Archive for May 2010
Last month, the government unveiled the new $100 bill — a colorful, high-tech Benjamin that features a 3-D security ribbon, color-shifting ink and a bunch of other bells and whistles that should frustrate counterfeiters. The new hundred, which will enter circulation next year, was greeted with mixed reviews. Some loved the color and “magical” features. [...]
9 Year Old Author Learns About Business Through Book Production
Star News Online: At first glance, Holland Baynard looks like a normal 9-year-old boy. He attends third grade at Bradley Creek Elementary School. He likes crabbing, skiing and hunting for sea creatures at the beach. He thinks visiting the Galapagos Islands would be really cool. But then, Holland is hardly ordinary. Most 9-year-olds aren’t published [...]
YouTube And The New Creative Class
According to CNet News, a half decade after YouTube’s birth, the site exceeds 2 billion views a day. It seems that everyone–from music labels to mainstream Hollywood studios to television networks–has joined the movement. Amid this vibrant, fertile, and expanding landscape, a creative class of budding, do-it-yourself media moguls–part distributor, part content creator, part producer, [...]
It’s Friday, so let’s have a little fun with Twitter. How Many Calories Do You Burn While Tweeting? 1.03 11.25 22.00 33.14 View Results Check back later today, we’ll have the results of the quiz and the real answer! Photo by Twitter.
Promoting Your Blog On Television
photo credit: William Hook Most of us who own our own blogs probably have never even thought about little own considered advertising their blog on television. It’s just not the obvious thing to think about when working with your blog. But surprisingly advertising a blog on television is not only an awesome idea, but it [...]
photo credit: citta-vita Meylah.com: We all love to get new customers…it’s not only great for business, it’s great for future business. A happy and satisfied customer is a customer that comes back – and that puts you in the business of reordering rather than the business of selling, which is where we all want to [...]
Meet Natasha Nelson of Yogurtini – Natasha and her popular and creative company are based in Southern California, the perfect location for an entrepreneur who best describes herself as “a true beach girl” and who is constantly inspired by the youthful and creative culture of the south west’s famous beaches. Natasha is one of the [...]
According to a story at Open Forum, intelligent disobedience is not about setting out to be disagreeable or arbitrarily disobeying rules for its own sake. Rather, it is about using your judgment to decide when, for example, an established rule actually hinders your organization, rather than helps it. The antonym of intelligent disobedience is blind [...]
Tripura Entrepreneur Leads By Example
oneindia: A young female entrepreneur in Tripura is not only generating employment for people, but is doing her bit for the environment by converting waste to wealth. alma Chowdhry is a housewife-turned-entrepreneur from Golchakkar village near the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura. In 2007, she along with a team of 25-members formed Samrat Papers, an outfit [...]
Scammer ingenuity knows no bounds. In 2010, as in years past, more criminals are taking the trouble to craft schemes, fudge websites, and get rich off the tight economy and the consumer desperation that goes along with it. WalletPop presents a list of the top ten scams to look out for. “Free trial” scams Deceptive [...]
According to WalletPop, if you’ve noticed that returning items to stores isn’t as easy as it used to be, rest assured: It isn’t just you. Thanks to a growing number of people who are returning items they’ve used or never bought in the first place, retailers have been employing a variety of new techniques to [...]
The New York Times: Lots of entrepreneurs would like to pick Chip Conley’s brain. But when several dozen gathered in November to meet the founder of Joie de Vivre, a boutique hotel chain that he said had $220 million in revenue last year, their questions were not just about the nuts and bolts of running [...]
New Invention: Solar Hydrogen-Powered Disaster Relief
Imagine a single trailer-mounted device that turns scum into over 20,000 gallons of pure water a day, stores electricity better than a battery, makes medical-grade oxygen, and runs on the sun. A trio of inventors today unveiled the first working model of The HYDRA, a fuel cell-based device they say does all that, at a [...]
The Wall Street Journal asks why is it so hard to design an umbrella that won’t collapse or flip inside out? After a rainstorm, the scene in almost any city is the same—dozens of umbrella carcasses lying broken along sidewalks and streets. It seems that most models can barely keep you dry during the sprint [...]
Lots of teenagers will be getting out of school for the summer and looking for a summer job. YoungEntrepreneur.com has put together a list of business ideas teens might want to consider. • Senior Errand Service Wherever you live, there are bound to be senior citizens who need help with errands. • Garage Cleaning/Organizing Service [...]
The man who invented the first ATM machine has died: John Shepherd-Barron came up with the concept of a self-service cash dispenser in 1965 while lying in a bath after getting to his bank too late to withdraw money. The businessman, who worked for the printing firm De La Rue Instruments at the time, said [...]
photo credit: ( Torsten ) Many business owners that are thinking about “going green” are wondering what this will do for them and their business in the profit area. Will they end up spending more on green products? Will they loose business by offering only green products and do these green products work just as [...]
