Archive for May 2010
Turn A Product Idea Into A Prototype
Keck-Craig in Pasadena, Calif., is something like touring a strange mechanical museum. Quirky machines—from tennis-ball servers to shrimp deveiners and beer-can chillers—are displayed everywhere, all designed and/or built by Keck-Craig. The $1 million company is one of a handful around the U.S.that helps inventors turn their ideas into reality, Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Karen E. Klein [...]
Samuel “Samy” Liechti took his first job out of college with an ad agency. He’s asked to attend an unexpected business dinner with Japanese partners. After dinner, the group moves to a Japanese tea house where, following tradition, everyone removes their shoes. Samy looks down, and not only does he realize he has two different [...]
The State of Online Word of Mouth Marketing
In a session at Forrester’s Marketing Forum, Forrester analysts Josh Bernoff and Augie Ray presented research findings on peer influence and word of mouth marketing. The presentation was rife with practical tips for marketers Mashable.com thought worth sharing. Ray outlined a Peer Influence Pyramid that breaks down influencers into three types: Social Broadcasters (at the [...]
Awesome Companies Built By Teens: Fraser Doherty
The entrepreneurial spirit starts early for many teenagers, but for most things like high school, college and social lives overpower the urge to start a business. But not every teenager. Wisebread takes a look at some incredibly successful young entrepreneurs, who all started their empires in their teens. While most successful young entrepreneurs make their [...]
Inventor Helps Golfers Keep Their Game Moving
Nick Casiello knows a good idea when he sees it. After all, he’s had his fair share of them over the past few years reports the Naperville Sun. About 13 years ago, the Naperville resident invented the Gotcha, a small hand-held disk with a nylon pull string that measures the distance of a golf ball [...]
YouTube To Let Users Charge Rental Fees
YouTube exec Hunter Walk told MediaPost that the site will soon offer its users the ability to charge rental fees for their uploaded videos. For the past couple of years YouTube has been focusing on ways for its users to monetize their videos should they become very popular. It launched the YouTube Partnership Program last [...]
Emotional Ties Bring Entrepreneurs Back To Michigan
It would take more than successful careers for Joe and Rose Glendinning of Lansing, Michigan to find joy outside their home state, reports The Detroit News. The siblings longed to return home and run their own business, looking to create a less-stressful, more relaxed lifestyle closer to family and friends. Joe Glendinning, a high-paid attorney [...]
Americans Pay More For Mobile Apps
TechBeat reports that consumers in North America pay more by far for mobile applications than people in all other regions of the world, according to a new study by wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. The study was commissioned by Getjar, a company that sells downloadable software for mobile phones. Last year, North American consumers paid an [...]
Here is an excerpt from the new book, Rework, by Jason Fried and David Hansson of 37 Signals. Sell Your By-Products When you make something, you always make something else. You can’t make just one thing. Everything has a by-product. Observant and creative business minds spot these by-products and see opportunities. The lumber industry sells [...]
One Mom’s Kind Reminder To Look, Not Touch
Nothing says “Touch Me” quite like a baby. Whether it is their pinchable cheeks, little feet or that ticklish belly, almost everyone loves babies. Sometimes we love them so much that we want to touch them, whether or not we know who the kid is. However, sometimes parents just don’t want random strangers touching their [...]
Decades of thoughtful tweaking, finessing, and updating have gone into the big name logos you’ve come to recognize, know, and love. Bored Panda has put together a collection of logos as they have changed over the years. Twenty more logos here. Photo by Bored Panda.
Business is Booming for Backyard Farmers
LA Times: “Companies are sprouting up across the country, offering help building and maintaining backyard vegetable gardens for those who lack the time — or green thumb — needed to keep the crops coming.”
According to ReadWriteWeb it’s known as the marshmallow challenge. Small teams are given 18 minutes to build a free-standing structure made of dry spaghetti, one yard of string, one yard of tape and a marshmallow, which must be placed on top. The team wins by creating the tallest structure of all the groups participating. What [...]
Each stroke of the brush that Shari Ford makes has its purpose in the picture. The process alone can take around 3 to 4 months just to complete one portrait. Considering the amount of time it takes, you can imagine her dismay when she walked into her studio to find one of her pieces defaced [...]
Dreaming Of Easy Money? Don’t Be Fooled
The Arizona Republic warns that those who are without a job and who are behind on bills are particularly vulnerable to the scams that offer big money for little work. Sometimes they stumble into one scam, then another as they try to recover from the first. Eric Grayson of Louisville, Ky., paid Phoenix-based Bankcard Empire [...]
What do you get when you combine bubble wrap and orange trees? You get young Eric Baker’s invention, the “Orange DeBruiser.” One of 15 semi-finalists in the fourth annual Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors, Eric is hoping that his invention will bring home the $10,000 prize reports the OrlandoSentinel.com. Eric likes to create things [...]
Awesome Companies Built By Teens: Fred De Luca
The entrepreneurial spirit starts early for many teenagers, but for most things like high school, college and social lives overpower the urge to start a business. But not every teenager. Wisebread takes a look at some incredibly successful young entrepreneurs, who all started their empires in their teens. In 1965 Fred De Luca borrowed just [...]
Jan Hurn has spent the past 8 years growing her stationery design business, one that was built out of desperation, in hopes of providing encouragement to moms everywhere. Jan Hurn’s world was devastated in March 2002, when her husband left the expectant mom with no means of income to support her two young daughters Hannah [...]
Banking Laws Leave Bizs Vulnerable
Many tax advisors tell their self-employed clients — including those who are “consulting” while looking for work — to open separate business bank accounts to make it easier to separate business and personal expenses for tax purposes. Don’t do it, says The Los Angeles Times. This common tax advice could turn into a banking nightmare [...]
According to this year’s Edison Research/Arbitron Internet & Multimedia Study, Twitter has now reached the same ubiquitous brand awareness in the U.S. as Facebook. In 2008, only 5% of the U.S. population was aware of Twitter. Today, this number is 87%. According to the study, what percentage of Americans actually use Twitter? 7% 12% 25% [...]
5 Things Howard Stern Can Teach You
Love him or hate him, Howard Stern is without a question one of the most successful figures in American media. His deal with Sirius is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to New York News Today, as a small business owner you can learn from Howard Stern’s playbook – even without the potty humor [...]
Overstock Giving Small Biz National Spotlight
Small and minority-owned businesses have a chance to expand product sales through a partnership with Overstock.com, reports The Salt Lake Tribune. Dubbed the “Main Street Revolution Initiative,” the effort is intended to increase the visibility of small businesses that lack exposure to national markets, said Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. “By joining our network, small-business owners [...]
John Battelle: New Marketing in the New Normal
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to provide some Twitter back channel commentary during John Battelle’s interview about the future of marketing. My tweets are after the jump.
Ever since transportation authorities placed rigorous limits on the amount of liquids allowed on flights, travellers have had to figure out how to both pack their favourite toiletries and comply with those regulations. According to trendspotter Springwise, helping consumers avoid bag-check charges or confiscation of their non-compliant toiletries and cosmetics, New York-based 3floz is an [...]
This post may sound a bit bold, but John Jantsch writing for OPEN Forum has personally witnessed three separate businesses dramatically impacted by their participation with Chicago based collective buying phenomenon Groupon. Groupon is a collective buying discount service. Actually, that idea has been around in variations for years, both on and offline, but Groupon [...]
