| Do You Have An Idea Or Invention? Posted: 26 Apr 2012 04:30 AM PDT 
It may seem obvious to some, but the line between an idea or invention can become blurred in the rush to make that first million. So, how do you know whether all you have is a basic idea or an actual invention. InventSAI Press Room defines the difference: An Idea is generally defined as "a formulated thought," while an Invention is "a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment." An Idea is a thought. An Invention is a device. An Idea cannot be touched. An Invention is a physical object. An Idea does nothing more than stimulate further thought and discussion. An Invention performs a task. Ideas are therefore not Inventions, but an Idea needs to exist before there can be an Invention.
Photo by Anthony Storo 
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| This Business Will Help You Delve Deeper Into Your Favorite Books Posted: 26 Apr 2012 04:00 AM PDT When you’re reading a book, is your imagination really enough? One company has taken in to the next level by allowing readers to listen and see just what the author mentions in their story, reports WTVR.com. "Small Demons is a visual index of all the people, places and things inside of books," said Valla Vakili, the CEO of Small Demons. "It's a way to go deeper into a book that you're interested in so like let's say you're reading High Fidelity, it has a lot of music in it – over 100 songs." " We have every song listed in the book all in one place so you can go through and find the soundtrack to the book, or you're reading a book that takes place in New York and it mentions lots of locations in New York and you want to go piece-by-piece and look at those places. We catalog all of those as well. " It's not just the songs or places mentioned either – just about anything can be tracked on the site – people, movies, television shows, even other books. This can hold appeal for publishers who wish to retain readers' attention in the age of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Small Demons currently has 2,500 books on its site – mostly bestsellers and classics. Three of the six biggest publishers – Random House, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster have all signed on as partners.
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| Niche Biz: Eco-Friendly Baby Gear Posted: 26 Apr 2012 03:30 AM PDT 
People are going green, and so are the toys their kids play with. The Green Playroom has found their place within this trend, according to Small Business Opportunities. TheGreenPlayroom.com will feature a beautiful selection of sustainable, non-toxic, eco-friendly furniture and room décor including: bookcases, storage table and chair sets, toy boxes, wall shelving and peg racks, and wall art. The toy collection features top eco-friendly brands including Wonderworld and PlanToys and great hard to find brands like Manny & Simon and Maple Landmark who feature eco-friendly wooden toys made in the USA. The toy collection includes baby toys such as push toys, rattles and teethers, toddler toys like push and pull toys, ride-on toys and wooden building blocks and pretend play toys and games for older children.
The question is: how can you get in on this trend? 
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| The Drive Thru Church Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:55 AM PDT 
First it was drive thru funeral homes, and now there’s a drive thru churches: They run a drive-thru service, but they don’t want your prescription or your dry cleaning. They won’t ask if you want fries with that. And they won’t charge a cent. At the Christian Life Center, all they want to do is pray for you. For five Fridays, volunteers of the Pentecostal congregation have waved people into its driveway at 2699 W. Commercial Blvd., under the double-wide canopy. There, the volunteers ask what’s on your heart. Divorce? Foreclosure? Surgery? Chewed out by the boss? No problem too big or small. What’s the strangest drive thru business you can imagine? Mine: Photo by photocritical/ShutterStock. 
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| Cat Cafes in Japan Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:39 AM PDT 
In Japan, in addition to your coffee, at some cafes you can play with a cat. There are around 100 cat cafés in Japan many of which have particular type of cats, such as black cats, fat cats or rare breed cats. These special cafés with furry patrons are especially popular as dating spots but people of all ages enjoy the company of cats in clean and cozy environments. It’s easy to say only in Japan, but combining two radically different ideas into one can be the basis for a great opportunity! 
