Archive for April 2010
Ever wonder what happens to the people after they’ve left the Dragons Den? The Yorkshire Evening Post recently talked with Barry Haigh, inventor of the Baby Dream Machine, a device that creates a gentle, rhythmic motion that lulls your child into a peaceful slumber, to answer that very question. He appeared on the BBC2 show [...]
At first glance it might look like all a good knitting project requires is a pair of knitting needles and some yarn. However, upon closer inspection, you’ll soon find that it also includes a lot of little extras. Where does it all go when not in use? Either it makes its way down to the [...]
New Bizop Classified Ads This Week
New listing this week on the Business Opportunities Weblog Classifieds. A New Mlm Company Is Born In The U.s. Income For Life Worldwide Business! 7 Days Free Trial. Professional Assistant Week Evolv Health: New Pre-launch Home Business Evolv Health Is Breaking All Records Evolv Health: New Mlm Company Pre Launch Evolv Health Breaking All Records [...]
Food Shops Bring Back Carhops On Skates
Q: What’s got eight wheels and fries? A: A roller-skating carhop. USA TODAY reports that carhops — particularly skating ones — are making a mini-comeback in the ultracompetitive world of fast-food dining. Call it a cultural backlash to the ultratechy, assembly-line world of fast food and drive-throughs that spit out orders faster than you can [...]
Looking for the perfect name for your new restaurant? What could possibly be more charming than calling it ‘Rat’s’ asks AOL Small Business? There is such a place: Rat’s Restaurant in Hamilton, New Jersey, which is Zagat-rated and an OpenTable.com Diners’ Choice winner. The place, named after the character Ratty in The Wind in the [...]
UMass Boston Launches Entrepreneurship Center
While the best way to learn about business is to get hands on, there are also plenty of lessons to be learned through college courses on the topic. To help their business students get the most out of their education, UMass Boston has launched the entrepreneurship center, says Mass High Tech Business News. The center [...]
Wipe Shirt Puts Cleaning Power Up Your Sleeve
Are you looking for an easy way to clean your grimy mobile device? Husband-and wife-run company FIFT has the answer in the form of the stylish Wipe Shirt, reports AOL Small Business. Designed by Katsunari and Ami Igarashi, this white button-down shirt is equipped with a built-in microfiber cloth for gently wiping down mobile devices [...]
Two Women Go Pro With Coupon Clipping
After spending two years clipping and saving through the use of coupons, Kasey Trenum and Kelly Thompson have started teaching others how to do what they do through day long workshops, says the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The Time 2 Save workshops teach the concept of creating a pantry stockpile by buying enough of an [...]
EZ Spices Makes Indian Food Easy
When you’re putting together the perfect dish, a pinch of this or a dash of that can become, well, troublesome. If you put too much of something it can completely destroy the taste of your whole dish. EZ Spices takes the guess work out of Indian food with their premixed spice mixes. For those that [...]
All Things Possible In Baseball And Biz
Rhonda Abrams over at Gannett has an interesting take on baseball and business. I like that baseball has history and promise. Strategy and sacrifice. Tradition and surprise. (Who the heck are half the players in the line-up?) Baseball is a sport of statistics. On Opening Day, every team’s record is perfect. The whole season is [...]
Renee Oricchio at Inc.com is talking about those digital frames you buy at Wal-Mart or Target to load up with kid pictures and give to your mother-in-law. It’s not just for Mother’s Day, my friend. That’s a business tool! Here are four ways to make use of one: 1. In the reception area: Run a [...]
Surfing The Internet Can Really Pay Off
There’s no question that reading a Mental Floss story can pay off during Trivial Pursuit, or when you’re trying to impress someone at a cocktail party. But for one lucky reader, it meant a whole lot more. My last article, 9 Very Rare (and Very Expensive) Video Games, was reprinted by CNN.com. While reading the [...]
The red-and-white poles that adorn barber shops may be iconic, but they’re fast fading into a nostalgic relic according to a story at CNNMoney. William Marvy Company, the last known manufacturer in North America of the poles, typically sells 500 of them each year, down from 5,100 in the company’s late-1960s heyday. Bob Marvy, a [...]
According to a story at CNNMoney, Jim Mumford, had built a reputation as a nontraditional gardener. In March 2007, he embarked on a “giant experiment,” replacing the 1,800-square-foot roof of a commercial building he owned with a planter’s paradise: three inches of specialized, lightweight soil over a padded waterproofing and drainage system. Now, 46 varieties [...]
According to a story at Mental Floss, Aaron Fechter invented the original Whac-A-Mole game in 1971. Well…he took the idea from “some Japanese guys” who had created a creature-whacking game first, but Fechter made the mechanism work reliably by inventing an air cylinder system to power the moles and an audio-tape-driven pattern that governed the [...]
In ’96 when Apple was celebrating its 20th anniversary, Jacob Cook was being born. Just 13 years later and he is now an entrepreneur says Forbes. Cook, who lives in Sacramento, Calif., has been an entrepreneur for three years. At age 10 he started buying books and other “low-end stuff” at garage sales and re-selling [...]
