Archive for April 2010
Make Press Releases Available Online
According to a story at Mashable.com, sending out a press release via a paid distribution service is all well and good, but what you also need is a permanent online press area where all releases are posted — preferably at the same time as the release is distributed. Ideally this press area will be on [...]
Entrepreneur Develops ‘Delicacy’ Popcorn
Steve Dale believes he’s developed a better mouse trap — specifically, a better kind of popcorn — and that it’s just a matter of time before the world beats a path to his door for more, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Many retailers, boutiques, novelty shops and coffee houses already are selling Bentley’s Premier Popcorn, he [...]
Young Entrepreneur’s Prize-Winning Wallet
26 year-old Michael Aiello has just won “the people’s vote” at the annual Oxford Entrepreneurs Idea Idol competition at Saïd Business School for his clever range of wallets and passport cases that protect their contents from remote skimming attacks, reports The Telegraph. Aiello came up with the idea while studying radio emission security at New [...]
Selling the clothing her kids have outgrown isn’t necessarily a business or a hobby for Kristen Yartz. It’s more of a way of life, says knoxnews.com. “I don’t really see this as a business. I see it as a way of being more fiscally responsible for your family. Here is something you can do to [...]
Robert Reeve was in basic training with the Canadian Armed Forces when he had a dream. The idea for what developed into Purmist hand sanitizer came to him one night during his training period. Being the sort of man who kept a pad of paper and pen by the bed he was able to write [...]
While passion might not be all you need to keep your business ‘a lit’, without it you wouldn’t have a business at all. For everyone that drive might come from a different source but the result is pretty much the same, says Business Daily. The key is to discover what motivates you — what sets [...]
Medical Marijuana: Entrepreneurs And A Hungry Market
According to a story at CNBC.com, medical marijuana dispensaries are springing up in Colorado’s major cities like coffee shops, nail parlors, tanning salons or taco shops. Though Colorado voters amended the state Constitution to allow the use and sale of marijuana for a variety of medicinal reasons ten years ago, the number of patients and [...]
It’s happy hour, and Julia Royter, a pretty 26-year-old actress, flirts with a well-dressed man in a midtown bar. After a few minutes, she relents and hands over her BlackBerry Pearl for him to enter his number. But she’ll never call. It’s all a crafty promotional trick called stealth marketing. According to The New York [...]
When An Invention Reached New Heights
George Nissen, inventor of the trampoline, died on April 7 at 96, but not before the acrobatics he first tried on the “bouncing rig” he built as a 16-year-old in 1930 (a canvas sheet stretched across a steel frame) became an Olympic event. Nissen was 86 and still capable of executing somersaults on his invention [...]
Manage Your Snail Mail Virtually
When was the last time you calculated how much time it took to sort through all of your business mail, sort through the junk and handle any money you sent or received? If you stop and think about it, you will probably see that simply going through your mail can be very time consuming. What [...]
photo credit: psd It truly is amazing some of the things that customers will try to get away with in all kinds of situations. Take gift certificates for example. People automatically assume that these do not have any sort of expiration date on them (and some may not, but others do), or they try to [...]
New IRS Recomendations For Future Filings
photo credit: mdid In spirit of tax season being upon us once again, I recently came across an article located on The Small Business Watchdog that informs of new recommendations that the IRS is making for future filing seasons. These new changes will not be in effect for the filing of 2010, but here is a [...]
How To Transform Your Regular Business Ideas
photo credit: Daquella manera In business today it is important to have the freshest ideas that you can think of, and it’s even more important to switch up your original ideas whether it is by coming up with totally new ones or just simply tweaking the originals. Look below for some great ideas I think [...]
For those that feel cremation just isn’t enough, there is always resomation. While it’s not quite legal in most places the inventor, Sandy Sullivan, hopes that will change soon, says The Daily Record. His device turns the human body into dust – which can be kept by grieving families – and a coffee-coloured liquid which [...]
Does your small business have something to add to an issue currently being discussed in the news? How about going on a talk radio show to get your message out. According to a story at Understanding Marketing, there are a lot of great radio talk shows on the air that are constantly looking for guests [...]
Bake Sale Saves Home, Inspires Business
When Angela Logan started peeling apples and baking last summer, she not only saved her home but she also started a business, says NorthJersey.com. Eight months after selling enough “Mortgage Apple Cakes” to meet her house payment — and becoming a media celebrity in the process — the 56-year-old Logan is still pursuing acting. But [...]
Google Takes Printing To The Cloud
According to a blog post in The New York Times, Google plans on creating a new way of printing, with all the necessary software needed to print jobs also stored in the cloud. This new Google Cloud Print paradigm is needed, Google says, because with so many different kinds of devices (desktops, laptops, iPads, smartphones) [...]
