Archive for May 2011
Govt Regulation Roadblocks Driverless Car
NY Times: The benefits of driverless cars are potentially significant. The typical American spends an average of roughly 100 hours a year in traffic; imagine using that time in better ways — by working or just having fun. The irksome burden of commuting might be lessened considerably. Furthermore, computer-driven cars could allow for tighter packing [...]
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Would this get you out of bed in the morning? It’s just a concept for now, but regardless of federal laws on the matter, I think that this money shredder would be a money maker. Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, [...]
Today in Entrepreneurial History: May 31
1578 – Martin Frobisher sails from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada, eventually to mine fool’s gold, used to pave streets in London. 1790 – Alferez Manuel Quimper explores the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 1929 – The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, “The Karnival Kid”, is released. 1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System [...]
Say Goodnight With A Virtual Bedtime Story
It is hard being away from the children you love. Whether it is your niece/nephew, granddaughter/son, or your own child, saying goodnight and sharing a bedtime story offers a special connection. If you are many miles away, that is a moment you must do without. Thankfully, a new service is out to change that. Be [...]
Wine Bottle Carrier Dream Come True
Darrell Grant knew exactly what his dream meant. He credits it with the invention of his wine bottle carrier. The carrier, called the Wine Bearer, makes it easier to travel with wine without breaking the bottles, reports LaMesa Patch. Grant, who works for San Pasqual Winery on La Mesa Boulevard, said the idea for his [...]
The SBA has been an important resource for many small businesses, but now information can be accessed on the go. The SBA has recently released an app that lets people look up the information they want directly from their phone. Developed and donated as a gift by Palo Alto Software, Inc., the SBAapp will make [...]
Qualities Of A Successful Mompreneur
Like any other entrepreneur, many mompreneurs share similar qualities that highlight their ability to succeed. The Charlotte Observer has pulled together a short list of some qualities that help mompreneurs succeed. Looking at the big picture and acting on it. In parenting and in business, mompreneurs need to maintain focus on both long-term goals and [...]
If we want to create a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, what do we do? Langley Advance says it is time to give them the opportunity to learn how. The PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs program is helping get kids started. PowerPlay challenges students to start their own businesses. They each identify a need in the [...]
While many people would consider the United States to be one of the best places to start a business, a recent BBC News survey shows that Indonesia takes the top spot. The US, Canada, India and Australia are seen as among the next best countries at supporting new businesses. At the other extreme, Colombia, Egypt, [...]
Running Your Business From Mini Storage
Do you need cheap office space? Does your business not really need a main-street storefront? In this inspiring article in Honolulu Magazine, you’ll read about a number of small business entrepreneurs who run their businesses out of storage units. Examples of businesses run out of storage units in the article include: a personal trainer, a [...]
The green trend is a growing one. In Ditmas Park, a man has created a unique cart for his bicycle that allows him to collect compost from people within the neighborhood and bring it to the community garden. When the food has grown, his cart is also made to carry the fruits of their labor [...]
This blog has been around since 2001, and if you haven’t been reading the entire time, you might have missed these posts on previous May 27ths. 2010 $100 iPad Killer? Best In Show Brainstorming Might Hinder Great Ideas Entrepreneur Spices Up Her Finances With Salsa Financing A Biz With Cheese? Popular Science’s ‘Garage Invention’ Awards [...]
Jacket Keeps Wearer Warm or Cool
Most people would look crazy wearing a jacket in the middle of summer, but Kranthi Kiran Vistakula’s jacket is very different. The wearer can set the temperature of the jacket to keep him warm on cold nights or cool off the body during the hottest months of the year, reports BBC News. The clothes use [...]
According to Ubergizmo, the power of a quick nap is quite underrated. Short periods of sleep during the day can help refresh the mind and body. It can even help reverse information overload. An entrepreneur is trying to market that concept by offering a product called PowerNap. It is made to help people get the [...]
A Woman’s Touch In Construction
Rebecca Smith drew the attention of workers as she walked through a construction site 20 years ago. What is a woman doing on a building site? She owned the company, of course. She still does, reports FloridaToday.com. Smith has seen the company hit a high point of $80 million in annual revenue and a staff [...]
Making Your Invention ‘As Seen On TV’
It seems everyone is trying to receive “as seen” status, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. According to NJ.com, the judges have made their way to New Jersey. They are giving people five minutes to pitch their product. If they like it, they ask for more information. If they are not interested, the [...]
Gold farming a series of monotonous tasks in online games like World of Warcraft that can be done to generate in-game gold that can then be sold for real dollars. This is the first I’ve heard of slave labor being used. The Next Web: Chinese inmates in Jixi labor camp are reportedly forced to slay [...]
