The goal of the iPhone Freelancer site is to bring entrepreneurs and businesses closer to seasoned iPhone application developers and make the collaboration between these two groups not only possible but also fruitful, reports KillerStartups.com.

The fact remains that the development of apps is not for everybody, and ideas which can be potentially lucrative end up being nothing more than that until someone has the vey same thought and comes up with the app that you had once envisioned.

That is certainly frustrating, and the objective of this site is to let any individual user or businessman translate his ideas into practice and have them find their way into the App Store.

The way it all works is not that dissimilar to an auctions site – ideas are posted and then developers bid in order to be assigned the job by you, the one who posted it to begin with. The site can be joined for free, and projects can be browsed at no cost too.

Photo by iPhone Freelancer.

From fighting forest fires to laying carpet in day care centers, CNNMoney.com takes a look at what 5 small businesses that got stimulus-funded contracts are doing with taxpayers’ dollars.

Leetex Construction in Dallas won just over $2 million in stimulus contracts to renovate existing construction, primarily at Fort Hood, a nearby Army base. The projects, each of which took between two and three months, are nearly complete.

Rick Karlos, Leetex Construction’s owner, added six employees: four to work in the field and two to manage the paperwork associated with the government contracts.

But Karlos isn’t complaining about the administrative overhead. “It is not a problem, it is just another step,” Karlos says. “Our industry, on the private side, there is not any work. It is an awful time. There is state work, country work, city work, but in the private sector, there is not any work.”

Karlos sees 25 resumes come across his desk every day. Currently, he employs about 15 full-time workers, but that number is in constant flux depending on the workload. Without the stimulus projects, it could very well have plummeted to zero.

“Without the stimulus money, I am not sure we would still be here,” Karlos says of his company, which opened in 2002.

Photo by Leetex Construction.

Sometimes mathematics gets a bad rap.

Kids whine that it is too hard or boring. Parents get frustrated helping with homework. But a local man has invented a board game he said gets kids excited about the often-dreaded school subject, reports Durhamregion.com.

The board game, created by Greg Soave, is called TACTICO! The game isn’t new; Soave invented it as a boy while he sat in his father’s ‘57 Chevy waiting for his dad, who was doing television and radio repairs.

The game revolves around subtraction. Two players take turns removing game pieces (up to four per turn) from the board until one round game chip is left. Whoever gets stuck with the last piece has to turn it over and reveal a number between one and 10. That numeral is the amount of points the loser of the round is stuck with. The first player to collect 30 points has to accept defeat at the hands of their opponent.

It’s a game of strategy where each player has to pay attention to his opponent’s moves and quickly calculate how many chips remain.

The game is currently in 71 schools and has been purchased by Corrections Canada, Mr. Soave said.

“I hope to bring the game worldwide,” he said.

Photo by Durhamregion.com.

When writing out your 2010 list of business resolutions, AOL Small Business says make sure to include a mobile-friendly Web presence. Here are three ways to get your act together:

1. Hire a Designer
Not every small business needs to go out and drop a fistful of Gs on a mobile site, but for some it will make sense. At Accession Media, Katinger works with small and medium business customers who have complex e-commerce requirements. He estimates that many of his jobs start at around $10,000 and go up from there. He focuses on building a single Web site that covers both regular computer requirements, then serves up mobile-friendly pages when mobile devices show up to the party. “It’s like any investment — if you deem it’s important enough to your business, you will pay for it,” says Katinger.

2. Instant Mobilizer
A lot of small businesses don’t have the time or energy to devote a lot of resources to regular Web sites, much less mobile sites. If that sounds like you, then dotMobi’s Instant Mobilizer is worth a gander. The service comes along with the purchase of a .mobi domain through a network of providers that includes Go Daddy and Domain Monster. Instant Mobilizer essentially translates your existing Web page into a mobile-friendly format that includes one-click calls to your phone number and an automated map and directions. It doesn’t require any technical knowledge and takes very little time to set up.

3. Make Friends with Mobile Search
It’s a strategy that’s smart for just about any small business, but an absolute must for businesses looking to drum up local traffic through mobile means. Here’s the premise: “The mobile marketing world is more than just the Web site,” says Katinger. You can push a .mobi site to your customers or design a mobile-friendly site from the ground up, but some potential customers will only go so far as Google, Yahoo or the internet yellow pages to find you. So make sure you’re listed at places like Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Yelp. It doesn’t cost anything, and it’s a great proving ground before you jump full-on into the mobile Web site waters.

Photo by appleinsider.

If you watch TV, you’ve seen the ad. Domino’s chefs are experimenting with a matrix of combinations of cheese, dough and spices — anything to counter some of the negative criticism that’s come their way.

Domino’s reads some actual customer quotes, which are designed to make any television viewer’s eyebrows lurch upward: “Domino’s pizza crust, to me, is like cardboard.” And: “The sauce tastes like ketchup.” according to a story at AOL Small Business.

