Business Opportunities Weblog

   

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Saying You Care With Keepsake Pillows
8 Ways To Light The Bulb Above Your Head
Chameleon Camouflage
Are Bookbinders a Thing of the Past?
Niche Inventions: 3D Sound

Selling Irish Dirt
The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets
Today in Entrepreneurial History: March 6
Invention: The Concrete Tent
Niche Biz: Guitar Swimming Pools
Peru Exports Franchise Restaurants
Saying You Care With Keepsake Pillows

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:37 PM PST



It is often said that the best gift is a gift from the heart. I imagine the same could be said about personalized products. They can share a special moment in the receiver’s life, or represent something they care strongly about.

The women behind Keepsake Pillows by aliz know all too well what a personalized keepsake can do for the person receiving it. Their business has created pillows for a variety of occasions and purposes. From memorials to graduations, their keepsake pillows have left their mark in many lives.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Alicia Davis a few questions about her business, and the lessons she has learned from it.

Tell us a little about Keepsake Pillows by aliz.

Keepsake Pillows is a Mother/Daughter (Elizabeth/Alicia – aliz) start-up business that combines the Computer and Crafting Worlds to create a Keepsake Pillow – “A Soft Reminder of the One You Love’.

What inspired it?

Keepsake Pillows was inspired while going through the heartbreak of divorce. I needed to keep my hands and mind busy with something positive and profitable.

When did you launch your business?

My first season, affectionately known as my “trial and error season,” was in Fall of 2004. After a successful trial run, I got a business license, took sewing lessons, (yep, I did not even know how to sew) and secured my first ‘recurring’ client in 2005.

How many shapes/sizes/colors are available?

Presently, we carry one size, 14in x 14in.

This season, for the first time, we have a “Create Your Own Keepsake Pillow” Kit. These pillows are 12in x 16in.
Looking to add one larger size (18×18) and a ring-bearer pillow (8×8) in the near future.

The color of the pillow is usually white, off white, gold, navy, or denim. These colors usually blend well with any room as well as the clothes in the photo. Other colors are available upon request.

What are some of the more unique types of pillows that people have requested?

The greatest part of my business has been Memorial Pillows and I work with Funeral Directors who present The Memorial Pillow to families who have lost a loved one.

It’s unique to get a request for a pet, usually dog or cat, or for a baby that is still born.

What separates you from the competition?

Our pillows are individually sewn with a corresponding poem or words of encouragement for the recipient. We also do collages with as many photos as a client desires (for an additional fee of course). Many competitors only have one photo or a general poem or generic saying on their pillow.

What goals do you hope to accomplish over the next year or so?

I’ve had so many people ask me to teach them how to do this business therefore, my goal is to license what I do and make Keepsake Pillows available in every city via local crafting teams.

I would love to re-introduce the art of sewing in the school systems (as an elective) as a way of equipping young girls/guys with ideas of how they can make extra cash while matriculating [through] their post secondary education.

What are some lessons that your business has taught you?

The greatest lesson this business has taught is the inherent need for passion for whatever business venture you encounter. This passion is what keeps me awake at night and what gets me out of bed in the morning. I don’t waste time explaining my passion, but spend time understanding it myself. Once I understood my passion, I did not have to explain it because it was written all over my life through conversation and action.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Neck pillows with sports theme… I really want to do these!!

Do you have any advice for fellow entrepreneurs that are just getting started?

A wise woman in my tax attorney’s office said to me very early on my business journey: “Alicia, do one thing and do it well!”

I’ve always remembered those words as someone with a grass roots effort. It has definitely kept me focused.

Be willing to give away product samples in order to test it’s ‘retailability’.

Be patient but progressive at the same time.



  

8 Ways To Light The Bulb Above Your Head

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:35 PM PST



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 to the idea that the best may still be coming. A sunset person is heavy in the knowledge that the best is past.”

“Anyone can have an idea. The right to see something from a new perspective belongs to us all. Most people and companies have a vast reservoir of fresh thinkers all around them. But they refuse to utilize them because they refuse to cross-pollinate.”

“Fewer and fewer people pay any attention to what their gut is trying to tell them. Yet, when you’re desperate for an idea, it’s the most precious commodity on earth.”

“Expediency wins so often because the obvious is overlooked. If a new idea is worth anything, it should make everyone a little nervous. It will be tougher to sell. But these are all good signs.”

For four more, go here.

Photo by Sam Nhlengethwa.

  

Chameleon Camouflage

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:35 PM PST



Currently, our clothes do not change color to match our environment. However, for the camo used in the army may not be far off.

According to AirForceTimes, the unique cloth will change colors and patterns just like a chameleon.

The fabric’s inventor told a San Diego conference last month that stealthy camouflage is only a few years away from outfitting service members — and even helping hide ground combat vehicles, fighter jets and ships.

The concept of adaptive camouflage remains in development but — if proven to work as advertised — may grab attention from military services interested in improving concealment on the battlefield.

The man behind the fabric is Guy Cramer, president and CEO of HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp. He holds several trademarks and patents for cammie patterns and devices, including a positive/negative ion generator he developed that may help in changing the look of a uniform quickly and easily.

Stealthy camouflage requires submicroscopic nanotechnologies, so the material “is always changing color and pattern,” he said. “Ideally, that would be your end result. We’re not there yet.”

The idea, he said, is to “take ‘smart’ materials that can actually change from one area, like color and shape, to change the overall look of what you are wearing.”

Photo by Baynham Goredema

  

Are Bookbinders a Thing of the Past?

