| Ideas: Attracting Customers With Freebies Posted: 13 Jun 2012 05:11 AM PDT 
How does Jonathan Dobyns bring customers into his store? By offering them a free firework for visiting one of his FreeFireworks.us locations. Now, two years later, the high school senior is preparing for his fourth fireworks selling season, has two operating stands, and plans to open a third at the end of the year. “Success doesn’t just happen”, Jon said. “You have to make it happen through hard work and careful planning. Luck doesn’t enter into the deal at all!”. Jon plans to use the fireworks business to help pay for his upcoming college expenses. “It’s a no-brainer”, Jon quipped, “Come back home in the summer and for Christmas, visit the folks, AND give another boost to my bank account! Life is good…” This year Jon plans to add a new element to his bang-up business, assisting some non-profit groups by partnering with them to use his stands for their fundraising efforts. “Someone has to work my stands. It’s not a long-term commitment and can generate some needed cash for their cause. It’s a win-win!”, Dobyns injected.
Photo by Tammy 
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| The $100 Startup Posted: 12 Jun 2012 03:25 PM PDT 
In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau shows you how to lead of life of adventure, meaning and purpose – and earn a good living. Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he's already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he's never held a "real job" or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. There are many others like Chris – those who've found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful. Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn't depend on shelving what you currently do. You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you’re sure it’s successful. In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he's chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment. Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who've learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It's all about finding the intersection between your "expertise" – even if you don't consider it such — and what other people will pay for. You don't need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid. Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick. Among Chris's key principles: if you're good at one thing, you're probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish – sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins. 
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| Scream Portrait Booth Posted: 12 Jun 2012 03:04 PM PDT 
Wired Rawfile: Photographer Billy Hunt thought he had found a way to hack his portrait subjects’ awkwardness: a scream-activated photo booth. “I’ve done a lot of portrait work and you can see the war in these people’s brains when you try to take their picture,” says Hunt. “People always want to present themselves in a certain way and they make it worse. Much much worse.” Hunt’s Screamotron is a converted boom box that only takes a photo when you scream. There’s a business opportunity here, I’m sure. Photo by Billy Hunt. 
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| Selling Frozen Food Online Posted: 12 Jun 2012 02:04 PM PDT 
If you’ve ever wondered about selling frozen food over the internet, this discussion at Reddit might answer some of your questions. I ran a small food shipping operation four years or so ago until we went under. Shipping frozen food isn’t hard but it does require good insulation and dry ice. We used to buy dry ice in pre-packaged blocks from a distributor. I’d contact rncind.com out of Georgia for insulated shipping boxes that store folded flat, are mostly recyclable, and are more efficacious than the typical styrofoam shipping box so you’ll save on dry ice costs (both buying the ice as well as paying to ship the extra weight). Be prepared for complaints about shipping costs. We charged our costs only without any mark-up for packaging, dry ice, or UPS/FedEx and people still complained. Those costs would obviously come down with sufficient volume. Photo by VladisChern/ShutterStock. 
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| Is This Stealing? Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:58 PM PDT A reader wrote: Is using coupons like they are in this video stealing? My wife thinks that since the coupons typically say something like “One coupon per purchase” it is unethical to use them like in this video. I go back and forth, but since the coupon’s rules are that of the product’s manufacturer and not the store’s, and since the store freely accepts the coupon for payment, then it’s a fair and free trade. What do you think? 
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| Taxiback: Fewer Empty Taxis Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:55 PM PDT 
Springwise has notes about a company called Taxiback that facilitates disounted rides for passengers and fewer empty trips for taxis drivers: It’s a fact of life in the taxi business that cabs must often return back to base empty after dropping off a customer — particularly when that drop-off was at an airport. That return drive is essentially a wasted trip, but UK-based TaxiBack aims to change that. Specifically, the startup offers a service which connects passengers with cabs that would otherwise be returning empty and enables them to reserve rides at reduced rates. 
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| The Musical Motivator Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:53 PM PDT 
Sally Arnold plays classical music for her clients, while they work, to help unlock their minds and to encourage them to think differently. Mozart, Bach, Brahms and Schubert are helping Australian business leaders lift sales figures, develop new products and resolve problems in the workplace. And if it were up to entrepreneur Sally Arnold, who uses some of the greatest classical composers to inspire creativity, offices would also be filled with music to help stimulate and soothe stressed out workers. "I’m doing my best to get it out there because … we know that music changes people," she says. Photo by olly/ShutterStock. 
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| Iraqi Restaurants Now Serving More American Food Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:44 PM PDT 
Iraqi’s culinary tastes have changed since US tanks rolled into Baghdad in 2003, and one restaurant there is leading the charge: Diners sitting at outdoor tables among the date palms would occasionally hear the sounds of rockets flying overhead, often aimed at the Green Zone on the other side of the Tigris River. The rockets, which sounded like a train roaring overhead, never fazed the neatly dressed waiters who maneuvered between tables balancing trays heaped with rice, kebabs, salads and grilled fish. “The owner insisted we keep this restaurant open,” manager Haider Abbas says as he moves among the tables, shaking hands and chatting with customers. Baghdad is more peaceful now, but Saysaban and other restaurants face a new challenge: changing Iraqi tastes.
