|
More ideas and news about making money, home or small business and working at home. |
|
14 Jul
Posted by Andrew in Entrepreneurs | Home business | Products and Innovations
 |
Quote source : FindArticles
Image souce :
Tray Display Advertising
Phil Tapia can testify to the manifest virtues of occasionally cleaning out the family garage.
It was during a day spent with his dad, Mike Tapia, amid boxes and oil stains two years ago, that Tapia discovered his Tray Display Advertising business, or at least the idea for it.
Uncovering examples of the advertising Mike Tapia had done with his Billboard Bags Inc. — on liquor store and fast-food bags — in the early ’90s reminded the Tapias of an idea Mike Tapia had hatched for selling ads on fastfood restaurant placemats.
Just about two years later, Tray Display Advertising Inc., is supplying 125,000 advertising sheets a month to 23 Wendy’s locations in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Woodland Park, with another 15 stores to come next year in Tucson, Ariz. and pizza box lid toppers for 12 Little Caesars stores in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
Tapia banked sales of $60,000 in the company’s first full year.
What made Tray Display Advertising take flight was its simplicity.
Tapia sells ads to a mix of a dozen or so local and national companies, has the 81/2-inch by 11-inch sheets printed in Oklahoma and then delivered to a central distribution point for his clients.
Wendy’s of Colorado Springs estimates it saved $10,000 last year by not having to pay for its tray placemats. And the restaurant gets the central position on the sheets for its own advertisement, without cost.
Tray Display Advertising groups advertisers together so local businesses save on advertising costs, plus they get their ads in front of thousands of eyeballs everyday. And as far as I’m concerned, when I’m wolfing down my burger and coke, there’s pretty much nothing else to do except to read what’s on the tray mat.
Now isn’t this one of those ideas that make you think, “I could do this!”?
Popularity: 15% [?]
 |
Quoted from : Times Online
Image via : Times Online
Helen Pattinson and her husband Simon had given up their jobs in Britain to travel the world for a year, and were passing through the town of San Carlos de Bariloche in the foothills of the Andes. They wandered around a town that was full of enchanting chocolate shops and the experience opened her eyes.
When she walked into one shop that was laid out like a chocolate supermarket, Pattinson had a moment of revelation.
“I just thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to work with chocolate,” she said. “How is it that a shop like this is sustainable here in what is a tiny town, whereas in Britain we consume so much chocolate and yet what is available is pretty poor?
“It was a eureka moment. I went back to Simon and told him he had to come out and look at all these shops because they were amazing. He could see what I meant immediately.”
Excited by the discovery of the Argentinian chocolate shops, the couple started researching the chocolate market in Britain in 2000 when they came home. They wrote a business plan and went round the country finding chocolatiers who could make products for a shop. Then they raised £160,000 – half from the sale of their house in London, the rest from friends and family – and found a shop to lease in Brighton, Sussex.
Originally the idea was to simply open a shop and sell high-quality chocolate made by British suppliers. But just before the shop was due to open their leading supplier, who was going to be the source of 50% of their stock, went bust.
Pattinson realised they had two choices – to give up their whole business idea, or make the chocolate themselves. Within 24 hours they had decided to become chocolate makers as well. They found a production unit, some equipment, and set about teaching themselves how to make high-quality chocolate.
Just a few weeks later they opened their first shop, calling it Montezuma’s after the Aztec emperor of Mexico, where chocolate was held in high esteem.
It was an instant success. “From day one we thought we have hit on something people love.”
The business broke even in its first year and the Pattinsons opened a second shop in Chichester. With the help of a £250,000 bank loan, they now have seven shops in southeast England and sell chocolate through their website.
Helen and Simon are inspiring examples of how ideas can be turned into a lucrative business if people would not only open their eyes and ears, but their hearts and minds to the everyday opportunities around them.
