Archive for October 2010
Lip Balm That’s Simply Blamtastic
Kids love lip balm. A business started by Renee Sandler and her two daughters is banking on that theory. Inspired by an article about women in business, Renee saw a need to teach her daughters the lessons that are necessary for them to succeed in this world. What better way to learn that lesson than [...]
Money Saving Tax Tips for Home Based Bizs
Small business owners and solo practitioners often forget the importance of a relationship with a good business accountant. If you own a small business or work from a home office you may be missing important information that could save you money. To get the latest on tax tips for the home based business Inc.com turned [...]
THAT’S MY BUSINESS!: Wish-It-Candles.com
In this edition of That’s My Business! we talk to Tami Oakley, Founder and President of Wish-It-Candles. Listen Now: Or download: That’s My Business!: Wish-It-Candles.com Website: Wish-It-Candles.com
Box Bikes Become Car Alternative
According to The New York Daily News, a big-bucks bicycle is turning heads – as well as corners – on the city’s streets. Wacky-looking box bikes, with room for the kids, groceries and laundry, are proving a wheel hit with families eager for a healthy alternative to the car. “So far, it’s been spectacular,” said [...]
Optic Medical Business Opportunity
As you might already know, the healthcare industry is huge. From vitamins to health tonics, there is room for everyone to make a little money. One company, Optic Medical, has dipped into this trend using a product that is made for medical practitioners. Because their product is used to help doctors enhance their vision when [...]
Never Underestimate An Opportunity
At a Jonas Brothers concert. Felicia Hatcher, owner of Feverish Ice Cream Trucks in Miami is a walking advertisement for her business, which puts a cool, updated spin on traditional ice cream trucks, according to a story at Inc.com. I wear these shirts with funny sayings about my business on the back such as, ‘It’s [...]
If Vincent R. Pantera’s invention takes off it will be because of his neighbor’s cat reports The Middletown Press. Many times last winter when he was retrieving the morning paper, Pantera noticed the neighbor’s cat scampering from underneath his vehicle. He realized his 1992 Oldsmobile 98 was keeping the cat warm at night. Now, he’s [...]
One Company That Took On The Big Boys
Popchips vs. Frito-Lay The challenge: Frito-Lay has nearly 60% of the potato chip market and has dominated the healthy-chip segment since introducing Baked Lays in 1996. What they did: According to CNNMoney, Popchips began its campaign to upend the snack aisle in 2007. Co-founder pals Keith Belling and Pat Turpin created a cross between a [...]
Public Domain? There’s A Mark For That
ReadWriteWeb reports that Creative Commons has announced the release of the Public Domain Mark, a tool that will help easily identify those works that are free of copyright restrictions. The mark – the letter C that’s associated with the symbol for copyright, but with a slash through it – is meant to make it clear [...]
Smallbiztechnology.com is reporting that Fedex Office is offering free WiFi. Now your WiFi options around town are in three locations, and theirs always a Starbucks, McDonalds or Fedex Office nearby! FedEx Office recently announced the introduction of free, unlimited Wi-Fi access at most of its U.S. locations. The press release reads: Customers will find the [...]
Daniel Heggarty from St. Louis, MO, wrote in to share his gloriously convoluted machine with Makezine.com. This room was constructed with the humor of Rube Goldberg cartoons in mind at the St. Louis City Museum. Developed organically, the room started with one exercycle on the bench and the thought, “What can this become?” From there, [...]
It’s Okay To Play With Your Food
Do you remember those plastic gadgets that kids used to mold playdoh into spaghetti or other various shapes? An inventor has created a product that does something reasonably similar… with your food. You can use his gadgets on your fruits and veggies, then put it all together to create a wide variety of object. From [...]
Million-Dollar Online Empire Built On The Absurd
Ben Huh has built a million-dollar online empire on the absurd – will it last? ABC Nightline takes a look.
Gourmet Dog Food Humans Could Eat
John and Pam Richetta wanted to make sure that their rescue boxers were eating healthy. They purchased some sirloin and created a blend that was dog friendly and additive-free. Impressed by their blend, Rick Rogers asked for the recipe and started selling it as a bulk product under the name The Barefoot Biscuit Company reports [...]
Launched last month by a California company with the same name, the Looxcie (pronounced “look-see”) is a wearable Bluetooth camcorder that lets users capture video of everything they see, reports trendspotter Springwise. The device fits comfortably over the ear, the company says, and points wherever the wearer looks. It’s always on, so the user needn’t [...]
Cat Lady Turns Insult Into Business
How often do you find a business idea within an insult? Lynn Thompson has a soft spot for cats, to say the least. She’s been a cat-lover since she adopted her first one over 20 years ago. Frustrated by the lack of resources for the products she wanted and inspired by a need for a [...]
iPad Is Invading The Biz World
Apple’s iPad is a consumer device, first and foremost. But a few recent events have illustrated how the iPad could also potentially become an important device for business and enterprise users, as a lightweight, reliable, powerful — and most important, easily programmable — touchscreen tablet. And that could be a big opportunity for Apple, reports [...]
