Archive for November 2008
Tag Helps Dog Owners Meet New Friends
Springwise: It’s a well-known fact that dogs can be conversation starters that help break the ice with people their owners meet. Taking the notion a step further, a new collar tag from Boston-based SNIF Labs lets pet owners forge new connections with fellow dog-walkers, both online and off. Available in a range of colours and [...]
Detroit Free Press: Chris Hart of Eastpointe enjoyed a romantic Sweetest Day dinner with her boyfriend at an Auburn Hills restaurant without worries about driving home after drinking. When it was time to call it a night, a chauffeur for the Designate, a Birmingham-based designated driver service, safely drove the pair back to Macomb County [...]
Bailout Money Heading To Small Bizs
The Wall Street Journal: Small businesses finally are getting their own little piece of the federal government’s ballooning bailout package. U.S. officials announced the federal government as part of a broader package will lend up to $200 billion to institutions that originate consumer loans and business loans backed by the Small Business Administration. The rationale, [...]
Mom Recycles Banners Into Items Worth Buying
freep.com: Pam Klumpp, a Traverse City mom of three, brainstormed a new business when she wondered out loud how to reuse scrap material from a family friend’s banner-making company. Like many people in her community, Pam recycles plastic, glass and paper and has tried to live a green life. Her husband, Brian, works in a [...]
Ethiopian Review: Here are 10 home based business ideas, in no particular order: 1. Translator. In a multi-ethnic society such as the United State, translation service is in big demand. American Translators Association can be a good source of information on how to establish a home-based translation service. 2. Tutoring. You can start a business [...]
Mother/Daughter Team Work Together To Launch Boutique
Pegasus News: Inside what used to be a tuxedo shop is a store with pink walls, a pink chandelier and two white rocking chairs . This place offers mothers, daughters and grandmothers a place to shop together. Teri and Crissy Camp, a mother-daughter pair, are co-owners of Emma’s Boutique on Brinker Road in Denton. Crissy [...]
Astronaut Invents Zero-G Coffee Cup
SPACE.com: NASA astronaut Don Pettit loves his coffee. So it comes as no surprise that he found a way to drink coffee from a cup, instead of the traditional straw, on his day off Sunday aboard the International Space Station. Drinking any liquid in the weightless environment of space could be a messy affair. With [...]
Teen Finds Niche In Talk Air Waves
ChicoER.com: It’s like writing a school paper for Meagan Ting, one of the hosts of Teen Talk at Chico’s public radio station, KZFR. She researches a topic, say, mental illness by surfing the Internet, talking to friends or bouncing ideas off her sometimes co-host, Amber McCready. “We e-mail it back and forth until it’s done,” [...]
Waiting For That Life-Changing Idea? Just Sleep On It
The Times: History is peppered with tales of phenomenal ideas taking shape in sleeping minds; Paul McCartney said that he awoke with the tune of Yesterday in his head, and Robert Louis Stevenson said that the idea for The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde came to him in a dream. But what [...]
Americans Drive Less, Creating a Problem
The Wall Street Journal: When gasoline prices shot over $4 a gallon this summer, Americans didn’t wait for Washington to respond with an energy policy. They took action on their own by driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars. The results are dramatic, but also problematic. The good news is that gasoline consumption has [...]
Year-End Tech & Tax Tips for Smart Small Bizs
MarketWatch: Successful small business owners are constantly balancing the need to invest in new productivity-enhancing technology with the impact on their bottom lines. But between now and the end of the year, with the help of two unrelated economic factors — increased IRS Section 179 deductions and the growing importance of “Black Friday” and “Cyber [...]
Today is a wonderful reminder of why we should be thankful. Although not everyone will celebrate this holiday, hopefully we can all agree on at least one thing that we can appreciate within our lives. Every stepping stone and road block we’ve reached will lead us to something new. Maybe you’re celebrating with a huge [...]
