Archive for August 2011
Women In Charge: Catherine Cook of myYearbook
The Huffington Post has the profile of a successful woman and the co-founder of myYearbook, Catherine Cook. I worked with my brothers Dave and Geoff to create myYearbook in 2005 to be the best place to meet new people. We added 400 members in the first week, and today we have 32.7 million members, $23.7 [...]
GPS Sneakers For Alzheimer Patients
eTurboNews: GTX Corp. is introducing new shoes, loafers, and sneakers, with GPS built into them. Using a downloadable app, caretakers can track and be alerted if patients and loved ones wanders out of a pre-set safe zone. The GPS Smart Shoe will provide millions of caregivers the means to help easily find those afflicted with [...]
The Bite Counter is a watch-like device that counts how many bites of food you take. Working like a pedometer that counts your steps, it counts the number of times you bring your fork up to your mouth. The Bite Counter tracks wrist motion. In order to pick something up, the fingers must be aimed [...]
Black Market Bizop: Incandescent Lightbulbs?
In just a few months, incandescent light bulbs will be illegal to purchase in the United States. Many people have no idea that most traditional light bulbs are about to disappear. For those in the know, it’s time to start hoarding: O’Neill keeps her stash under her basement stairs and figures she’s got a three-year [...]
The History of the Keurig Coffee Maker
In 1995, John Sylvan was drinking 30 to 40 cups of coffee per day. Not just because he loved the stuff, but because he and his business partner, Peter Dragone, were working on a new kind of coffee maker. They named their invention “Keurig,” a word meaning excellence that Sylvan pulled from a Danish-English dictionary. [...]
The Library Hotel, on Madison Avenue at 41st Street, in New York City is a one of a kind hotel: it’s like a library with beds. Each floor of this luxury establishment is devoted to a different subject, and the rooms on that floor are equipped with books and works of art dealing with that [...]
Making Money With Online Mugshots
When Philip Cabibi Googled himself, he found a very upsetting result in the 10th place: “Philip Cabibi Mugshot,” read the title. The description was “Mug shot for Philip Cabibi booked into the Pinellas County jail.” After clicking through, he saw his mug shot and book information from a 2007 drunk-driving arrest in Florida. He had [...]
Wow! A Real Undersea Restaurant!
Main entry Ithaa is an undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Resort. The restaurant is located 16 feet below the surface of the ocean. CNN has more: The six-course dinner menu often features French dishes from executive chef Nicolas Boutin and is priced at $320 a person. A lighter three-course lunch menu is [...]
House of Air: Indoor Trampoline Park
The House of Air is an indoor trampoline park in a former aircraft hanger in San Francisco’s Crissy Fields. Unlike most trampoline parks, House of Air doesn’t just target kids for birthdays and play dates. Goth and 80s nights are frequently on the schedule. The company has introduced adult dodge ball, early morning workout classes [...]
What good is it to bake something amazing, if you can’t store it to take with you to parties and events? That is the premise behind the Baker’s Sto ‘N Go. It allows people to easily store their goods, like brownies, to take on-the-go. I recently spoke with the inventor, Angela Horevitz, about her creation [...]
A Pennsylvania man, with no pest control experience has invented his own trap to kill the stink bugs that have inundated his home. By his count, he’s killed 17,000 stink bugs in the last year. It used a combination of light, which attracts stink bugs, and a fruit-and-vegetable mixture that acts as a lure. He [...]
Cutting Cars in Half to Avoid Import Duties
In the Ukraine, they cut cars in half before they import them to get out of paying import duties. Once in the country they’re welded back together. Today I received some tax saving wisdom from a taxi driver in Ukraine. He told me that people who import cars to Ukraine sometimes cut the car in [...]
Crazy Ideas That Kickstarter Has Funded
NY Times: So what kind of “creative projects” does Kickstarter enable? Well, a couple of artists raised $2,181 to send funny handwritten letters to every household in Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood; someone pulled in $8,441 to help finance the creation of “a searchable ethnographic database built from the lyrics of over 40,000 hip-hop songs”; a [...]
Dog Massage: Makes Everyone Feel Better
Science has shown that petting a dog releases a hormone called oxytocin in both the dog and the petter, which makes everyone feel better. Oxytocin, called the “love hormone”, is the naturally occurring chemical in the body responsible for bonding between mother and baby in humans. Do you know what feels better than just feeling [...]
Farmers Markets Popping Up Like Weeds
USA Today: If it seems like farmers markets are popping up like weeds, it’s because they are. New data out from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that more than 1,000 farmers markets have opened in the past year, up 17% from 2010. The newly released 2011 National Farmers Market Directory shows a total of [...]
Women-Owned Businesses Gearing Up For Gov Contracts
Bialek Environments has been taking on government contracts for years. With the new SBA program for women, the president and CEO, Joan Bialek, looks forward to bringing in some more work for her company. The Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program kicked off in February, with the goal of ensuring that federal agencies issue 5 [...]
