Archive for August 30th, 2011
Bar Owners Turn Off Sports, Turn on Video Games
Maximum PC: With football season still a couple of weeks out, the NBA mired in a lockout situation, and TV viewers ignoring any baseball game that isn’t part of the World Series, sports bar owners have been kind of at a loss about how to fill their seats. Enter Barcraft. Earlier this year, some enterprising [...]
Need a Job? Go to North Dakota!
CNBC: Unemployment is a national problem in the U.S., but you wouldn’t know that if you travel through North Dakota. The state’s unemployment rate hovers around 3 percent, and “Help Wanted” signs litter the landscape of cities such as Williston in the same way “For Sale” signs populate the streets of Las Vegas. “It’s a [...]
How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders
I don’t recommend this “business opportunity,” but Rolling Stone has up an interesting profile about two pot-smoking teenagers who became millionaires from the War on Terror. The e-mail confirmed it: everything was finally back on schedule after weeks of maddening, inexplicable delay. A 747 cargo plane had just lifted off from an airport in Hungary [...]
Breast Milk: The Market for Liquid Gold
Wired: It started with a bleary-eyed Google search: “Sell breast milk.” Desiree Espinoza had a 2-month-old baby girl but was pumping out enough milk to feed triplets. Ziplock baggies full of the stuff were crammed in her freezer, and unpaid bills crowded her kitchen table. She wasn’t sure there was a market for her overflow [...]
In 1900, the southern white rhinoceros was the most endangered of the five rhinoceros species. Fewer than 20 rhinos remained in a single reserve in South Africa. By 2010, white rhino numbers had climbed to more than 20,000, making it the most common rhino species on the planet. Saving African Rhinos: A Market Success Story: [...]
UK Telegraph: The trend for cosmetic surgery on pets started in the US, where all kinds of treatments have been devised for animals. Chin-lifts among dogs became popular in the 1990s in order to curb excessive drooling. In the mid-1980s ‘Neuticles’ were invented; testicular implants that were designed to give neutered pets a more masculine [...]
McDonald’s Olympics Promotional Disaster
Sometimes big companies run promotions that require them to give away a ton more than the bargained for. It’s hard to think even with all of those employees, big companies sometimes overlook huge gaping holes in their promotions. One such promotional distaster was one McDonald’s ran during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1984, the [...]
SideSkills: Growing Your Biz Through Online Connections
As more and more people turn to the internet to find work or to hire for an open position, a new site called SideSkills.com is setting out to help people find work and grow their business through their online connections. For everything from home services to guitar lessons, the site aims to utilize online networks [...]
Katie’s Charming People With Low Cost, High Quality Charms
Jewelry fashions are always changing, but the universal love for charms and charm bracelets will always remain. That is what makes Katie’s Charms such a successful online shop. Katie’s is poised to offer quality charms for prices far below their competition. Like any good business, Katie’s Charms has a dedicated founder, Jennifer Colgan, working in [...]
When Small Biz Gets Hit By Big Fees
If building up a small business wasn’t hard enough, what happens when the city decides you should pay more in fees than you make per year? That is a problem Blue Sky Airport Parking is facing. The City of Phoenix is promoting new fees for ground transportation companies. The information was certainly interesting: The Aviation [...]
When was the last time you took time away from your business? If you’re like many entrepreneurs, it has probably been years since the last vacation. A national American Express survey of 500 small business owners showed only 46 percent planned to take a vacation this summer. That’s down from 67 percent in 2006. Business [...]
Are you currently on the look out for some business funding? Business Insider has recently shared a list of ten quotes you should avoid when pitching to an investor. Three of them are below. Have you fallen prey to one of these statements before? “Our product is truly disruptive technology.” If your product really represents [...]
