Business Opportunities Weblog

Killer Startups:

Whether you are an Internet entrepreneur or investor, determining the profitability of a website will be much easier with Bizak.com, a site that computes the valuation and profitability of Internet startups.

The data calculated for each startup includes revenues per visitor, costs per visitor, earnings (profit/loss), earnings per visitor, and valuation. Bizak is currently in Beta, and allowing startups to register for free in order to build up their database. Once enough data has been collected, they will establish “The Bizak Estimate” to use as the comparative benchmarks against which all sites are judged.

Entrepreneurs can view data to see how their startup compares to others, and investors can use the data to judge which startups might be the best investment.

Photo by Bizak.com.

The New York Times:

The college campus, it turns out, can be an ideal incubator for hatching small businesses.

Nanina’s Gourmet Sauce, a pasta sauce company based in Belleville, N.J., was started, for instance, in 2005 by students taking an entrepreneurship course at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J.

Nanina’s products are now sold in nearly 400 supermarkets and gourmet shops in New Jersey and Manhattan, and the company’s director of operations is 23-year-old Nick Massari, a student in that class.

The course at Monmouth is one of thousands of similar offerings on campuses across the United States. Undergraduate courses in how to start and run a small business are becoming as ubiquitous as Economics 101. Gone is the conventional wisdom that running a small business cannot be learned by sitting in a classroom.

According to the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., more than 2,000 colleges and universities now offer at least a class and often an entire course of study in entrepreneurship. That is up from 253 institutions offering such courses in 1985. More than 200,000 students are enrolled in such courses, compared with 16,000 in 1985.

“What you have today are people who have to think about their careers in a way you didn’t before,” said Tom Tremblay, president and chief executive of the Guardair Corporation, a small manufacturer in Chicopee, Mass. “So it’s essential that people learn how to manage and run and participate in small companies. Small business can be taught, and it needs to be taught.”

Read more.

Photo by Sylwia Kapuscinski.

With a new baby girl comes the pretty little dresses, the hair clips and headbands. Sometimes those little girls don’t have enough hair for the clips on the market. That was a problem Jamie had. The headbands didn’t fit right and the little baby hair clips she found on the internet were overpriced. So using her own two hands she came up with her own hair chips that would stay in her child’s hair. Determined to offer her bows at a reasonable price, a business was born.

I recently got the opportunity to talk with Jamie about her online store, Bows 2 Cute and ask this mom how she does it all.

Giveaway:
Jamie is donating one of her starter bow sets, which can be found here, to be given away to one of our readers. If you’d like to win this set for your little girl, leave a comment for a chance to win. The giveaway starts now and ends on May 23rd at 11:59pm. The winner will be chosen on May 24th and contacted by email.

What is ‘Bows 2 Cute’?

Bows2cute is the name I decided to use for my bows and website. Before I had the site and just used them in my daughter’s hair, I would always get comments on her bows and how cute they were, so that is where the name came from!

Continue reading Little Girls And Their Bows

STLCommerceMagazine:

It’s been said that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” But apparently not all great ideas are born out of necessity. Sometimes all it takes is a group of friends and a good bottle of wine.

Take for example the The Vine Wine Bar and Bistro in St. Charles, the brain child of Chad and Alisha McDermott, Tim and Terri Schneider, and Nick and Kate Brockmeyer. One fall evening in 2006, the three couples were sitting beside a fire in one of their backyards enjoying a bottle of wine. They began discussing where they could go locally to do exactly what they were doing at that moment—enjoying a bit of the grape, some good conversation, and maybe a nice dinner. The problem was what they were looking for simply didn’t exist at that time in St. Charles.

“Finally one of us suggested we open our own wine bar. And it sounded like a good idea.”

And it appears to be a good idea that’s taken off. According to McDermott, since The Vine opened on Memorial Day in 2007, they’ve developed a good following of regulars. And, of course, with the nice weather, things really begin to pick up.

“When the tourists start showing up, things get popping around here,” he says. “And we really lucked out with this building. There’s nothing else like it here.”