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| Why Mine Asteroids? Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:10 AM PDT 
You may have heard that earlier this week a consortium of billionaires has started a company called Planetary Resources to mine the asteroids. If you’re wondering why, consider this: How much useful material is out there is astonishing. A famous 1997 publication, “Mining the Stars,” suggested that at that year’s prices, a small metallic asteroid only a mile across could contain the equivalent of $20 trillion of precious and less-precious metals (equating to about $28 trillion in today’s dollars). To put that in contrast, the entire GDP of the U.S. for 2010 was just under $14.6 trillion. The asteroid 16 Psyche, about 125 miles across and one of the biggest in the asteroid belt, is estimated to contain 170 million trillion tons of nickel-iron, or enough to supply our global needs for millennia. Other asteroids contain manganese, nickel, molybdenum, and cobalt—all useful for industrial purposes. And then there’s gold, palladium, platinum, rhodium…the last of these precious metals is currently trading at around $1,350 per troy ounce (about 31 grams, or the same weight as around 8 sugar cubes). The announcement webcast from Planetary Resources is below. Photo by Mopic/ShutterStock. 
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| No More Blood Banks: Growing Red Blood Cells Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:54 AM PDT 
Fast Company: Taiga Biotechnologies may wipe out blood banks as we know them. The Aurora, Colorado-based startup has developed and licensed stem-cell technologies that can grow an almost limitless supply of red blood cells. If they work (and it's looking likely) the technologies could be used to provide blood where it’s needed the most—ambulances and disaster sites, for instance. Eventually, they could even replace some or all of the 39,000 units of blood transfused into patients every day. Photo by Sashkin/ShutterStock. 
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| High Tech Smoking Lounges: Growing Biz in Switzerland Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:51 AM PDT 
WorldCrunch: On the sixth floor of the Bon Génie, sitting opposite the huge windows with a view on the rooftops of Molard Square in Geneva, it's easy to imagine you're in an elegant bar in the 1950s. You even have a ciggy dangling from the corner of your mouth – because smoking is allowed up here. In fact it's the raison d’être of this new smoker's lounge, whose retro décor, designed by the firm Version B, is something of an ode to men's fashion. On one side are coffee tables and oak chairs covered with leather. On the other side, there are Egg armchairs by Arne Jacobsen, a black Bakelite telephone and an old flea market record player. It hardly comes as a surprise that in this era of ever more restrictive smoking laws, when people often have to brave the elements just to take a drag, the Bon Génie would be an instant hit among smokers. Besides offering a roof, which is something smokers already appreciate, it also provides an environment with real style. Photo by ahuynh55. 
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| FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule Doesn’t Apply to MLM Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:49 AM PDT 
Business Week: A new Federal Trade Commission rule is supposed to protect people who buy business opportunities by requiring sellers to provide a one-page disclosure form that includes support for earnings claims, a list of previous legal actions against the company, and its cancellation or refund policy. But the FTC rule, which went into effect last month, excludes so-called multi-level marketers (MLMs) such as Amway, Avon, and Tupperware that the agency originally intended to regulate. That's because of intense lobbying from the industry, whose revenues are some $28.5 billion in the U.S., according to the Direct Selling Association, the industry's trade group. Photo by Allison Hays – Allicat Photography/ShutterStock. 
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| Niche Biz: Cufflinks Made out of Baseballs Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:30 AM PDT 
CNN: Ravi Ratan purchased the domain name Cufflinks.com as an offshoot of his family’s third-generation menswear company and with plans to eventually start a business. Even before the site was developed, Ratan immediately started receiving e-mails from people looking for cufflinks online. To capitalize on the interest, he took photos of the inventory in one of his family’s retail stores and posted them online. Everything sold out in one day. 
