Archive for September 2011
Laying In The Lap Of Eco-Friendly Baby Blankets
Most people who find success are in the lap of luxury. However, Kathleen finds herself in the lap of eco-success. Her baby blankets, made of easily renewable resources, have introduced a bamboo and soybean material that is soft enough for babies and green enough to support an eco lifestyle. Using a no waste approach, the [...]
Charging Electric Cars With the Road
Fast Company: It’s a well-known shortcoming of electric cars that they can only be driven short distances. The Chevy Volt, for example, has a maximum range of 50 miles on a single charge. And, while it’s possible to back up the electricity system with a fossil fuel-based one, as the Chevy does, that somewhat takes [...]
Ikea: Leave Your Husbands and Boyfriends in Our Playzone
An IKEA store in Australia has taken the created a “playground” for bored men, complete with Xbox consoles, pinball machines, continuous televised sport and free hot dogs called MÄNLAND. MÄNLAND is being trialled for four days this Father’s Day weekend as a male-only play space to hang out in while wives and girlfriends peruse the [...]
Colleges to Offer Degree Guarantees
There’s not much you can purchase that doesn’t come with a money back guarantee, except for a college degree. Until recently that is, when fifteen private colleges in the United States began ofering four-year degree guarantees. The Consumerist has more: Battling concerns from parents and students that they’ll toil in school for a half-decade or [...]
Government Gone Wild: Medical Service Codes Multiply By Ten!
Wall Street Journal Today, hospitals and doctors use a system of about 18,000 codes to describe medical services in bills they send to insurers. Apparently, that doesn’t allow for quite enough nuance. A new federally mandated version will expand the number to around 140,000—adding codes that describe precisely what bone was broken, or which artery [...]
Its a Myth: NASA’s Million Dollar Pen
There’s a popular myth that NASA spent “millions” of dollars developing a pen for astronauts to use in the weightless environment of a space ship – while their sensible Russian counterparts were happy to use the low-tech pencil. Alas, for all its appeal and plausibility, this is not true. Initially, astronauts and cosmonauts were both [...]
When trying to think of a good name for her marketing business, only one word game to mind. Andrea Wedren decided to call it Boom. It let her customers know that she was there, ready, and exploding on the scene, reports the Cleveland Jewish News. After working at the Free Times, Wedren, of Hunting Valley, [...]
No, we’re not talking about the proverbial love bug bite that makes people fall in love or childhood cooties. The Love Bug Solution is a car cleaner that helps protect vehicles from the actual fly. Also known as March Fly, Honeymoon Fly, Telephone Bug, Kissy Bug and Double Headed Bug, these pests are acidic to [...]
Facebook Drawing In Small Business
It is Sheryl Sandberg’s goal to do for Facebook what she did for Google. She wants to help the company attract small businesses to their advertising options. “My dream is really simple,” said Sandberg, 42, seated near a framed graffiti rendering of co-founder Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s headquarters here. “I think every small business should [...]
When Franchisee Challenges Franchisor
It is in the best interest of a company to do what will help them make the most money. When that company is a national franchise, like Applebee’s, it might seem a little surprising that a large portion of their success comes from one franchisee: Zane Tankel. He had been a serial entrepreneur since the [...]
College Hunks Turn Junk Into Biz
WSJ: To earn some cash during the summer of 2003, college students Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman started what they thought would be a temporary business removing old furniture and other items from people’s homes. But after a brief stint in the corporate world following graduation (Mr. Friedman from Pomona College and Mr. Soliman from [...]
Some Business Ideas Are Just Plain Crazy
Forbes: I was at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference looking for the wackiest, nonsensical start-up with an idea so wild that your jaw drops. A company so bad that, well, it may even be good. I give you Talk O’Clock. The “social alarm clock” with the tagline: “Let a stranger wake you up.” Instead of using [...]
Today in Entrepreneurial History: September 16
1620 – The Mayflower starts her voyage to North America 1863 – Robert College of Istanbul-Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist. 1880 – The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation’s oldest, continuously-independent college [...]
amoCRM Revolutionizes Deal Management
Customer relations management systems (CRM) are used by businesses to manage their deals, contacts, and negotiations with clients. CRM solutions also include ways to help companies analyze their business model, such as by building sales funnels which help businesses figure out where they are (or are not) doing well in the sales process. amoCRM offers [...]
Startup Open: Entrepreneurship Competition
The submissions deadline for Startup Open, a featured competition at 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Week that recognizes startups with high-growth potential, closes today. Entrants can register at www.startupopen.com/register. Entrepreneurs who have a “startup moment” between GEW 2010 and GEW 2011 (Nov. 22, 2010 to Nov. 20, 2011) are eligible to take part. A “startup moment” is [...]
Dyson made waves when they came out with a fan with no blades. They have grabbed the attention of the public again with a heater fan that will not burn you. Dyson’s new product, bluntly called Hot, uses technologies first developed for its Air Multiplier, released in May 2010, to generate a fast flow of [...]