Many might believe that the times are bad but for a few Memphis entrepreneurs that belief couldn’t be more wrong, says The Commercial Appeal. Despite a recent report by the National Federation of Independent Business that revealed rising pessimism among small-business owners, not everyone considers the economic outlook bleak. In fact, entrepreneur J D Graffam [...]
I Hated Twitter…But Not Anymore
Monika Jansen writes at the Grow Small Business blog about her relationship with Twitter. The reason I hated Twitter was because it was so exclusionary. How do you figure out that tweet jargon, all those @’s and #’s, on your own? How do you find people to follow? How do you un-follow people who are [...]
The 10 Most Profitable Small Bizs
Spiking sales might make for good cocktail conversation, but if you don’t turn a profit–and keep turning one–you won’t be in business very long. With the help of Sageworks, a Raleigh, N.C.-based accounting consultancy and private-company data provider, Forbes assembled a list of the 10 most profitable businesses, on a pretax basis, that aspiring entrepreneurs [...]
What Are People’s Perceptions Of Spam?
Flowtown has put together a graph about SPAM, how we deal with it and why we open it. Photo by Flowtown.
Pamela Slim over at Escape From Cubicle Nation has the answer. My friend’s teenage daughter informed her the other day that she was enrolling in a nail technician class at high school. The friend, who has been prepping her daughter for a good college education since she was a toddler, was less than thrilled. “Why [...]
How To Build A Team That Will Build Itself
photo credit: jurvetson Building a team for your company comes with many different decisions and steps that you will need to take and put into action. Your team will ultimately determine how well or poorly your company does in the future. I have put together some helpful tips on building a successful team that I [...]
How To Bounce Back From A Failure
photo credit: spettacolopuro At one time or another we have or will have an experience of failure, no one is exempt from this part of life. But how we deal with our failure and what we do following our failure is what makes us who we are, it is what defines our character as well [...]
photo credit: William Hook Entrepreneur.com: You would think that marketing trends would be closely aligned with consumer trends, since effective marketing depends on getting your messages to appear where the highest concentration of qualified eyeballs are focused. That isn’t always the case, however, because trend-focused marketers tend to place an inflated value on revolutionary technology [...]
How do one-person businesses get big? They’re always promoting themselves–always. PC World has put together some promotion ideas. Add your web site URL to your e-mail signature. Create a Facebook group for your business. Write a humorous blog about your product or industry (check out Chris Lindland’s Cordarounds blog for ideas). Submit your gems to [...]
Furnish Your Office For Cheap On Craigslist
According to a story at PC World, if you’re starting a new business, hiring on a shoestring budget, or simply sprucing up your home office, you’ll need some new office gear, and you probably won’t want to spend much. Believe it or not, Craigslist isn’t just for used couches and one-night stands; it’s also exceptionally [...]
Recruit Your Star Employees From Twitter
photo credit: hellfroze As we all know Twitter is a large network that is rapidly growing with every week that goes by. So why wouldn’t we contemplate using their network to recruit our star employees for our business? Imagine the endless possibilities with different types of employees that you will find on Twitter, the online [...]
photo credit: javajoba Entrepreneur.com. Your approach to suppliers needs to be a part of your strategic plan since almost every company, whether product- or service-oriented, is dependent on suppliers. Many business owners seem to get this supplier issue backwards. They think that because they write the order, they’re in the dominant position and can exploit [...]
photo credit: Risager Many entrepreneurs think working from a home office will be a dream come true– until they give it a try. The reality of working from home, however exciting the prospect, can be a shock to the system. It’s not all about fuzzy bunny slippers and skipping the day’s shave. As stated on [...]
Supermarket Sales, “10 For $10,” Makes You Buy More
You know when the sign on the bread shelf at Winn-Dixie says “10 for $10,” that’s just wishful thinking on the store’s part, according to a story at Tampa Bay Online. You can just buy one for $1, or three for $3 if that’s all you really need. But the pricing strategy, somehow, seems to [...]
Does Patent Office Snub Inventors Who File Without Attorney?
As reported by Inventors Digest, the independent inventor community is an industrious American subculture that has produced everything from the Segway to Snuggies. Yet according to a recent study by Auburn University business professor Paul Swamidass, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office can be hostile to those who file patent applications pro se, that is, [...]
Age-neutral, board-free and un-scored; fast-paced, portable and creative: These are just some of the words used to describe Bananagrams, a word game invented by Abe Nathanson. The Brown Daily Herald reports that Nathanson explained how the inspiration for Bananagrams came after a two-hour-long Scrabble game with his grandson three or four years ago. Frustrated with [...]
Brilliantcrank over at Engadget has come up with a simple workaround for the iPad printing problem. Have a great weekend! Photo by Engadget.
