Via: TechnaBob.com

12 years ago you might have recognized the name Bill Bartmann. He was on the richest lists with thanks to his debt collection company, Commercial Financial Services. After a serious scandal hit him and his business that is when everything began to go under reports Inc..

We started CFS in 1985. It was phenomenally successful and was a four-time Inc. 500 company. We also had a lot of fun. I once leased 27 Boeing 747 jets to fly our 3,900 employees and their guests to Disney World for a weekend. Another time, I dressed up like Caesar and was carried on a throne into a Las Vegas casino, where I then wrestled Hulk Hogan in front of 6,000 people. In 1997, I was called the 25th richest person in the U.S. Then I lost it all.

CFS ceased to operate after an associate of mine was convicted of a crime. Everything came to light after someone sent an anonymous letter to the credit rating agencies. When I confronted my associate about it, he didn’t deny it. He eventually went to prison for five years, but our reputation was ruined.

It got worse when the federal government decided to indict me on 58 felony counts. That’s a world-class problem. That’s not like having a bad-hair day or losing a deal with a customer. When the government indicts you, it’s calamity time.

Fortunately, Kathy and I mustered the courage and strength to deal with the adversity. I was innocent of the charges and refused to take the misdemeanor deal they were offering. I challenged them and went through a full-scale trial. Eventually, I was acquitted. I even received an apology from the government for prosecuting me, which rarely happens.

But I was bankrupt, and I wondered why all this bad stuff was happening to me. But what could I do? Blame someone else? Cry in my beer? It wasn’t the first time I had lost everything. I needed to find a way to crawl out from the hole I was in, to come back one more time.

I decided what I should be doing is teaching my story so that when other people suffer their own calamities, my experiences might encourage them. So, I wrote a book and started traveling on a speakers’ tour with people like Steve Forbes and Colin Powell. It was called the Get Motivated! tour. And so I stood onstage in front of 50,000 people and told my story.

Photo by Andrew Magill

According to Website Magazine, e-commerce merchants who are still unsure of what consumers want this holiday season can direct their efforts toward providing user reviews, security verification and fair pricing. In a word, 2010 holiday shoppers are looking for online retailers they can trust.

That was the fundamental message from ChannelAdvisor’s 2010 Consumer Shopping Habits Survey, the e-commerce solutions provider’s third annual report to help merchants prepare for the holiday season.

An eye-opening 92-percent of the participating consumers said that they read product reviews, and nearly half admitted that reviews influence their purchasing decisions one way or the other.

Shoppers also listed the top three most influential promotions that drive purchases as best price, free shipping and trusted seller status, and the top three indicators of trust were security verification, user reviews and website design aesthetics.

Photo by ElvisFan76.

Chris Schultz can divide his time in New Orleans into pre- and post-K periods: before and after Katrina reports Portfolio.com.

For Schultz, founder of the technology incubator Voodoo Ventures, the difference is that stark. What Schultz—who founded and sold an Internet travel business, Destination V.I.P., before moving to New Orleans from Los Angeles in 2002—has seen in the last five years is new blood in the Big Easy.

“We had an amazing ‘brain gain’ post-K of smart, passionate young people moving to New Orleans to make a difference,” the 36-year-old told Portfolio.com. “Many of them have decided to start companies. A typical description of NOLA pre-K would have been as an ‘old boys’ network’ that was difficult for newcomers to break into, but it’s not anymore. The community has embraced the newcomers who are making change.”

Five years ago this month, the residents of New Orleans were taking stock of their battered and flooded community. Some outside New Orleans even questioned whether the city should be rebuilt. But that pessimism lost out to a greater impulse: reinvention.

Schultz has helped newcomers by aiding the creation of one of Launch Pad, a space for entrepreneurial companies, and initiating TribeCon, a New Orleans tech conference aimed at leveraging online communities for off-line action.

His company develops Web applications, but he has reached beyond that to take on a mentoring role for several new firms. Prior to Katrina, Schultz said, he concentrated on building his own technologies. After the hurricane, he also became an angel investor, putting his own money on the line for entrepreneurs. He plans to get into full-fledged venture capital work by raising a fund from others next year for investments in New Orleans. At least one other venture firm with an interest in New Orleans exists—Barrett Vernon Montgomery LLC—but Schultz said there’s room for more investment in his city.