Image via STLCommerceMagazine

The Greenville News:

Doctors save lives every day, but who would have thought a 13-year-old would have a desire to do the same?

Sara Boerin, an eighth-grader at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School, won the award for best overall use of technology at the Invention Convention at the Bi-Lo Center.

Boerin created what she calls the SAMI or the Secure Access to Medical Information program. In her proposed invention, every patient would wear a bracelet that has a code on it, and with that code, medical information could be accessed through the Internet by the physician or emergency worker trying to save the patient’s life.

Boerin designed two levels of accessible information. Level I provides basic medical information, such as name, birth date, contact information and allergies. Level II provides the basic information along with a medical history of diseases, doctor’s visits and extensive contact information.

With the code on the bracelet, a physician would log on to the Web site, enter which user or level they are (I or II) and enter the code found on the bracelet, and all of the information would be available.

Exploring the ways she can help others is important to Boerin. “When I invent things, I like to help people,” she says. “So the things I invent help people and that encourages me a lot.”

Photo by Kathryn Mckenzie.

Mercury News:

Working from home has its ups and downs, but some people seem to thrive at it, while others flounder and fail. Here’s a list of some of the top mistakes home-based businesses make.

1. Lack of motivation.

2. Trying to run an equipment or retail-based business out of a home.

3. Spending more than you bring in.

4. Lack of promotion.

5. Poor recordkeeping is a mistake that dooms many home businesses.

6. Not paying bills on time.

7. Choosing the wrong business.

8. Treating the business like a hobby.

9. Falling for scams.

10. Spending too much on supplies and services.

Go here to see how you can avoid making the same blunders.

Photo by svilen001.

BusinessWeek:

Chase left Zipcar, the urban car-sharing service she founded in 2003. She’s now chief executive officer of ride-sharing startup GoLoco.

Her secret to success: “My dad was a diplomat and I grew up overseas. Almost every place we lived my mother would start some small cottage industry. Within two years, by the time we had left, she left behind a blossoming cottage industry that employed local people. What she was doing was things she was passionate about. It was an inspiration.”

Photo by BusinessWeek.

USA Today:

After Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, small businesses such as the Silk Road Collection antique store in New Orleans had little hope of surviving. Tourists and local customers had vanished, and it would take years for the city to rebuild.

Donald St. Pierre, the owner of Silk Road, and his business and life partner, Robert Turner, feared that they might have to close the shop. They couldn’t land government or bank loans, and their personal savings were keeping the business afloat.

But then Turner attended a small-business, e-commerce seminar co-sponsored by Internet giant Yahoo and AT&T. After the disaster, it was like tech manna from heaven.

Yahoo offered free online small-business services. E-commerce firm Solid Cactus designed a professional-looking website. Google provided free online software to analyze Internet traffic to Silk Road’s website. And online marketing firm Constant Contact created an e-newsletter for thousands of customers. Total cost: $5,000.

The impact has been dramatic. Silk Road’s total sales in 2007 grew to $201,000, up 23% from the year before. This year, sales are up 19%, with online and foreign sales an increasing percentage of the total take. Now, Silk Road is adding a travel blog and online videos so customers can view products as if they were at the store.

Read more.

Photo by Judi Bottoni.

The Enquirer:

I’m a big fan of these moms/businesswomen - especially as an employer. A number of my best contractors are women who have quit corporate jobs to set up their own freelance practices of writing, software developing, editing and graphic design.

I asked three of my contractors - Alice (with a 12-year-old), Julie (with a 5-year-old) and Sue (with an 18-month-old) - to share secrets for juggling both demanding jobs. And I’ve added a few of my own.

1. Take your e-mail and the Internet with you.

2. Set aside working hours.

3. Get away.

4. Be realistic about time commitments.

5. Take advantage of technology.

6. Bring your child into your world.

7. Network with other mothers.

8. Get child care backup.

Photo by MSDesigns.

Yahoo News:

When Bobbi Brown was struggling to decide what to do with her life, her mother suggested a mental exercise that lead to the creation of her eponymous cosmetics business, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Napoleon Barragan, founder of 1-800-Mattress, remembers his mother washing his family’s clothes by hand in the river, an image that inspired his drive to succeed.