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:34 PM PST

With so many people buying Kindles, iPads and Nooks, do traditional bookbinders have a future?

The San Francisco Bay Area’s small bookbinderies are struggling amid the weak economy and spread of digital publishing. One local bookbindery is making iPad cases to boost its revenue, but others haven’t been so lucky. WSJ’s Cari Tuna reports.

The video below is from the WSJ.




  

Niche Inventions: 3D Sound

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:33 PM PST



Technology allows us to see in 3D, why not hear that way too? Joe Hayes is working on a unique set of speakers that make it possible for people interested in listening to things in 3D.

Twenty-one years and 8000 hours of work later, his part-time project has finally developed into a fledging business in Brisbane employing seven people.

He has raised $600,000 through the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, a capital-raising platform for local entrepreneurs, as part of his bid to raise $2.5 million overall.

Manufacturing is due to commence in May.

Mr Hayes described his system as “3D sound”, a system that generates “acoustic holograms” that offered “the same sound to actually being there”.

He was in the midst of finalising distribution in Australia with local company Dynamic Music.

“The Acoustic3D technology is not an extension of existing audio technology,” Mr Hayes said.

“The implementation of Acoustic3D’s diffuser and algorithms completely replaces the traditional approach to audio technology with a new method to mathematically generate sounds that can be manipulated to produce a distortion free, three-dimensional sound experience.”

Photo by West McGowan

  

Selling Irish Dirt

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 01:16 PM PST



After being regularly asked to bring a handful of Irish dirt over to the United States for various funerals for old friends from the Emerald Isle, Pat Burke started the Auld Sod Exporting Company and started selling bags of the native Irish soil.

Now you to can be buried, if not on, but in a little bit of, Irish soil.

  

The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 09:40 AM PST



Most of us believe entrepreneurial visionaries are born, not made. Our media glorify business outliers like Bezos, Branson, Gates, and Jobs as heroes with X-ray vision who can look to the future, see clearly what will be, imagine a fully formed product or experience and then, simply make the vision real.

Many in our entrepreneur community still believe that to be visionary, we must merely execute on a seemingly good idea and ignore all doubt. With this mindset, companies build doomed products in a vacuum; enterprises make ill-fated innovation investment decisions; and employees and shareholders come along for an uncomfortable ride.

Falling prey to the Myth of the Visionary confuses talented entrepreneurs, product managers, innovators and investors. It leads us to heartbreaking, costly and preventable failures in new product and venture development.

The Lean Entrepreneur moves us beyond this myth. It combines powerful customer insight, rapid experimentation and easily actionable data from the Lean Startup methodology to empower individuals, companies, and entire teams to evolve their vision, solve problems, and create value at the speed of the Internet.

Anyone can be visionary.

The Lean Entrepreneur shows you how to:

Apply actionable tips, tricks and hacks from successful lean entrepreneurs.
Leverage the Innovation Spectrum to disrupt existing markets and create new ones.
Drive strategies for efficient market testing with Minimal Viable Products.
Engage customers with Viability Testing and radically reduce time and budget for product development.
Rapidly create cross-functional innovation teams that devour roadblocks and set new benchmarks.
Bring your organization critical focus on the power of loyal customers and valuable products you can build to serve them.
Leverage instructive tools, skill-building exercises, and worksheets along with bonus online videos.
  

Today in Entrepreneurial History: March 6

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 08:56 AM PST



1840 – The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery opens, the first dental school.
1899 – Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
1912 – The Oreo cookie is introduced by Nabisco
  

Invention: The Concrete Tent

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 05:40 AM PST

NationalGeographic:

Watch Richard Ambrose and Jonny Phillips quickly construct a building made of concrete canvas— a material that consists of all the elements of concrete, but is flexible enough to be turned into any shape. This technology allows people to erect permanent structures in a fraction of the time that it would have done using traditional building techniques.

More info in this PDF.

  

Niche Biz: Guitar Swimming Pools

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 05:03 AM PST



Trend Hunter:

The Les Paul custom guitar was designed by Aqua-Tech for avid guitar collector Garry McBurney. In 2011, Aqua-Tech created this creative project, which was originally intended to be a hot tub. McBurney asked Aqua-Tech specifically for a Les Paul Custom guitar that no one else would have. The owner of Aqua-Tech Glen McGillivray used a 3D computer software called Pool Studio to create the design to resemble McBurney’s favorite guitar.




Photos via Freshome.

  

Peru Exports Franchise Restaurants

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 05:03 AM PST



Worldcrunch:

Peruvian businessmen Arnold Wu and his brother, owners of Pardo’s Chicken, opened their first foreign branch of the restaurant chain in 2002 – in relatively nearby Santiago, Chile. But they stretched quite a bit further for their second foreign location: Miami, Florida.

There are now 42 Pardo’s Chicken restaurants in Peru, Chile and the United States. The Wu brothers don’t plan to stop there. They are currently looking for partners in all three countries in order to keep expanding – and quickly. The short-term plan is to open 25 new branches.

Pardo’s Chicken is by no means the only Peruvian fast food vendor to be making a go of it abroad. Other successful brands include China Wok, which has 44 branches outside of Peru; La Caravan; Bembos, the first Peruvian chain to break into the Indian market; and Embarcadero 41.

“Every year, more and more Peruvian restaurants open in foreign countries. The most popular business approach is with franchises,” says Juan Carlos Mathews, a researcher at Peru’s Universidad del Pac’ifico.