“There’s A Trademark For That”
Mashable reports that Apple has filed a trademark application for the company’s now ubiquitous catchphrase, “There’s an app for that.” Apple filed for the trademark back in December 2009, citing first commercial use of the phrase on January 26, 2009, per trademark documentation. The trademark was filed in the Advertising, Business and Retail Services, Computer [...]
“‘World’s Biggest Book’ Goes On Sale For $100,000″
MSNBC reports that an Australian publisher unveiled what he says is the biggest book in the world, seemingly in a bid to steal the spotlight from his digital rivals. The 6-by-9 foot atlas titled “EARTH, Platinum edition” will sell for $100,000, Gordon Cheers, managing director of the publishing company of Millennium House, told the AFP, [...]
When Luggage That Rolls Became A Big Wheel Deal
Thousands of years ago man came up with the wheel and luggage. Why it too so long for us to combine the two, we’ll never know reports StarTribune.com. “It was one of my best ideas,” Bernard Sadow said the other day. Sadow, who owned a Massachusetts company that made luggage and coats, is credited with [...]
Discovery News reports that since the original idea for a “revolving staircase” back in the late 1850s, the whole concept of what an escalator is, and how it works, have come a long way. Escalators, when they’re working of course, are a marvel for getting from Point A to Point B. That’s particularly true when [...]
Big Dreams Brewing For Beer CEO
When Manjit Minhas was a child she dreamt of being a doctor. By high school her dreams started to shift towards petroleum engineering. One thing she never imagined was: CEO. Now she’s 30 years old, married, and has one child. She’s also the head of a multi-million dollar company, the Minhas Creek Craft Brewing Co., [...]
Walmart Turns Waste Into Pet Products
According to Fast Company, Walmart generates a lot of recyclable waste. So instead of sending it all to recycling plants, the retail giant has decided to divert some of it to Worldwise, a sustainable pet products company. Worldwise will take Walmart’s waste for free –including bottles, hangers, bags, and corrugated cardboard– and convert it into [...]
From Styling Hair To Owning The Shop
After styling hair for 30 years, Kelly Markos felt that it was time to finally give her feet a rest reports the MontgomeryAdvertiser.com. “I needed to go to a different level in my career,” she said recently from her office in the d’Markos Salon. “My goal is to get off my feet and use my [...]
SBA Revises Definition of Small Biz
Inc.com reports that the Small Business Administration this week made some 17,000 more businesses eligible for its loans, preferential treatment for federal contracts and other programs. The businesses now qualify thanks to changes the SBA made to its size definition of “small business” in the retail, hospitality, restaurants and “other services” industries. The changes are [...]
Before the credit crunch, it was easy for companies to borrow just about any amount of money anytime they wanted. Entrepreneurs often would apply for larger credit lines to expand their businesses, and they got drunk on easy credit. Who needed good money-management habits when your banker would pony up on command? You know how [...]
Story links: New Seed Fund Offers Startups Up To $10,000 When Company Failed, She Took Over A Must See Home Biz Resource For Women Have A Journalism Startup Idea? Inventor’s Journal: SaySo Clips Biz Cards Thrive In Digital Age Learning Math Scrabble Style Invention: Life Saving Bazooka Listen Now: Or download: Weekend Wrap-up Oct. 9, [...]
If you own a computer you can now fight crime and potentially win a prize. A new service from Internet Eyes distributes streaming CCTV video footage from stores and streets in the UK to viewers who can tag videos with crimes in them. Viewers can win up to $1600 per month if they catch criminals [...]
Wallace & Gromit To Profile Real-Life Inventors On TV Show
A new TV show, hosted by the popular claymation inventors Wallace & Gromit, will be debuting in various countries reports CBC News. Commissioned by the BBC, A World of Invention stars Aardman Animation’s beloved plasticine inventor and his faithful canine companion. The educational program will feature wacky, accident-prone Wallace and his silent sidekick Gromit in [...]
DaizyMower.com has recently launched an opportunity for individuals interested in making an extra income by becoming a dealer of their robotic lawnmowers. According to Mark Timms at DaizyMower, they have streamlined their business model to allow anyone interested in selling their mowers to make $200 profit per sale starting October 15th. To become a dealer, [...]
Mail Order Animal Bizop from 1972
Flickr user BryantSpokane scanned and posted a page from a 1972 Stromberg’s Chicks & Pets Unlimited catalog. Stromberg’s apparently used to mail-order live chickens, chinchillas, ferrets, armadillos, skunks, badgers, beavers, possums, prairie dogs, and other critters. This particular page highlights the money making aspects of owning fur-bearing animals. via BoingBoing.
Stay At Home Moms Are Getting Crafty
It’s just another evening where Erin Jensen finds herself working late to create enough hair clips to fill a big order, this time for Ten Toes Children’s Shoe Boutique reports the Foster City Patch. Jensen is part of a growing group of stay at home moms who have tapped into their hidden talents to bring [...]
