| Lasagna is Hot! Posted: 09 Jun 2012 02:15 AM PDT |
| Senior Citizens Start More Business Than Young Posted: 08 Jun 2012 05:33 PM PDT 
Loan Safe: When they picture the modern American entrepreneur, many people imagine Mark Zuckerberg-types — young, tech-savvy, fresh out of college. But when it comes to successful entrepreneurship, the best years of life may be after 50. According to a survey by the nonprofit Kauffman Foundation, Americans aged 55 to 64 start new business ventures at a higher rate than any other age group, including twentysomethings. In 2010, the survey said, 23 percent of new entrepreneurs were aged 55 to 64, up from 14 percent in 1996. Photo by SueC/ShutterStock. 
 |
| 20 Ways to Improve Your Google-Fu Posted: 08 Jun 2012 01:52 PM PDT via Mashable, who ads: Smart Googling requires finesse, a keen eye, some Boolean tricks, and a bit of jena se qua we like to call Google-Fu. Infographic by OnlinePhD.org. 
 |
| Niche Biz: Psychoanalysis Couches Posted: 08 Jun 2012 01:48 PM PDT 
Post Gazette: Psychoanalysis, the treatment originated by Sigmund Freud more than a century ago that requires patients to lie on a couch and say whatever comes to mind, has been battered in recent years by everything from antidepressants to skepticism to managed care that doesn’t pay for such long-term therapy. So who in his right mind would want to launch a company that makes psychoanalytic couches? It takes an entrepreneur who believes that businesses considered antiquated are underserved niches with perhaps more staying power than trendier enterprises. Randall Scott Thomas, a Seattle furniture maker, knows psychoanalysts are a minority among mental health counselors these days. But thousands are either in training or in practice, and many have trouble finding the appropriate couch. The photo above is Sigmund Freud’s couch. It is housed in the Freud Museum. 
 |
| Husband and Wife Direct Sales Team Posted: 08 Jun 2012 01:44 PM PDT 
Direct sales may not be for everyone but for Donald & Claudette Beckwith, Herbalife is where it is at. Like many people who become sales representatives, Donald and Claudette were simply looking for a way to make a little extra money each month. After learning for some time they came upon Herbalife and they were hooked. We've recently had the opportunity to ask them a few questions about the company and what drew them to it. Two years ago, Angela interviewed Don and Claudette. Read her interview now. 
 |
| Obama Hates the Entrepreneur Posted: 08 Jun 2012 12:37 PM PDT 
Investor’s Business Daily: Two studies suggest the “head winds” that President Obama says are holding back employers are of his own making. His policies have sidelined a key job creator: the entrepreneur. Historically, young startup firms have been a major job engine for the economy, particularly as the nation has emerged from recessions. But new federal data show the rate of business startups continues to fall in this recovery. According to the Census Bureau, the startup rate, measured as a share of all firms, has plunged to 7% from 9% in 2008 and from 11% in 2006. The pace, moreover, is almost half the 1980s’ peak of 13%. Of all the negative trends tracking this administration, this may be the most disturbing. 
 |
| Math Professor Invents Better Side Mirror Posted: 08 Jun 2012 10:08 AM PDT 
Phys.org: Traditional flat mirrors on the driver’s side of a vehicle give drivers an accurate sense of the distance of cars behind them but have a very narrow field of view. As a result, there is a region of space behind the car, known as the blind spot, that drivers can’t see via either the side or rear-view mirror. It’s not hard to make a curved mirror that gives a wider field of view – no blind spot – but at the cost of visual distortion and making objects appear smaller and farther away. Hicks’s driver’s side mirror has a field of view of about 45 degrees, compared to 15 to 17 degrees of view in a flat driver’s side mirror. Unlike in simple curved mirrors that can squash the perceived shape of objects and make straight lines appear curved, in Hicks’s mirror the visual distortions of shapes and straight lines are barely detectable. Hicks, a professor in Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences, designed his mirror using a mathematical algorithm that precisely controls the angle of light bouncing off of the curving mirror. 
 |
| SoftWear Automation: Clothes That Sew Themselves Posted: 08 Jun 2012 10:01 AM PDT 
Wired: Usually the Pentagon’s far-out researchers are more concerned with four-legged robots and preventing pandemics than with the contents of a soldier’s closet. But they’ve doled out $1.25 million to fully automate the sewing process. The agency aspires to “complete production facilities that produce garments with zero direct labor.” And those are a lot of garments: One 2010 estimate put the military’s annual clothing budget at $4 billion dollars. The company on the receiving end of Darpa’s award, SoftWear Automation Inc., has so far developed “a conceptual” version of just the automated system that the agency’s after. The basic principle behind the company’s innovation, according to its website, is a robotic system that relies on an extremely precise monitoring of a given fabric’s “thread count” to move it through a sewing machine in the proper direction and at the right pace. Dr. Steve Dickerson, the company CEO and a robotics and engineering researcher, didn’t respond to request for comment. 
 |
| Elder Move: Helps Seniors Downsize and Move Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:55 AM PDT 
Edmonton Journal: When Shannon Lang had to move an elderly parent, she saw a business opportunity while sorting through 40 years of memorabilia and making tough decisions about what to do with prized possessions. “Seniors often have to move for any numbers of reasons, and some aren’t in great health,” she says. “But in downsizing they must decide what to keep or give to family members. Other items must be sold, donated to charity or disposed of. They might also have to find a good real estate agent and trusted movers.” Lang left her U of A research job, took a business course and launched Elder Move, a company specializing in helping seniors downsize and relocate. 