Some say business success is in their DNA. Maternity-wear designer Liz Lange recalled her mother taking her to visit her grandfather’s necktie company at the Empire State Building. Lange’s father also owned a business, so her parents understood when she abandoned a coveted job at Vogue magazine to pursue her own designs.

Lessons mothers pass on to children can nurture the entrepreneurial spirit. Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase says her mother showed her how, on a shoestring, one can turn a passion into a business. Chase, the daughter of a diplomat in the Middle East and Africa, grew up abroad, watching her mom create craft businesses in the countries where they lived. “She’d cobble together these things, doing something that she’d love to do with some tenacity, and go out there and make it happen.” Chase used the same approach to start the car-sharing company.

Image via AhaJokes

KansasCity.com:

A blog — a Web page made up short, frequently updated posts — can be a great marketing tool.

Many business blogs notify customers of new promotions and products, answer questions, promote contests and share company news. A blog also can be a great listening tool that provides insight into what your customers think about your company and what you need to do to maintain or improve relations with your customers.

Decide if customers or just certain employees will be allowed to post articles on the blog. Have policies in place about what kind of content is to be included in the blog, and be sure someone reads posts for content before they are published.

The tone of posts should be friendly and informative, and they should never sound like an infomercial. Post short articles, about 200-300 words, at least three times a week.

Choose a hosting company, such as Typepad, that has been around for years and offers a variety of features with its blogs. Even if you are starting out with a fairly simple blog, it’s a good idea to go with a company that provides a variety of features and options that would allow you to make changes to the blog later on. For information on blog hosting companies and blogging in general, check out problogger.net.

With some services like Typepad, their name is included in the address of the URL. For example, the Web address for a business blog would be yourbusiness.typepad.com.

To get around this, you can buy a domain name from a domain provider like GoDaddy. com, which forwards viewers to the Typepad address.

Image via Terinea

With newborns and babies in general it can be a trick figuring out how to keep them warm in their crib without having to use a blanket, which can be viewed as dangerous. Every parent wants to make the right decision for their children and themselves.

Melissa heard about the Kindersack from her cousin who lives in Germany. When she learned about them she knew they’d do very well sold in the US but didn’t have the time to be able to start her business… yet. In 2000 she was finally able to launch her business, incorporating in 2001. Passport Baby is the brand she started to sell these great products to people here in the US.

I recently got the chance to interview Melissa about the products that she sells from her Passport Baby website. She was also kind enough to donate one of the Kindersacks to one of our readers.

If you would like the chance to win the 3-9 month sleepy bears kindersack pictured above, please leave a comment on this post. The giveaway starts now and ends on May 18th at 11:59pm. I’ll choose the winning comment on May 19th. Passport Baby ships everywhere!

What is ‘Passport Baby’?

Passport Baby (R) is a brand name created by Founder Melissa Atherholt that manufactures its main product, the Kindersack(R) is the Original European baby sleeping sack used by parents since the 1960’s to keep babies safely warm while sleeping. Passport Baby owner also invented the droolie (TM) which is basically a fashionable way for babies to soak up what they’re named for!

What products do you offer through your website?

We are the manufacturer of kindersacks and droolies but also offer many other products that we feel are interesting and innovative. Our tagline is Passport Baby - Bringing the World to you….and taking you to the World! We are in the process of making our website truly live up to our tagline and want to offer products that will assist parents as they travel.

Continue reading European Invention Keeps American Babies Warm: Kindersack

Toledo Blade:

Entrepreneur Randy Boudouris, 52, chose a midlife epiphany over a midlife crisis. Ten years ago, after a falling-out with his employer and a job as a print salesman, he began focusing on making money by himself.

He started MagnetNotes Ltd.

His premier product, MagneCotes, is a paper-thin magnet sheet that is fed through inkjet printers to create materials including personalized magnetized photos and company advertisements.

Its all part of a $500 million worldwide magnet advertising industry. His company, he said, has a 5 percent share, which would be equal to $25 million.