Mom Gives "Girlfriend" Advice To African-American Women
newsday.com: When Bay Shore resident Kimberly Seals-Allers was pregnant with her first child in 2000, she needed straightforward advice geared toward modern, professional, sophisticated African-American moms-to-be. She says she couldn’t find what she craved anywhere. Her own mother’s experiences were geared to a different generation, Seals-Allers says. “She was just appalled that I wanted to [...]
Mom Invents Worlds Easiest Luggage Tag
PRWeb: Travel isn’t getting any easier except for one bright spot called a Luggage Hugger. Divorced and left with nothng but optimism, Lucia Burns, inventor and mother of two sons, spotted an opportunity when planning a trip. After buying new black luggage she realized if it was the only bag on the carousel she still [...]
Inventor Turns Ashes Into Photo Frames
This Is Nottingham: Nick Cranham, of Cinderhill, is giving families the chance to keep their loved ones close after death – by turning their ashes into photo frames. The engineer only used to offer the service to grieving pet lovers but now has applied for a worldwide patent for the idea, which also includes pendants, [...]
Your iPod Can Make You More Productive
LifeHack: The iPod is an incredible organizing device! It takes many shelves worth of CDs and condenses them into one tiny gadget, thereby reducing clutter. Looking at the iPod from an organizer’s point of view, there are some great ways it can help you be more productive too. Here are a few: • Drown out [...]
U.S. Entrepreneurship Rate Down
Inc.: U.S. entrepreneurial activity fell from 12.4 percent of the total workforce in 2005 to 9.6 percent in 2007, according to a joint study by Babson and Baruch Colleges. Despite the decline, the nation’s rate of entrepreneurship was 50 percent higher than in other comparable countries, the study reported. While more businesses were founded in [...]
WTOL.com: What’s a tailgate for the big game without buckeyes — Marsha’s homemade buckeyes? The Perrysburg woman who built a business on the sweet treats is busier than ever and says you can start a successful business, too, if you’re just patient. Dip, dip, dip. “I’ve been making buckeyes 24 years,” Smith tell us. Many [...]
A Thermometer That'll Show Your Kids What They Should Wear
Daily Herald: Kathy McGuire’s son had a tough time understanding that he couldn’t wear shorts when the weather turned cool. Getting strong-willed 4-year-old Ryan ready for preschool in the morning turned into a daily battle. McGuire, a stay-at-home mom with an engineering degree, knew there had to be an easier way. After a great deal [...]
Santa Claus Can Be A Financial Teaching Tool
USA TODAY: Reining in holiday spending gets complicated when your young children really believe that reindeer are involved. It’s one thing to tell teenagers that money is tight this year and there will be slim pickings under the tree. But kids who still believe in Santa Claus see Christmas a bit differently. After all, Santa [...]
Broadband Makes Tiny Town English-Teaching Hub
The Associated Press: The nearest Wal-Mart is two hours away, and only foul weather, a deer in the road or a Washakie County sheriff’s deputy would slow down anyone with a mind to drive there faster. Yet Ten Sleep, population 350, is just as connected as any place these days, and home to a new [...]
Tough Times Call For Can-Do Attitude
Rhonda Abrams At Gannett News Service: I’ve heard a lot of doom and gloom from small-business owners lately. After all, the economy stinks. Headlines scream at us: Consumer confidence is down, unemployment is up. Housing prices are down, business closings are up. In the face of all that, I have a piece of advice, “Pull [...]
5 Tips For Startups And Entrepreneurs
ReadWriteWeb: 1. Don’t focus on growth; focus on cash preservation David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, recommends companies move toward cash preservation rather than growth. “Spend less time worrying about what competitors will do in terms of features, it won’t be your biggest problem because competitors will have same issues in terms of growth,” he said. [...]
Ex-Slinky CEO Remembered As Business Icon
AltoonaMirror.com: Slinky icon Betty James is remembered as a pioneer in Hollidaysburg with a legacy fit for Broadway. Betty (Mattas) James, co-founder and former owner of James Industries Inc., the maker of Slinky Toys, died Thursday evening at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia. ”She was an icon in the community because of that business,” [...]