 |
| A Vending Machine for Fresh Vegetables Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:50 AM PDT 
China Daily: On a hot July day in 2010, Wang and some of his fellow villagers went shopping downtown and bought some beverages from a vending machine. Suddenly they got the idea to sell vegetables with the machines, prompting Wang and six others to establish a company to do just that. Then Wang discovered that the knowledge he learned in college was extremely helpful in redesigning the machines to sell vegetables. The team also designed a small plastic package to hold the vegetables. “They are reusable,” Wang said. “We put a recycling bin next to each vending machine. That both decreases our cost and protects the environment.” At the same time, they rent farmland in the city’s remote eastern suburb where they have 10 greenhouses to grow vegetables. They started with eight vending machines, each based in a different residential community. “The choice of placement for each vending machine is crucial,” Wang said, “and our previous expertise in selling vegetables helps.” Photo by monticello/ShutterStock. 
 |
| In Nigeria Everyone Has 2+ Cell Phones Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:44 AM PDT 
BBC: If you must make a call to anybody’s mobile phone in Nigeria, you need to be understanding and patient – it can be a very frustrating and annoying experience. In the first place, it takes luck for the call to get through, and when both parties are connected, there is no guarantee that you will hear each other or that the line will not drop after a few seconds. Everyone who can afford it has a minimum of two mobile phones from different operators" A conversation which normally should not last two minutes may after several calls take 10 minutes and, believe me, both of you will pay for every second. Being very practical people, Nigerians have devised a way, though expensive, to ease the problem. Photo by eekim. 
 |
| Inmate to Entrepreneur Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:40 AM PDT 
The Last Mile: Could the next Mark Zuckerberg be sitting in a California prison? The participants of a pioneering initiative at San Quentin correctional facility certainly hope so. The Last Mile program at San Quentin aims to educate inmates about social media, technology and entrepreneurship. Each must develop a business idea that combines technology with a good cause and eventually pitch it to an audience of Silicon Valley bosses and executives. The catch? They can't use the internet (and many of them never have). 
 |
| European Bankruptcy “Tourism” Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:36 AM PDT 
Guardian: A solicitor in Leicester has helped Irish clients escape more than €1bn (£798m) of debt by taking advantage of a booming trade in "bankruptcy tourism". Data seen by the Guardian reveal Steve Thatcher, who runs the new advisory service www.irishbankruptcyuk.com boasts at least 55 clients in the process of clearing some €1.2bn by using UK courts to wipe out loans taken out in the republic. One property speculator wrote off €150m during a 35-second court appearance. While bankrupts in the UK face only one year in financial purdah, in Ireland it is 12 years – despite promises of reform from the Dublin government. Such is the stigma still associated with bankruptcy in Ireland that "Michael" and "Mary" are unwilling to give their real names after they used the UK courts to write off nearly €320,000 of negative equity and other debts. They fear that in Ireland they could be blacklisted from jobs if potential employers knew they were bankrupts. 
 |
| Shale Oil Creates Another Gold Rush: Beans Posted: 08 Jun 2012 09:31 AM PDT 
Reuters: In India’s northern desert states, farmers are scrambling to harvest as much as they can of a bean with the power to lift them out of poverty. In the United States, the multi-billion dollar shale energy industry is banking on their success. U.S. companies drilling for oil and gas in shale formations have developed a voracious appetite for the powder-like gum made from the seeds of guar, or cluster bean, and the boom in their business has created a bonanza for thousands of small-scale farmers in India who produce 80 percent of the world’s beans. “Guar has changed my life,” said Shivlal, a guar farmer who made 300,000 rupees ($5,400) – five times more than his average seasonal income – from selling the beans he planted on five acres (two hectares) of sandy soil in Rajasthan state. 
 |
| Ideas: Free Of Charge Posted: 08 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT 
Cork News: A local amateur inventor with scores of ideas, concepts and inventions is giving them all away in the hope that they might provide viable commercial opportunities for entrepreneurs. Bill's self-published book, Fly-Flaps & Other Inventions, contains descriptions and explanations for some 200 of his ideas, some of them humorous and tongue-in-cheek, and others that he believes could be turned into viable business ideas. "These are ideas which I can't really take any further, because I don't have the necessary entrepreneurial mindset, but my hope is that someone might be able to bring some of the ideas, or be inspired to develop their own ideas," he said.
 |
| Today in Entrepreneurial History: June 8 Posted: 08 Jun 2012 08:23 AM PDT |
| Inventor Versus Innovator: Which Are You? Posted: 08 Jun 2012 08:01 AM PDT 
Forbes: Only a small percentage of innovators are also inventors. If necessity is the mother of invention, obsession is the father of innovation. Innovators iterate and combine preexisting ideas until they incrementally modify an invention such that it embodies a marketable value proposition upon which a sustainable company can be created. If you are solely an inventor, your startup options include: (i) sell the intellectual property underlying your inventions before they are commercialized, which will net you nominal value, (ii) partner with someone who has innovator skills, or (iii) risk losing it all by attempting to play the roles of both inventor and innovator. Few people are successful at both roles because each requires the distinct skills, aptitudes and proclivities noted above.
 |
| The iPhone Goes Prepaid Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:33 AM PDT 
Information Week: Virgin Mobile USA, which is owned and run by Sprint, threw its hat in the iPhone prepaid ring Thursday. The company will begin selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S to its customers starting June 29 with plans that cost as little as $30 per month. Virgin will offer the 8-GB iPhone 4 for $549 and the 16-GB iPhone 4S for $649.
What does this mean for you? If you enjoy running your business from a smart phone and you hate contracts, this may be the moment you’ve been waiting for. Photo by Yutaka Tsutano 
 |
