Archive for November 2009
Deluxe Enterprise Operations will randomly award a $10,000 gift certificate from Target Commercial Interiors featuring HON furniture and a $5,000 DeluxeBucks gift certificate to use toward logo and Web site design, promotional products and additional marketing and branding solutions. Ten second-place winners will receive $500 DeluxeBucks gift certificates. Enter by November 30, 2009. More information [...]
TCBY (the frozen yogurt stores) is holding a competition to give away a brand new TCBY franchise store for FREE. To enter you must create a video up to 2 minutes long indicating why you should win a TCBY store. Complete the application form and submit it with your video. Legal residents of the U.S. [...]
Inventor Credited With 405 Patents
Inventors are made, not born, and anyone has the potential to come up with new ideas, said Jack Mandelman, a retired electrical engineer, in a story in The Times-News. He should know. Many people have never heard of the Flat Rock resident, but every time they turn on their computer or use a cell phone [...]
Mom Uses Franchise To Cater Underserved Market
Suzanne Plafcan couldn’t find real-estate space for her Clix Portrait Studio franchise right away, reports Entrepreneur. So instead of waiting, she opened just the event-photography side of the business in March 2008. “It turned out to be the best thing I could have ever done,” she says. It allowed her to keep costs down by [...]
Woman’s Trash Is Inventor’s Lawn Treasure
Deidre Booker works hard during the planting season tending her mums, pansies and marigolds in the front yard and a garden of herbs, tomatoes, cabbage and peppers in her backyard, writes The Sun Times . So when Booker heard about the “Glam Can” — a black, 3-gallon, mount-anywhere garbage and recycling can — she snapped [...]
Cakes Might Not Be Real, But Money Is
Kimberly Aya’s career choice was an easy one. When she was just 8 years old, she started designing cakes for her chocolate-loving father–and she hasn’t stopped since, according to a story in Entrepreneur magazine. So her first order of business upon returning home to Michigan was to open a specialty cake shop. Aya started showing [...]
TerryStarbucker had been thinking about looking under rocks for several weeks lately – I always worry about complacency, and it was a perfect analogy for me. Because there’s always a better way to do something – or a better way to analyze something – or present something. The minute we think we have it all [...]
Emily Shankman of Chicago graduated from college earlier this year with plenty of hope for her career. The 22-year-old had studied vocal performance and was learning how to turn her passion for music into a paying career, reports The Wall Street Journal. As a way to get hands-on experience in arts administration, Shankman, who graduated [...]
Moms Products Go From Garage To National Distribution
The Orangeville Banner: If you want to find Chris Llewellyn, your best bet — most days — is to knock on her garage door. That’s where the Orangeville resident spends much of her time creating rustic home décor items for a national distributor. “As anyone who has a small business knows, there’s no such thing [...]
Recession Drives Restaurateurs, Diners To Trucks
Every Thursday night, Lonnie Bishop and Lisa Case have a dinner date. For $5 each, the couple dines on fancy hot dogs served from a food truck parked outside their favorite wine shop in Los Angeles reports Reuters. The fire engine-red truck labeled “Let’s be Frank” is part of a growing fleet of mobile food [...]
The Business Pundit has an interesting list of common product origins. In 1953, three rocket scientists at San Diego’s Rocket Chemical Company tried to develop a substance that would prevent corrosion in rockets by displacing water. They finally succeeded on their 40th try, naming the substance “Water Displacer—40th Attempt.” More than 15 years later, Rocket [...]
Jessica Mah is currently the CEO and Co-Founder behind Indinero, a finance tracking service for small businesses. Mah started her first startup at 13, reports TechCrunch. Indinero creates software to help small businesses better track and manage their finances. Indinero aims to provide its users with instant insights into the finances of their companies, leading [...]
Since free information is abundant, finding a way to sell knowledge or monetize content can be a challenge, reports trendspotter Springwise. Los Angeles start-up Knowledge Genie aims to offer a solution, allowing users to centralize their knowledge on a particular topic and present it in a customizable, tutorial-style package—a ‘Knowledge Genie’—that can be shared for [...]
Construction Worker Wins Tool Invention Contest
Jeff Burns knows the little problems construction workers encounter on the job site. That’s the only business in which he’s worked, reports TheTownTalk.com. He does, however, have a hobby that has now earned him $10,000 in a national television contest. This part-time inventor won top honors on DIY Network’s first-ever “Cool Tools: Inventor Challenge” with [...]
The EZ Cracker….
Foods That (Thankfully) Flopped
Mental Floss has put together an interesting list of foods that didn’t have a very long shelf-life. Coffee-Flavored Jell-O (Celery, Too!) Flower-Flavored PEZ The Chicken Dinner Candy Bar Funky Fries Photos by Mental Floss.