Bringing A Smarter Search To Twitter
The New York Times is reporting that Bill Gross, the serial entrepreneur who pioneered search advertising, is unveiling a venture that aims to make money by allowing people using Twitter to bid on key words to give their posts top ranking. Called TweetUp, the service will also organize the posts according to their popularity as [...]
Evaluate Yourself, Your Business
If you’re a business owner than Christine Davis, writing for SeacoastOnline.com, believes that you should have asked yourself “Should I be doing this?” at least once during the life of your business. This crappy recession does have a bit of a silver lining that I am going to go out on a limb and share: [...]
Paying With Your Phone Catches On
Phones are the new credit cards says the San Jose Mercury News. Meyer Malka walked up to the counter of a crowded Palo Alto cafe last week and ordered a small coffee and a hot chocolate. The total was $5.74, which he paid by lightly tapping the back of his mobile phone against a small [...]
From Necessity To Baby Sling Business
Robyn Collar’s life is filled with ‘what ifs’. What if she hadn’t dropped out of school? What if her children hadn’t been born with special needs? What if she’d had all the money she needed to buy baby supplies? If she hadn’t lead the life she had, she wouldn’t be the owner of a million [...]
If you’re a fisherman on vacation, how are you supposed to know which spots are the best for fishing? Chances are that you may not know this information on your own but with a good guide you could easily find the right place to sit back and drop your hook. Of course, if you want [...]
Around The World In A Gyrocopter
At over 3,000 miles so far, Norman Surplus is well on his way to fly around the world. What makes him unique is the gyrocopter he is flying in, says the Belfast Telegraph. The father of two from Larne, Co Antrim, took off from his home town last month and has now navigated Europe and [...]
You would think that Lynn Felter, army wife and a mother of 3, would be the last person you would imagine creating a line of cards that are filled with “sexual innuendo and crass jokes”, notes the San Jose Mercury News. But talk with Felter for a few minutes, and the snarky sense of humor [...]
Inventor Is Spinning His Wheels
Jon Fleck, best known for his Makin Bacon kitchen utensil, is at it again and this time he’s looking at the tires on semis, says JSOnline. Now Fleck, a 47-year-old Minnesotan who specializes in seemingly simple ideas that work, has a new one: a fabric wheel cover that cuts fuel consumption of over-the-road trucks by [...]
Inventors Digest says Alan Beckley is an entrepreneur, inventor, and a consultant to small businesses. In 2002, tired of sitting on bulky wallets stuffed with hard to find cards, he invented the Savvy Caddy, a wallet laid out like a photo album that could hold twice as many cards yet remain half as thick and [...]
Creating A Game That Became A Household Name
Leslie Scott is the inventor of Jenga, the co-founder of Oxford Games Ltd, and the author of ‘About Jenga: The Remarkable Business of Creating a Game that Became a Household Name, according to a story at Inventors Digest. Born and raised in Africa, and educated in Sierra Leone, Kenya and England, Scott worked for Intel [...]
We Have Tools, Just Need Inventors
NY Times: Mark Hatch sees the revolution going something like this: Wealthy, love-handled Americans will turn off their televisions, put down their golf clubs and step away from their Starbucks coffees. Then they will direct their disposable income and free time toward making things — stuff like chairs, toys and, say, synthetic diamonds. They will [...]
The business card creativity stream keeps on flowing…. On the heels of the business card catapult and business card penny cannon — and not to mention the resignation letter cake — there’s now the locally baked business card cookie! The Boston Herald says Danvers pastry chef Kelly Delaney, owner of the Cakes for Occasions bakery, [...]
Coach Fields New Career As Inventor
Jill Cakert says girls softball changed her life. Cakert, 52, is now an assistant coach of the Atlantic City High School varsity girls softball team. One thing Cakert didn’t like about coaching softball was hollering across the field to instruct her players, which caused her to lose her voice when her team participated in multiple-game [...]
Food Blogger Who Can’t Cook Finds Niche
Some food bloggers are known for their restaurant reviews, others for their creative recipes, but Amy Cao of AmyBlogsChow.com is known for her “Stupidly Simple Snacks” videos, says The NY Daily News. I happen to be a food blogger who doesn’t cook, and people get a kick out of that,” says the Brooklynite. While Cao [...]
If you sell or give away PDF ebooks, you’ll want to check out Ross McKillop’s tutorial over at Simple Help. It will guide you through the process of converting PDF files so that they can be read in iBooks, the iPad application. iBooks uses an ebook format called ePub. Using a free converter application (and [...]
Find Out How Much Money Your State Makes from Selling Your Data
Al’s Morning Meeting has an interesting story about how your state could be selling your name and other information right now, and hauling in a lot of money as a result. The Oklahoman and the Tulsa World discovered that their state government earns $65 million a year selling data. The revelation comes just as the [...]
Get Your e-Book On The Ipad (And Keep All The Royalties)
Ars Technica is reporting that Tunecore has been a boon for musicians like Trent Reznor, who pay the Brooklyn-based company a flat fee of $40 or so and then see their music available for sale on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. The copyrights all remain in the artists’ hands, as do the revenues; after paying the [...]