What happens when you can’t sleep? For Dennis Linton, that is the perfect time to invent. According to North Harbour News, it is during that time when he comes up with most of his innovations. That’s what led to him designing new types of hydraulic jacks which helped save the life of a man in [...]
Inventor Develops Flying Sphere Drone
At approximately the size of a beach ball and completely black, the Spherical Air Vehicle looks likes a miniature Death Star that can transmit live video from a camera. The drone can fly down alleys, hover, take off vertically, and it can even bounce on the ground, reports AFP. The latest model, the seventh prototype, [...]
Sick of messy yogurt containers in her lunchbox, Madison Alexander decided it was time for a new option. Her idea is to make yogurt containers edible, and it has grabbed the attention of a kids TV show. With her parents’ full support, Madison registered her idea on the Let’s Get Inventin’ website in March last [...]
Infographic: What Are You Doing When New Ideas Happen?
Yesterday, we asked “Where Do You Get New Ideas?” There weren’t many comments on the post, but I received tons of emails with your answers. The number one response? In the shower! You can see the other responses in the infographic below. You can repost the infographic using the code below.
Snap Fitness Giving Away A Franchise
CNN Money: Participants in the contest — which ends Aug. 15 — will win a new Snap Fitness franchise — a windfall estimated at $250,000. The challenges associated with the business have done nothing to deter people from entering. Since the contest’s launch last month, nearly 1,000 people have entered by submitting 250-word pitches to [...]
If you’ve ever had to use caulking at one time, you’re probably familiar with how easily it dries up within the tube. Sean Dubé also noticed the problem, but he decided to create a solution. It is called SmartCap. By October, his invention will be in over 500 stores across Canada. SmartCap is a small, [...]
Niche: Party Planning and Decorating Supplies
As Kim Stoegbauer discovered, a strong passion is sometimes enough to help set the entrepreneurial spark. It was that spark that helped lead her from real estate to party planning and decorating, reports My Fox Phoenix. That was 2 1/2 years ago and now she’s built a thriving business that has caught the attention of [...]
Last In Entrepreneurship: South Carolina
In a recent raking of all the states, South Carolina took last place as a state for entrepreneurship and innovation. Economists at University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Bureau of Business Research and Department of Economics developed the index to measure states’ business formation and innovation by combining five components: a state’s percentage growth and per capita growth [...]
Reader Survey: Where Do You Get New Ideas?
When do most of your new ideas happen? In the shower? Exercising? Washing the dishes? Somewhere else?
Better Cloth Diapers For A Happier Baby
New parents have enough to worry about with a new baby, but what about all the baby products they are bombarded with? It can be confusing, and BetterClothDiapers.com helps parents sort through that mess. BetterClothDiapers.com offers parents and relatives a one stop shop for quality products, with some organic options. Based around the idea that [...]
The new trend in massage in Asia? Blind masseuses! Entrepreneur Adrian Lee believes that doing business is not only about earning profit. He also wants to create jobs, especially for people who have less chances of getting hired. Last March, Lee ventured into the wellness industry. He opened Healing Hands Therapeutic Massage Centre, which employs [...]
Slow Cow: The Opposite of an Energy Drink
The opposite of an energy drink, Slow Cow is a “relaxation beverage” that helps improve concentration, memory and learning capacity without causing sleepiness. A one-of-kind drink made in Quebec, Canada, Slow Cow contains no calories, no caffeine, no sugar and no preservatives. The drink’s main ingredient is L-Theanine which, according to the manufacturer, “produces a [...]
Powering Your Home With Your Car
In the future, when the power goes out at home, you won’t have to sit in the dark; you’ll just plug in your car. Nissan has revealed new technology that will allow their electric car, the Leaf, to to feed power back into the home. According to the company, the car’s batteries can run some [...]
What if you only needed a generator made up of magnets for electricity? That is an idea inventor Jim Moe has been considering with his own magnetic energy generator. He’s far from the first to create such a contraption. A quick Internet search finds dozens of entrepreneurs selling plans for magnetic generators promising to power [...]
Evan Savar has been inventing for as long as he can remember. At the age of 21, he has already found some success with a trophy picture stand, a talking gift wrap bow and a silicone flat-screen TV effect, reports Las Vegas Review-Journal. Inventions, he said, just come to him. Take his latest one — [...]
Making A Million With Alpaca Fur Clothing
If you live in the Northern part of the US, you’re probably very familiar with snow and the cold. People in these areas want to stay warm, and Mary Ann Weerts found a way to do it. She sells alpaca-blend clothing woven by artisans in Peru. Sold across the U.S. in gift shops and museums [...]
KFC to Honor Col. Sanders With Website
The Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation has just launched a new website in honor of founder Colonel Harland Sanders, and they’re inviting his devoted fans to share their stories and memories of the man behind the brand. “Sanders had an impact on people. They remember that interaction when they met him,” says Rick Maynard, public relations [...]