Screenshot from Voodoo Ventures

The Washington Post reports that the number of babies born in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row, according to new federal statistics released Friday that provide more evidence that the nation’s economic troubles are affecting the birth rate.

Provisional data for 2009 found that an estimated 4,136,000 babies were born in the United States in 2009, a 2.6 percent drop from 2008, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The drop follows a 2 percent fall in births that occurred between 2007 and 2008, which pushed the nation’s fertility rate below 2.1 per woman, meaning Americans were no longer giving birth to enough children to keep the population from declining.

That drop prompted speculation that the fall was the result of the recession–a notion supported by an analysis of data from 25 states, including Maryland and Virginia, that was released in April by the Pew Research Center. The report found that states that tended to suffer most from the recession had the biggest declines in births.

Photo by straymuse.

If you’re having computer problems, who do you call? If your computer is outdated then tech support for your machine might be out of the question. However, to take your computer in to a repairman can cost $50 or more just for a consultation and if you want them to come to your home that fee only gets higher. One entrepreneur has found an alternative to the traditional tech support that allows you to pay for only the time spent helping you, whether it is 5 minutes or an hour.

Computer Specialist Online was started by Ramanath as an alternative to fixed rate services that overcharged customers the only needed simple solutions. During his career in this industry he soon recognized a trend among some customers that felt like they just weren’t getting the service they had hoped for. Thinking about those discontent customers inspired Ramanath and his business was born.

Tell us a little about Computer Specialist Online.

We are an online computer tech support service provider. Our HQ is located at Bakersfield,CA. We provide one call one shop solutions to fix all computer related problems to consumers & small business owners. We provide our service mainly over the phone, chat & remote log in methods depending on [what] the customer needs.

What inspired you to launch this business?

Well, I had worked as manufacturing specialist for over 25 years as a specialist trouble shooter to solve many faceted technical problems. I had worked as specialist consultant to many world bank funded industries too.

Due to a special request from my American friend I switched to IT\ITES sector during 1998 to set up, manage her software company (Geo-spatial design work) which I had established very well. Since then I have been involved in many BPO’s like AOL, K2soft, etc. managing tech support divisions.

During my tenure with these BPO’s I observed that there were many customers who were felt neglected, unhappy & helpless due to the very difficulty for them to reach out for the support they needed. I also noticed that due to the restrictive policies of these corporates the customers were not getting proper solutions to their problems. Instead the customers were being tossed between different vendors without much help. Pass the buck type of attitude in the support centres.

This inspired me to come up with an idea to set up my own service which can do justice to the customers & provide one stop support for all issues by owning responsibility.

How did you come up with your pay-by-the-minute model?

I am yet to realize if my idea & purpose to provide per-minute charge basis service to the customer. However, it was done with an intention & from experience that the problems faced by a regular computer user varies in complexity & the current computer related products are becoming more & more difficult for an average user. They face problems from very simple type to complicated ones.

Most of the service\support providers were charging fixed charges either on per-incidence or flat rate immaterial of the type of problem being fixed which I felt was more taxing on the common user who has simple problems.

Some problems require just few minutes or less than 5 minutes to solve & some problems require 30 or more minutes to solve. Now if a customer with a simple problem is charged for flat rate on an average also, it does not sound reasonable as per my view. Yes, we need to make profit but we certainly should not try & loot an innocent customer.

This inspired me to come up with a solution to provide a service where we charge only to the used minutes for the support, thus trying to reduce some economic burden to the customer.

How much does it cost for the average support call?

Our experience and statistics show that the average support call is around 20 minutes\call which as per our rates make a sale of $38.00 which is currently putting us in the break even or just below Red zone.

What separates you from the competition?

As mentioned earlier we work on a very low margin thus provide maximum savings to the customer.

Our prices are based on per minute of actual usage [where] the billing starts after the customer is connected to our experts. The customer gets free minutes for the duration it takes us to process the call, payment, & provide free estimation to the customer.

