Archive for March 2010
We’re very happy to have Wix.com as a sponsor of this website. Here’s some more information about them. Wix.com is a unique free Flash website creation platform that has grown very popular over the last 4 years since its inception. On Feb. 28th it celebrated its 4th anniversary providing the ultimate solution for cutting edge [...]
New Bizop Classified Ads This Week
New listing this week on the Business Opportunities Weblog Classifieds. MLMers: Are You Looking For A GREENER Pasture? An Outstanding Job Opportunity With Unlimited Upside Revenue Potential! Jordan Business Lounge Work Part-time Earn $1, 000 Per Sale Part-time Or Full Time!! Earn $1, 000 Per Sale. How To Start And Market A Dry Cleaning Route [...]
Homes Built of Tires and Trash Lure Environmentalists But Turn Off Bankers
This is the funniest headline I’ve EVER read in the Wall Street Journal: Two of the Three Little Pigs Would Have Trouble Getting a Loan Like many Americans, Jon and Laura Hagar are searching for a lender to refinance their home loan. But banks are leery of the Hagars. Their rural Colorado house is made [...]
Have you ever wondered what makes some mompreneurs so successful? ABC15.com and Tisha Marie Pelletier, owner of Details Event Management, have a few tips that will help you find the solution. Educational and business resources From networking and educational seminars, plus one-on-one mentoring, it helps to get your business headed in the right direction and [...]
A Princess That All Little Girls Can Admire
What little girl doesn’t enjoy pretending she’s a princess? While there might be no real kingdom in their bedroom it is the ability to pretend it’s real that kids really enjoy. In Zaria’s World every little girl is a princess. Created by author and entrepreneur Cheryl Lynn Pope, Zaria is based around the little princess [...]
When a child is too sick to go to day care or school, working parents often have little choice but to stay home and miss work themselves. Not so for those who live in and around Kennewick, Washington, however, where a new company offers bed rest and supervised nursing care for kids with low-level but [...]
Long-distance relationships are difficult enough to maintain among adults, but when young kids are involved, the chances of achieving a meaningful conversation from afar tend to diminish. That’s where Readeo comes in, with a newly launched platform that lets families share bedtime stories through the web, reports trendspotter Springwise. The Chicago-based company’s patent-pending application integrates [...]
Best Money Making Ideas Are Always The Most Simple
Photo by Geek Culture.
Design Swim Shorts, Earn Up To $1,000
From jeans to bicycles, fabrics to sleeping bags, we’ve seen a wide array of products consumers can design themselves. Lest swim shorts aficionados feel left out, however, there’s now a design-your-own site for those too—and it even rewards creators with cold, hard cash, according to a story at trendspotter Springwise. Aiming to do for swim [...]
According to a story in Forbes, after a few long nights at the bar in 2001, Jeffrey Goldblatt decided he was tired of overhearing trashy pickup lines and withering put-downs. He teetered home and set up Rejection Hotline–a phone number women could dish out to their pursuers, leading them to this voice mail: “Hello, the [...]
Could you make an entire business out of tassels? Tassel Depot has. They sell over $50,000 of tassels each month on their website! Chances are the tassel atop the graduation cap or adorning the program or the menu came from Tassel Depot, based in Deerfield Beach. The company, run by Roger Leavy and his wife, [...]
Almost Homemade Rocket Helicopter
The Swisscopter Dragonfly is a small helicopter with rocket engines on the ends of its rotors blades to make them spin. PopSci: The copter makes use of tiny hydrogen-peroxide-powered rocket motors on the tips of the blades, which replaces the traditional engine-powered rotor. Large fuel tanks surrounding the pilot allow the Dragonfly to travel at [...]
Is the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee too much of an imposition on your schedule? If so, then a new invention might interest you. Called Le Whif, the lipstick shaped product is designed to be inserted in the mouth and inhaled, delivering an instant 100 milligram caffeine hit, equivalent to a [...]
Need a new idea for a restaurant? How about World War II food? One restaurant in the UK is serving recreations of the (mostly horrible) food eating in Britain during WWII’s rationing period. BoingBoing has more.
New Biz: Smog Inspection Delivery
photo credit: 29856334@N00 There is one tiny upside to the onerous amounts of regulation that governments continue to generate: they occasionally allow smart entrepreneurs to create businesses that help people navigate through them. Here’s one such story: As Memphis city leaders try to find ways to lessen car inspection wait times like waiving emissions testing [...]
WAHM Group Provides ‘Purposeful Support’
Heather Flanagan knows the challenges that work-at-home moms face, says the Peninsula Daily News. She’s a career-certified business and life coach who works out of her 16th Street home office, often juggling the demands of her profession, a 21-month-old baby and a 9-year-old. So it was no surprise that Flanagan, a life coach for nine [...]
How to Start a Business You Can Sell
The following is a guest post by John Warrillow. Starting a new business? Follow these eight steps to build a business you can sell one day: 1. Identify a scalable product or service Scalable products meet three criteria: Teachable—you can train people or program technology to deliver them. Valuable—your customers want to buy them. Repeatable—you [...]
