Archive for June 2007
EBay UK is getting on board the Fair Trade bus. The company just launched a portal that allows shoppers to easily find Fair Trade certified goods on the site. The interface is Flash-based, rather nifty and easy to use. Browsing around, you can find information in the dozen or so Fair Trade sellers listed on [...]
JotSpot, another one of our Next Net companies, scored a big coup. It will be hosting eBay’s new wiki for buyers and sellers to give each other information about the mechanics of the site. Says JotSpot CEO Joe Kraus: It represents a coming of age for wikis. You are finally seeing wikis coming out of [...]
eBay Accounting Now Simplified
One of the least fun things about running an eBay business is keeping track of sales revenue and expenses, but there’s no way around this necessary chore. Now there’s an online accounting product, called KeepMore (http://www.keepmore.net), which requires no accounting knowledge or understanding to create great financial records. Just follow prompts for entering positive (income) [...]
MSNBC: For many entrepreneurs, it’s easy to ignore the warning signs that you’re unhealthy–much less take notice if your business isn’t well. When you’re so busy that you can’t remember the last time you read a book, sat down for a meal or spent a night watching useless TV, then your health may be the [...]
Entrepreneur Daily: Contrary to popular belief, it’s not so hard to succeed in selling handmade products, especially if you test out your offerings with consumers first. Etsy.com, an online bazaar for those in the know selling and buying handmade goods, attracts a young and modern demographic. The site may be the perfect way for entrepreneurs [...]
Why Your eBay Auction Didn’t Sell
Yahoo Finance: If you spend much time on eBay, you know what a crap shoot it can be to win an auction. And yet, only about 70 percent of auctions receive any bids at all. Why don’t the other 30 percent draw any action? Well, here are 10 reasons why no one bids on them. [...]
Small-Biz Employees Get Pricey
Entrepreneur Daily: If you hired new employees last month, you’re not alone. And if you had to pay those new employees a little more than you expected, you’re also in good company. The May 2007 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of U.S. small businesses, indicates that small biz hiring [...]
Inventor Makes (No) Splash With Gadget
The Arizona Republic: If you have struggled with a pull tab on a can, or broken a nail on one, there’s a new kitchen gadget designed by Earl Weaver, 88, of Scottsdale, to help. Weaver, a retired commercial Realtor, came up with the idea after he used a knife to lift the tab on a [...]
StarTribune.com: Saylor Ratliff, 19 months, knew just what she wanted. When her mom, Krista Ratliff, parked her stroller outside and brought her into Hot Mama boutique on a rainy Friday morning, Saylor made a beeline for the big glass jar of animal crackers. Like the other toddlers in the bright yellow-and-red boutique, she soon was [...]
Richmond.com: FAT Cookie Whenever When-Dee Morrison’s husband landed a new client, she’d bake them a batch of her unusual homemade cookies. Morrison confesses that she never had all of the ingredients on hand, so she experimented with different mix-ins. “It was mad science,” she recalls. With the encouragement of happy clients and friends, the Morrisons [...]
The Reading Advocate: While her pies may smell and look good enough to eat, Leslie Gennari’s creations are best burned. That is because while they may look scrumptious they are actually candles. A Johnson and Wales hotel/restaurant management/culinary arts graduate, Gennari was looking online for a tart recipe one day when she came across these [...]
The New Retirement: Tasha High
Startup Journal: Sometimes, a firm push can mark the beginning of a new life in retirement. For Tasha High, now age 63, such a push has helped turn a lifelong passion into a burgeoning career. Ms. High was born in England. In 1967, at age 23, she boarded the Queen Elizabeth and set sail for [...]
Entrepreneurs Startups Magazine: Caroline Shengle, 46, and Lisa Beltezore, 34, are an inventor’s version of the Cinderella story. Beltezore was sick of having her shoes chewed up and her couch pillows carried into the backyard by her beloved canine companions. She and Shengle came up with a solution: They freeze dog treats into a block [...]
Laptops Replacing Conversation In Coffeehouses
The Capital Times: Graduate student and professional photographer Erick Danzer is a coffee shop junkie. One recent day he was at Electric Earth Cafe off Regent Street from 10 a.m. until it closed at 11 p.m. The next day he was at Michelangelo’s on State Street most of the day. Free wireless is the No. [...]
Unusual Business Ideas That Work: Linda Franzblau began the party as she always did: by introducing herself to the guests; telling them about Petlane and its products for dogs, cats and birds; and talking about her own dog, Rocket, and her cats, Dot and Dash. Then she came to the point where every party differs–meeting [...]
Charles City Press: The check in his hands wasn’t quite big enough for him to quit his day job, Gaylen Hicok said. But the meaning and feeling behind it is priceless. “It felt really good,� the 54-year-old rural Charles City man reported of receiving his first royalty check from an invention he had patented and [...]