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: Franchises Anago Cleaning Systems Eco Ink To Your Door FruitFlowers Dealerships Redline Garagegear
Make Mine a Million $ Business Deadline Extended
Good news if you forgot to enter: the application deadline for final Make Mine a Million $ Business competition of the year has been extended. This provides hundreds of women entrepreneurs from across the country more time to apply to compete for vital resources they will need to grow their businesses despite the recession. The [...]
Got Idea While Recovering From Illness
Holly Tucker started inventing by accident, reports The Times-News. She lost a shoe in her closet, and while recuperating from energy-draining cancer treatments, the 51-year-old Hendersonville resident couldn’t bring herself to root through her closet to find it. Tucker’s frustration triggered her creative streak. “It was just kind of a little exercise in trying to [...]
Women-Owned Businesses Steadily Expanding
A recent U.S. Department of Commerce survey states that female-owned businesses are growing in number and hiring more employees than those by men reports Bloomberg. The number of companies owned by women grew by 44 percent to 7.8 million from 1977 to 2007, compared with a 22 percent increase in firms owned by men, the [...]
The Wall Street Journal reports that In an effort to better connect with inventors, some large manufacturers including Clorox Co., Kraft Foods Inc., , General Mills Inc., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, have launched websites in recent years for soliciting product ideas. Some of the sites occasionally feature specific requests from [...]
The New York Times is reporting that as the economy sputters, prospects are dimming for unemployed workers who were banking on a seasonal retail job to carry them through the holidays. After a disappointing back-to-school season, many retailers say they intend to barely increase their seasonal jobs from last year, when hiring was among the [...]
Nearly nine years ago, I made the first post on this weblog about a company called YourCityguide.net. Whenever John Stewart, the owner of that company sends me an email I almost always post it just because. Here’s his most recent one: As you may remember you featured my first business opportunity at www.yourcityguide.net in your [...]
This press release from Doctors Express is interesting because of which aspects of the medical experience they’re highlighting their different approach to. Doctors Express, the first ever national urgent care franchise, has awarded a territory to a local businessman who plans to revolutionize medical care in the Sacramento area with a new concept in healthcare. [...]
Zoom in On Sounds in Loud Place
Scientists in Norway at Squarehead have developed a technology called AudioScope that apparently enables you to zoom in on sounds in huge, loud places like sports arenas or lecture halls. AudioScope is based on the same principle as sonar. A dish with an array of microphones can locate and record sound anywhere in a large [...]
Invention: Life Saving Bazooka
An Australian inventor has created a bazooka that shoots life preservers rather than rockets. News.com.au has more: Sam Adeloju last night won the £20,000 ($32,000) James Dyson Award, named after and patronised by the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which carries the Dyson name. His entry, the Longreach, is a modified bazooka which fires [...]
How to Make Money from Used Books
Slate has a great autobiographical profile of a man who makes a living buying and selling used books. If you’ve ever been a “friends of the library” book sale, you’ve seen him, or his type. They’re the ones who carry electronic bar-code scanners and PDAs. My scanner lies at the end of a cartridge that [...]
Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition
With more than $1 million in cash winnings, plus in-kind awards, the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is the world’s largest business competition. The competition targets mid-to-late-stage business start-ups and entrepreneurs world-wide are eligible to participate. Grand prize is $500,000 plus in-kind amenities. Applications for business and students competitors are available here. Deadline for businesses is [...]
According to a story in Businessweek, Ray Land, 23, is known as the “young guy” in the charter bus industry, where most operators have decades of experience. “It’s not like the tech business, where a lot of young people start businesses [based on] new ideas,” says Land, who founded the company in high school after [...]
In the ’80s Tom Lennett was looking for a fun way to help his daughter learn math. He looked at different games but couldn’t find exactly what he was looking for. Instead of giving up his search, Tom created a game of his own. The Scrabble-like math game is starting to catch on in Finland [...]
Three Things To Be Successful With Social Media
Attempting social media marketing without a well-planned strategy is like jumping into the deep end of the pool when you can’t swim — not a recipe for success. At Entrepreneur’s Winning Strategies for Business conference, Starr Hall revealed three things you must do to be successful with social networking. 1. Build social proof: Social proof [...]
Top 10 Female Entrepreneur Receives Recognition From The President
Inspired by Theresa Alfaro Daytner’s success story, Obama praised her for what she’s done as an entrepreneur reports The Baltimore Sun. “I love Theresa’s story,” the president said before an audience that included billionaire investor Warren Buffett, hundreds of women entrepreneurs and 75 girls who aspire to become engineers, U.S. senators or professional race car [...]
Entrepreneur Pins Hopes On Nostalgia
Omaha entrepreneur Larry Richling, who struggled to remain solvent during the recession and credit crisis, now is outfitting a historic building in the Old Market as a simulated 1940s department store, reports The Omaha World-Herald. The sprawling former Fairmont Creamery at 12th and Jackson Streets will house a candy store, a burger-pizza-hot dog joint, an [...]
Some moms have an a-ha moment and decide to build their own business. Then there are some moms that have an a-ha moment but it never really goes beyond that idea. Sometimes there’s a mom that’ll have an a-ha moment and use it to help fellow mompreneurs sell their product. That mom would be Kim [...]