What if you could text your car to stop, and have it stop moving when it is stolen? That is just one part of an anti-theft idea from self-taught inventor, Morris Mbetsa, and 18 year old who lives in Kenya. Mbetsa’s invention uses voice, DTMC and SMS text messages over a wireless service to carry [...]
Many hobbies have found their place as a business, so what about weaving? Thirty years ago, Suzi Ballenger could have never imagined she would be teaching the art of weaving. The inspiration to learn came by accident, but it happened quickly, reports The Westerly Sun. She walked into a shop with a weaving loom and [...]
EcoVino has discovered a unique niche by combining a love of wine with the the growing green trend. From the vine to your glass, they use an eco-friendly, organic process to maintain quality and minimize the impact on the planet. They have even tossed out the traditional bottle for a more compact easy-to-carry pouch. The [...]
Totally Costumes For Every Occasion
Halloween is the largest costume-wearing holiday of the year, and it is right around the corner. People love to dress up, but they don’t want to pay outrageous prices. A need for good costumes at a decent price is what drives TotallyCostumes.com to do so well, year-round. With Halloween a little over a month away, [...]
Deseret News: As an orthopedic and spinal surgeon in training in 2004, Dr. Alpesh Patel knew there had to be a better way to detect when a surgeon accidentally nicks an esophagus or a bowel with a scalpel. It is estimated that about 10,000 nicks and leaks happen in the United States each year. Patel [...]
With so many interesting ways to fly, blimps don’t receive much of the spotlight. However, one company is hoping to change the way we use blimps in the future. Mr Burns is a test pilot for Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British engineering company that is pioneering a comeback of the dirigible behemoths of yesteryear with [...]
Entrepreneur Has Her Cupcake And Eats It Too
Nicole Carter was 16 when she started her first business. Although plenty of time has passed, her entrepreneurial spirit has not. She’s now the proud owner of a cupcake business called Sweet Treats & Neats, reports Gloucester Township Patch. A year ago, Carter made a teddy bear cake for a baby shower. Her reputation as [...]
An Inventor’s Kit For All Ages
Whether you want to teach your kid how to tinker and understand the basics of electronics or you are a kid at heart, the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit is made to inspire. As babies we learned to stack with building blocks. This kit provides the building blocks to achieve certain circuit milestones. It will take someone [...]
Take the Store to the Customers: ExTreme ReTrailers
Every small business owner can attest that location plays a big part in success. In this economy, an off-the-beaten-path location could make a bad scenario worse for store owners. Thousands of small businesses face the dilemma of being in a location that is not working, yet they are bound by a lease which is difficult [...]
Looking for something new to farm? What about salt? From the outside, Midge Jolly’s newest salt house looks like an igloo that went long instead of domed. Inside, though, a block of ice wouldn’t stand a chance. “Actually some friends have asked us if we’ll lend it out as a sauna,” Jolly says. “It can [...]
Frustrated College Applicant Starts College Rating Biz
Washington Post: Most prospective college students submit several applications. Allen Gannett fired off just one, to George Washington University, then threw up his hands and crossed his fingers. Looking back, what frustrated me was there were so many schools I could have gotten into … but I was so overwhelmed,” said Gannett, now a senior [...]
A Canadian company called Knowaste has developed a system to extract the recyclable plastic from dirty disposable baby diapers for use in roofing tiles and plastic components. Fast Company has more: Babies in the United States go through about 24 million diapers a year, contributing 3.4 million tons of waste to landfills. And, worldwide, the [...]
UK Company Makes Juice from Old Fruit
Birmingham Mail Nigel Baker and Eleanor Hoad came up with the idea Urban Harvest, a community juice and preserves business, after years of watching surplus fruit go to waste in gardens across the city. Their new enterprise, which aims to reduce food waste, slash transport miles and encourage healthy eating, will see tonnes of apples, [...]
IBM’s Watson Super Computer Gets a Job
Wall Street Journal: Watson, the “Jeopardy!”-playing computer system, is getting a job. WellPoint Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are set to announce a deal on Monday for the health insurer to use the Watson technology, the first time the high-profile project will result in a commercial application. WellPoint said it plans to use Watson’s [...]
Groupon Style Cash for Classrooms
DavisPatch: Laurie Coffroth looked at the sorry state of funding for public education and saw a business opportunity. The Elk Grove mother of three recently launched Cash for Classrooms, which charges local businesses to have their coupons inserted into students’ backpacks. Cash for Classrooms will funnel part of the proceeds back to schools. With California’s [...]
Ebooks from Your Real Books for $1
Singularity Hub: The physical to digital conversion of books just got a lot cheaper with the launch of 1DollarScan.com, based in San Jose, California. An offshoot of the immensely successful BookScan in Japan, 1DollarScan does exactly what its name implies: it scans your documents for a dollar. 100 pages of a book, 10 pages of [...]
