Author Archives: Rich Whittle
Helping Former Military Personnel Can Be A Six Figure Business
Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work: Finding a job is one of the biggest challenges for people coming out of the military. Karin Markley, founder of Military Exits, knows this well, she has 15 years of experience working in a civilian employment agency. She knows companies value employees with military backgrounds, and she wanted to provide [...]
User Generated Content Drives Web Growth
Vnunet.com: User generated content sites, such as platforms for photo sharing, video sharing and blogging, comprised five out of the top 10 fastest growing web brands in July, according to research from Nielsen//NetRatings. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing web brands were MySpace, with a 183 per cent [...]
Car Dealer Puts 2009 Camaro Up for Bid on eBay
Autoblog: There were reports earlier this year of General Motors car dealers accepting down payments on the new Camaro after the concept debuted. Those dealers were “asked” by GM to remove such a program and return any money that had been received. The reason was that the Camaro hadn’t been given the green light as [...]
Columbus Dispatch: Matt Peters collects bat droppings, or guano, from the attics and bell towers of area churches and sells it as fertilizer. He manages to get $2 a pound for something people hate to scrape off their shoes. “People find it makes nice gifts,” said Sue Zano, who owns a store in Athens where [...]
Business 2.0 Magazine: Complex surgery is the latest service to move offshore – and clever businesses are helping cost-conscious patients go under the knife overseas. This year alone, upwards of 500,000 Americans are expected to travel overseas to get their bodies fixed, at prices 30 to 80 percent less than at home. Medical tourism, as [...]
Social-Networking Site Gives Retailer a Start
Startup Journal: Like many college students, Stephanie Madesh enjoys socializing online with friends through networking site MySpace.com. So when she began planning to create a Web-based apparel company this past spring, she thought MySpace would be an ideal place to court her target demographic, young women like herself. Ms. Madesh created a profile for her [...]
Springwise.com: Dutch bank Postbank recently started a campaign aimed at budding entrepreneurs. Children who open an Easy Blue bank account receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts, stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. To get started, the young business person logs on to the bank’s web site and decides what type of [...]
Sun, sand, and surfing…….the Net
HeraldToday.com: Reclined underneath a bright blue shade umbrella, Scott Proffitt enjoys a Sunday afternoon at the beach with his family. His small children build a sandcastle nearby, while his sunbathing wife applies sunscreen to her face. She sips ice cold water and then passes the bottle to her husband, who carefully drinks to avoid a [...]
Everyday Edisons, a PBS show, is now entering its second season of taping and is looking for inventors. According to the show’s producers, “you will have the opportunity to appear on Everyday Edisons as your invention takes shape, is refined, produced, marketed and sold.â€? Their scope is broad: You don’t have to have a prototype [...]
Boston Globe: For the back-to-school season, Staples is tapping a new market: teens. Well, duh. But for years, the segment wasn’t an obvious one for the office supplier. Instead Staples catered to grade school children and their parents believing that this age group spent more on school supplies. But research the chain conducted found that [...]
Ottawa Business Journal: Michael Turner’s business suits his clients. He visits them at home or work to determine their wardrobe needs and measure them for the custom-tailored suits he designs for each individual. But, explains the proprietor of Uncommon Thread, “I’m not into selling one suit to a guy. I’m looking to build up a [...]
Inside the cbc: Frustrated at the lousy quality of pitches that companies and PR people were making, CBC Radio producer Tod Maffin wrote “Landing the Perfect Pitch” , a short (15 pages) book. It’s meant for anyone who is trying to get media attention for their company, charity, web site, event, or whatever. It details [...]
Savvy Iowan Takes Corn Sales To Ebay
USA Today: The tasty crunch of sweet corn is just a couple of clicks away for folks outside of the Midwest thanks to some Iowa entrepreneurs. The golden, buttery bounty seems be everywhere in Iowa — in grocery stores and on street corners being sold out of the backs of pickups. But since the craving [...]
Trendwatching.com: As part of the never-ending health trend and obesity obsession, school lunches are a hot topic across the world. Two Dutch entrepreneurs came up with their own solution to the lunch challenge (adding in a bit of convenience as well): Lunch4Kids. Packaged like a McDonald’s Happy Meal, each lunchbox contains sandwiches, a drink (milk [...]
