Home | Looking for something? Sign In | New here? Sign Up | Log out

Business Opportunities Weblog

Business Opportunities Weblog

Link to Business Opportunities Weblog

Niche: Hire A Fishing Guide

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 12:40 PM PDT

If you're a fisherman on vacation, how are you supposed to know which spots are the best for fishing? Chances are that you may not know this information on your own but with a good guide you could easily find the right place to sit back and drop your hook.

Of course, if you want to find the right guide then you'll want to stop by the Hire a Fishing Guide website. Launched by Tom Lulinski and Matt Dahlgren, the website is simply a manifestation of something they already enjoyed: fishing. Single handedly, these two are working hard to make sure anyone anywhere will be able to find a fishing guide when they need one, for free.

Read our interview with Matt Dahlgren.

The Decline of the Barber Pole

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 10:37 AM PDT

Barber Poles

CNN:

William Marvy Company, the last known manufacturer in North America of the poles, typically sells 500 of them each year, down from 5,100 in the company's late-1960s heyday.

Bob Marvy, a second-generation owner of the St. Paul, Minn., company, dates the industry's slowdown back to an unlikely source: The Beatles. The Fab Four and their trendy mop-tops ruined it for barbers, he thinks. Men who previously went to barber shops weekly for their clean-cut looks started waiting two or even three weeks between trims.

The Invention of Whac-A-Mole

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 10:21 AM PDT

Whackamole

According to a story at Mental Floss, Aaron Fechter invented the original Whac-A-Mole game in 1971. Well… he took the idea from "some Japanese guys" who had created a creature-whacking game first, but Fechter made the mechanism work reliably by inventing an air cylinder system to power the moles and an audio-tape-driven pattern that governed the moles' timing.

Also, Fechter's game used only moles, rather than a variety of animals in the Japanese game. In the video below, Fechter discusses how he created the Whac-A-Mole and how it was then reverse engineered and mass produced by Bob Cassata. Fechter ended up buying hundreds of the games from Cassata for his Showbiz Pizza parlors.

The lesson here? Trademark your names, patent your games. I wonder what happened to those Japanese guys.

Video below.

Today in Entrepreneurial History: April 13

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 07:26 AM PDT

Jcpenney Mother Store

Corporate Tax Dodgers Hurt Small Business

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Think Progress recently explained why they believe corporations who avoid paying taxes cost small businesses instead.

This week, Citizens for Tax Justice released a report showing that 26 major American corporations haven't paid federal corporate income tax for the last four years. But that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corporate tax avoidance.

In fact, the use of offshore tax havens by corporations costs the government $60 billion annually. Such tax dodging gives multinational corporations a leg up on smaller firms that can't avoid their tax bills, whether its through higher taxes or fewer services. According to a new report from U.S. PIRG, the cost of corporate tax havens amounts to $2,116 for every small business in America.

Photo by Dominic Alves

Late Payers Hurt Small Biz Bottom Line

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT

The Sydney Morning Herald:

A survey by Bibby Financial Services last year found 25 per cent of small business experienced serious cash flow shortages in the previous 12 months due to late payment by customers.

And the problem of late payment by businesses appears to be getting worse. According to the most recent Dun & Bradstreet Trade Payments Analysis – which examines firms’ ability to pay their bills – the number of bills left unpaid for 90 days or more grew by 20 per cent in the December quarter compared to the year previously.

How do you battle against late payments in your business?

Photo by Images Money

Tin Cup: Golf Ball Stencils

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 05:11 AM PDT

How can you tell your golf balls from others on the green? If you use the Tin Cup stencils to mark your balls, it should be easy, reports The Street.

A golfer simply traces a chosen logo or design onto the ball with a fine-point Sharpie pen. What seems like such a simple idea has become a multi-million dollar business for two golf lovers who turned their passion into profit.

Based on U.S. Golf Association rules, players must be able to identify their ball during play. Apparently up until a few years ago, no one had thought to capitalize on ways to help players comply with the rule. Tin Cup was launched in the spring of 2009 by Jim Millar and Cabell Fooshe and now has roughly 100 designs in its repertoire. The marker sells for $19.95 and can be found online, at retail stores and in pro shops across the U.S.

Tin Cup says it had a 300% sales jump in 2011 over 2010 to $1.2 million.