 Opportunities, news, and links for small business entrepreneurs
Last Updated: November 7, 2008 at 9:10 AM PST
Sioux Falls Business Journal:
Ginger Thomson saw the need for some kind of new door gizmo about 30 years ago. A town house she lived in had sliding patio doors.
“I kept thinking there needs to be a way to open the door when your hands are full,” the Brookings bank executive recalls.
About 12 years ago when she and her husband, Jay Vanduch, built a house, the need for a hands-free, door-opening device resurfaced.
Her husband, who operates a media production and creative services business, came up with the idea of sticking something with suction near the bottom of the door, Thomson says.
Initially, they used their son’s Bert and Ernie toy. It worked, at least for a while. The toy served as sort of an extra handle, allowing a person to slide open the door with a foot.
From there, development of the suctioned door flap now known as the Doorhickey became more precise. Prototypes have been designed and made, patents have been pursued, and marketing has begun. Menards stores might start selling the product.
If Menards or some other company places a big order, Thomson and Vanduch will have Doorhickeys made and packaged in bulk. Thomson expects it to retail for $9.99. “We think it’s a great idea. Will others find it useful? We hope so. We use ours all the time,” she says.
 
Posted On: November 7, 2008 at 9:10 AM PST
Mom Turns Free Time Into Biz Opportunity 
St. Petersburg Times:
Katrina Hollon of St. Petersburg, Fla. had an epiphany when her second child, a daughter, was born. “My second child was born with peanut allergies, which changed my idea of heading back off to work anytime soon,” said Hollon, 38, who was a teacher at the time. So instead of returning to the classroom, she started making children’s clothes in a home business that she calls Strawberry Farm.
I started with pillowcase dresses, taken from the vintage ones my grandmother used to make from flour sacks. I also have blanket sets, peasant dresses, reversible pinafores, pajamas, little matching Scrappy Dolls, and a mod-looking, ’60s-inspired dress. I usually stock smaller sizes but will make any size by request, the pillowcase dresses are $25 each and the others vary. I had been ordering the same fabric over and over because it was a great seller, but I am moving away from that now and just buying enough to make possibly three or four items with my favorite fabrics.
Now I feel confident about the pieces I make and moreover, I genuinely enjoy the work. It’s art to me, because I create my own patterns, I draw them out on paper and then make it. I usually get it right on the third try. So my own daughter has all the first and second tries.
Photo by sugarsandwich’s shop.
 
Posted On: November 7, 2008 at 8:09 AM PST Key To Invention Success: Differentiate 
ArgusLeader.com:
Those who have creative ideas can bring them to reality by differentiating their product from competitors, the founder of Belvedere Vodka told a group of inventors, entrepreneurs and business leaders gathered at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
Steve Gill of Belvedere Vodka was keynote speaker Wednesday at the Innovation Expo. The annual conference is sponsored by the Sioux Falls-based Enterprise Institute and brings together entrepreneurs.
Gill and his business partner, Eddie Phillips, launched Belvedere Vodka in 1996, sparking an industry revolution with their line of luxury vodka. Vodka had no luxury brands at the time, said Gill, and he saw the potential for one in the marketplace.
“You need to develop a truly superior and different product,” Gill said. “If it’s been done before, redefine it or don’t do it.”
Being different from competitors is key, Gill told the group.
“If you don’t differentiate yourself, you become a commodity,” he said.
Messages should continuously be repeated so it sticks with consumers, Gill said.
Belvedere Vodka began with small ads in a few publications. By the time it became a worldwide brand, Belvedere was advertising on a regular basis in major magazines and newspapers.
“We grew into a $100 million business with 12 people, Gill said.
Photo by saital.
 
Posted On: November 7, 2008 at 7:08 AM PST
5 Hard Realities About Selling An Invention 
Up And Running:
First, the global view: You’re rowing upstream. You’re facing several real problems.
1. First, the real value in business isn’t the idea but rather the building of the company to create, market, sell and manage the idea. That’s where the money is.
2. Second, ideas are very hard to sell as just ideas, because companies that can implement them understand that first point. It’s hard even to make the right contacts, because companies in the general area you’re working in might also be working on something similar, and they will avoid even talking to you because if they do, they’re potentially creating legal problems for themselves in the future if they ever develop something in that same general area.
So that’s not very encouraging, but I realize it doesn’t answer your question. Here’s the process.
1. Develop a plan. It should include good research on which businesses could be potential buyers, what their benefits would be and how much money they could make, given their existing business, if they had your tool. Make sure you explore their history with building new things vs. buying new things, and their history of reverse engineering new things to get around working well with others. Your plan has to include their costs and their benefits, which means a pretty good study of their market. And how to contact the potential buyers as well.
2. If the plan looks promising, then get going with the patent. If it’s an invention, you can patent it. Expect to pay a lot of money–five figures–for the legal help to get a patent that will really work for business, because that involves exploring a lot of existing patents and writing it up in a way that will actually protect you from people getting around your patent. That’s hard to do.
3. When your attorneys give you the go-ahead, then implement your plan in step 1.
And although I am discouraging you on purpose (it’s the best thing I can do for you), you and I both know there are exceptions to the rule. Some people make it in the way you want to make it, with an invention. It’s a small chance.
Photo by darkmatter.
 
Posted On: November 7, 2008 at 6:07 AM PST |
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