Traveling The World On The Web
Ever wish for some way to tell the world about how great your favorite travel spots are and make a little money? Colin Campbell and Gordon Burns is helping people make it happen. When most people believe you have to sell tickets or offer travel plans to make money in this industry, Colin and Gordon [...]
Keeping Your Personal And Business Finances Separate
photo credit: alancleaver_2000 Entrepreneur.com recently posted a very interesting article about keeping business and personal finances separate that I think every business owner should read. This is an extremely beneficial article to those of you who own your own business and are currently keeping your personal and business finances together. One very easy way to ensure that you keep [...]
Is It Time To Get Rid Of Your Home Office?
photo credit: Travis Isaacs For those of you working out of your home, at one point you may start wondering if it’s time to upgrade from your home office to an office of your own in town outside of your home. But how do you know when that time has come? I have put together [...]
A reader wrote: On BNET.com today we have a four part feature which challenges the commonly held assumptions about what it takes to become an entrepreneur. Whether running a business or just starting to think about it, take our quiz to see what sort of business person you are. Then read about the surprising discoveries [...]
This looks interesting: StartupToDo.com is a productivity application for startup founders, developers who want to fire their managers and microISVs who want to build successful software companies. Here you’ll find specific Guides to many of the hundreds of projects you need to do to build your company. Every Guide is written by, rated by, and [...]
Terror attacks, civil unrest, dirty bombs, earthquakes, 2012. Cue the entrepreneurs. Come-ons for doomsday products, from survival classes to earthquake kits, abound on the Internet. Demand is fueled by natural disasters, terrorist activity and websites dedicated to exploring such topics as what will happen Dec. 21, 2012, the last day of the ancient Maya calendar [...]
Chicago-based Life Tokens, lets consumers express their emotions via coded tokens that are sent anonymously through the mail, and that link to personal online messages, reports trendspotter Springwise. Each token features a graphic on the front that encapsulates a specific emotion, and a 6-digit code on the back that, when entered by the recipient on [...]
Montana Tops In Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Missoulian: Montana ranks first in the states in entrepreneurship and innovation and 10th in overall growth, a new U.S. Chamber of Commerce study shows. The chamber’s report, “Enterprising States: Creating Jobs, Economic Development and Prosperity in Challenging Times,” concluded that state policies, along with governors, legislators and local officials, matter. “Although the federal government has [...]
McDonald’s Hopes New Cold Drinks Will Be Hot
Think of McDonald’s and the first thing that pops to mind is a burger — and fries. Think again. The nation’s largest fast-food chain is on a multibillion-dollar mission to become a serious beverage juggernaut, too, reports USA TODAY. In the process, it’s turning the fast-food world upside down. It’s trying to redefine consumer habits [...]
Gym Accessories Inspired By Diaper Bags
And we’re not talking about pink and blue teddy bears either. Inspired by the cute patterns and adorable ribbons that adorn so many diaper bags that new moms use, Carolyn Huresky decided it was time to bring a little of that mommy flair to a whole new level with her own line of fitness and [...]
Matthew E. May writes at Open Forum, one of the first things I teach to the MBA students studying entrepreneurial business is a practical skill: presentation. Specifically, how to pitch an idea. Whether you’re a startup looking for venture financing or simply trying to get an idea implemented in a large company, you won’t move [...]
Richard LaMotta, the inventor of the Chipwich cookie ice cream sandwich rolled in chocolate chips that so many know and love, died Tuesday in his home reports NBC New York. What started as 50 highly visible streetcarts with people standing in line for the $1 novelty, soon turned into armies of vendors nationwide. The ‘Chipwich’ [...]
Call for Entries: Entrepreneur of 2010
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of 2010. Last year’s winners turned heads with headphones and made the grass greener by being green. Tell us what you’re doing to make an impact–on your industry, for your employees and in your community–and you could be the Entrepreneur of 2010. Post your entry by June 15, 2010 (don’t procrastinate) and [...]
Over at 99percent.com, Jack Dorsey outlines three core takeaways from his experiences building and launching Twitter – and more recently – Square, a simple payment utility. 1) Draw: get your idea out of your head and share it, 2) Luck: assess when the time (and the market) is right to execute your idea, 3) Iterate: [...]
Improve Your Cash Flow With 6 Steps
photo credit: KrätzschePhotography Businesses, especially small businesses, love to improve their cash flow and why wouldn’t they? So in light of all the talk revolving around a better New Year in business, look below for some tips on how you can easily improve your cash flow that I recently came across on Open Forum. [...]
Outsourcing Is The New In Thing To Do
photo credit: Amir K. Many businesses today are doing everything they can to save some money and play it safe when it comes to the recession still lingering over them. One of the newest “in” ways to save money for these businesses is by outsourcing many tasks they once had completed in house. A recent [...]
photo credit: AMagill Obviously in business we all strive to make as much profit as we can, that’s one of the biggest reason’s why we go into business for ourselves to begin with. So how do you optimize your cash flow and thus increase your profits? Look below for a list of way’s that i [...]