Niche Biz: Helping Inventors Invent
Whether you’re looking for a place to build your invention or have it manufactured, it is a long process that can intimidate the toughest inventor. However, one company is helping local inventors find the manufactures they need, but they’re also renting out space for inventions that just need a little more refining and bigger tools, [...]
Entrepreneurship In Retirement
Many retiree’s today are not happy with that status. They may be of age, but they are not ready to stop. That is why so many people are escaping retirement and starting a business. Mature entrepreneurs differ from their younger counterparts in several critical ways. For one, they are usually in a much better financial [...]
The CEO Tech Trail Few Women Share
Before Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison there was a woman who blazed a trail straight to CEO in the tech industry. Her name is Sandra Kurtzig. The founded ASK Corp. over 40 years ago and took the company public. In a world of men, she was the lone female CEO in the Valley. Now she’s [...]
Reaching Top Entrepreneur Status
It takes a certain personality and style to become a successful entrepreneur. However, what does it take to become the man or woman on top? Are you the next Richard Branson or Oprah? A recent study noted some common traits top entrepreneurs share. They believe knowledge should be shared More than three-quarters of Canadian respondents [...]
Taking Eco-Friendly Steps In The Nursery
When Kathleen Raulin was trying to find soybean fiber blankets for her son, she came up empty handed. So, she started a business selling blankets using the material. In 2004, the new mom had stumbled upon an article about the eco-friendly benefits of the textile. Unlike traditional fabrics, soybean and bamboo fibers also have hypo-allergenic [...]
Saving Money While Going Green
Businesses want to save money, and most also care about the environment. So what happens when a company has to make the choice between running a green company and staying profitable? They find ways to go green without spending much money, reports The New York Times. To begin, Mr. Bramblett said, analyze the business operations [...]
Facing Tough Decisions Before Selling A Business
Selling a business is not like selling a car. It is an ongoing process that can take a few years to complete. Not only must the owner find the right buyer, they must find a buyer at the right price, and someone who is willing to meet his terms. DO you want to remain with [...]
Ryno Motors is a company in Portland, Oregon that is developing an electric motorcycle with a single wheel. It looks like the front of a motorcycle, and can travel more than 30 miles on a single charge. The company negotiating with a manufacturing partner and hopes to have the motorized unicycle on the market in [...]
Fast Company: Catastrophe is a powerful agent for invention. More than gadgets like the Rescue Reel and SeatChute, which conjure up an almost super-hero-like fantasy, ever since September 11 entrepreneurs and scientists (and some who wear both hats) have been quietly plodding away at a variety of ideas, mechanisms, and processes designed to make the [...]
Robots, And Their Contribution on 9/11
Fast Company: When it came to the task of digging through the rubble of the Twin Towers, humans were for one of the first times ever working alongside robots: Packbots made by iRobot under a DARPA research fund, were “literally pulled out of the laboratory and taken to 9/11.” The devices were strong, maneuverable and [...]
Digital Mailboxes to Kill USPS
Business Week: As if the U.S. Postal Service weren’t already in enough financial trouble, a growing number of startups are about to make its future even more uncertain. They’re trying to lure one of its main revenue sources—the nearly 48 billion bills, statements, account notices, and offers that companies send to households every year—into the [...]
Fast Company has up an interesting article on the newest development in 3D printing: food. The newest 3-D food printer, now being honed at Cornell Creative Machines Lab, can produce: tiny space shuttle-shaped scallop nuggets; and cakes or cookies that, when you slice into them, reveal a special message buried within, like a wedding date, [...]
If you have an extra hundred grand, you’ll be able to rocket through the air in 2012 when the Martin Jetpack is available for purchase: In order to make it publicly available, Glenn Martin’s jetpack had to be tailored around the FAA’s ultralight standards, which mean that its speed was limited to a maximum of [...]
There has been a lot of talk about patent reform and how it will change from a first-to-invent form to first-to-file. AJC looks at some of the other major elements involved in the reform. Gives the Patent and Trade Office more authority to set fees and keep the fees it collects so that it has [...]
Reuters Canada: Yahoo Inc’s decision to fire Chief Executive Carol Bartz — by phone, no less — pointed out how few women had made it to the top of companies tracked in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. That roster dropped to 17, a little more than 3 percent of the total, after Bartz’s exit. [...]
Mobile Shelters For The Homeless
Peter Samuelson believes everyone deserves a roof. He felt so strongly about his argument that he made it the name of his nonprofit: Everyone Deserves A Roof. The organization provides a unique mobile shelter for the homeless, reports Entrepreneur. Housing L.A.’s homeless population, which numbered nearly 60,000 at the height of 2008′s economic downturn, would [...]
Where do many American jobs come from? Small businesses. CreditDonkey has evaluated the full impact of small business in the USA. Where do you fall on this chart? Infographic after the jump.
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