A new company is making its mark in the home furnishings industry by following in the footsteps of established direct selling companies like Mary Kay and Avon. That company is Decor To Door. Like other direct selling companies, they offer people an opportunity to sign on with their company and sell their products. Their reps [...]
Lily McCauley could never find the remote in her home. Sick of looking, she created a way to track it and entered it into the Bendigo Inventor Awards, reports Bendigo Advertiser.
Motherhood Opens A World Of Opportunity
Amanda Waring didn’t like giving up her jewelry, in fear her young child would destroy the delicate pieces with one tug or chew. So, she formulated an alternative option that would look good, and it would be baby resistant. That is how Mama Jewels was born, reports This Is Nottingham. The necklaces combine robustness and [...]
Relaunching A Classic Drink: Choc-Ola
According to Bloomburg-Businessweek, a pair of entrepreneurs hope to relaunch a classic. Their goal is to draw in the baby boomer crowd with nostalgia, and introduce a chocolaty treat to those who have a sweet tooth. “It’s the greatest-tasting chocolate milk you’ve ever had,” said Joe Wolfla, a 73-year-old book publisher who worked with fellow [...]
Urns That Look Like The Deceased
Need some place unique to store your loved one’s remains? How about an urn that actually looks like them? Cremation Solutions offers just that: Keepsake sized Personal Cremation Urns are the latest in custom personalized cremation urns. They are created from one or two photographs with exceptional attention to details. With advances in facial analysis [...]
In the United States, when we think of McDonald’s, we think of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke. In other countries, though, the menu options are more diverse. Here’s a sampling of McDonald’s from around the world. McRice burger — Singapore Sausage, egg and twisty pasta — Hong Kong Bubur ayam McD — Malaysia [...]
First there were credit card readers for the iPad and iPhone. Now, there are virtual cash registers. Mac Rumors reports: Square, the company that has brought the ability to accept credit cards for transactions to individuals and small businesses with a card reader dongle for iOS devices, today announced its next venture: “Square Register” for [...]
When The Internet is Down, I Feel Like This
It’s too late this year, but May 25th is Geek Pride Day. Maybe you can profit from it next year. T-shirts always do well with geeks, as evidenced by the fact that my wife buys me sloganed tees from ThinkGeek every year for my birthday. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that our own Angela [...]
What Happens When You Give Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Business?
Fast Company: They’re all getting two years of mentoring from a network of tech and entrepreneurial experts and $100,000 to start a business. The benefactor? PayPal founder, early Facebook investor, and Stanford’s least favorite alumnus, Peter Thiel. Least favorite because Thiel has been making waves by arguing that college is an overhyped, overpriced bubble, and [...]
Entrepreneurs Should Start Early
A host of entrepreneurs have started young. People like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, all got started while in their 20′s. According to CNN Money, a new report by SV Angel’s Ron Conway and David Lee shows that their success is no coincidence. “I think younger entrepreneurs are more willing to [...]
If you listen closely, you may hear a small buzzing sound coming from Gary Troke’s head. Okay, so maybe not. It should, though. Troke is always inventing, and he has been doing so for over 35 years now, reports Ottawa Citizen. “Ideas just flow from me,” he says on the drive from the Perth factory [...]
Looking back, Helena Morrissey can pinpoint the worst moment she had as a woman working in London’s financial district. It was 20 years ago, and she was the only woman in a team of bond fund traders. She had just returned from maternity leave, and she was passed over for a promotion because her boss [...]
If you’re anything like me, you are probably unfamiliar with bubble tea. Most people think of little tea pots or tea bags when they think of the tea people drink. However, in the 80s the project manager for the Chun Shui Tang tea house, Ms. Lin Hsiu Hui, had a unique idea. She was in [...]
Business Plan: The One Page Pitch
The following is a guest post by Tim Eyre. 5 Elements of an Effective Business Plan That Will Leave Them Begging for More At one time standard protocol called for a lengthy, very detailed business plan that would permit the reader, be it an investor or potential client, to get a complete understanding of a [...]
When food falls out of your bowl, what do you do? If you are Jeff Bollengier, you come up with an idea to redesign the bowl, reports MercuryNews.com. Bollengier, 39, said he carried the idea for the “CaliBowl” with him through stints in pro baseball and modeling and into his adult life as a contractor [...]
WeGoLook Researches Before You Buy
Have you ever wondered about an item for sale, with no way to verify its condition? Whenever someone buys a product on e-bay, for example, they are putting themselves at risk. However, there is now a unique service which will do the looking for you. WeGoLook is a service that helps protect their clients from [...]