New Bizop Classified Ads This Week
New listing this week on the Business Opportunities Weblog Classifieds. Grocery Savings Club That Pays You! Generate An Obscene Amount Of Traffic To Your Websites Come Watch The Top Players Show You Exactly How They Make $10k/mo! Sell Used Cars & Make Money Chill Drinks To Perfection With The Ice Jacket, Distributors And Retailers Needed [...]
A new generation of taco trucks no longer caters to hungry workers at construction sites. Instead, these food-laden vehicles bring gourmet food to customers as their owners roll out this mobile concept rather than set up a storefront and wait for clients to come to them, reports The Houston Business Journal. Julia Sharaby, chef and [...]
Student’s Idea Turns Roadsides Into Cash Cropland
One mile southwest of Salt Lake International Airport, a 20-acre crop of safflower plants is growing on previously unused municipal land, reports USA TODAY. This fall the plot will be harvested, and oil from the plants will be processed into biodiesel fuel to operate Salt Lake County vehicles. Called FreeWays to Fuel, the program is [...]
Turning Tiny Ideas Into Big Blogs
msnbc: About 11 years ago, house-builder, philosopher and entrepreneur, Jay Shafer built his first tiny house, moved in, and has been living a super-simplified lifestyle, happily-ever-after. He says that in a commercial world of bloated “McMansions”, his 89-square-foot, self-built, “munchkin-house”, is smaller than some people’s closets, and looks more like a doll’s house than a [...]
When Entrepreneurs Should Ignore Advice
Entrepreneurs are often times bombarded with advice – some of it useful and some of it destructive. It can be disconcerting to hear feedback from people that don’t understand your project or your vision. And it can be frustrating to face rejection from potential investors, partners, or customers. Of course, comments that “That’ll never work” [...]
38 Women Reach Make Mine a Million $ Business Goal
The only national not-for-profit organization committed to helping women entrepreneurs grow million dollar businesses, Make Mine a Million $ Business, has announced the 38 program attendees that successfully grew their business past the $1 million mark in 2009. “The perseverance of the women in this elite group is infectious,” said Nell Merlino, founder and president [...]
Co-Working Makes Sense for Small Biz
According to a story at Mashable.com, being the owner of a small business often means spending your time working on projects outside of your talent. While an owner should seek to understand all aspects of his business early in its development, spending too much time on the aspects he doesn’t excel at can be a [...]
According to KillerStartUps.com, the objective of the Edistorm website is to let people engage in brainstorming sessions over the WWW. This is achieved by applying sticky notes to the online equivalent to a boardroom wall. Such a process is made very simple by the use of colored sticky notes, and the presence of a series [...]
Skinny Mixes Siphon Off Calories
There’s an old saying that drinking doesn’t make you fat, it makes you lean — against bars, tables, chairs and poles. That joke may get a ring of truth; a new mix allows people to have their margarita and drink it, too — practically guilt free. It’s called Jordan’s Skinny Mixes. According to Tampa Bay [...]
Entrepreneur Is Making Her Mark
There are a few essentials that every crafter should have in their supply box. This includes everything from colored card stock to craft scissors and stampers with fun patterns. Each item can be used in a multitude of ways to make any project stand out. Of course, when you want to make money it doesn’t [...]
The Amish are Great Entrepreneurs
CNN Money: Want to find America’s most successful entrepreneurs? Skip Silicon Valley and Manhattan; head to the rural Amish enclaves. Amish businesses have an eye-popping 95% success rate at staying open at least five years, according to author Erik Wesner’s new book, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive. It’s a [...]
Street Vendors are Pure Entrepreneurs
OPEN Forum: Every day people pass this individual on their way to work, seeing them as nothing more than a poor and desperate punter. But, there are many cases where the street-stall entrepreneur doesn’t let it end here. Over time, this individual rigorously ramps up their business, with no resources but motivation and determination, into [...]
According to a story in BusinessWeek, Andre Woolery had already done a lot—starting an IT company, opening a Caribbean restaurant, and enrolling at Stanford University’s business school—before he started MagnoGrip in Menlo Park, Calif. Woolery, 32, who was born and raised in Jamaica, got the idea for his latest venture in 2005 after he helped [...]
Inventor’s Digest has posted a step by step guide for getting your product onto The Oprah Show. The bad news: Ninety-five percent of Oprah’s guests are invited, and are rarely booked because a publicist made a phone call and pitched a client. It’s rare that any of her staff even make themselves available to hear [...]
AFP: There’s no mistaking what’s in this vending machine. The well-heeled in the Gulf can now grab “gold to go” from a hotel lobby in the United Arab Emirates, when the need for a quick ingot strikes. On Thursday, a day after its inauguration, the shiny machine attracted spectators of many different nationalities who gathered [...]
Renee Wood says she’s used to weeping at work. She runs an online bereavement-gift outfit, Comfort Co., from suburban Geneva and gets calls all day from people who want to buy something special for someone who has just lost a loved one, reports BusinessWeek. Compassion comes naturally to Wood—she was a social worker in a [...]
