| 8 Ways to Fix the These Declining Industries With New Ideas Posted: 27 Apr 2012 09:40 AM PDT According to IBISWorld, record stores, textile mills, DVD and game rental and the photofinishing industries are in decline. Unfortunately, you can’t continue doing what you’ve been doing and still be successful if the world has changed around you. Below I’ve listed a couple ideas for each industry that I believe could revitalize them or at least inspire you to think of new ways to make money from things that you thought were dead. 
Record stores Americans are now shopping for music online, which is cheaper and easier for consumers to download music right onto their phones or iPods. For purchasing CDs, consumers are shopping at big-box stores such as Walmart, since they offer a great selection of music at lower prices. Become An Alternative Concert Location Record stores don’t have to be on their way out, they just need to rethink their purpose. No longer do consumers visit to browse through hundreds of different cd cases, looking for something they heard earlier that day on the radio. Why do musicians only play in bars and nightclubs? The only time I’ve ever gone to a bar or a club to see show a band perform was when my brother was in one. Otherwise, I have no interest in going out to listen to music and buy overpriced drinks after dark. Record stores should put on concerts during the day time when people that aren’t club people can attend them. A Place for Expert Advice Although algorithms can recommend new artists based on the preferences of the listener, there’s still something to be said getting listening advice from a real live person with actual knowledge and experience. 
Textile mills Decreased demand from clothing manufacturers and surging import penetration from low-cost countries has caused revenue for textile mills to decline drastically. Solar Power Generating Fabrics Textile mills need to broaden their scope and begin creating entirely new types of fabric. Eulanda Sanders and Ajoy Sarkar in Colorado State University's Department of Design and Merchandising are making prototypes for solar-charging apparel that can be worn while biking, snowboarding, skiing or hiking. This Fabric Displays Electroluminescent material emits light when an electrical charge is run through it. Fabric woven with electroluminescent material can be used as a replacement for incandescent and fluorescent lighting and can, with the right equipment, display lights in patterns and sequences. 
DVD, game and video rental Revenue for the DVD, Game and Video Rental industry has declined from 2006 to 2011 and added only a limited amount to the country's economy. This industry includes subscriptions for mail- distributed and in-store media rental, but it excludes on-demand and web streaming rentals. Vending Machines Companies like Redbox have shown that vending machines are the wave of the future for DVD and video game rental. This trend can only continue to revilatize the industry and new entrants imagine new ways to offer videos for rent and new locations to place the machines. Disposable Videos The technology already exists and was tried in the early 2000s, disposable DVDs containing a chemical that renders them unwatchable after a period of time have never really been effectively marketed in the United States. 
Photofinishing With Americans quickly adopting digital cameras, smartphones and online social networks, consumers have had little need for photofinishing services. Digital Enhancement The rise of the ubiquitous camera in cellphones has lead to a generation of children being documented by fuzzy, blurry, under and overexposed photos of their childhood. Services that could digitally enhance these photos to make them look as good or better than the photos of their parents’ childhood would be a huge win, both for the business and for their photos themselves. Photo Time-Lapse Generation I’m sure you’ve seen the time lapse photos on Youtube of children, with one photo taken every day and then combined into a high speed time lapse video. After watching, have you kicked yourself that you didn’t do something similar? What if there was a service that you could dump off every digital photo you’ve ever taken of your child and they’d manually find the correctly age-spaced and posed photographs and merge them into a similar time lapse? Photo by Jennie Faber. Photo by corepics/ShutterStock. 
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| New Fabric Generates Electricity Posted: 27 Apr 2012 09:03 AM PDT 
Colorado State University: Colorado State University apparel design and production researchers and students are working to develop natural-fiber outdoor clothing that can charge MP3 devices, tablets, computers, GPS units and cell phones with built-in — but comfortable to wear — solar panels. The project is so impressive that it was recently selected to compete in a sustainability design competition in Washington, D.C., from April 21-23. The project, funded by a $15,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, intends to also reduce pollution on two fronts. First, the clothing will use the most recent research and technology to make natural fibers such as cotton and linen as outdoor savvy as other petroleum-based textiles which are heralded by outdoor enthusiasts for warmth, UV ray protection, comfort and moisture-wicking. Second, the clothing will provide a solar source of energy for electronic devices, reducing alkaline battery use. Eulanda Sanders and Ajoy Sarkar, associate professors in the Department of Design and Merchandising, along with four students, are currently developing natural-fiber outdoor clothing prototypes that harvest energy while the wearer participates in outdoor activities. Photo by hxdbzxy/ShutterStock. 
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| The New Way to Publish a Book Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:45 AM PDT 
Jim Krukal: Randy Cassingham is one of the first online publishers: his This is True column went online in 1994. It’s his full-time gig: over the years, it has brought him several million dollars in income, and he lives on 45 acres in western Colorado, where he looks at gorgeous snow-covered mountains from his home office. “TRUE” (as Cassingham calls it) is biting social commentary, using weird news as its vehicle. It’s funny and has a loyal following: thousands pay $24/year to get the full column by e-mail each week. Tens of thousands get a free sampler. It might be the first example of an online “fremium” business model. In the early years, he turned down two unsolicited syndication deals to bring the column to newspapers — turning them down because he didn’t want to give up control of his work, he says. Good move: now he’s compiling his archives into Kindle books, where he can get a 70% royalty on sales, rather than the 12.5% that Dutton (part of the Penguin Group) pays him when it turned another of his websites into a book. And it’s working: Cassingham told me that in the first two weeks of Kindle book sales, the five volumes he has posted so far earned more than $1,400 in royalties from Amazon. “I’m boggled,” he told me by e-mail. “Imagine if I actually concentrated on this income pillar. Or had more than five books available. Or I sent one or more titles out for review somewhere, or advertised, or did ANY kind of promotion to anyone other than my existing readers!” 