He began with a simple idea and the help of a neighbor, Ray Richards, a retired scientist with Owens-Illinois Inc., a Perrysburg glass bottle making firm.

“I started out in [Ray's] garage on a hot plate mixing formulas on what did and didn’t work,” he said.

His company has developed a yogurt lid for Dannon Company Inc. in Mexico and coupons for the Kroger Co., and has done promotional work with PepsiCo Inc.

“Anything that people can use around the house … anything that’s going to benefit someone will stay around,” he said.

Photo by Toledo Blade.

Steve Strauss at USA Today:

I always say that being in business is like being alone in a dark room — you know you are there, but no one else does. So how do you turn on the light and let people (that is, new customers) know you are there?

By advertising.

But too many advertising choices are quite expensive — television, newspapers, radio, and so on. The reason is because with those mediums you are reaching a lot of people — and you pay for that reach.

The problem of course is that, for many small businesses, many of those folks you may reach by mass media advertising have no interest in what you are selling. Thus, reaching them is not only expensive, but is actually a waste of money.

It is often better for the small business to focus its advertising much more narrowly and try and reach only those people who really may buy what it is selling.

1. E-newsletter advertising: Let’s say you sell products for dog owners. Sure, you could advertise in some expensive pet magazine, but, as indicated, not only may the results be iffy, but they will surely be expensive too.

Consider this alternative: Research the most popular dog / pet websites. Find one or two that you really like and which also seems to target your desired dog-owner demographic. Then look at their e-newsletters; many of the big sites offer more than one.

Then buy ad space in that e-newsletter.

2. Pay-per-click: Yes, we have all heard how great pay-per-click advertising is. After all, Google did not become Google for no reason.

Pay-per-click works because the same concept is at work here as with an e-newsletter campaign, namely, you are paying to advertise only to those people most likely to want what you are selling, that is, people who put in your search terms and who then click you ad. They don’t click, you don’t pay.

And remember, Google isn’t the only game in town. Other online advertising networks to check out are: MSN AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing, MIVA and Superpages.

Photo by MSDesigns.

BusinessWeek:

Quimby, co-founder of Burt’s Bees, sold 80% of the company to private equity firm AEA Investors for an estimated $175 million.

In recent years she has launched a couple of new ventures, including an organic cotton clothing company for children, happygreenbee.com, and Seaside Partners, a real estate development firm.

Her secret to success: “After immigrating to the U.S. from Siberia in 1950, my grandmother, Baba, made a living running a hot dog stand on Boston’s Revere Beach. I spent my childhood summers with Baba, and she let me believe I was ‘working’ as I helped her count the day’s proceeds and record the weather and sales in her daily journal.

[Because I was] surrounded by hot dogs, ice cream, candy, and bubble gum, my grandmother often had to admonish me in her thick Russian accent, ‘Don’t eat the profits, my devochka [little girl]!’”

Photo by BusinessWeek.

Los Angeles Times:

Liu Keli couldn’t tell you much about South Carolina, not even where it is in the United States. It’s as obscure to him as his home region, Shanxi province, is to most Americans.

But Liu is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China.

Liu spent about $500,000 for seven acres in Spartanburg — less than one-fourth what it would cost to buy the same amount of land in Dongguan, a city in southeast China where he runs three plants. U.S. electricity rates are about 75% lower, and in South Carolina, Liu doesn’t have to put up with frequent blackouts.

About the only major thing that’s more expensive in Spartanburg is labor. Liu is looking to offer $12 to $13 an hour there, versus about $2 an hour in Dongguan, not including room and board. But Liu expects to offset some of the higher labor costs with a payroll tax credit of $1,500 per employee from South Carolina.

Liu is part of a growing wave of Chinese entrepreneurs expanding into the U.S. From Spartanburg to Los Angeles they are building factories, buying companies and investing in business and real estate.

Flush with cash, many Chinese companies want to compete globally. Others feel they’ve hit a wall in the domestic market and need to go out to expand sales. And the Chinese government is urging them on by loosening previously cumbersome restrictions, in part to help Beijing reduce a lopsided trade balance with the U.S. and make the most of its massive foreign reserves.