Most people want to be known as experts in their fields because they think that it will increase their visiblity and sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, establishing yourself as an expert serves another very important purpose: it causes you to become more knowledgeable about other aspects of your niche. In other words, it [...]
The Next Tech Goldmine: Medical Records
According to a story at CNNMoney, there are an estimated 300 to 400 companies in the United States peddling electronic medical records (EMR) systems to the nation’s hospitals, medical clinics and solo practitioners. While some, such as GE Healthcare and NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, are part of corporate behemoths, the vast majority are small, privately [...]
Founded: 2009 What it is: ShoeDazzle is an online membership club that offers subscribers access to “celebrity fashion stylists” and pretty shoes for cheap. It’s kind of like Netflix, for footwear. Success: Exact numbers are difficult to find, but business seems to be good. Kardashian recently broadcast that the site hit the milestone of shipping [...]
The FBI has released its annual “Internet Cybercrime Report” and surprise, surprise; Internet crime complaints are up dramatically, reports Inc.com. Total dollar losses related to Internet crimes reported to the FBI topped $559 million dollars in 2009. That’s up from $264 million dollars in 2008. That’s what I call a dramatic increase. Either cybercrime is [...]
In 2005, new college graduate Angela Carr and her slightly younger sister Christina Cummings found themselves buying the rights for a small, super-absorbent hair towel from Pittsburgh Plastics, a company that the sisters felt was vastly underutilizing the product, according to a story at Inc.com. The women renamed the hair towel the Turbie Twist and [...]
Make Procrastination Productive
Gina Trapani has an interesting look at procrastination over at Fast Company. Procrastination is a huge productivity problem with no obvious solution: everybody does it, and no matter how smart and efficient you work, you’re always going to do it in some capacity too. The only thing you can do is choose to get SOME [...]
While PayPal has been less and less relevant, thanks to competitors like Google Checkout and Amazon, they may just stage a comeback with an idea that’s cute and useful at the same time: a bump-triggered iPhone app, reports Fast Company. Bump Technologies, the company that makes the Bump iPhone app, provided the underlying tech for [...]
Your Invention Doesn’t Have to Be Sexy
A reader wrote: I have designed a whole family of new handtools based on my three patents relating to a pliers-like approach to nail and staple pulling. Although it isn’t very sexy, it IS very relevant for reuse and demolition and responsible deconstruction because my tools dramatically reduce the time spent getting rid of nails. [...]
photo credit: markgee6 WSJ: Most bank managers fret about bad loans or a run on deposits. Luzia Moraes has to worry about a leak in the hull, bandits and rainstorms that keep clients away for weeks. Ms. Moraes, a 43-year-old former housewife, is at the helm of a swashbuckling new venture in Brazil—as manager of [...]
Sometimes a stressed out mom just needs a little pampering. That’s why Erin Van Oene, a mom herself, decided to launch her business, Time Out Beauty Retreat. Her salon and spa not only pampers mom but takes care of the ones that wear pampers too, reports the Edmonton Journal. At the aptly named spa, everyone [...]
Stimulate Your Babys’ Mind With Your Shirt
Did you know that visual stimulation can help your baby develop their vision faster? Visual stimulation is just one piece of a whole stimulation program that is geared towards helping babies improve their “curiosity, attention span, memory, and nervous system development.” If you haven’t heard of it before now, you’re not alone. While many parents [...]
Amazon Kills Affiliate Program In Colorado
Amazon has pulled the plug on its affiliate program in Colorado thanks to a new state regulation on sales tax collection, reports arsctechnica. The company sent a notice to its Colorado-based affiliates to let them know about the decision, urging residents who depend on the affiliate program to contact their lawmakers if they want the [...]
Recession Delaying Retirement For ‘Middle Boomers’
More Middle Boomers — those 52 to 58 years old — expect to work about five years beyond their planned retirement date, thanks to the recession, according to a new study of that segment of 29 million people, reports WalletPop. The “MetLife Study of Boomers in the Middle” showed 54% saying they were behind in [...]
Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months, according to a story in USA TODAY. States from New York to Hawaii [...]
Mad Men’ Dolls In A Barbie World
After three seasons, “Mad Men,” the television series about advertising in the 1960s, has attained a level of popular-culture cachet, reports The New York Times. There have been magazine cover articles, calendars and an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” all devoted to it, spoofs on “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live,” and even a [...]
If your local restaurant starts charging you a fee to cut to the front the line during busy hours, you can blame the Boston Red Sox. Former Red Sox player Jerry Remy is offering diners at his new sports bar a $500 “Season Pass” so they can be served before other patrons during the televised [...]
Outsource Your Tasks For 5 Bucks!
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get help with random tasks like creating a new business card, proofing and reviewing your resume or editing a photo? That’s the idea behind a new service, Fiverr, which connects you with users who will do almost anything you want for $5, reports WalletPop. You can connect with [...]