As they say, “Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration”. Once you get an idea, it’s critical to follow through on that idea. 9 out of 10 ideas end up on the KIV pile at the back of our minds because they were never followed through. Like Helen and Simon, you have to take the effort to find out all you can about the opportunity, go through the nitty gritty of beaureaucracy if needed and when the unexpected happens - like when their main supplier went bust - to take the bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.
I believe Helen and Simon are strong souls and they complemented each other in their journey to making Montezumas what it is today. That’s an integral part of how they turned a simple idea into a money making venture.
However, the first step is as simple as opening your heart and mind to the everyday, simple and often “boring” things in life, seeing the opportunity in those things and finding a way to bring them to life.
Popularity: 9% [?]
04 Jul
Posted by Andrew in Entrepreneurs | Products and Innovations | Videos
Quoted from : Unusual Business Ideas
When Marty Metro and his wife added up the number of times each of them had moved over the years, it came out to an astounding 29 times. Metro, 34, knew they weren’t alone in using massive amounts of cardboard boxes and was convinced he could help movers, businesses and the environment by creating a solution to the cardboard quandary.
With a decade of experience working and consulting on large-scale business technology, Metro made it his goal to build an online marketplace that would allow big companies to get rid of their used boxes and scraps in an earth-friendly way, as well as offer companies and individuals the opportunity to buy used cardboard boxes at roughly half the price of new ones.
Currently covering the area between Los Angeles and San Diego, the company plans to expand by franchising in the top 50 cities in the United States in the next three to five years. For now, BoomerangBoxes.com offers an online exchange for those outside the delivery area to link up and exchange boxes with others for a nominal fee. With annual sales projections exceeding $750,000, the company boasts 75 percent-plus gross margins. “It makes me feel great,” says Metro. “We have created a win-win environment.”
This is one of those ideas that make you think to yourself “Whoa… that’s such a simple idea and this guy is making money from it?”.
Find a need, fill that need and the world will beat a path to your doorstep. Marty has created a business where it’s a win-win situation all round :
So the next time you’re breathing in a lungful of fresh air, spare a thought for Marty and his Boomerang Boxes and how it affects the world around us. I’d say Marty deserves money by the boxloads don’t you think?
Popularity: 15% [?]
01 Jul
Posted by Andrew in Entrepreneurs | Home business | WAHPs
 |
Quoted from : FitNYC
Here’s a link to an inspirational short video about 2 women entrepreneurs who were brought together by the love of fashion. With no fashion design experience, these two vivacious ladies still managed to build a name for themselves in the fashion industry, and today, their products are even sold at Bloomingdales.
Given that there was not much money to be made by procrastinating, and that Ms. Foley had two children to feed, she often sold things at flea markets to buy more time to write. But then she would buy new clothes instead. So one day, about 12 years ago, Ms. Foley, a boho believer with rock-star hair, decided to be more resourceful and make a skirt for herself — a long, tight, sexy knit tube that she dyed in the kitchen sink.
With the help of a friend who could manage a needle and thread, Ms. Foley made more skirts and put them on a table at the old flea market on Avenue of the Americas in Chelsea. The first day, she made $2,000. The kitchen became a factory. “My kids were sitting there eating pizza in a sea of organza,” she said. “I was making money for no good reason. If I had chosen this profession, I would probably still be, whatever, writing.”
Meanwhile, Anna Corinna, the future other half of the label, hated her job. Having majored in psychology at New York University, she was hired, upon graduation in 1995, as a receptionist at a shoe showroom in Trump Tower. That job did not pay well, either, so Ms. Corinna tried selling vintage clothes at the same flea market.
She arrived on weekend mornings with a big pile of whatever she thought looked interesting, like acrylic knit ponchos she bought from a closeout sale and resold for $35 to $45. Other dealers worried whether she would fit in selling such clothes, until Donna Karan, Anna Sui and other designers started shopping at Ms. Corinna’s booth. Ms. Foley was a customer, too, and as the two women became friends, they realized they had more in common than their vintage bohemian style and decided to merge their operations into one, called Foley & Corinna.