Photo by Don Lee.

Times-Standard:

It ain’t easy to be a telecommuter. Some people dream of severing the tether to their desk and long for the opportunity to work at home. They see adventure, freedom and personal control versus the commute, oppression and lack of control that sometimes goes with a show-up job.

You need a dedicated desk, file cans, desktop computer, printer, productivity software and back-up plans should computers or printers go haywire. I consider a dedicated work space as part of the hardware test because working at your dining room table may be fine to pay bills, but it isn’t cut out for putting in a full day at the office.

If you have attention deficiency, are easily distracted or need a taskmaster to closely supervise you and kick you in the butt to get started, fugedaboudit (another technical term). Your personal bandwidth should include the ability to self start, concentrate and follow through. Speaking of bandwidth, the kind that gives you high speed access to the Internet is usually another must for effective tele-work.

Unless you are writing software code, mapping the human genome or some other equally technical task, you will likely need to interact with customers, supervisors, employees or others to do your job. You will need to figure out how best to do this. It may mean occasional face-to-face contact, and other times it may be OK to use telecommunications such as audio teleconferencing, video conferencing, e-mail or Web meetings.

Read more.

Photo by MSDesigns.

NovaNewsNow:

It began five years ago with a lobster claw. Roland Swift was talking to his cousin, a local lobster fisherman, when he suggested that Roland invent a machine that would make it easier to band claws. It was from that first banding machine that Morswift Machines was born. It wasn’t long before Swift realized that the same technology could be used for a variety of product packaging. With the help of three angel investors, he started his own business, beginning with a machine that would band broccoli, and then developing another model that would bundle other types of materials. There are a couple key benefits to using the machines, the first being that it reduces the labour required for packaging. At one point, Swift went to fish packing plant that bands crab using corrugated plastic. It took two women to do the banding – one to hold the crab, the other to put on the band. Then one of the women started banding with one of the Morswift machines. “They had 18 people on the line,” Swift says. “One machine with one woman did 67 per cent of their product.” Image via SeaLifeGifts

Starting Monday, May 12, the U.S. Postal Service will increase a First-Class Mail, 1-ounce letter from 42 cents to 43 cents, matching the average inflation rate. Prices for postcards, standard mail and parcels will also change.

Additional changes include Express Mail’s new zone-based pricing system, which means business owners could end up paying less to ship products locally. Go here for more information on price changes.

Photo by MSDesigns.

Who doesn’t love a bargain? Coupons have been around since, well, since any of us can remember! It only goes to reason that the internet would make coupons even more readily available to the thrifty shopper. Best Coupon Book can help you find over 500 local merchant coupons, anywhere from groceries to restaurants and services. It’s fun to shop for coupons too! It’s a little bit like treasure hunting, and Best Coupon Book makes it easy too. Just type in your zip code and receive a list of the local merchants offering discounts and coupon deals.

Continue reading Best Coupon Book

There are different forms of advertising, and most of them are something that anyone has seen or heard of before. Billboards by the freeway or those banners that are found on websites. Those are all kinds of advertising. GoMobile Advertising is a completely different form of advertising that brings new meaning to business opportunity.

With GoMobile it is easy to see what the advertiser will receive. Large, moving, billboards. Giving a wide range of people a chance to see the ad and bring in new potential customers. A moving billboard is an investment, but chances are it’d be well worth the money.

As an affiliate this is something that has the potential to bring in a large sum of money through the advertising. These mobile ads are eye catching and demand the attention the advertisers want.

The minimum investment for this business opportunity is $25,000 but this is available to people within the US as well as internationally. It’s an opportunity that truly gives everyone the chance to break into a unique way to sell advertising. GoMobile also trains their new affiliates.