Inventor Awards Students’ New Product Ideas
The Suffolk Journal: The New Product Innovation Competition, an annual competition open to all Suffolk students, had its third annual award ceremony at the Law School. The competition was established in 2006 by Professor Sushil Bhatia of the Sawyer Business School. First place was awarded to Marrinder Singh, Karen Lassko, Maria Brown, and Rick Baker [...]
Don’t Get A Patent? Plainly Ridiculous!
IPWatchdog: Increasingly on the Internet, invention advertising is taking an odd and seemingly inexplicable turn toward advising independent inventors to not seek patent protection, which is undeniably bad advice that will undoubtedly cause much disappointment and heart break for those who actually follow it. But why is it that you are starting to see more [...]
Woman Turns Passion Into Home Biz
Neighborhood Star: When Sam Schoeler’s husband died two years ago, her life changed in more ways than she could imagine. She began planning a new career that reflects her love of fairy tales and folklore, something that has fascinated her from the time she was a small child. “Planning for this, making prototypes, and writing [...]
Hack Your Day: I see a lot of misconceptions about working from home. Many people think that what happens is we barely make ends meet, but it’s ok because we can get up at 11:00, put in a few hours of work, then spend the day doing whatever we want. For most people who work [...]
Lifehack: When are you at your creative peak? That is, what time of day do ideas flow most easily for you? What activities bring your best ideas to the surface where you can most easily gather them up? A recent survey by the Crown Plaza hotel group suggests that certain times and activities are more [...]
Mom Stitches Up A Business Of Her Own
The MetroWest Daily News: A mom of four, Tina Hill knows a thing or two about trying to keep kids entertained. The West Newbury woman was on vacation with friends three years ago when she came up with the perfect solution — a kids’ backpack and craft project all in one. She launched her business, [...]
PR Web: Baby Swags is a marketing and celebrity gifting firm that specializes in promoting maternity and juvenile related products created by mom-entrepreneurs, and helps them by spreading a buzz about them all around Hollywood. Once a celebrity has a baby, Baby Swags teams up with it’s clients and sends the new celebrity mom and [...]
Make Money Using The Internet: Connect
Seth Godin: Make money: not by building an internet company, but by using the net as a tool to create value and get paid. Use the internet as a tool, not as an end. Do it when you are part of a big organization or do it as a soloist. The dramatic leverage of the [...]
Makes you want to go out and buy some Post-It notes? BTW, these are the same two guys who did the Diet Coke/Mentos geysers.
Springwise: If crowdsourcing can be used to improve product design, music promotion and sports team management—to name just a few of the examples we’ve written about—why not the process of finding sales leads? That question is about to be tested through a new site that aims to put the crowds to work as a sort [...]
Inventor Thinks Outside The (Mail)Box
news10: It all started when Juan Pineda was a victim of mail theft. Valuable checks were lost in that theft, but Juan may have the last profitable laugh. He’s invented a device that sets off an alarm if a mailbox is tampered with. He got a patent for his product and is seeking a manufacturer [...]
Note Taking In The Digital Age
Lifehack.org: There are all sorts of reasons to take notes, and it’s important to first look to these reasons in deciding which particular method of note-taking is best for us in the modern age. Different note taking needs demand different note taking methods and the importance of each of these needs to each of us [...]
Not A Bad Time For Small Bizs To Raise Prices
The New York Times: Some small-business experts are offering advice that may sound counterintuitive in this slowing economy. Now, they argue, may be the perfect time to increase your marketing budget — and even your prices. Here is the rationale, and some tips, for doing so, if you agree. Zig when they zag “If your [...]
World Extreme Fighter Creates A One Stop Resource For All MMA Fans
Like a business, a well-rounded blog will flourish if you have the passion and knowledge required to keep it running. For many, their blog is their business. Domnick Iwasyk, the owner of World Extreme Fighter, is a huge fan of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Using his blog to share his passion with other fans of [...]
