The afternoon sun beats down on the rocky hills and quicksand pits that surround the still, gray-blue body of water, which is flanked by Israel and the West Bank on the west and Jordan on the east.
As its name implies, there’s little life in the Dead [...]
Tish Ciravolo has founded the first company that makes guitars expressly for women and girls, reports USA Today.
Daisy Rock is still a small player in the roughly $1.6 billion market for “fretted instruments,” as measured by industry trade group NAMM. The company is private [...]
Small companies can already tap the power of the crowds for help with their graphic design, advertising and other business challenges.
Whereas most such services reward the creator of just a single winning solution, however, FreshlyBranded pays its marketing creatives for the top 10 ideas, according [...]
The idea of “free” has become extremely controversial in the technology industry, especially in the case of online content, reports Digital Trends.
Rumors that favorite show streaming website Hulu will be charging for all of their content has most online-media-viewing junkies scared stiff. Sources for [...]
Last week, we started a biz poll about the addition of tweet ‘comments’ and comments in general.
Sixty-five percent of those responding said they NEVER read the comments. Twenty-nine percent
said they read the comments, but never comment themselves and 6 percent said they always read
the comments [...]
Simple games based on Adobe’s Flash technology have multiplied like weeds in recent years, with an estimated 100,000 of them available on the web, mostly for free.
But a significant number of Flash game developers have moved from amateurs to pros; a survey shows that one in [...]
Tiny airport sleeping rooms — similar to the cubicles that Asian travelers use to catch a snooze in between flights — have arrived in America, reports USA Today.
Atlanta, the world’s largest airport, opened five Minute Suites this month where tired passengers can doze for $30 an [...]
Darryl Holland moves with purpose as he surveys the calm before the storm. It’s about 9:30 a.m. in early December, which means his company, Holiday LiteSource, will soon be abuzz with activity, reports The Avalanche-Journal.
We’re always on the fly,” Holland said.
That’s because Holiday LiteSource [...]
The ukulele, that four-stringed instrument that brings to mind kitschy Hawaiian grass-skirt performances and Tiny Tim, is suddenly hip, according to The NY Daily News.
Roger Greenawalt credits the ukulele’s increased following to something he has dubbed the “Aloha Zen” effect.
“It really transforms your mind,” says [...]
An entrepreneur may have the best product in the world, but if he or she doesn’t accept credit cards, it can be a problem. That’s something St. Louis glass artist Jim McKelvey learned the hard way, and it’s also why he was inspired to create [...]
Who doesn’t love carolers? They show up at your door, sing a holiday favorite, and leave, imparting you with Christmas cheer.
If caroling is your thing, but you’re not brave enough to bear the winter weather and go door-to-door, YouTube has a rewarding incentive for you to [...]
After retiring from journalism, Lawrence Breer was looking for something to do and realized he had a pick-up truck that he could put to good use. So he started running ads in the local paper, offering his services to haul trash and junk from people’s garages, reports [...]
Dan Strong owns a business called StripWalker, which sounds dirty but isn’t. Starting January 1, for three hours a day, Strong will be walking along the Las Vegas Strip, wearing company’s T-shirts all day, and Twittering and texting about his experiences, all to promote his advertisers, reports [...]
Unique Products to Inspire and Amuse.
Bacon Jelly Beans. Bacon, ’nuff said.
Credit Card Lightbulb. You never know when you’ll need an idea!
Hand-Cranked Penny-Dispenser. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 5.04 seconds, for $7.15 an hour (NY state minimum [...]
As the Federal Reserve warns that it could be another five or six years before the job market returns to normal, determining if you’re unemployed and therefore eligible for unemployment benefits is probably going to affect many more people in the coming years. Determining whether or not you’re “unemployed” is [...]
According to The Wall Street Journal, A number of frequent flier fans took the Mint up on its offer of free shipping for bulk orders of coins. The fliers paid for their coins with charge cards that offered frequent flier mile rewards.
When the coins arrived, the [...]
Hollywood in recent years has raced to mine the Internet for raw talent capable of crossing over to traditional platforms like movies and television, the places where the real money is still made. Those efforts have largely failed, reports The New York Times.
What works on [...]
Just Born, maker of the chick- and bunny-shaped marshmallow Easter treats called Peeps, is officially opening its first store devoted to well-known products, reports USA Today.
The shop, at the National Harbor development near Washington, D.C., sells 850 Peeps products, including plush toys, clothing, china and [...]
Skil is seeking products that help do-it-yourselfers achieve project success in and around the house.
For this search, Skil is interested in product innovations that solve a problem or address an unmet need. Skil will consider submissions for portable electronic power tools, bench top tools or even non-powered [...]
American Express OPEN recently did a survey of 763 small business owners of companies with fewer than 100 employees and found that nearly 60 percent of their members feel challenged when finding innovative ways to market, but only 10 percent are even marketing through online social networks [...]
Renting a video from Redbox has always been cheap. The video rental company with the now ubiquitous red kiosks in supermarkets and other retailers charges $1 to pick up a disc, as long as you return it on time. But now one clever entrepreneur has figured out [...]