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| TV For Your Dog Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:39 AM PDT 
NY Times: Plenty of things will grab a dog’s attention: squirrels, tennis balls, funny smells, other dogs. But a TV channel? Absolutely, say the makers of DogTV, the first cable network to deliver 24-hour programming for dogs. The idea, they say, is that flipping on the channel while you go out for the day will keep your pet stimulated, entertained and relaxed. Call it “Sesame Street” for those who will never learn their ABCs. The shows on DogTV are actually three to six-minute segments featuring grassy fields, bouncing balls and humans rubbing dog tummies. There are also segments featuring noiseless vacuum cleaners and muted doorbells to help make dogs more comfortable around such common household agitations. Sample DogTV content below. 
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| Fairytale Wishes: Courage in a Bottle Posted: 27 Apr 2012 08:33 AM PDT 
It all started with a mom and her son. A fear of the dark and of nightmares had left Debbie Glickman's son a little uncomfortable as he was transitioning from his crib to a big bed. Aware of the calming properties that lavender holds, Debbie went looking for a spray that she could use on his bed before he went to sleep at night. It was during this search that she soon found that there was nothing geared directly towards children and their anxieties on the market. So she created her own, Fairytale Wishes. Tell us a little about Fairytale Wishes, inc. and what inspired it. Fairytale Wishes is a line of all natural aromatherapy sprays for children developed to help them with common childhood fear and anxieties. I have two children who are now 10 years old and 7 years old. When my youngest was very small and we were switching him from his crib to a big bed, he had terrible fear of having bad dreams and of the dark. I knew of the calming properties of lavender so I went to a bath and body store and found a lavender spray for about $20/bottle and told him it was a spray to have "Sweet Dreams" and it completely conquered his fear. I did some research and found there was nothing out there specifically targeted to children for fear and anxiety, both of which are extremely common for kids. My wheels started turning and I got to work. Continue reading our interview with Debbie Glickman. 
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| Today in Entrepreneurial History: April 27 Posted: 27 Apr 2012 07:38 AM PDT 
On this day in 1791, Samuel Morse, the American inventor and painter, and co-inventor of the Morse code was born. Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. The International Morse Code encodes the ISO basic Latin alphabet, some extra Latin letters, the Arabic numerals and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals as standardized sequences of short and long signals called “dots” and “dashes” respectively, or “dits” and “dahs”. Because many non-English natural languages use more than the 26 Roman letters, extensions to the Morse alphabet exist for those languages. Geniusboy on Fiverr has figured out how to make money with morse code. For $5, we will translate your message and send it back as both a photo and a Word document. 
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| EcoScraps Turning Trash Into Cash Posted: 27 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT 
The Globe and Mail: Dan Blake, the co-founder and chief executive officer of EcoScraps is turning food waste into a profitable compost business. Mr. Blake said his idea sprang from having brunch at an all-you-can-eat restaurant in Utah, when he realized how much food waste he and his fellow customers produced. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans produce 33 million tons of food waste every year, and Mr. Blake figured that the market was ripe for taking advantage of the rotten food. After dumpster diving to collect scraps of discarded food, Mr. Blake began to experiment with different combinations to get the most fertile compost. He then sent the samples to a university testing lab for soil analysis to hone the recipe. A major advantage for the company is that the primary resources it uses are free, Mr. Blake told Reuters. “A business that doesn’t have to buy materials should, in theory, have really good margins,” he said.
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| Niche Biz: Monthly, Healthy Snack Club Posted: 27 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT 
Business Insider: For $20 a month, subscribers receive a box of snack foods that are branded by NatureBox. The company works directly with farms and manufacturers to keep prices low; each box contains $25 to $30 worth of food, Gupta said. “Our customers don’t necessarily live near a Trader Joe’s,” he said. “This is convenient, plus we provide content to change the way they behave when they snack.” Snack boxes change monthly, but this month’s included dried pears, sea salt-and-pepper pistachios, smoked pumpkin seeds, and a few other items. Customers can order more of their favorite snacks through the company’s website.
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| Wound Detecting Army Uniforms Posted: 27 Apr 2012 04:00 AM PDT 
The next time a soldier is injured, his or her uniform may be able to tell you just what kind of wound it is and where it’s located,reports popsci. For the human soldiers who have yet to get replaced by robots, the solicitations describe a new era of smart uniforms that monitor the health of the wearer. The new uniforms would have integrated sensors woven into the fabric, and when the soldier gets hit, the sensors would detect the location of the wound, the damage done and even the kind of weapon used in the attack. Medics arriving on scene would get the wounded soldier’s vital signs and wound diagnosis from the uniform, allowing them to skip a preliminary hands-on assessment and deliver targeted first aid. Meanwhile, the clothing would immediately notify the commander that a soldier had gone down, allowing officers to monitor casualties in real time. The solicitation imagines a civilian use for this technology as well, with regular clothing managing “heart/muscle monitoring for athletes, vitals measurements for babies, and blood sugar levels for Type I and Type II diabetics.”
Photo by U.S. Army 
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| Creative Hiring Tactics: Facebook Posted: 27 Apr 2012 03:30 AM PDT  What is the last route you took when hiring employees? Maybe you should take some advice from the Facebook hiring rumor.
When Facebook was young and hunting for talent, says Lee, it combed through Stanford’s syllabi and course catalogs to find relevant students. Facebook was already well-known on campus. If, for example, Facebook needed engineers, it would search for engineering classes. Once it found relevant classes, it would find their required reading lists. Zuckerberg and his staff would go to Stanford’s library and put fliers for Facebook positions in those books. When students pulled them down, they’d find what Facebook left behind.
Photo by Tony Kennick 
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