He Needed Custom T-Shirts, So He Started a Company
If going to college isn’t hard enough, have you tried running a business at the same time? Raymond Lei is one such young entrepreneur that is doing just that. For Raymond it all started with a t-shirt order. As he shopped around at different printers it soon became obvious that all of his options were [...]
Google’s not the only one with a robotic self driving car. China’s interested too: The car starts, steers safely to its destination 286 kilometers away and stops – all without a human driver. No, it’s not a scene from some Hollywood sci-fi movie, but an actual event on July 14 over an expressway linking Changsha [...]
Accounting Knockout: QuickBooks vs Peachtree
A reader wrote: I want to send a quick note. I recently wrote an article comparing the newest version of Quickbooks to Sage’s Peachtree accounting software, primarily aimed at small business owners. I thought it would be a good resource for the blog. Thanks for the link. I’m often asked this very question and am [...]
When 22-year-old Neal Cook started his summer internship with Lambertville, New Jersey software developer Front Rush LLC this past May, he thought he’d be making coffee and emptying trash . And he did, just like many other college interns in similar positions. But that was the first week on the job. By the second week, [...]
How to Use the Web to Tap Into International Markets
The following is a guest post by Christian Arno. Running a small business is tough. For some, the thought of selling abroad is even more daunting, but the truth is you could be missing out on a valuable market. As technology has improved, so too has the number of internet users, particularly those who have [...]
No one wants to believe their children or grandchildren will get into their medicine. Unfortunately, it happens. Michael Rebando’s daughter was only two years old when she climbed up to where he kept his medicine, chewed the safety top off, and ate some of the pills. Thankfully she survived, but something else happened that day. [...]
The label may tell you how many days after opening the food will expire, but how do you keep track? People have tried every trick in the book to remember expiration dates. Some people write the date on the jar, some may keep a list on the fridge, and some like Pete Higgins just invent [...]
Help! I Have Too Many Business Ideas!
A reader asked: I have so many ideas for businesses that I don’t really know which one to start first? Everytime I start something, I get distracted by a new business idea. Help! What do I do? If your answer to the question “What kind of business are you going to start?” is something like [...]
West Coast Regional Independent Inventors Conference
The United States Patent and Trademark Office and Invent Now will hold a west coast regional conference at Pasadena City College on August 12-13. Senior USPTO officials, successful inventors, including National Inventor Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Gary Michelson, and intellectual property experts will be on hand to provide practical advice and information for novice [...]
Entrepreneurship Good For Disabled Vets
Often, people start a business out of passion. Maybe the passion is for entrepreneurship. Sometimes, that passion is the need for something outside the norm. According to the US Department of Defense, running a business offers disabled vets something a normal job would not. Particularly for those struggling to deal with a separation from military [...]
Vermont: Best Place For A Home Bakery Biz
As most people in the food industry know, different states have different rules for people who choose to run a bakery. One state may require a commercial kitchen, but others like Vermont are much more small business friendly, reports Burlington Free Press. In Vermont, regulations for Menke’s home-based business called for a clean kitchen, the [...]
Wrap Media Group has partnered with Budget Rent a Car of Atlanta to wrap rental vehicles with the eye-catching Sheets™ Brand Energy Strips. For the first time ever, renters will be able to get a significant discount when driving a Sponsored (wrapped) Rental Vehicle. “Like many other entrepreneurial ventures, this was conceived on a cocktail [...]
Fox News: In an effort to close widening budget deficits, states throughout the country are slashing funding to education, leaving school districts looking for ways to beef up revenue, and some have gone as far as to sell ad space on school busses. Cash-strapped school districts say it’s the only way to cover expenses during [...]
The Value of Social Media to Entrepreneurs
The following is a guest post by Matt Polsky. Last year, Ford revealed their 2011 Explorer exclusively on Facebook and experienced monumental success. Not only did the company’s Facebook release have an unheard of return on investment, but it also showed a large-scale change in the way companies market themselves and their new products. Now [...]
Delivering People to the Pizza
Scott Wiener loves pizza. Some people deliver pizza. But, Wiener delivers the people to the pizza with his tourism company, Scott’s Pizza Tours. Even native New Yorkers rarely venture to the city’s secluded pizza havens. With the NYC Pizza Bus, you’ll taste some of the city’s best kept secrets as you learn everything there is [...]
Reliably Profiting from the Lottery
Is it possible to reliably profit from a lottery? Yes it is. (Or was before this article was written.) In Massachusetts, on about six days per year, because of a quirk in the rules, the smaller prizes swell dramatically which practically assures a profit to anyone who buys at least $100,000 worth of tickets. Here’s [...]
Many entrepreneurs find one business can eat up most of their time. So, is there even any time left when that number becomes three? Billy and Kitty Caples have been married nearly 50 years, and they work three times as hard to keep all three of their businesses running, reports The Item. Lucky number three [...]