Apart from this the customer can use any un-used balance minutes for which he has paid for anytime for any problems within 1 year. This is a unique service from us we can say.

The most important benefit a customer gets from us is that we have chosen our experts very carefully & they have a built in problem solving attitude.They all have been trained to take ownership of resolving the customers problems & work to provide the best solution without considering who were the vendors\makers of the software or hardware which is giving the problem to the customer. Our am is to provide all solutions under one roof.

The other unique feature with our techs is that they keep constantly learning & improving their skills which enable them to avoid the most common practice used in any other support centre which is read by the manual & solve. We are different we think out of the box & fix the problems directly from our knowledge & experience.

Of course, the customer gets the best value service for the money they spend & also save a great deal in these tough times.

In your opinion, what should people look for when they shop around for a support service like yours?

To be fair, let me just say the customer always knows what is best they want. They want quick access, best price, reliable quality of service.

The customer will always look for the above mentioned qualities in any service provider.

Do you have any goals you hope to accomplish over the next year or so?

I am sad to say that the customers are unable to get what they really want & also there are many good service providers out there who can provide or fulfill the needs of the customer. But both are unable to reach out to other as there is a huge wall called corporate marketing. This wall makes it very hard for the customer to know that there is a better service provider as the small scale service provider who is good is unable to spend that huge amounts towards marketing to reach out to the customer. This is the actual situation which is putting both the consumers & small service providers off the track.

Our main goal is now to find an effective & economical way to reach out to the consumers. Our intention & aim is to find methods to communicate & re-assure the confused customer that we are there & there are many like minded service providers are there for them to reach.

What are some lessons your business has taught you?

It is the marketing or the method of marketing & its effectiveness which ultimately makes a business succeed or fail. The current situation is the more money one spends (which they will collect by charging more to the customer eventually) will more likely to stay afloat which is not a right indication of ethics of business. But we are determined to change that.

Do you have any advice you’d like to offer fellow entrepreneurs that are just getting started?

Well, we have been providing our service for over a decade as a contractor who does marketing by themselves. We are just new too just 2 years as new business. Our model & methods of providing economical, affordable service fighting the big companies with huge marketing budgets is under test by our own self. It is not correct on our part to make an advise at this stage. However, we just like to tell everyone, including the consumers, that the success of a country’s economy also depends on how strong the small & medium business are encouraged to the maximum.

See the complete list here.

Photo by Online MBA

Tom Quinn isn’t the kind of entrepreneur who needs help getting his ideas in front of the right people. So why is he pitching his latest idea—a portable system to convert food scraps and other waste into ethanol—on a website frequented by basement tinkerers and dorm-room startups?

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Quinn’s E-Fuel is among more than 1,000 companies, inventors, and students vying for funding in a General Electric contest called the ecomagination Challenge. A half-dozen winners will get cash prizes of up to $100,000. More significantly, GE and four venture capital firms plan to invest $200 million in the best clean-technology ideas entered in the contest.

GE’s contest is one of at least a dozen similar programs sponsored by corporations casting a wider net for new business ideas, in the process creating opportunities for entrepreneurs. Such contests have “just exploded,” says Jay Rao, a professor of innovation at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

Cisco Systems, Netflix, and PepsiCo have launched competitions to incorporate outside ideas into their businesses, offering winners cash prizes or partnership opportunities. Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Dell, and others have pages on their websites where entrepreneurs or customers are encouraged to suggest new products. Procter & Gamble says it has licensed more than 1,000 ideas through its open innovation program, including some submitted via its website.

GE is the first to meld an open call for ideas with such a large commitment to invest in outside companies. Anyone is welcome to submit ideas on the ecomagination website, and the public and competitors can scrutinize, comment, and vote on them.

Photo by microfueler.com.

According to a story at CNNMoney.com, “Made in USA still matters.” Is, and will remain Aegis Bicycles’ motto, even if it ultimately becomes the death knell for the company, promised owner Pete Orne.

Orne bought the business in 2004 and like so many domestic businesses, it’s hanging on by a thread.

