to mind would be cellphones and cameras which are both expensive especially the latter. Safety nets also look good in your business. They give your customers piece of mind that they would be safe. Your business would look professional as well.

But let us face the fact that not all buildings can be used for climbing. Also, more and more trees are disappearing from urban areas to make way for roads and even more houses and buildings.

Beaches for example are very flat areas. The flatness of beaches can extend for miles and miles without any relatively tall structure in sight except maybe for the lifeguard towers if there are any.

This must be the reason why many beachgoers like to go up lifeguard towers if they have the opportunity to do so. Though not everyone gets to experience it, everyone knows that the view from lifeguard towers are nice.

The same can be said for water towers and lighthouses. There are people who have been actually married atop a lighthouse. Lacking these facilities, can you as a tourism operator simply construct a simple tower which can be accessed either by a stair or ladder and make money off it?

This may be an easy and inexpensive business to start, but a lot of your business depends on the view which your customer can access from your tower as well as your marketing skills, the latter being the more important one.

One thing I noticed about businesses that capitalize on the scenery of their tall locations is their seemingly lack of marketing for what their customers would tend to see on top of their establishment.

For example, if I were to pass by a revolving restaurant or a tree house cafe, all that I would be seeing would be the ground environment or scenery of these businesses. I would definitely be interested in these businesses more if I were to know what view I can see from the top.

I guess what you’ll probably be saying right now is: “Put pictures of what can be seen from the top of these establishments! This should do it.” I’m thinking of the same answer too, but let me be a bit foolish or creative.

What if you have a Periscope on the base of your revolving restaurant or tree house cafe? Maybe a viewing camera instead? You can even put a big sign which says: “Look Here.” You might have forgotten the fact that your business is not within sight of passersby.

You might have million dollar views on top of your establishment, but if people are not aware of it, it would be useless. Again, the importance of advertising and marketing your business cannot be underestimated.

Tall places, especially those with vantage views that show touristy or beautiful scenery are very marketable products that can be sold. In fact, revolving towers and buildings with viewing decks capitalize on this.

But you don’t need a mountain, skyscraper or even a short building to offer such a service. Each levels of a tall place or object no matter how close to the ground is a product as well. One just needs to be able to properly market it.

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