Company Hopes To Fill A Niche As Electric Cars Emerge
As the era for electric transportation begins, Mahi Reddy hopes to fill in a big piece of the electric car puzzle, reports The Washington Post. Sure, homeowners can run a cord from an outlet to the environmentally friendly vehicle, but what if you don’t have a garage? What if you live in an apartment and [...]
Keeps Rubbish In, Keeps People Out
The inventor of the wheelie bin lock, Geoff Marshall, hopes people will find that his creation is anything but rubbish, reports The Star. Geoff Marshall, aged 70, has designed a range of wheelie bin locks to keep them secure to reduce the risk of them being set alight by yobs or rifled through by identity [...]
Saving The World, One Mommy Blog At A Time
If you’re looking for parenting advice, asking your mother or a neighbor might not be your first choice. At a time when nearly everyone seems to be hooked into the internet there is bump in the number of moms that are dishing the information you seek right on their own blogs, reports Keloland.com. And blogs [...]
Want To See Entrepreneurs? Go To China
Business Week: As MIT political scientist and China expert Ed Steinfeld says, “China [is] one of the most entrepreneurial places on earth.” Perhaps this observation doesn’t surprise you, given what’s been happening to the Chinese economy in recent years. But you might not recognize how widespread entrepreneurship is in China, or why the country is [...]
Arabic Food Popular with US Marines
photo credit: avlxyz WSJ: Denise Hazime, a Muslim woman, contacted food services officials here last July with what she thought might sound like a preposterous proposal: She wanted to open an Arabic food stand on the largest Marine base on the West Coast. It turned out to be an appetizing idea. Marines returning from Iraq [...]
Female Entrepreneurs Less Profit Driven, More Risk Adverse
SanLouisObispo.com: The American public’s attitude toward female business owners hasn’t changed much in recent decades, according to a new national survey, with 94 percent saying women only want to contribute to the family income and not grow a business. A nonprofit organization, Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, commissioned the survey, and a woman-owned [...]
Entrepreneur Is Concocting Her Own Food Creations
Needless to say, after 26 years working in the food industry Karen Swisher knew what tasted good and what did not. During that time she created interesting foods, such as microwavable English muffins, low-fat donuts and host of other products, many of which has been sold through companies like Carnation/Nestle and Jenny Craig, reports SGVTribune.com. [...]
The following is by Brenden Sherratt of In The Shark Tank. There is no news yet about a second season of Shark Tank, but if you’re interested in pitching your business to wealthy investors than Dragon’s Den is your show. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has started a coast-to-coast search for creative ideas and money-making businesses. [...]
Eleven Year Old Game Inventor To Appear On Ellen
Using a few household items, $11 worth of plastic ducks and an idea, Riley Magnuson has created a new pool game and landed himself on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Reports The Orange County Register. Riley is the creator of a swimming pool game he’s named and trademarked “Chuck the Duck.” Riley and his mother, Christine [...]
Mom Turns Passion For Fitness Into A Business
Knoxville News Sentinel: Ironically, when friends complimented Carlene Steenekamp about how good she looked after the birth of her last child in 2007, their words had an opposite effect. “I got so tired of hearing, ‘Oh, you look great to have had three kids.’ I know friends meant well, but that was a backhanded compliment,” [...]
Take A Lesson In Entrepreneurship
Gregg Fairbrothers wasn’t born into business, he was actually raised in an academic household, reports Fortune. “I didn’t know a debit from a credit,” he admits. Fairbrothers studied earth sciences at Dartmouth in the ’70s, got his master’s at Rutgers, and eventually moved to Tulsa, where he joined Samson, a gas driller, and earned his [...]
Brazilian Entrepreneurs Thrive On The Web
According to the BBC, the online revolution in Brazil has opened up new opportunities to create small businesses that never existed before. Fabio Seixas is a 35-year-old “serial entrepreneur” whose three previous businesses went bust. But he appears to have struck gold with an innovative way of selling designer T-shirts online, by getting his customers [...]
A Swiss Army Knife For Knitters
It all started with Barbara Barry’s new hobby, knitting. Whenever she’d learn something new she would find herself shopping at her local craft store for that new piece. Eventually those pieces would find themselves lost at the bottom of her knitting bag. So Barry took to the net in search of an all-in-one kit that [...]
Daughter Inspires Homemade Soap Business
18wlfi.com: When Lafayette mom, Jenny Reynolds’ young daughter developed eczema, she had no idea it would lead to a new business idea. “We did the steroid creams for a while but we wanted to something more natural,” Reynolds said. After trying a bar of natural soap, she and her husband were hooked. They decided to [...]
High End Fashion For Plus Sized Women
Nothing is more troublesome than trying to find high quality, high end fashions… especially if you’re a plus sized woman. The reality is that there is a growing niche in the clothing market, a niche that many stores are not that quick to fill. A plus sized woman herself, Michelle just wasn’t able to find [...]