New in the Directory This Week
One of the often overlooked sections of this website is our directory. Over 2300 different bizops, franchises, dealerships and online opportunities are listed there. Here are the new companies from this week: Business Opportunities Brown Bag Party Chews-4-Health EZ Spices RedHotVend Time Plus Payroll Wish You Were Here Franchises Above Grade Level Frames N Panes [...]
Tours By Locals is a new web site that connects people who are traveling someplace with local experts that could act as their guides, according to a listing on KillerStartups.com. The idea is to maximize local knowledge and let tourists have access to people who could give them a true understanding of any location the [...]
Cool Biz Idea: Home Smart Card
ABC7 reports that the Home Smart Card is a reloadable gift card used to pay for cab rides. The card is sold for $25 and allows you to add additional amounts. It is accepted by most cab companies that accept major credit cards. Inventor Rosette Marturana designed the card because she worried about her 21 [...]
Inventor Makes Retrieving Retrievers Easier
Dog owners that are sick of losing their pets no longer need to worry. Thanks to one inventor, this is one problem solved says Bucks Free Press. The ‘Retrieva’ tracking system was invented by Jon Bryan after this two spaniels Abbey and Oscar did their “usual trick of disappearing” once too often. Realising technology in [...]
Entrepreneur’s State of Mind: 2010
The blog Grasshopper conducted a survey, “The Entrepreneur State of Mind,” and the results have now been summarized in an infographic by Jason Lankow of Column Five Media. How do you measure up? Photo by Column Five Media.
New Invention: Wearable Hummingbird Feeder
Do you love watching birds? Put down your binoculars. A new invention will lure birds right to your nose: It’s a hummingbird feeder that you can wear. It’s called :–2< :, and pronounced “eye 2 eye.”. Here’s a video of it in action:
How much does your child know about the American free enterprise system? At what point do you believe they should start learning about how our country works and the entrepreneurs that help keep so many Americans employed? At Chief Parenting they believe this is an issue that should be taught to them now. After all, [...]
Library Of Congress: Every Tweet Ever Made
Get ready for fame, tweeters of the world: the Library of Congress is archiving for posterity every public tweet made since the service went live back in 2006. Every. Single. Tweet, reports Ars Technica. The LOC announced the news, appropriately enough, on Twitter. Twitter isn’t just about being pretentious and notifying the world about the [...]
Inventor’s Journey From Idea To Market
Andre Nel talks about his inventor journey over at IPWatchdog.com. I admit it! I fell for it hooks, line, and sinker. It seemed so easy! Come up with an idea, file a provisional patent and pitch it to a manufacturer. The manufacturer is so giddy with excitement that they file a patent for you and [...]
Double-Check Demand For Product
Here is an interesting story by Jerry Osteryoung over at HELPING SMALL BUSINESS about making sure people want your product. Marketing 101 demands that before you introduce a new product or start a business selling a new product, you need to make sure there is a solid demand for it. While this sounds so elementary, [...]
Tensions Rise For Twitter And App Developers
The New York Times reports that it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Twitter made it easy for programmers outside the company to build 70,000 applications that made the microblogging service more usable. Without them, people would not be able to post a photo, shorten a URL, monitor several Twitter accounts at once, easily [...]
Tweets Emerge As A Serious Business Tool
The burrito he purchased from Boloco was poorly wrapped, so Harvard senior Anthony Britt tweeted about it on Twitter, the popular social network. The next day, the chief executive of Boloco, John Pepper, responded on Twitter: “can I help or make it up somehow?’’ The conversation between CEO and customer continued over the next few [...]
Twitter Unveils Plans To Draw Money From Ads
Twitter unveiled a much-anticipated plan for making money from advertising, finally answering the question of how the company expects to turn its exponential growth into revenue, says The New York Times. The advertising program, which Twitter calls Promoted Tweets, will show up when Twitter users search for keywords that the advertisers have bought to link [...]
Small Bizs Still Searching For Recovery
Small businesses in the U.S. are still waiting for the economic rebound that’s enabled larger companies to obtain low-interest credit and to boost exports and production in recent months. Smaller companies aren’t much more optimistic than they were in the depths of the recession, according to a survey released by the National Federation of Independent [...]
Income Tax Season Spawns Internet Spammer Scams
USA TODAY reports that with the federal tax-filing deadline looming, spam enticing Internet users to fill out bogus forms at faked IRS websites is flooding inboxes. And slick Web page promotions for overnight tax-preparation services and instant refunds are turning up in Google search results and Twitter micro-blog postings. Be wary, the IRS and tech [...]
Moms, Sisters and Business Partners
You’ll never learn anything if you don’t leave your comfort zone. At least that is how Sarah, writing for WRAL.com, feels about it. Michelle Zimmerman and Karen Dorman, sisters and the mothers of 11 kids total, certainly did that a couple of years ago when they purchased the Twice As Nice consignment sale, which opens [...]