Three years ago, Aegis was selling about 800 frames a year for between $3,000 to $4,000 each, making as much as $3 million a year. Then the recession hit.

“The economy took us by surprise,” said Orne. “I had so much product sitting on the walls. Two years ago the money dried up. A year and a half ago, we started shutting down our manufacturing. It’s been a struggle to compete with the sizzle of cheaper Asian brands.”

The factory in Van Buren, Maine is currently mothballed. “It is ready to go if we can get financing again,” Orne said. Until then, he keeps the business alive online and through discounts. “I’m selling my inventory at almost 60% off,” he said.

Orne hopes to revive the brand. “It depends on the economy,” he said. One thing he vows — the business will remain in America.

Photo by CNNMoney.

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Raymond Stauffer was shopping at a New Jersey mall when he noticed something peculiar about the bow ties on display at Brooks Brothers: They were labeled with old patent numbers.

Stauffer also happens to be a patent lawyer. He sued Brooks Brothers Inc. in federal court, claiming it broke the law by marking its adjustable bow ties with patents that expired in the 1950s.

A federal appellate court ruling on Tuesday breathed new life into his case by upholding his right to sue—and could pave the way for hundreds of similar suits against major companies to move forward. A separate ruling in December raised the stakes in such cases, potentially exposing product makers to huge liabilities.

Already, lawsuits claiming false patent markings have been brought against companies that make turkey pop-up timers, toilet plungers, fabric softener, flashlights, staplers, Frisbees, kites, telecommunications equipment, bubble gum and a toy called The Original Wooly Willy.

Defendants include companies such as Procter & Gamble, Bayer Healthcare LLC, Cisco Systems, Scientific-Atlanta, Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., 3M Co., DirecTV, and Medtronic Inc.

Marking a tube of toothpaste or paper cup with a patent that is out of date or doesn’t exist has been against the law for years. It is considered anticompetitive. Until late last year, the most a violator had to worry about was paying a $500 penalty for misleading the public.

But in December, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled that defendants could be held responsible for up to $500 PER OFFENSE.

Lawyers for product manufacturers now fear clients are liable for up to $500 for every tube of mascara or box of garbage bags marked with an expired patent—an error that turns out to be quite common.

In recent months, would-be plaintiffs have been fanning out across retail stores and the Internet searching for expired patent numbers on everything from toothpaste to toilet plungers.

The law on false patent markings is similar to whistle-blower laws. Anyone can file a claim on behalf of the government, and plaintiffs must split any fine award evenly with it. The Justice Department has argued on the side of plaintiffs in some of the claims.

Photo by The Wall Street Journal.

Chad Vail might be young but he is no newcomer to the word of business. Now a successful entrepreneur, he has entered into a new line of work. Chad is training a new generation of entrepreneurs reports The Berkley Independent.

Vail, who is president of Junior Achievement’s South Carolina Coastal Region, recently spent a few minutes with the Goose Creek Rotary talking about his organization’s mission and goals and how he got involved.

Vail was still a senior at The Citadel when he opened his first business. With the help of his parents, the Summerville native started a hot pretzel franchise, “The Pretzel Twister.” Within a few years, the business had prospered, ultimately opening in several locations around the tri-county area.

But early on, Vail found the old saw, “Good help is hard to find,” to be true, he said.

It wasn’t that there were no candidates; on the contrary, he said he never had a shortage of applicants at all. Because of the business model, Vail’s labor pool was mostly teenagers – students looking for work after school.

The problem was, they not only had no work skills but they had no sense of what it means to be responsible for a job, and no idea how to approach something as simply but as vital as a job interview. “Eight out of ten were simply unemployable,” Vail said.

Vail said his concerns became so great he decided to volunteer in schools to try to teach these vital – and seemingly non-existent – skills. He actually put together his own curriculum, and did his best to identify with the students.

Eventually, Vail found out about Junior Achievement Worldwide, which is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs, he said. The program recruits volunteers to help empower students with the knowledge they need to become productive workers, good citizens, and informed consumers, and more important, how they can achieve their dreams.

