Marketwire:
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) new businesses have a 50/50 chance of failure within five years. Many failed businesses are based on a complex idea or product and some of the most successful grew out of someone seeing a simple solution to a problem.
English entrepreneur Kay Illingworth used her need to lose a few pounds to develop a winning business idea.
She created the stunningly simple Diet Plate, a dinner dish marked with proper portion sizes for proteins, carbohydrates and fats, as an alternative to tallying up calories or weighing out every morsel. Illingworth devised a solution that worked for her and translated it into plates and calibrated cereal bowls for men, women and children.
Each is sold with a 36-page booklet which includes tips and weight loss chart. The product debuted in 2000, has distributors in the U.S., Canada and South Africa, and recently debuted in Australia.
Manny Gaunaurd is another smart entrepreneur who saw a trend and built a successful business on a simple idea — Hispanic cookware and gadgets. He recognized that these small appliances and cookware helpers, such as tortilla warmers, were an emerging and underserved category with huge growth potential.
So in 2006, Gaunaurd partnered with Colombian housewares brand, IMUSA, to expand the brand’s presence in the U.S. market with items commonly found in Hispanic kitchens.
Photo by The Diet Plate.