Then, of course, Domino’s explains that they’ve reinvented their pizza — thrown out their old rule book and made something completely new. But is it a clever idea, or a little insane? Because no matter what, they are trashing their own pizza, something that’s made Domino’s literally a household name.

“The Domino’s campaign is brilliant,” says David N. Finley, director of communications at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. “First of all, it captured my attention — no small feat in today’s media-saturated world. Second, it’s honest, sincere and novel, and [the ad] is also very funny.

“Finally, as a consumer, I can relate to the message — I understand the criticism about Domino’s product, which to me has traditionally been a bland, low-quality product. To reinvent themselves, it is necessary to address their poor image head on, so they can then give credibility to their proposed changes — in this case, the new recipe. I’m not sure yet whether this campaign is working, but I predict it will be a success.”

Paul Kurnit, professor marketing at Pace University, also feels the Domino’s move was a smart one. “In general, trashing one’s products is a bad and dangerous idea,” says Kurnit (in other words, kids, don’t usually try this at home). “The risk is that the customer gets an idea that at some point, some aspect of the product was inferior. Shame on the marketer. Why would you ever take something less than excellent to the marketplace?

Photo by boston.com.

As gift cards have risen in popularity over the years (a whopping $87 billion of them were bought last year, according to research firm TowerGroup), you could be forgiven for assuming that they’re the perfect, one-size-fits-all holiday gift.

Apparently some of the people you gave those ultra-convenient cards to didn’t see it that way, reports WalletPop.

Plastic Jungle, a clearinghouse where people can buy and sell their unwanted gift cards, says its Web site traffic has gone up by an astronomical 250% since Christmas.

The bump is due to people unloading their gift cards for cash. Plastic Jungle lets people sell their cards at a discount and then sells those cards at a slightly less-steep discount, pocketing the difference.

According to Plastic Jungle’s stats, the top-swapped gift card is Macy’s, followed by Walmart and then Lowe’s. California was the top state for both gift card buyers and sellers. New Yorkers were the second-highest purchasers of gift cards, while Floridians were the second-highest sellers.

Why is the gift-card trade so hot? For buyers, it might be a chance to get a gift that they really wanted for themselves. For the sellers, it’s obvious: They get a quick hit of cash in their pocket, even if they take a loss on the value of the card. Plastic Jungle’s press release says as much, noting that some sellers liquidate their gift cards to pay off holiday debts. After all, you can’t pay a MasterCard bill with a Starbucks card.

Photo by loafnjug.com.

Reuters is reporting that blogging by teenagers and young adults has dropped by half over the past three years as they turn instead to texting and social networking sites such as Facebook, a new study shows.

The study by the Pew Internet and American Life project also found that fewer than one in 10 teens were using Twitter, a surprising finding given overall popularity of the micro-blogging site.

According to the report, only 14 percent of teenagers who use the Internet say they kept an online journal or blog, compared with a peak of 28 percent in 2006 — and only 8 percent were using Twitter.

“It was a little bit surprising, although there are definitely explanations given the state of the technological landscape,” Pew researcher Aaron Smith told Reuters.

Smith said the report’s authors attributed the decline in blogging to the explosion of social networking sites such as Facebook, which emphasize short status updates over personal journals.

According to the study, 73 percent of teens who were online used social networking sites.

He also cited the ubiquity of cell phones. Much of the communication between young people now takes place on mobile devices, which don’t lend themselves to long-form writing.

Photo by Reuters.

After Paul Sadowski’s wife died and he remarried, he and his new bride realized that they both had boxes and boxes of family photos. They agonized over how to display them, but every conventional method of storing and displaying photographs they tried left them with too many memories stored away in boxes.

They decided that they to come up with a better way, and Picture Pages was born.

Picture Pages is a photo album in a frame that you hang on the wall. The framed album is 15″ X 31″ and can hold hundreds of photos in its durable plastic sheets. It easily attaches to any wall and works in both the home or the office.

Here’s a video of how it works:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins



The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni



Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuck



The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michel Gerber



The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy by Raj Patel



Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service by Ken Blanchard



Rework by Jason Fried



QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life by John Miller



Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins



The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard



Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston



Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen Lundin



The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki



Leading Change by John Kotter



Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams! by Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell

All of the links to books in the post are affiliate links. Your purchase supports the continued operation of the Business Opportunities Weblog.

When Allison Fleming got married and decided that she was ready to have kids she knew her life would have to change, reports the Tallahassee Democrat. It was after son was born that she decided the time was right to leave her job and start on a new path, mompreneurship.

That’s when she agreed to open a group fitness gym, Good Friends Group Fitness, with her friend of 35 years, Chelsea Garfield.

“This has given me the sense of peace that I need,” Fleming said. “When I was at work I felt like I should’ve been at home, and when I was at home I felt like I should’ve been at work.”

Fleming said she realized life was too short to spend it behind a desk and not enjoy what she was doing. At the end of a nice day, she wanted to be able to take her son to the park if she wanted.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, only 5 percent of American firms were owned by women in 1970. That share today is 30 percent, or about 7 million businesses.