What if…just WHAT IF something you love and partake of everyday could be good for you too? No really, this is not a story on the 11 o’clock news, this is real life stuff. Drumroll please! Introducing the world’s first healthy coffee! Gano Excel introduces its healthful coffee for the first time in the United States. This is REAL coffee, not a coffee substitute, grown and processed organically without the use of pesticides, chemicals, hormones or artificial fertilizers. It also removes toxins from the body and every cup you drink you can feel better and realize increasing health benefits. WOW! What makes the coffee so healthy? It contains an incredible taste-free mushroom substance called Ganoderma which provides healthful properties. This coffee is very low in acid and has dramatically diminished caffeine content, in fact less than most commercially sold decaf coffees. The Ganoderma mushroom extract in this coffee has been used medicinally in Asia for over 2,000 years.

Continue reading Gano Excel

The New York Times:

What if you could make fuel for your car in your backyard for less than you pay at the pump? Would you?

The first question has driven Floyd S. Butterfield for more than two decades. Butterfield, 52, is something of a legend for people who make their own ethanol. In 1982, he won a California Department of Food and Agriculture contest for best design of an ethanol still, albeit one that he could not market profitably at the time.

Now he thinks that he can, thanks to his partnership with the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Thomas J. Quinn. The two have started the E-Fuel Corporation, which soon will announce its home ethanol system, the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler. It will be about as large as a stackable washer-dryer, sell for $9,995 and ship before year-end.

The net cost to consumers could drop by half after government incentives for alternate fuels, like tax credits, are applied.

The MicroFueler will use sugar as its main fuel source, or feedstock, along with a specially packaged time-release yeast the company has developed. Depending on the cost of sugar, plus water and electricity, the company says it could cost as little as a dollar a gallon to make ethanol. In fact, Mr. Quinn sometimes collects left-over alcohol from bars and restaurants in Los Gatos, Calif., where he lives, and turns it into ethanol; the only cost is for the electricity used in processing.

Despite all the hurdles, Mr. Quinn and Mr. Butterfield may be on to something. There are plenty of consumers who want to reduce their carbon footprint and are willing to make an upfront investment to do it — consider the success of the Prius.

And if oil prices continue to rise, the economics of buying a MicroFueler will become only better and better.

Photo by Jim Wilson.

eMarketer:

Nearly one out of five US Internet users surveyed by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation’s (NRF’s) “2008 Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey” said they will go online to buy their mothers gifts for the upcoming holiday.

Those who do shop online may do so to save on car trips.

“Gas prices and other economic issues will still be at the forefront of people’s minds as they shop around for the perfect gift for mom,” said BIGresearch vice president Phil Rist, in a press release.

Respondents said they planned to spend an average of $138.63 for Mother’s Day this year, compared with $139.14 last year. NRF said it expected total consumer spending for the holiday to reach $15.8 billion.

Some US adults will be using the Internet for more than just shopping. Although the majority of respondents to a Brand Keys study said they planned to call or visit their mom on Mother’s Day, 5% said they planned to contact their mother online.

Mothers are some of the heaviest Internet users.

Photo by Myles!.

Independent.ie:

Women often face a tough decision after having a baby – should they return to the workforce or should they forget about their career and concentrate on being a stay-at-home mum?

There are pros and cons with either choice, but an increasing number of Irish women have settled on a third way, by deciding to enjoy the best of both worlds and setting up a business from home.

There is even a glossy new name for these ladies – kitchen table tycoons.

The phrase was originally coined by an expert at the London School of Economics and is now the title of an excellent new book by British journalist Anita Naik.

Naik combines looking after her daughter with running a successful writing business from the comfort of her own home.

She explains that it can work very well but, of course, there are some drawbacks to be aware of, including the fact that, without the social aspect of going out into a crowded workplace, there is the risk it can feel isolating and lonely.

One of the biggest helps for ‘Work At Home Mums’ (WAHMs) is the wonderful flexibility and freedom that the internet offers.

Mums can run online businesses, selling everything from children’s clothes to greeting cards and jewellery. Their work is just a click of a mouse button away and can be dealt with at any time of the day and night, meaning mums can work around family commitments.

And while it can take time to build up a business, most WAHMs enjoy running their own show. A UK survey last year found that two thirds of kitchen table tycoons said they took more satisfaction from running their own business than in their previous job, working for someone else away from the home.

Photo by MSDesigns.