According to the LA Times, Steve Jobs was making a direct attack on Google when he announced Apple’s new advertising platform, called iAd, Thursday. Industry experts predict that the mobile advertising business will balloon to $1.5 billion by 2013, a prospect that has both companies scrambling to make an advertising platform. The technology would allow [...]
The Sacramento Bee says there is a legal way to print money: start typing in a skinnier font. Narrower fonts require less ink, which means you’ll have to replace your pricey ink cartridges less often. Administrators at the University of Wisconsin recently switched the school’s email system to Century Gothic, a move that is expected [...]
Teen Named Young Woman Entrepreneur Of The Year
Fifteen year old Shea Gouldd was named Young Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners at a recent ceremony this past March. She is the owner and chef for Shea’s Bakery, a bakery that she runs from a commercial kitchen. It is here that she produces orders and even [...]
A mompreneur in Littleton, Colorado has signed on with Cybertary to launch one of their franchises in her town, according to a release from PR Web. Dana Hall spent much of her career in the corporate world of financial services with companies like Wachovia. She primarily worked in the mortgage industry where she worked in [...]
With The Touch Of An Underarm…
Are those pesky touchscreen mp3 player screens getting on your nerves? A student at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute has come up with an interface for mobile devices that can turn your body into a touchpad, says Computerworld Blogs. The Borg-like technology, called “skinput,” involves attaching acoustic sensors to the upper arm to [...]
Street Level has put together an interesting collection of killer clever advertising billboards, check them out. adidas Samba Garden Billboard “Belt Up” Driver Safety Kill Bill 2 Movie Promo Bic Razors Bloom Supermarket Jumbo Muffins Photos by Street Level.
According to a story in The Boston Globe, it’s when Chad Barraford opens his front door and swipes a radio frequency identification tag through a scanner linked to his home computer that extraordinary things happen. Welcome home, Chad,’’ says a voice coming from a wall speaker. “You’ve been away for 1 hour and 15 minutes.’’ [...]
Gadget-Friendly Sash Holds Personal Devices
For those not willing to stuff their jeans with electronics—however well-suited those jeans might be—the Bandee is a multifunctional sash designed to hold mobile phones, iPods and all sorts of other gadgets that otherwise fill up pockets or get lost in handbags, according to a story at trendspotter Springwise. The award-winning Bandee is a “multifunctional [...]
Small Bizs Can Benefit From iPad
Small business owners who are so inclined to purchase an iPad, will undoubtedly find clever uses for it to enhance worker productivity, reports PC magazine. • iPad As A Presentation Device: The killer feature that’s tailor-made for the business set is the ability to connect the iPad to a video projector. This, coupled with iWork’s [...]
You, Too, Can Bankroll A Rock Band
Even early in their careers, the Beatles led charmed lives. Sure, they spent hundreds of nights playing the clubs of Hamburg before their inherent talent and practiced skill were discovered. According to a story in The New York Times, in the digital age, of course, every musician is free to make and sell music without [...]
Domino’s Recruits Fans To Sell Its Pizza
The music industry has long been putting fans to work for help with promotions and sales, and now it looks like Domino’s Pizza is getting in on the action as well, reports trendspotter Springwise. A new widget launched last month lets consumers serve as affiliate marketers for the brand through their social networking pages and [...]
When Natalie Hickey had the opportunity to help fellow mumpreneurs raise the profile of their business, she simply couldn’t resist says Journalism.co.uk. In December 2009 a networking site aimed at mums in business was put up for sale. The basis of the site was in place but there was room for development. After starting an [...]
Entrepreneur Reviews His Way Into A Business
When Jeff Maimon felt that he was not gaining any meaningful experience from his time as an unpaid intern, he decided to go into business for himself instead says the Pioneer Press. Now, with the recent launch party for his new business, Jeff Maimon, 24, is hoping to turn his venture into a job with [...]
Inventor’s Journal From Idea To Market
Ever wonder what it is like to take an idea and turn it into a product? Andre Nel, the CEO of Bexter7 LLC, recounts his own experiences in a recent article at IPWatchdog. I admit it! I fell for it hooks, line, and sinker. It seemed so easy! Come up with an idea, file a [...]
Seven weeks ago, Dwight Richards stood in a coat and tie at a busy Stockton intersection displaying a placard advising he needed a job, reports Recordnet.com. Wednesday night, he held up another oversized piece of paper, only this time on a stage in the Stockton Golf & Country Club ballroom, and it was one of [...]
App Millionaires: The Brothers Behind Doodle Jump
Developers are eager to use the iPad as a chance to sell more expensive apps. But you can do just fine selling software at 99 cents a pop. Just ask Igor and Marko Pusenjak. In the last year, the two brothers have sold 3.5 million copies of Doodle Jump, a simple and addictive game, via [...]
New Bizop Classified Ads This Week
New listing this week on the Business Opportunities Weblog Classifieds. Curves – North Berkeley, California – Make An Offer! How To Buy And Sell Cars For Profit! Start Your Own Business The Affiliate Code High School Dropout Banks $94k From Banner Ads! Secret Blog Weapon Shoemoney System How To Start A Hot Dog Cart Business [...]