Artist Mike Geno created a Christmas tree using only uncooked bacon strips, according to a story in The San Francisco Food Blog.
The result is an eerily apt representation of the holiday perennial, with ribbons of fat filling in for strands of garland ? It’s [...]
CNNMoney reports Google filed a lawsuit against Pacific WebWorks and other unnamed defendants for allegedly using the company’s name and colorful logo to promote fraudulent work-at-home money-making schemes.
Thousands of people have been tricked into sending payment information and being charged hidden fees by questionable operations,” Google [...]
Trendspotter Springwise reports that GPS technology is enabling all kinds of new products and services on mobile devices, so why not on “mobile” entities of the four-footed kind?
Pets, that is—many of whom have a tendency to roam at least as much as the average cellphone [...]
Surrounded by shelves stocked with 180 different wooden train cars, Sandy Oliver boxes orders at Whittle Shortline Railroad in New London, Mo. (pop. 1,001). Then she stops and picks up a bright blue replica of The Little Engine That Could, reports American Profile.
This is [...]
According to a story at Fast Company, everything will soon be connected to the social net–we’ve said it before, but if you’re a social network denier then here’s proof positive: Now your tiny baby can status update too.
The magic comes from Belgium’s Hasselt University and [...]
The Chicago Tribune has an interesting article about the difference between a fad and a trend.
Zhu Zhu Pets are THE toy for Christmas. Every kid wants them. Cepia, the maker of Zhu Zhu Pets, is billing the toys as “the best alternatives to real live hamsters” [...]
The New York Times has a story about a man with an interesting ‘job’.
For the past 10 years, Jesus Leonardo has been cleaning up at an OTB parlor in Midtown Manhattan, cashing in, by his own count, nearly half a million dollars’ worth of discarded winning [...]
In a speech on Tuesday, President Obama outlined proposals intended to promote job creation.
They included incentives for small businesses to hire more workers, additional money to build roads and other construction projects and rebates for homeowners who invest in energy-saving weatherizing improvements, reports The New [...]
The online marketplaces eBay and Amazon once seemed like surefire places to make extra money or to build an online retail business. It’s not quite so simple anymore, reports The New York Times.
Identify product areas that interest you, and seek a niche. Rather than sell, say, [...]
With the many items that can be customized today—from muesli to fabrics—the trend is still going strong.
Case in point: Lip Balm Labz, a Canadian startup that lets consumers design their own lip balms, reports trendspotter Springwise.
Customers can pick and choose from more than 20 [...]
Precision Dynamics Corp., a company that began making plastic hospital wristbands out of a Burbank garage more than 50 years ago, has become the nation’s top producer of a new microchip-enhanced wristband for amusement parks, concerts, resorts and gyms, reports The Los Angeles Times.
The wristbands [...]
Palm trees are ubiquitous in California and other states with a warm climate.
Although they are beautiful trees, some homeowners find them to be a nuisance because they require routine maintenance when they get too large.
The good news for these homeowners is that it is possible that [...]
You may have noticed that our blog posts now have ‘tweets’ in the comments. We wondered if you liked this or not? Do you read the comments? Do you comment? We want your comment on comments. No, really.
Select Your Commenting Activity....
I never read the comments.
I always [...]
Have you ever felt like you are stuck in a rut in your life?
Fast Company believes you can change that by simply harvesting the ideas already swimming in your head.
A sunriser gives out energy, a sunsetter sucks it away. A sunriser goes through life open [...]
Oprah Winfrey created bestsellers with her book club, and she has certainly helped turn some people into major stars, but she has also done a lot for small businesses as well, reports AOL Small Business.
Over the years, Oprah has mentioned favorite products of hers, while beleaguered [...]
The Kauffman foundation for entrepreneurship released a report titled “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur”. It’s based on a survey of 549 company founders across a variety of industries, reports OnStartUps.com.
1. The average and median age of company founders when they started their current companies was 40.
2. [...]
Imagine a toothbrush so much fun to use that kids would brush their teeth without a single reminder from Mom or Dad.
Dr. Fresh is asking second through fifth graders across the U.S. to dream up just such a toothbrush with the “Be A Dental Inventor” contest [...]
Entrepreneur’s Journal reports that with the recession, the federal government implemented a variety of tax-saving programs to spur business.
But as should be expected, there are limits. Might some of the tax-breaks go away next year?
Net Operating Losses (NOLs): Typically, you can carry back NOLs two [...]
The current panic over the H1N1 flu pandemic couldn’t have happened at a better time for one local inventor, reports The New Richmond News.
Doug Henricksen of rural New Richmond is close to ramping up production on his newest invention — a germ-free dispenser for communion wafers.
Henricksen [...]
People are looking for new ways to make money for the family. Woman’s Day has a list of ways that some entrepreneurs have found to put a few extra dollars in their pockets, ranging from the ingenious to the downright weird.
Professional Christmas Tree-Light Installer
If you [...]
