Business Opportunities Weblog

July 21, 2009 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

SmartMoney:

Paula Conway only needed $3,000 to launch her Westport, Conn.-based travel information web site ConwayConfidential. While she didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay for the site, she did happen to have plenty of sugar, flour and icing.

Rather than ask friends and family to hand her some cash, Conway sold them cupcakes — and the side business swiftly grew. “It just sort of happened,” she says. “Knowing that I needed money for the site, I started to wonder: Would they pay for them?” She says family, friends and neighbors were glad to hand over a dollar or more per cupcake. She even managed to cater a few parties with her cupcake creations. Within six months, Conway met her financial goal.

When software developer, Aaron Foss, and oncology nurse, Keri Mahoney, were trying to raise money for their medical software company, Smart Medical Solutions, which operates SmartChemo.com, they broke out the video camera and created a commercial. The production had nothing to do with the company’s software, which helps oncologists track and administer patients’ treatments, but instead featured the two “playing” Red Stripe beer bottles to the tune of Bob Marley’s “One Love.” The two then submitted the commercial to the beer company’s “Be a Red Stripe Ambassador” contest.

The beer bottle-playing paid off. Foss and Mahoney won the grand prize: a one-week vacation to Jamaica for nine people. But rather than take the trip, which was valued at $40,000, they asked Red Stripe for cash. The company agreed and gave the burgeoning business owners a check for $20,000. “We like to think that Bob Marley is our angel investor,” says Foss.

Photo by SmartChemo.

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Tags: Creativity, Entrepreneurial Lifestyle, Raising Money