Oviedo Cakery Pleases Sweet Tooth With Artistic Touch
Seminole Chronicle: For Prudence Manolov, it’s about the art; it always has been. When she looks at her latest sweet creation standing magnificiently on the table, she has a sense that beauty will always trump bottom line in the artist’s heart. Manolov’s latest design, a birthday cake for her daughter shaped like three overstuffed pillows [...]
Silver Spring Residents Hope Light-Bulb Moments Will Be Rewarded
WashingtonPost.com: Silver Spring residents Catherine Sumi Kay and Shaun Sablowski say they have always had great ideas for inventions but never followed through on them. But now the house mom and the auto parts salesman are channeling their inner Edisons and making good on some of those ideas. Each has patents pending for two products: [...]
Inc.: Customer service is more important than low prices when it comes to luring and keeping loyal customers, according to a new survey by Accenture. More than two thirds of over 4,000 consumers surveyed worldwide said they’ve switched businesses as the result of a poor customer service experience, the New York-based management consulting firm reported [...]
Family Carves Out Niche In Dried Pumpkin Seeds
Capital Press: They look like pumpkins in the field, and the end product is marketed as “pumpkin seeds,” but technically they are squash and squash seeds. Despite the elastic terminology, Autumn Seed Inc. has firmed up its grasp on the market in the past 60 years. Howard Ropp’s father started the business back in 1943, [...]
Get Ready For Internet Sales Taxes In 2009
Forbes: Attention, online shoppers! This may be the last holiday season you can dodge sales taxes by buying presents on the Web. State legislators, retailers and lawyers say 2009 may be the year Internet taxes finally come to pass. The idea, which would levy sales tax on most goods bought online, has been tossed around [...]
WIRED: In the fall of 1972, when David Galenson was a senior economics major at Harvard, he took what he describes as a “gut” course in 17th-century Dutch art. On the first day of class, the professor displayed a stunning image of a Renaissance Madonna and child. “Pablo Picasso did this copy of a Raphael [...]
Ways for Your Small Biz to Save Money
Inside CRM: With the economy struggling, every business is trying to cut costs to make ends meet. Small businesses, which have fewer resources, especially feel the burn. Not to fear. We’ve come up with a mega-list of ways to trim the fat off your enterprise so you don’t become a casualty of the latest economic [...]
Inc.: As the economic crisis grows, Americans are paying less attention to new product launches, posing a serious challenge for emerging businesses, according to a recent survey. Of 1,000 consumers polled in September, 69 percent could not recall a single product launch this year. About 22 percent said they remembered when the Wii Fit hit [...]
Babies Are Her Business; Her Business Is Her Baby
telegraphjournal.com: Jenny Scott enters her store in a whirl of morning energy, her two-month-old son snuggled in a baby sling against her chest. She greets her employees, giving them a quick run-down of the day. She plops down her bag and turns her attention to me with a cheery smile, leading me past strollers, toys [...]
Mom Helping Other Moms Honored
The Press-Enterprise: Danielle Rowan, owner of the Stroller Strides Corona/Norco franchise, won a nationwide contest Oct. 18, beating out 800 other franchise owners who were nominated by the moms in their group. And she really deserves it, said Tessa Husen, one of the 15 moms in Rowan’s group who nominated her. Rowan was named Instructor [...]
Biz Resource: Press Release Grader
Gurnage.wordpress.com: Here is a cool new tool from Hubspot, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that helps small business build their online presence. Now you can have an expert double check your press release at no cost! Cut and paste your press release into the window, complete the form and click on “Grade Press Release.” In a [...]
Ant Farm Grows To Fill Toy Niche
Ventura County Star: A giant remote-controlled ant is crawling across the conference table at Uncle Milton Industries Inc. in Westlake Village. Frank Adler, vice president of marketing, works the controls with a crystal skull device that hints at its branding as a licensed toy from the “Indiana Jones” movie. “Who better to do ants — [...]