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| Today in Entrepreneurial History: April 25 Posted: 25 Apr 2012 09:16 AM PDT |
| Food On Wheels: The Complete Guide To Starting A Food Truck, Food Cart, Or Other Mobile Food Business Posted: 25 Apr 2012 09:10 AM PDT 
Food trucks are hitting the streets from Miami to Maui but greasy reheated tacos and soggy burgers are a thing of the past. Today’s mobile eateries have foodies flocking for gourmet bacon jam burgers, delicious Parisian-style crepes, and decadent handcrafted organic ice cream cones just to name a few. A less expensive alternative to opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, food trucks, food trailers, food carts, and even food bicycles can be started by anyone whether you’re a trained chef or an amateur baker. If you’ve ever dreamed of jumping on the food truck bandwagon Food On Wheels: The Complete Guide To Starting A Food Truck, Food Cart, Or Other Mobile Food Business by Jennifer Lewis, will provide you with all the information necessary to get you on the road. Highlights include: - Understanding all the startup costs and sources for purchasing or leasing your kitchen on wheels;
- Building a business plan that will guide decision making and set you up for success;
- Scouting locations for optimal visibility and sales;
- Calculating your true product costs and how to price your menu in a way that will be profitable;
- Connecting with customers inexpensively by using traditional marketing tools and social media to keep them coming back for more; and
- Appendices containing detailed worksheets that clearly walk you through the financial side of the business and comprehensive lists of resources and business licensing offices broken down by state and territory.
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| Samuel Adams Brewing The American Dream Posted: 25 Apr 2012 04:30 AM PDT 
BusinessWire: The Boston Beer Company today announced the national expansion of the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream® program. With a focus on helping small businesses related to food, beverage, craft brewing and hospitality, Brewing the American Dream provides loans and industry-specific coaching, mentoring, and educational resources to business owners who find it difficult to access the capital and guidance needed to sustain and grow their businesses. While in the past only a handful of regions had access to the program, today's national expansion of Brewing the American Dream will target at least $1 million in new loans, expanded for the first time to recipients across the country, with significantly increased access to its high-impact one-on-one mentoring and coaching activities. Additionally, the nationwide program includes the introduction of the new Brewing the American Dream Online Community, the first online resource to provide small business owners in the food, beverage, and hospitality sector with a comprehensive platform of tools to help their businesses succeed. Working in partnership with Accion, the country's only nationwide microlender, Brewing the American Dream has already provided more than $1 million in micro-financing to close to 150 businesses, and created or saved nearly 1,000 jobs. Just as importantly, since it began a few years ago the program has offered one-on-one coaching and advised nearly 3,000 small business owners in the food, beverage, craft brewing, and hospitality industries throughout New England, New York, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
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| Beads That Promote Good Posture Posted: 25 Apr 2012 04:00 AM PDT 
The Windsor Star: One day, when she was nursing her newborn son Nestah, he pulled the chain off her pendant, causing the necklace to break. She decided to restring it, and fill the extra string with more beads, which lay along her spine when she put it on. She said she noticed that whenever her posture wasn’t proper – like when she bent down to pick up Nestah – the beads would swing from her back onto the front of her shoulder. When she slouched on a chair, the feeling of the beads served as a gentle reminder to sit up straight. As someone with a clinical herbalist and iridologist diploma, and who had been practising yoga for several years, Latouf knew the importance of good posture. Bad posture, she said, causes undue stress. Over the next few months, Latouf got a provisional patent and started doing market research. She joined LinkedIn and other online accounts to track down the sales and marketing directors of multinational yoga companies. Then, she started cold calling. “Some of these massive companies were like ‘Wow. Let us know when it’s packaged and ready to go,’” she said. She plans to wholesale the product to yoga, wellness and chiropractic companies.
Photo by Brandon Grasley 
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| The Magnet That Could Lower Energy Costs Posted: 25 Apr 2012 03:30 AM PDT 
Oman Tribune: According to Umer Farooq, an inventor and author of 'Limitlessness', the invention of the super efficient permanent magnet, if scientifically explored, can rid the entire world of high cost of energy. Farooq claimed that the newly developed magnet and the device that measured its efficiency were ready to be examined. He said this new type of magnetic interaction would be used in permanent magnet electric motors. These motors will need at least 50 per cent lesser inputs in comparison with existing electric motors. On the other hand, he maintained, mechanical output of these motors will not be reduced and would be maintained at the same level.For example, he said, if an existing electric motor uses 10 horsepower electric energy and its mechanical output is nine horsepower, electric motors comprise upon super efficient permanent magnet will need only five horsepower input of electricity, while the mechanical output of this motors will remain nine horsepower.
Photo by espensorvik 
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