Couple-Surfing: ‘Love Me, Love My Blog’
CNN.com: A man and a woman sit side by side in a New York cafe, drinking beer, sharing food, and not saying a word. Instead of chatting, they are typing on a laptop about the tunes played through a shared iPod. As the Internet evolves — with its Webcams, iPods, Instant Messaging, broadband, Wi-Fi and [...]
Google, Yahoo! Agree To Independent Click Fraud Audits
TechCrunch: As the outcry by advertisers grows louder than the assurances from Google that click fraud is not a substantial problem, representatives from Google and Yahoo! publicly announced that they would accept independent click fraud audits. Of course the true independence of any audit will need to be closely watched. The pay per click advertising [...]
After-Prom Business Generates $1 Million A Year
Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work: Remember the prom? The limos, the dresses, the late nights spent wandering around town looking for after-prom fun? Yoel Silber has found a way to cash in on that market with Promtix, his one-stop shop for after-prom adventures. He sells tickets to cruises, comedy and dance clubs. Says Silber, “In [...]
This Is Not Your Father’s Garage Sale
Startup Journal: This year Americans will again set up garage sales and their close cousins, stoop sales, yard sales and tag sales. Gretchen Herrmann, an economic anthropologist who has studied garage sales for decades, estimates that $4 billion is exchanged in nine to 10 million garage sales each year. But in many parts of the [...]
Companies Offering Telework For People with Disabilities
Wall Street Journal Online: Call-center outsourcing firms will employ agents with disabilities. At least two other concerns, however, specifically target the disabled. National Telecommuting Institute, a Boston nonprofit, has about 250 agents working from home at any given time, and a total pool of about 1,000 agents, says M.J. Willard, executive director. Applicants are asked [...]
Motivated To Start A Business?
Startup Journal: Successful entrepreneurs are calculated risk takers. They know that building a long-lasting company will be difficult. However, they also know the task is likely to be achievable if they put their energy and intelligence behind it. Setting difficult yet attainable goals is a hallmark of achievers, according to research by the late Harvard [...]
Make Millions From Happy Campers
Unusual Businesses Ideas That Work: Happy memories from his childhood days at summer camp inspired Ari Ackerman to come up with the idea for Bunk1.com. He originally wrote the business plan for the company for his MBA training, but it seemed like too good an idea to pass up. His initial concept was to provide [...]
Springwise.com: Here’s a smart idea that could be turned into a global cottage industry: sound resistant cell phone booths. The Cell Zone, produced by Salemi Industries, can be placed in nightclubs, restaurants, libraries, on airports, train stations, at concerts, and all other places where a bit of peace and quiet is often hard to get. [...]
10 Steps Every Entrepreneur Must Do When Starting A New Venture
Rhonda Abrams: So, you’ve decided to start a business. What do you do first? What next? What do you have to do right away and what can you delay? Here are 10 must-dos: 1. Talk to an attorney and/or accountant. Create a simple standard contract or agreement you can use. It’s also a good idea [...]
CNNMoney.com: These days, you really can’t start a small business without getting on the Web, but it’s also never been harder to score a snappy URL. There’s reason to worry about a shortage of marketable domain names. To date, more than 70 million domain names have been purchased, and most – if not all – [...]
New Twist To The ‘Mom And Pop’
CNNMoney.com: The notion of a typical “mom and pop” business is getting a makeover. Yesterday’s image of a family-run corner store is giving way to nail salons, Internet-based auction sites and even motorcycle dealerships, according to the Census Bureau survey of small businesses run by one or more people that range from home-based firms to [...]
Business Fills An Itty-Bitty Niche
St. Petersburg Times: Last December, Cecilia Sayre went to a shower for a single mom who had recently adopted a child from China. Though she wanted to find a gift that held personal meaning and cultural relevance, she was stymied by the lack of selection. “Though Chinese pajamas are gorgeous, a person only wants so [...]
Craigslist: An entreprenuer in Texas is offering to scan family photo albums and place them on a DVD for safe keeping. He offers to organize the photos according to date or subject matter and only charges 25 cents per photo. Any one with a scanner and a computer with a CD or DVD burner could [...]
