Archive for February 14th, 2008
Giving Your Child The Blue Bird Baby Touch
If you haven’t heard of Etsy, I’m a little surprised. The website has been growing in popularity recently, especially because all the items sold there are handmade. Those who haven’t had much luck selling handmade items on other websites or through other e-store websites generally find that it’s easier on Etsy. Erin Wallace is a [...]
Economist.com: From his grand top-floor office in Berkeley Square, Lakshmi Mittal commands a westward view over London’s West End to Kensington Gardens, where he lives in one of the city’s swankiest houses. The giant swimming pool in its basement is one reason why the leader of the world’s steel industry, and Britain’s richest man, looks [...]
Two Baby Sling Enterprises Are Growing Up In North Texas
The Dallas Morning News: In many countries, women use long strips of cloth to tie their babies to their bodies while they’re working or doing chores. In Mexico, the slings are called rebozos. In Dallas, they’re sometimes called EllaRoos, sometimes Hotslings. The women, Vesta Hartman Garcia, founder of EllaRoo, and Kristen DeRocha, founder of Hotslings, [...]
Web-Savvy Mom's Design Firm Takes Wing From Home
SignOnSanDiego.com: In designing a Web page for her online baby clothing boutique four years ago, Oceanside resident Staci Brillhart unwittingly tapped into a market niche of moms trying to run businesses from home. Requests from friends and acquaintances who wanted her to tinker with the Web sites for their own startup companies came streaming in, [...]
Sierra Vista Herald: The dumb waiter has evolved with one local man’s invention. Patrick Schmitt has his patent pending for “My Personal Waiter,” a motorized lowering device for kitchen cabinets. The “waiter” works like an elevator for your dishes or canned foods. With flip of a switch, the shelves are lowered down toward the kitchen [...]
Gizmodo: “Scientists in China and Australia have developed a method of cleaning fabric using nanotechnology that avoids dunking clothes in soapy water, before scrubbing and rinsing. The titanium dioxide-based coating bonds to silk and wool and uses sunlight to automagically decompose dirt, stains and microorganisms, meaning smelly socks could be a thing of the past—something [...]
When Just Handing Over A Ring Won’t Do
The New York Times: I am thinking of proposals because it is almost Valentine’s Day — the most depressing or the most romantic of holidays, depending on your view — one of the big four holidays to propose. The others, according to Anja Winikka, associate editor of the WeddingChannel.com, are Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. [...]
Reuters: Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more “heartache leave” on offer as they get older. Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry [...]
Can’t Buy Me Love (For Under $120)
CNNMoney.com: Unlike housing prices and interest rates, Cupid’s costs are expected to go up in 2008. According to a study issued Monday by the National Retail Federation (NRF), the average consumer plans to spend $122.98 on Valentine’s Day, up from $119.67 in 2007. Total retail spending for the Feb. 14 holiday is expected to reach [...]
Fixed Costs: The Enemy of Success
The following is a guest post by Kyle James. Online companies that have high fixed costs, especially when those fixed costs are associated with office equipment, inventory, warehousing, and high distribution costs have the hardest time making money. A company that fit into this category was WebVan, an online grocery delivery service that went bankrupt [...]
Cafe and Play: Intuit ‘Just Start’ Winner
When Alissa and Noah DeRouchie take their two toddler sons to a restaurant, they dream of eating at a place that has no whine as they dine. That dream just got one step closer to reality, courtesy of Intuit Inc., sponsor of the Just Start contest in which the couple was voted grand winner. The [...]
For Specialty Retailers, Love Is in the Air
Inc.: When it comes to matters of the heart, do small businesses have an edge on their larger competitors? While Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other holidays generally boost sales across most retail categories, Valentine’s Day tends to bring out shoppers seeking more specific items — cards, flowers, chocolates, candles, gourmet dinners and other tokens of affection, [...]
Money Magazine: For Jessica Jensen and Jason Pelletier, running a business together seemed like a natural. They had worked together in the late 1990s, when they both put in 60-plus-hour weeks as consultants, helping other companies figure out better ways to run their businesses. They had complementary skills – hers in marketing and sales, his [...]
