Since 2001, we've posted 20,638 different business opportunities and ideas, so you're sure to find something here to inspire you!
Personal Robots for the Handicapped and Elderly
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Inventions
Economic Times:
For over 10 years, an itch on his nose had been annoying Henry Evans. Many take such basic functions for granted, but not Evans. When he was 40, a stroke left him paralysed and mute. He can only move his head and partially move one finger.
Evans could finally scratch that itch last year, and what’s more, even shave, with the help of PR2, his personal robotic helper. The robot is now starting to help Evans around the house, organising and fetching things.
The ultimate goal of this project – led by Georgia Tech and PR2’s Silicon Valley-based maker Willow Garage — is to help the elderly live independently. Our world is, after all, ageing rapidly, primarily due to increased lifespans and declining fertility rates.
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Tags: elderly, handicapped, Robots
4 Reasons Your Small Business is Sputtering
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Guest Posts
The following is a guest post by Dave Ashley.
Ask any Fortune 500 executive and they’ll tell you that running a small business isn’t all kittens and rainbows. There’s a long, hard road to walk between hiring your first employee and retiring in Maui, and when your product isn’t selling or your business is losing money, the stress can make you wish you’d never started out on your own in the first place. How are you going to sell your business and make your island getaway when your company has essentially become a strip-mall facade concealing a seat-of-the-pants operation managed by harried worker chimps in the cluttered offices past the lobby?
There are solutions to many of the common frustrations that small business owners face, and step one is simply to recognize problems when you see them. It’s sort of like a 12-step program, but with money. If your company is sputtering, take a look at these common frustrations and see if you can’t address one or more of them to help yourself dial up the profits in the next quarter.
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You can’t distinguish between confidence and blind faith. When it comes to having faith in your business, there’s a fine line between confidence and delusion. While it can be inspiring to play the role of the fearless leader when your business falls on hard times, you aren’t doing anyone any favors by manning the helm of a sinking ship.
If you want your business to succeed – with the goal of ultimately selling it – you must learn to view it objectively. You’ll be faced with tough decisions as a business owner, and in this economy you have to follow the money instead of the ideals.
One good way to get your bearings and take stock of your situation is to get an annual business valuation from a professional agency. This way, you can see exactly where you stand financially. You’ll also learn about areas and processes that are ripe for improvement. A valuation forces you to be honest instead of fatally hopeful, which can help you make tough calls when problems land on your desk. More than that, there’s nothing better than a valuation for getting your business in tip-top shape and ready to sell.
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You can’t bring in enough customers. Just because your business has been around for ten years, that doesn’t mean you can slack off on the marketing end. A basic tenet of capitalism is that a successful company should grow every year – and that sort of expansion requires promotion, promotion, and more promotion.
If you’re suffering from a chronic lack of customers, it’s probably because nobody knows who you are. In this economy, you need to dredge up customers like your life depended on it. Give your business a marketing recharge by opening a social media account at Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or Tumblr. Use them all. Try leasing a regional vanity number – not only will this boost your customer base, it will help you build your brand. These services are free or cheap, and they’ll expose your company to thousands of potential customers. With a little practice, you’ll reach a larger audience while gaining customers and saving money on paper advertising in the process.
Continue reading 4 Reasons Your Small Business is Sputtering
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Growing Prehistoric Plants
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Ideas
Popular Science:
On the frozen edge of the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, in an ancient pantry harboring seeds and other stores, an Arctic ground squirrel burrowed into the dirt and buried a small, dark fruit from a flowering plant. The squirrel’s prize quickly froze in the cold ground and was preserved in permafrost, waiting to grow into a fully fledged flowering plant until it was unearthed again. After 30,000 years, it finally was. Scientists in Russia have now regenerated this Pleistocene plant, transplanting it into a pot in the lab. A year later, it grew forth and bore fruit.
The specimen is distinctly different from the modern-day version of Silene stenophylla, or narrow-leafed Campion. It suggests that the permafrost is a potential new source of ancient gene pools long believed to be extinct, scientists said.
The fruits were buried about 125 feet in undisturbed, never thawed permafrost sediments, nestled at roughly 19.4 degrees F (-7 C). Radiocarbon dating showed the fruits were 31,800 years old, give or take about 300 years. Seeds are incredible things, storing the embryo of a new plant and encasing it in protective material until conditions are right for it to germinate.
I’m sure that there’s a business opportunity here. Just beware of creating Jurassic Park!
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Tags: dinosaurs, Plants, Russia
Out of Work Techie? Write a Sci-Fi Novel
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Ideas
Computer engineers and computer scientists have been one of the hardest hit professions in this economic slump. For all their technical prowess, their jobless rates climbed quickly early in the recession compared to other professionals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But interestingly, while the computer geeks were losing jobs, science fiction novels were gaining fans.
“It’s one of the fastest growing e-book categories,” says Jim Milliot, co-editorial director at Publishers Weekly.
A 2010 Harris Poll found more people (79 percent) are reading books. The bigger surprise? More than a quarter of fiction readers opt for science fiction. That’s a big number for a genre once considered the realm of a lonely minority.
“If economy boils down to supply and demand, that’s good news for all those jobless computer pros,” says Paul Dorset, author of New Blood: Melrose, Part 1. A longtime computing professional, he incorporates a lot of the edgy tech elements so popular in science fiction into his work.
“Who can drive a plausible science fiction tale better than someone who knows their bytes from their zygotes?” he says.
For techies still looking for work, or working outside their field, writing science fiction is a novel creative outlet – and “just possibly a money-maker,” Dorset says.
“Take an imaginative mind, apply boundaries around what could be technically possible, and you’ve got the framework for a story with all kinds of possibilities.”
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Tags: Books, fiction, science fiction, Writing
Create Jobs For USA Expanding
February 22, 2012 by Angela Shupe | News
Businessweek: “Washington is not doing enough,” so businesses have to “step up,” Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said yesterday in a telephone interview. Customers of the Seattle- based company have given about $2 million to Create Jobs for USA since it was created last year. The Starbucks Foundation seeded the fund with $5 million to [...]
Today in Entrepreneurial History: February 22
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | History
1819 – By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars. 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and dime Woolworth stores. 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio broadcast from the White [...]
The Invention of the Highlighter
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Inventions
NY Times.com: Once, when readers wanted to remember something, they had to mark important passages with thin, wobbly lines in drab, hard-to-relocate colors. Before the rise of the highlighter, says Dennis Baron, a University of Illinois professor and the author of “A Better Pencil,” attentive readers relied on “a combination of underlining and marginal notes.” [...]
Google Heads-Up Display Glasses in 2012
February 22, 2012 by Dane Carlson | Inventions
I’ve been waiting for something like this my entire life. According to the NY Times, Google plans to introduce heads-up display glasses by the end of the year. The glasses are expected to be based on the Android platform, and will also have a 3G data connection and GPS. People who constantly reach into a [...]
Must Have Apps For Inventors
February 22, 2012 by Angela Shupe | News
There is a reason people love the tagline, “There’s an app for that,” so much. It’s true. There are apps for everyone, including inventors. Here are a few shared by Davison Inventions. iHandy Carpenter This app has five of the most well designed tools for builders, makers and carpenters. InventionLand An app on a mission [...]