Turning Her Passion Into Thriving Biz
Even as a kid, Krystle Walsh has always been creative. She enjoys doing craft projects, such as beadwork, jewelries, painting and other artistic creations, writes Women Home Business blog. However, she never realized that her passion could be turned into a profitable business. It took the prodding and encouragement of her family members for her [...]
Best Inventions of 2009: The Solar Shingle
TIME‘s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting. The Dow Chemical Co. has developed a new roof shingle that doubles as a solar panel. The shingles, which can be incorporated into rooftops alongside traditional asphalt shingles, use low-cost thin-film cells of [...]
Twitter Launching Paid Biz Accounts
The Telegraph is reporting that Twitter’s co-founder, Biz Stone, said the microblogging service would start charging companies for using the platform from next year. Businesses are under no obligation to sign up to a paid account, but doing so will provide them with a “special layer of access”, including feedback and statistics, said Stone. Many [...]
The hard hits our economy has taken over the past two years have left many businesses looking for ways to cut costs and save money without cutting employees reports Virtuosimedia.com. 1. Renegotiate Contracts 2. Credit Card Terms 3. Bank Charges 4. Time Your Payments 5. Property Taxes 6. Become Energy Efficient 7. Pay Off Higher [...]
Growing A Business During Hairy Times
nwi.com: It took a real leap of faith for anyone to open a business last October when the economy was beginning its meltdown. But that’s what Tracey Sloan did, and she thinks it’s one of the best moves she’s ever made. Although she was working 20 hours a week at a high end salon, Sloan [...]
A Thanksgiving tradition? Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Zoo To Sell ‘Reindeer Gem’ Necklaces
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but dung is running a close second, reports Pantagraph.com. The enterprising “gem”ologists at Miller Park Zoo now are offering necklace pendants from dried reindeer droppings, joining the explosively popular ornaments that debuted last year. “We kept hearing from people who were buying the ornaments, ‘Do you have any [...]
How Do Pop-Up Turkey Timers Work?
According to a story by Mental Floss, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates that 250 million turkeys will be raised in the US in 2009. If recent trends continue, some 45 million turkeys will be eaten this Thanksgiving. Some of those birds will be outfitted with a wonderful little piece of technology that tells [...]
Being trapped at the dinner table for Thanksgiving dinner with the relatives can be enough to drive anyone to the liquor cabinet, but there’s no need for the “Two Buck Chuck” or even a flask this year, so says Brand X. That’s because the nation’s first 100-proof vodka-infused turkey has arrived, and just in time, [...]
Sounds During Sleep Aid Memory
Science has never given much credence to claims that you can learn Chinese or French by having the instruction CDs play while you sleep, reports The New York Times. If any learning happens that way, most scientists say, the language lesson is probably waking the sleeper up, not causing nouns and verbs to seep into [...]
Most of us have done it at one point or another …You see something in a store that you just HAVE to have and no matter what. And no matter if you can afford it or not, and you buy it. The consequences, and the charge to your credit card, will be dealt with later. [...]
Mother & Daughter Brew Up Tea Business
Beloit Daily News: The Elderberry Tea Room is in familiar hands. The owner of the property, Pat Mannino, is running the business with her daughter Jennifer Davenport. “It still looks wonderful after all these years. The house is just as beautiful as it ever was. We are excited about being able to restore it and [...]
Entrepreneurs Adding Side Bizs
Harmony Kaiser has a salon, but has been spending her days off driving to a lab in Beaver County and making deliveries to retailers, reports The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Kaiser is ignoring the economic downturn and pouring her extra funds and time into launching new businesses on the side, even as she keeps her day job. [...]
Wish you had a little more money in your wallet these days? Who doesn’t? CNNMoney reports while the Great Recession is over by most accounts, the Great Income Squeeze lingers on. You’re more likely to have had a pay freeze than a pay raise over the past year; and the average bump up for 2010 [...]
Inventor Pins Hopes On Hot Dogs
Everything about the Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer seems easy, from the idea — a warm, steamed bun makes for a better dog — to the steamer itself, which looks like nothing more than a round, wire grate with a hole in the middle and some crude handles at the side, according to a story in [...]
Best Inventions of 2009: Tank-Bred Tuna
TIME‘s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting. At 8:47 a.m. on March 12, fish history happened in Port Lincoln, Australia. A tankful of southern bluefin tuna — regal, predatory fish prized for their buttery sashimi meat — began to spawn, [...]
Older Operators Make Mark On Franchising
Prior to the economic downturn, Eric Diaz was managing a department that handled futures systems for Merrill Lynch in New York, reports Reuters. Today he’s a full-time pet groomer, riding around Hudson County, New Jersey in a tricked out Mercedes van replete with two 65-gallon water drums, a hydro tub and a host of shampoos, [...]