Vail said he was so impressed with what he found out that he went to work for Junior Achievement – as president of the organization’s coastal region of South Carolina.

“They have a curriculum in place, a tried and true, turnkey situation,” he said. “It’s so well thought out, step by step, that if you just follow the steps, you can’t help but succeed.

“It’s a credible, targeted, proven financial literacy curriculum and it’s broken down for all ages – elementary, middle, and high schools.”

Screenshot from Junior Achievement

Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago. He recently posted a list on The New York Times
“You’re The Boss” blog of what he believes are the most important success factors in business:

1. Look for opportunities to do something better than just about everyone else.

2. Accept risk as a necessary evil. It makes for much less competition.

3. Act responsibly to customers, employees and vendors.

4. Goals aren’t enough. You need a plan. You need to execute the plan.

5. You need to fix the plan as you go. Learn from your mistakes. Most people don’t.

6. Do not reinvent the wheel. Learn from others — join a business group.

7. Make sure the math works. I know plenty of people who work hard and follow their passion but the math doesn’t work. If the math doesn’t work, neither does the business.

8. Make sure that every employee understands and works toward the mission.

9. There are going to difficult times and you need to be resilient; whining is a waste of time.

10. There will be sacrifices. Work to find a balance so that you don’t become a financially successful loser. It’s not about the income, it’s about the outcome.

Photo by funphotobox.

When you walk into the shop created by Debbie and Kristy Yettaw, they want you to feel like animals are people too reports Press-Telegram.

Debbie, a laid-off transportation worker, and her 21-year-old daughter Kristy celebrated their grand opening onJuly 10.

Inspired by her daughter’s love of animals and a troubled economy, Debbie says they took Kristy’s passion, coupled it with a plan and went after their dream.

“Kristy has this big love of animals that you can’t help but be infected by — the enthusiasm behind it,” Debbie said. “She worked for a place similar to this part-time during the summer, and we realized that here in the Lakewood area we don’t have one of these stores.”

Kristy began to express her eagerness to open their own business.

“I was telling my parents, ‘We should open up one of these stores,’ because my mom didn’t have a job because she was laid off, and I wanted to run a business of my own,” she said.

Her parents took her seriously and told her to put together an inventory list to see how much the project would cost.

So in November 2009, Kristy sat down to write out a business plan. Research underlined the theme that pets were no longer just pets, but are often considered family.

“They are actually members of the family and some of them are spoiled worse than you would spoil your own child,” Debbie said. “The amount of care that people put into their furry daughters and sons is amazing.”

Soon the family found a location, but as they looked at pricing, they worried whether questioned ifthey could sustain themselves.

“Once we found the location, and this one seems to be perfect because it’s more residential than commercial, we saw how we have the neighbors walking their dogs,” said Debbie. “I can’t tell you how many times while we were putting the building together, how many people walked by to see how we were doing, how we were growing.”

Photo by Sonya Stone

The Toy and Game Inventor Expo is the only industry event designed exclusively to help the new toy and game inventor and entrepreneur by providing networking and educational opportunities.

Independent inventors are an important source for new products to the Toy Industry, but because the industry relies heavily upon professional toy developers for new products it can be difficult for independent inventors to find a way in. This conference gives inventors the chance to meet with companies that don’t accept unsolicited inventions.

Inventors are encouraged to participate in this two-day event and learn the ins and outs of launching a new toy or game.

TAGIE 2010 will be held on Thursday, November 18th and Friday, November 19th at Chicago’s beautiful and historic Navy Pier.

For more information and registration, click here.

Photo by TAGIE.

An entrepreneur from Brunswick is hoping to save a lighthouse and keep it in the hands of the locals reports Mainebiz.

Bob Muller, a consultant with a background in IT and high-tech image mapping, is scrambling to crowd fund between $75,000 and $150,000 in individual $49 donations in order to buy the lighthouse in Casco Bay, which the U.S. General Services Administration is currently selling at auction. He launched a website yesterday and has begun a social media marketing blitz.

His challenge is raising the money in a matter of days. The government has set a preliminary auction end date of Thursday, but will roll it back if higher bids continue to come in. Getting between 1,500 and 3,000 people to donate $49 each is a tall order, but Muller thinks it’s possible if he can convince people to buy into his idea.

