Archive for July 2007
Big Business While Raising 5 Kids
First Coast News: More and more women are starting their own businesses. It’s a trend that’s happening worldwide including here on the First Coast. One local woman entrepreneur has a successful wealth management business in a male dominated industry. Kristin McLaughlan is a mom who does it all. She has five children and she runs [...]
Mom Cuts Down On Germs In Public Restrooms
KCBD: One local mom was looking for ways to protect her kids from germs when they had to “go” away from home, but that wasn’t enough. Her germ-free quest has become a business. It started with a simple problem of when kids “Gotta go.” “They would have to grab hold of the toilet seat. They [...]
Carmi Woman Expands Her Business
The Carmi Times: Robin Nichols, a rural Carmi wife, mother and businesswoman, expanded her business recently into a building at 307 W. Kerney St. in Carmi after the business experienced dramatic growth over the last two years by offering a wide range of embroidery, silk-screen and sign services. The former Robin Miller grew up the [...]
Decorative Lighting Trend Electrifies Woman's Online Business
Daily Herald: While sitting on her deck one evening with her husband, Chris Marchewka envisioned a strand of lights to brighten things up. The idea for a business selling decorative lights sparked soon after. She had a difficult time finding exactly what she wanted. Three years ago, Marchewka launched Oogalights.com to sell party and decorative [...]
Coastal Sales Center Helps Single SAHM Mom
EWorldWire: There are a few Internet small business opportunities out there that are worth the time and money required to invest. Recently, Brenda Rasa, a 43 year-old single mom has found the road to financial freedom with a great product and unique business model. That product is Coastal Vacations, a lifetime discount vacation membership, and [...]
Workshop: How To Sell & Value A Small Business
WORKSHOP TITLE: How To Sell & Value A Small Business WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:70% of all California small and mid-sized businesses never sell when they are put on the market. Selling a business is not like selling a piece of real estate or any other type of asset. This webinar is designed for California small and mid-sized [...]
How to Avoid Being Audited When You’re Self Employed
The following is a guest post from Jimmy Atkinson of Ask the Advisor, where it was originally published. The IRS states that most people who are picked for audits are selected by computer analysis, an entirely random affair. The number of audits is low, and your chances of an audit are actually slim. Plus, a [...]
Why Isn’t the Video Resume More Popular?
I’ve always thought that this was a fantastic idea. What’s wrong with it? Freakonomics Blog: Why, in a world of excellent, cheap, and fast technology, hasn’t the video resume become more popular? It’s certainly not unheard-of, and maybe one infamously over-the-top video resume scared some people off. But I am still surprised that we are [...]
Top 25 Alternatives To Venture Capital
BusinessFund.com: Angels Private Placement Initial Public Offering Bootstrap Financing Fund From Operations Licensing Launch Customers Vendor Financing Sweat Equity Self Funding SBA Loans SBIR and STTR Programs State Funding Home Equity Loans Community Banks Microloans Finance Debt Silent Partner Friends Family Form A Strategic Alliance Sell Some Assets Business Lines of Credit Personal Credit Cards [...]
Attention: Door to door solictors My wife just slammed the door in the face of an another unsuspecting salesman because he asked “Are your parent’s home?” Photo by massdistraction.
Menu Master Launches National Expansion Program
Menu Master, one of the largest providers of free menus and placemats to restaurants, has finalized its national expansion plans and will offer franchises across America. Founded in 1995, the Pennsylvania-based company began casually offering franchises last year. With franchises now in three states, the goal is to have 25 franchises within four years. “Menu [...]
Searching for Clients From Above
Wall Street Journal: When a customer recently inquired about roofing five apartment buildings in Grass Valley, Calif., Jay Saber didn’t bother to jump in his truck to drive out and take measurements. Mr. Saber, the owner of Saber Roofing Inc. in Redwood City, Calif., instead punched the addresses into Google Inc.’s free Earth software to [...]
CNet: GPS on a watch? Been there, done that. Just check out Timex and Suunto with their extensive stable of GPS watches. Casio used to have one, but this was apparently discontinued. However, like the enigmatic James Bond, the Japanese never say die. So back to the drawing board Casio went, and the result was [...]
PopGadget: If you, or more likely, your parents, are having trouble reading the computer keyboard, get one of these Large Print Keyboards, which feature extra large keys and USB and PS2 connections. US $49.95. Photo by FirstStreetOnline.
Business Week: In 2005, Larry Andreini approached two entertainment producers about a possible television show, but their meeting didn’t lead to a TV hit. Instead, the pair gave Andreini the concept that would become his next business: Ridemakerz, a do-it-yourself custom model car retailer. At the time, the pair, Gillian MacKenzie and Jane Startz, had [...]
PopGadget: Looks like the convergence bug bit someone in the USB hub community. It’s too soon to tell, as the first shipments aren’t expected until mid-July, but so far being optimistic about a full recovery seems pretty futile. Obviously not content with creating a simple hub that adds another 4 USB 2.0 ports to a [...]