I just had to share this bit of wisdom I found on the 800ceoread blog. “If someone asks you for money in exchange for the secret to getting rich, it means the secret is to ask people like you for money.” Dan Kennedy
South Florida Moms Create Their Own Opportunities
The Miami Herald: Moms, some recently downsized, are finding niches in all kinds of unique areas. I met Joan Alini, a laid-off school teacher who sells aprons packaged in pie boxes. Crazy? You may think so, but she’s found her target audience in schoolteacher friends — and she’s making money. I also met Mary Pat [...]
Waterproof ‘Bubbles’ For All Labeling Needs
Like many great mom entrepreneurs before her, Michelle Brandriss’ business began out of frustration. She was looking for a customizable kids label that would fit her specific needs and found herself unsatisfied with the options available. Instead of settling for something that didn’t quite fit what she wanted, Michelle leaped into action and created Name [...]
Unnerved by forecasts of grim holiday sales, malls are pulling out all the stops to try and get shoppers in the door. The Los Angeles Times reports at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, aerialists twirl 80 feet off the ground as escalator riders gawk. The mall has bumped it’s holiday marketing spending up one [...]
Will Advertising Spell The End Of Twitter?
MySpace was doomed when the social network became overrun with obnoxious ads. On the heels of newspaper articles alerting users that their friends tweets could actually be an ad, Valleywag predicts Twitter is following in MySpace’s footsteps. The problem, argues Valleywag, isn’t advertorial content, but the fact that the tweets in question look like endorsements [...]
Doctors Express Hopes To Franchise Urgent Care
At his Doctors Express center in Towson, Md., Dr. Scott Burger has spent the last three years tending to the community’s night-time fevers and weekend hurts. USA Today reports the former emergency room physician wants to take the center’s model nationwide, doing for urgent health care what, say, Papa John’s did for pizza — making [...]
Best Inventions of 2009: The YikeBike
TIME‘s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting. It’s like getting your first Big Wheel all over again — and you don’t even have to pedal. An innovative bicycle-design concept derived from the old-fashioned penny-farthing, the YikeBike is a folding electric [...]
RidgeBlade is a wind-power system that can be fitted to buildings with minimum visual impact and maximum energy conversion potential, reports trendspotter Springwise. This micro-generation system employs discreetly housed cylindrical turbines positioned horizontally along the apex of a sloping roof. The slope of the roof naturally channels wind into the turbine chamber, meaning RidgeBlade can [...]
Survey Indicates Joblessness Will Soon Bottom Out
The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released a study which shows that net employment losses are expected to rebound in the first quarter of 2010, the Associated Press reports. The survey predicts that employers will start adding to their payrolls shortly after that. But don’t expect them to ramp up fast enough to replace [...]
Moms Help Fuel The Home Business Boom
CBS5.com: Sasha Nichols couldn’t find interesting looking bows that stayed put in her daughter’s hair. So the homemaker took out the glue gun and made her own. From a little workstation in her garage, her business Bow Bijou bloomed. She started selling bows in local boutiques. “The first few minutes I brought the product in, [...]
Labels That Your Kids Will Love
If you have a child in daycare or in school then you know what it is like to label everything, from cups to clothing, that leaves the house. Traditionally that would mean the use of a permanent marker but now that is no longer necessary. Innovative parents, like Laura Porreca of Lovable Labels, have found [...]
On the sixth floor of a trendy building in San Francisco’s recently renovated Mint Plaza, four former Google employees — scratch that: five former Googlers, with today’s addition of FriendFeed’s (now Facebook’s) Ben Darnell — and a few others are working on things, reports The Los Angeles Times. Founder Jason Shellen is purposely fuzzy with [...]
Firebox.com is calling all creative geniuses, visionaries, mad scientists, tinkerers, ponderers and garden shed inventors. We’ve teamed up with Stuff, the World’s best-selling gadget magazine, to launch Firebox Inventor: a national search to find the next must-have product for 2010 and it might just be your idea that makes it onto our shelves! It could [...]
SmallBizTechnology.com reports that if you accept credit card data you must be compliant with the credit card companies guidelines. This is referred to as Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. You can find a lot of information at the PCI Security Standards Council web site. Of course one option is to NOT store credit card information. [...]
Best Inventions of 2009: The $10 Million Lightbulb
TIME‘s picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year, we’ll feature some of the ones we find interesting. With the flick of a switch, Philips Electronics may have just dramatically lowered America’s electric bill. In September the Dutch electronics giant became the first to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s L [...]
Next Year’s 10 Great Retail Trends
If the recovery stays on course, next year the retailers who survived the recession will begin to reap its benefits such as the market share and real estate coughed up by competitors who didn’t make it. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, reports TheAge.com. Even so, some of the most important expansion strategies that will play out [...]
Copyright Czar Vote Heads To Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Victoria Espinel’s nomination, paving the way for a full Senate vote to confirm the nation’s first copyright czar, reports Wired. No Senate vote date was set immediately for a nominee who was applauded by both the “copyleft” and the “copyright.” Espinel is expected to have a key role for [...]