One of Muller’s main goals is to keep the lighthouse, which was built in 1903-04, under local ownership.

Muller’s vehicle for this experiment in social entrepreneurship is Landicity-Maine LLC, a company he founded in early 2008. He has spent the last two years working on its business model, founded on the principles of community, sustainability, green commerce and technology. The Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse Community is Muller’s first project using the company’s model.

Photo from GSA

Slate:

Modern-day squat evangelists make money off the claim that a “more natural” posture wards off all sorts of health problems, from Crohn’s disease to colon cancer. Inventor Jonathan Isbit runs a modest online business selling Nature’s Platform—a homemade, $150 device that fits over toilets to make them more like holes in the ground.* (He also posted the Bockus quote above to the Wikipedia entry on defecation.) Other entrepreneurs peddle similar products, like the In-Lieu, the Lillipad, the Evaco toilet converter, and, for those who don’t like explaining their squat platform to house guests, a $688 Japanese toilet that lets users switch among different squatting and sitting postures, from the “East Asian squat” to the “aft sit.” (Confused? Watch the video.)

According to a story at CNNMoney.com, after selling his Illinois gourmet food store and moving to Austin six years ago, Chris Miller was anxious to open another food-related business. So he became an early pioneer of one of food world’s hottest trends: mobile food trucks.

Miller’s hot-dog trailer transplants a Chicago classic down south. “I manage the trailer myself with a small crew, keep a close relationship with all my customers — many I know by first name –and put out a quality product that people really seem to enjoy,” Miller says.

He likes the flexibility mobility brings. “If the location ever seems to peter out, I can always hook it up and move to another spot,” Miller says.

“These venues feel local and intimate at a time when consumers are looking for ways to feel connected to their communities,” says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Yarrow has been studying the micro-business phenomenon.

Like many mobile businesses, Miller’s advertises its specials on Twitter and encourages fans to post pictures on Facebook.

“The Internet has changed our perception of ‘place,’” Yarrow says. “Virtual identity is as real as an identity created by a physical location.”

Photo by Chris’ Little Chicago.

Click here to download the US Patent & Trademark Office Form Cover Sheet for provisional patents.

One of my favorites is the look back at inventors from the past who came up with ideas that we use without a second thought.

Inventor Legends: Edwin Binney and Harold Smith
Inventor Legends: Edwin Perkins
Who Was Frank Sprague?
The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread
The Inventor Who Saved Christmas
Inventor Legends: Edmund McIlhenny
Inventor Legends: Bette Nesmith Graham

We also said goodbye to a snack food inventor….
Cheez Doodle Creator 1920 – 2010

And we highlighted new inventors/inventions…

Cool Idea: Memory Wristband
A Clever Little Enterprise
Entrepreneur Takes Stake In Own Invention
Cow Manure, A Growth Industry
Sports Fan’s Biz Off To A Running Start

And finally, we discovered a 7-year-old entrepreneur named Julie Murphy. Julie learned the hard way that you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you’ll find you get what you need.

UPDATE: Lemonade Entrepreneur

Photo by The Oregonian.

Wile E Coyote

Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts

Doc Emmett Brown

Q (James Bond)

Photos by gizmodo.

Jim Piazzo was looking forward to becoming a green entrepreneur with the help of San Jose. While he still might become a green entrepreneur it probably won’t be with much help from the city reports The Mercury News.

Here’s Piazzo’s story: Young tree surgeon tires of paying big dumping fees for tree limbs. He sees a business opportunity in a wood-chipping operation. He leases land in North San Jose and gets what he thinks is a promise of $330,000 from the city plus a verbal OK for $220,000 more to create green jobs. Then he’s stymied by permit fees, competitors and an arbitrary city decision to cut his grant to $75,000.

Here’s the city’s story: Young tree surgeon comes to us for help in opening a green business, which San Jose is eager to promote. We agree to a maximum $330,000 federally funded loan, which can be forgiven. He was warned the loan was never guaranteed. We try to help him through the process, but he becomes irritated at the cost of permits. Eventually, we find a more pressing need for the money but reserve $75,000 for him.