In many regards, the story of how Ms. Foley and Ms. Corinna turned a flea-market friendship into a fashion company that now has $20 million in annual retail sales is uncommon. Neither one knew much about the mechanics of design or, for that matter, business. They have never been prominently profiled in Vogue or Elle, nor have they sought the Bryant Park runways. But Ms. Corinna has an eye for vintage fashion, and Ms. Foley is intuitive about how to make new versions of those styles for modern women. For those reasons customers — and knockoff artists — have sought them out.
Perhaps because Ms. Foley and Ms. Corinna have been content to remain just under the radar, companies that specialize in making cheap copies of designer fashion have been bold in appropriating their designs.
Entrepreneurs like Dana and Ana prove that sometimes if you have enough passion and gumption, then no experience is required.
So what’s your passion?
Popularity: 10% [?]
24 Jun
Posted by Andrew in Entrepreneurs | Home business | Offbeat | Products and Innovations
 |
Quoted from : MyBusinessMag
Image via : Odietamo
When Victoria Pettigrew brushes any one of her 10 pets, she ends up with handfuls of fur. But instead of throwing them away like the rest of us, she saves the tiny tufts so she can spin them into yarn. Sounds strange, but Pettigrew has actually built a good business with pet lovers all over the world.
When one of Pettigrew’s dogs, Karly, passed away in 2001, she got the idea to spin the dog’s hair into yarn and turn it into a keepsake scarf. “Spinning her collected fiber and knitting a small scarf gave me such comfort that I thought others would benefit from such a service,” she says.
And so VIP Fibers, Pettigrew’s spinning business in Morgan Hill, Calif., was born. With two full-time employees, Pettigrew receives anywhere from 2 ounces to 20 pounds of pet fiber each day from customers who hail from around the world. VIP Fibers (http://www.vipfibers.com) then spins the pet fibers into yarn. They can even make finished keepsakes, including scarves, tote bags and hats.
Going by the many pets that have had their furs transformed into practical keepsakes on VipFiber’s pet matrix page, I’d say VipFibers has made a whole bunch of satisfied customers. Scarfs and teddy bears seem to be a popular choice of pet owners, although your choice would technically be limited only by the amount of fur you’ve collected and your imagination.
Now this is what I’d call a really furry way to make money. I wonder if they can do that with human hair… when I grow old and eventually bald, I’ve like to have a keepsake of what used to be!
Popularity: 18% [?]
21 Jun
Posted by Andrew in Entrepreneurs | Products and Innovations
 |
Quote Source : Boston.com
Image Source : Alaska Mud
Lauren Padawer’s inspiration for a beauty product made of glacial mud struck during a grungy rafting trip down the Copper River.
After days of paddling in south central Alaska, Padawer and her companions needed to get clean. Washing herself in the river’s glacial pools, Padawer looked down at the mud swirling around her feet and saw opportunity.
“You would just lather yourself with this stuff,” said Padawer. “It is about as luscious mud bath quality as you can find anywhere in the world,”
The experience of a mud bath in one of the most beautiful, wild spots on the planet was better than any spa, and the mud was better, too, said Padawer, a 28-year-old from Cordova, a fishing town at the southeastern end of Prince William Sound.
Padawer got an idea. With more than 20 glaciers depositing 100 million tons of glacial silt a year on the 700,000-acre Copper River delta practically in her back yard, why not market the silky mud?
 |
Today, Padawer’s Alaska Glacier Mud Company distributes glacial facial purifying mineral mud masque and related products to thousands of satisfied customers all over America via hundreds of distributors.
And the lesson here? Open your eyes or in this case, your toes. Thousands of people could have stood in the mud where Laren Padawer stood, thought how good the mud felt, and wondered if anyone would actually pay money to buy mud. You would NEVER know if an idea will take flight until you dare to dream (and WORK IT) into reality.
Popularity: 12% [?]