Making Money With Clever T-shirt
Gizmodo: Some clever Brits at the Harry Potter Plot Enlightenment Project have come up with a product that piggybacks on the fanaticism of the final Harry Potter book. They have produced a spoilsport T-Shirt that will make children cry and their parents call you every name under the sun. It contains spoilers from the final [...]
Inc.: With a lifelong interest in fashion, Alison Barnard used the skills she learned while attending Babson’s business school to start in-jean-ius, her own retail store, centered around the one must-have clothing item for women: the perfect-fitting pair of jeans. Barnard stocks the store, which is located in Boston’s newest hip neighborhood, the North End, [...]
PopGadget: Balanced. Simple. Stunning. There’s nary another word needed to describe the 9-Volt light from designer Richard Lawson. Elegantly balanced against its power source, the 9-Volt light is an exact replica of a 9-Volt battery, but instead of a copper top, this ‘battery’ boasts high-powered LEDs to light up the night. A perfect replacement (or [...]
Ecommerce-Guide.com: eBay Performance! Selling Success With Market Research & Product Sourcing” is a clear, readable, almost fool-proof guide to discovering what sells on eBay, obtaining viable product and selling it in an effective way. The authors are experts in their fields: Robin Cowie is president of WorldWidebrands, for years an eBay licensed provider of wholesale [...]
Business Travelers Feel Less Safe
Inc.: Facing everything from political coups to rocket attacks, many business travelers feel employers aren’t doing enough to protect them, a recent survey found. Of more than 1,000 business travelers polled, nearly half said they felt the world was becoming a more dangerous place for business travel. Yet, 52 percent said they aren’t provided a [...]
Baby Carrier Business Booming On Maui
Star Bulletin: It was an incredible plum for ERGObaby Inc., a small business on Maui. The company’s baby carriers appeared in Parenting magazine’s 20th anniversary issue, listing 20 products the magazine’s editors were “so glad were invented in the past 20 years.” “We were just thrilled,” said ERGObaby Sales Manager Angela Pennette. Only 20 products [...]
'Quilt In A Day' Grows Piece By Piece
North County Times: Although Quilt in a Day started out as a way for Eleanor Burns to support her family, it has evolved into a multimillion-dollar corporation in nearly 30 years. Burns, of La Costa, said Quilt in a Day started in her home in 1978 with the completion of her first book, “Make a [...]
St. Petersburg Times: Lynne Oliver, 34, is a stay-at-home mother of three who juggles the responsibilities of family life with the demands of working for two businesses from her home in Spring Hill. A few months ago, she found the support of other multitasking moms when she joined Working Moms and Little Helpers. Tracey Coker, [...]
WAHMs Learn To Write Articles That Create Traffic
PR Leap: Denise Willms, co-owner of WAHM-Articles, joins the Smart Moms Professional Series Summer Edition to show work-at-home-moms (WAHMs) how to gain more website traffic by writing and submitting online articles. Every website owner wants more visitors for his or her website, but when you’re a mom with a home-based business, how can you compete [...]
PopGadget: Concerns about protecting your PC from prying eyes could be quite valid. In which case, the Security Ring by designer Yang Hai could perhaps let you wander in peace. Essentially, this strange-looking device (still a design concept) consists of a base station which is connected to the PC and a ring which you wear [...]
Buy Local—With Town Currency
Business Week: Steve Carlotta, owner of the camera store Snap Shop, had been losing business for the last five years to discounters on the Internet. Then, in September, 2006, his town launched a currency program called BerkShares designed to strengthen the local economy by encouraging consumers to support local businesses. Participating businesses agreed to offer [...]
PopGadget: As anyone with Blackberry Thumb can attest, after 8 hours on your favorite gadget, you’re dying for a full-sized keyboard. I was never interested until there was Bluetooth wireless technology. (We’ve written about foldable keyboards before, but none this small and convenient.) With its unique folding design you can put this puppy in your [...]
Ecommerce-Guide.com: eBay Performance! Selling Success With Market Research & Product Sourcing” is a clear, readable, almost fool-proof guide to discovering what sells on eBay, obtaining viable product and selling it in an effective way. The authors are experts in their fields: Robin Cowie is president of WorldWidebrands, for years an eBay licensed provider of wholesale [...]
Inc.: When Kathryn Kerrigan, a former college athlete, entered the professional world, she was discouraged by the lack of stylish shoes for tall women. At six-feet tall with a size 11 shoe, she began looking for solutions. While getting her MBA, she drafted a business plan for a company that sold dress shoes to women [...]
Domain Name Sells For $350 Million
TechCrunch: Business.com has closed another chapter in its long journey from a $7.5 million million domain name bought on a hope and a prayer, selling to RH Donnelley for $350 million. RH Donnelley beat out Dow Jones and the New York Times during the bidding. The site had been on the block since late June [...]
Inc.: Seth Berkowitz started baking cookies for friends out of his University of Pennsylvania dorm room, and soon realized there was money to be made running late-night deliveries. From a one-man operation, Insomnia Cookies has grown to seven locations, with eight more opening this year. College students (and now residents of New York’s Greenwich Village) [...]