The notion was to take in tree limbs from pruners, run them through a grinder, and produce wood chips used for energy by PG&E or other energy providers. The concept was doubly environmental because it employed solar energy and a water filtration system at a site on Kings Row, not far from the county buildings on Berger Drive.

“I want to be the greenest company from here to New York City,” says Piazzo, who says he wants to employ 30 to 40 people at his site. “I never expected to get into the business to fight World War III. I thought, gee, the backbone of America is small business.”

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt

Although many people wouldn’t normally give it a second thought while pouring out some kibble for their dog, Carol Brown thinks twice about what they’re about to eat.

After losing more than one dog to cancer, Carol decided there must be something she can do to help improve the quality of her pets’ life. She started mixing together various healthy and organic ingredients until she came up with her own homemade dog food reports The Patriot Ledger.

Brown refinanced her house and opened her 500-square-foot store in August 2003 with only one brand of dog food and some homeopathic flea and tick powders.

These days, she has a broader array of products, as well as lots of helpful advice for her customers.

“I like to give them the information so they can understand, they can ask questions, we can tweak things around if something doesn’t work,” she said.

Brown has been able to grow her business despite its out-of-the-way location in Scituate’s Humarock section, partly because of the level of support she offers her customers. She now offers food and supplies for dogs, cats, birds and a variety of other small furry creatures.

Brown gets to know her regular customers’ dogs and their children. She has customers coming from as far away as Lowell to purchase frozen dog food that most other stores don’t carry.

“I tell people, you are the caretaker, you have to be informed,” Brown said. “You have to know what questions to ask and be knowledgeable enough to say, these ingredients don’t look right to me.”

Photo by MShades

In celebrating National Inventors Month, we have concentrated on bringing you stories about inventors and inventions. In this post, we’re going to look at trademarks. Why trademarks? Federal trademark registration adds value to the products you have invented.

According to the USPTO, a trademark is the name, symbol or logo that you have created to let consumers know that the product sold under your trademark comes from you or your company.

If your product is a successful one, customers who recognize it by its trademark will want to buy it long after the patent protection has expired.

Trademark rights, unlike patents, come into being as soon as you start selling your product under your trademark. Federal registration of your trademark, however, gives you certain benefits that you would not otherwise have without a registration.

A few of these benefits are, a presumption of ownership and nationwide exclusivity in the mark, the ability to file the registration with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service to block infringing imports, and the ability to obtain registrations in foreign countries based on your US registration.

Trademarks often become the most valuable intellectual property right that a company holds.

The USPTO has numerous tools to help you get your trademark registered. Their Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) is available on their website, to help you search their records for other prior registered or pending marks free of charge. They also have their Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) which enables you to file an electronic trademark application through the website.

Photo by 3cpatents.com.

According to the Chicago ABC7 News website, 89-year-old Al Roth was inspired to invent the Clumsee after finding it increasingly difficult to hold onto his digital camera.

The Clumsee is a handle extension for small digital cameras. The device screws into bottom of any point-and-shoot digital camera, allowing the camera user an easier grip than the small camera itself. It fits on all models of digital cameras to provide extra grip stability and maneuverability.

Roth is a World War II U.S. Navy veteran as well as a retired sales representative and professional photographer. He still enjoys taking pictures of his friends and family — including nine grandchildren.

The invention of the Clumsee was a family affair for Roth, who collaborated with a family member who owns a tool and dye company to develop the Clumsee prototype.

Photo by Clumsee website.

According to a story at Bloomberg BusinessWeek, delivering online video is becoming much more of a commodity business.

The average price websites pay to stream video fell 40 percent to 45 percent in 2009 and is on track to decline another 25 percent this year, estimates Frost & Sullivan. The causes of the drop are Moore’s Law—the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months, making computers cheaper and more powerful over time—and competition.

Frost & Sullivan says Akamai charges a customer like Netflix about 5 cents for an HD movie, compared with about 3 cents for standard definition.

Photo by Lightstorm Entertainment.