Fifteen years ago Erich Jonas created a game that has been met with an unusual amount of success. According to Daily Inter Lake.com, it all started when Jonas spun an egg-shaped rock on a bar table. From there is became the Egg Game. “We started bumping the table back and forth then we discovered we [...]
There will always be clothing with the tag, “dry clean only.” One entrepreneur has create a dry cleaning shop that meets that need in an eco-friendly way. According to Ann Arbor.com, GreenAge Cleaners uses energy efficient pressing machines, and hydrocarbon solvent. “Hydrocarbon doesn’t harm the human body, and there is no air pollution, contamination of [...]
Today in Entrepreneurial History: May 23
On this day in 1829 a patent for an Accordion is granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna. In the official patent, it was described as: Its appearance essentially consists of a little box with feathers of metal plates and bellows fixed to it, in such a way that it can easily be carried, and therefore [...]
3 Businesses That Thrive When Gas Prices Go Up
The following is a guest post by Anthony Benedict. Thinking of starting a business, or evaluating a job offer? When determining if a business can survive in today’s world, gas prices are a huge factor. Depending on the business, gas prices can affect the cost of goods that a company buys, the shipping costs incurred [...]
Have you been holding on to a unique idea that would revolutionize the way we communicate? If so, a new program called, “Invent with Nokia,” may be exactly what you are looking for. According to Nokia: Having a great idea is one thing, but having that idea turned into a reality is often much more [...]
At the TEDxTokyo conference, Dr. Yuichi Mori presented his newest creation: a futuristic agricultural system called Imec Mobiol Gel. The invention looks like a large sheet of plastic wrap that grass and other plants can grow on. Watch the video below. As someone who’s fingers are still stained form working in the garden all weekend, [...]
A Dresser That Looks Like What It Stores
This looks neat. It’s a children’s dresser with drawers designed to look like the clothing that you put in them. The informative drawers create an engaging dresser for kids and an iconic furniture piece for parents. Well considered and well made. The dresser is hand crafted and packaged with care in Eastern Washington by the [...]
A snake oil salesman is someone who sells something phony — typically a medicine that promises to cure all that ills you. Funny enough, though, the original snake oil actually worked! In the 1860s, when Chinese laborers were building the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, they brought with them a ointment made from Chinese [...]
Linking Parents With Babysitters
Every community faces the same dilemma: how do parents find quality babysitters? Katy Langhorst and Tara Harville-Fry have provided a solution within their own community. Their business is called SitterMixer. It has been less than eight months since their business has launched, and they’ve already received one award for their services, reports Hamilton-Wenham Patch. Sitter [...]
Marketing Lessons From the Apocalypse
Seth Godin has drawn a marketing lesson from last weekend’s failed apocalypse: Every time, people succumb. They sell their belongings, stop paying into their kid’s college fund and create tension and despair. Here’s the simple lesson: Sell a story that some people want to believe. In fact, sell a story they already believe. The story [...]
Accidential Deposition Freelancer
When Terri Urbash left her job as a court reporter to start a family, she never expected to become a full-time entrepreneur. However, that is exactly what happened, reports CNN Money. “Instead of having more children, I kept getting more clients,” Urbash says, explaining how she stumbled into being the founder of the no. 16 [...]
Many homes may decorate with a painting or a small statue. However, how many people can say they own a piece of metal art? Vladimir Gendelman is aware his product reaches a niche group of people. However, it seems his niche is growing. Although he once feared people would not purchase the cute scrap metal [...]
Finding Your Connections For Success
Being noticed in a large market is not easy. Many good products are ignored in favor of those that managed to find the right strategy. Peter Kielland was an entrepreneur who had trouble getting people to notice his unique multi-bit drill attachment called the Scruzol. Then he caught the attention of Canadian Tire and it [...]
Making Career Fit Around Family
Erica Diamond is a busy woman. She’s a mom, blogger, and speaker. Sometimes, the three roles combined can be a lot to handle. According to Global Saskatoon, her journey began in 1999. That is when she was 24 and started her own business. But then, in 2009, she was inspired to launch a blog, called [...]
Sydney Pedersen recently came up with a simple idea that could help make chemotherapy less traumatic for young patients. Her idea was inspired by her own sister, reports South Washington County Bulletin. She remembers wondering one night if there was a way to make the treatment process easier for her sister, who had a “port” [...]
Making Snow: Even in the Summer
SnowMagic is a company that makes snow… in any season, even in the dog days of summer. They use a patented system called Infinite Crystals Snowmaking. The technology can make snow to your specifications – for recreation, special effects, or decoration. According to the company, even indoor snowmaking is possible, allowing venues to add snow [...]