Iraqis are increasingly seeking out Western or international cuisine when they go out to restaurants. Once cut off from the world, most households now have satellite television and Internet access, exposing Iraqis to Western eating habits. Photo by Northfoto/ShutterStock. 
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| The Six Year Old Candy Entrperneur Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:44 PM PDT 
Little Mollie Price is a six year old candy entrepreneur, according to the Daily Mail. She is now celebrating the launch of her third shop called ‘Mollie’s’ in the Welsh market town of Welshpool. Sweet success: Mollie, aged six, pictured in one of her three confectionery shops In recognition of her business achievements she has been declared one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the UK. With the help of her mother Becky, she recently opened her third store in Shrewsbury's Pride Hill Shopping Centre to add to two existing branches on Welshpool High Street and in Newtown's Bear Lanes Shopping Centre. I have a sneaking suspicion that Mollie is little more than the stores’ mascot. But there’s hope that she’ll grow up and put her early entrepreneurial training to good use. Photo by Mark Winfrey/ShutterStock. 
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| The Hospital at Home Posted: 12 Jun 2012 10:52 AM PDT 
Kaiser Health News: The man’s face was pasty, his eyes closed as he lay back in bed waiting for a wave of nausea to pass. Dr. Elizabeth Ward bent over him after checking his temperature, blood pressure, and oxygen levels and finding that all were normal. “Would you rather stay home or go to the hospital?” she asked Frank Blondin, 52, who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis and heart disease, and had a nasty diarrhea-inducing bacterial infection. “Home,” Blondin responded, without hesitation. Soon, the doctor was managing a “hospital at home” admission for Blondin — an arrangement allowing him to receive intensive care and medical monitoring in the quiet of his own bedroom. Medical supplies and medications would be delivered as soon as possible, she told Blondin’s wife, Pamela. A nurse would come within the hour, take laboratory samples, and return later that afternoon and in the days to come. Ward would check in by phone, visit daily, and help would be available 24/7 if required. “Hospital at home” programs fundamentally refashion care for chronically ill patients who have acute medical problems — testing traditional notions of how services should be delivered when people become seriously ill. Only a handful of such initiatives exist, including the Albuquerque program, run by Presbyterian Healthcare Services, and programs in Portland, Ore., Honolulu, Boise, Idaho, and New Orleans offered through the Veterans Health Administration. Photo by Suphatthra China/ShutterStock. 
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| The Recirculating Shower Posted: 12 Jun 2012 10:48 AM PDT 
Taking a shower is a refreshing way to start the day, but much of the energy used to heat the water is wasted as the warm water flows off of you and down the drain. Recirculating showers seem like a great idea. They take the waste water from the bottom of the shower and shoot it back onto the top of you. They been attempted before, but always suffer from one problem: who wants to shower in their own filth? Popular Science has more on an invention that might just solve this problem. In 2004, Peter Brewin, an industrial-design student at the Royal College of Art in London, set about creating a more efficient shower that doesn't require lower pressure. It couldn't just capture and recirculate the water; most countries require shower water to meet potable-water standards. So instead he designed a miniature treatment plant that continuously captures, cleans, and recirculates 70 percent of the water used during a shower. Even with the energy the system consumes, it still uses 40 to 70 percent less power because the system doesn't have to heat as much water. Over the course of a year, a typical household would use 20,000 to 32,000 fewer gallons of water with Brewin's system. That, in turn, would save a local treatment plant upward of 200 kilowatt-hours of energy. Because other water-treatment processes are too slow for real-time recirculation, Brewin decided to use pasteurization, the quick heating and cooling method for purifying milk. Shower water is already about 106°F when it hits the drain. A heat exchanger and a small electric heater raise the temperature the extra 56 degrees needed to reach the pasteurization point of 162°. To filter out dirt particles, Brewin constructed a funnel that spins the water that flows into it. Centrifugal force flings the heavy undissolved particles to the edges, where they are washed down the drain. 
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| Today in Entrepreneurial History: June 12 Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:39 AM PDT 
On this day in 2007, Don Herbert, better known as Mr. Wizard, died. Donald Jeffry Herbert (“Mr. Wizard”) (1917 – 2007) was the creator and host of Watch Mr. Wizard (1951–65, 1971–72) and of Mr. Wizard’s World (1983–90), which were educational television programs for children devoted to science and technology. He also produced many short video programs about science and authored several popular books about science for children. In his obituary, Bill Nye wrote, “Herbert’s techniques and performances helped create the United States’ first generation of homegrown rocket scientists just in time to respond to Sputnik. He sent us to the moon. He changed the world.” If you’d like your kids to experience the science show of your youth, you can watch a number of different Mr. Wizard videos on YouTube or, you can pick up this DVD from Amazon. 
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