DeseretNews.com: After her son, Noah, was born, Jessica Singer was excited to send out birth announcements, complete with a picture of her new baby. However, she was dismayed six weeks later when the cards arrived in the mail — she thought they looked terrible. Graphic design is something Singer has always enjoyed, so she decided [...]
Silpada Celebrates It's 10th Year
KansasCity.com: Ten years ago two Johnson County moms who loved to accessorize started a sterling silver jewelry company they named Silpada. Close to 5,000 of their closest girlfriends — Silpada chicks — have come to Kansas City this week to help them celebrate their 10th anniversary. And, as if Bonnie Kelly and Teresa Walsh needed [...]
Red Ferret: The Kaito MP3 Radio Recorder has a removable MP3 player that allows you to record AM, FM, and shortwave radio broadcasts for future playback as digital files. The MP3 can be programmed to record a radio station at a specific time, it has 256 MB of internal memory (enough for 10 hours of [...]
Red Ferret: Well it had to happen didn’t it? The marriage of the fortune cookie and the Mystic 8 Ball. The offspring is a plastic fortune cookie which you shake to obtain your answer. Be warned, iChing it’s not. “Future sweet like cookie!â€? That is what Smart Cookie says and Smart Cookie knows everything! The [...]
Red Ferret: The Memole Pad seems to be a kind of re-writable message pad which is based around the venerable Etch-a-Sketch technology. Of course, since this is a Korean site we could be completely wrong, but we’re willing to take a risk. Could this type of retro tech find other uses, like note takers and [...]
Watching TV Could Cost You $1 Million
SavingAdvice.com: When people ask me what was the best decision I made when I decided to create this website, they are often surprised when I tell them that it was my decision to quit watching TV. There is no doubt that TV costs people far more financially than they believe. For most people, TV is [...]
GizMag: Personal transportation is exactly what you make it – for some the term conjures up pictures of Segways, Toyota I-units and electric bicycles, while for others, no less than a few tons of metal and a V8 motor will do. Armchair Cruisers has added a new niche to the personal transportation market with its [...]
Company Finds Niche With Locally-Made Videos
NewsTribune.com: Fifty-one-year-old filmmaker Michael Moyer has a growing business that now is leading to a growing public interest in the Jefferson City community. Moyer, president of Niche Productions, currently has three on-air productions and five shows in production. One of his most popular airings, “The Tying Bench,� teaches viewers to tie flies for fly fishing [...]
Inc.: A majority of small businesses are struggling with high gas prices, according to a new survey. An online poll by the National Association for the Self-Employed found 74 percent of owners said high gas prices were significantly or moderately hurting their businesses, while 44 percent said they have raised their own prices as a [...]
EDN.com: Q: I have an idea for a new product. I take material from company A and give the material to company B to refine the material, and then give it back to company A to make a final product. Do I have any claim to intellectual property on my idea? I do not work [...]
Single Mom Becomes Executive Regional VP
dBusinessNews: Colleen Hill was a broke, single parent with a daughter living in Los Angeles. She made a small investment in a home-based business and in less than a year achieved one of the top positions in Arbonne’s Swiss Health & Wellness Company. She went on to build a million dollar home-based business within two [...]
Internet Based Moms Gains International Flavor
eMediaWire: A new era in Internet business began quietly earlier this summer when the popular website Internet Based Moms underwent a change in leadership. Head office operations transferred across the Atlantic as Mila Sidman, an American expat now living in England, purchased the site from Canadian Alice Seba for an undisclosed amount. “We kept the [...]
Think Geek: Kind of like the moon appearing after the sun goes down, these Solar LED Address Numbers illuminate at night making the numbers easy to read. The unit turns on automatically and lights up using two bright white LEDs. Mounting is simple (no wiring or timers) with the included hardware. The number plate itself [...]
Forbes: A while ago, you had an idea for a new company that would change the world. You stayed up all night feverishly sketching your plans for global domination. Yet there you are, months later, still sitting in your cubicle, that brilliant flash a distant memory. Wake up: Not every idea–even a great one–turns into [...]
Think Geek: Having a bunch of dangling power cords seems to be standard issue for a geek these days. With all our gadget goodies (iPod, cell, Bluetooth headset) needing a daily re-charge it’s an unavoidable situation. However, we have recently located a small accessory that can provide some much needed organization to your power cord [...]
The Christian Science Monitor: In the 12 years since eBay’s launch, the online auction house has established itself as a one-stop shop for all things rare, kitschy, and collectible. But recently, a small group of economists have mined the site for a different prize: clues on how people spend their money. Behind the millions of [...]
Think Geek: When geeks grow up to be parents, they often end up having geek kids of their own to raise. Those little geeklings, as cute as they are, end up spending a lot of time on the computer, which is equal parts gratifying and frightening to their parental units. Safety is an issue – [...]
Small Biz Trends: The U.S. Census has new statistics out — and they show that the numbers of single-person businesses are booming. There are now over 20 million such businesses, based on the most recently available data as of 2005. To be exact, the United States has 20,392,068 single-person businesses. In the space of three [...]