Still, opinions differ on whether the startups by mompreneurs today constitute a new trend. Christy Crump, president of Administrative Professional Services & Solutions, said it’s not something that she often sees.

“I know of one woman who recently found herself divorced and needing to work, so she started her own business,” said Crump, president of the group Business & Professional Women/Tallahassee. “Otherwise, all of the small business owners/entrepreneurs I know have started their business out of choice, not necessity, and a good number of those are not wives/mothers.”

Screenshot from Good Friends Group Fitness

photo credit: petechons

A recent report on Inc.com stated that home businesses continue to grow and will continue to sky rocket through the upcoming year or two. It seems that working from your home is the new trend. Not only to start your own business from home but many companies are finding it cheaper to allow their employees to work from home as well. Look below for the top businesses that can be done in your pajamas from home.

1. Online advice business. There are thousands of sites today located online that offer up advice, tips and help in all matters dealing with business, if you are business savvy, especially in one certain field, this may be the business for you.
2. Insurance. With insurance prices going through the roof, there are several companies offering lower rates and many of these companies are also offering jobs as an insurance sales representative that can easily be done from the comfort of your own home.
3. Personal fitness. One of the most common New Years resolutions is that people want to lose weight, thousands of people every year make this promise to themselves. So if you are a fit person who is savvy in the fitness field, this could be the perfect at home business for you to start.
4. Children’s wholesale. With so many little ones running around this country, a great way to make money from home is by tapping into the children’s wholesale market. Parents are always looking for new stores, new product lines and great deals on all children’s products.

Innovation is truly the mother of invention for Kim Olenicoff. From stick-on disposable pockets to sticky garment guards that stop underarm sweat from staining your clothing, it is possible that Kim has a solution for nearly any situation you can think of.

The problem started with underarm stains on her white shirts. There wasn’t a way to stop the stains before they happened. When she couldn’t find a product that fit her needs she did what many inventors before have done, she created a solution. As a matter of fact her business is called Solutions That Stick, a fitting name for a company that provides as many ’sticky’ solutions as hers does.

Tell us a little about Solutions That Stick and what inspired it.

Actually, Solutions That Stick started as just one product, Garment Guard, the original disposable underarm shield. I was in law school at the time and sick of my new expensive white t-shirts getting those awful yellow “taco stains” in the armpits after just a few wearings. When I could not find anything on the market that I could just stick onto the garment to protect against that, I used my research skills to find a company to make them for my use. I also sent samples to a bunch of department stores, and thankfully, Nordstrom decided to begin stocking them. Over the next 10 years, I thought of other solutions to common problems, and here we are today.

How many products do you currently offer?

9, including our two newest*, launching within the next 30 days.

What are they and what do they do?

Garment Guard- disposable underarm shields

Skid Out- deodorant, drip & drool erasers

Knicker Sticker- disposable adhesive underwear

Subtle Butt- disposable gas neutralizers

White Collar Grime- adhesive collar (and hat) protectors

Quick Fix Sticks- adhesive wardrobe remedies

Pocksie- temporary sticky pockets

*Boot Stay- adhesive sag preventers

*Drip Strips- bottle drool absorbers

I heard you have a new product coming out soon to help keep saggy boots from falling too far. How long until it will be up on Solutions That Stick and ready to be purchased?

We are hoping for 15 February.

How much will it cost?

$9.95 for 6 stays.

In what ways has your business evolved since it was first launched 10 years ago?

Aside from adding all the new products, we are starting to delve into the world of private label. Also, when we started, we didn’t really have any competition and Nordstrom was our biggest account. Now, web sales, through our own site and through our wholesale customers like beauty.com, account for the majority of our sales. Further, we could just send samples to the major magazines, and they would write about our products once in a while, now we need to actively seek out new ways to get the information about our products out to bloggers and across the net.

After you release your latest product, might we see some new products emerge over the next year or so? Any hints on what we can expect?

Aside from the 20 or so products we are adding to our new private label line, we have a few in the works, including a way to fix holes in t-shirts, an easy stain removal kit, and a stapler that can fix clothes.

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

We are really going to be focusing on the private label line this year, trying to really get it out there.

Have you always seen yourself as being entrepreneurial?

Yes! In fact, I majored in it at USC. And I come from a pretty big family of people who all worked for themselves. They made fun of me as a kid when I announced to them that I wanted to go to college and then work for IBM.

What are some of the lessons your business has taught you? How much space do I have?

I guess the most important is that cash is king. Always monitor your cash flow. Also, everything takes longer than you think it is going to take, so factor that into your schedule. Thirdly, learn how to delegate. Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean it is best for you to do it.

Any tips that have helped you balance your time between business and your personal life?

I might be the best person and the worst person to answer this. I have spent the past three years sailing halfway around the world, but part-time. I would sail, leave the boat and fly home to work. Then return to the boat and repeat. I was able to see some remarkable places and meet some interesting people, but that meant I spend my time at home working like a mad person. But, with my amazing staff, I was able to do both. So I guess my advice is to figure out what you want to do for fun, and make your schedule work around that.

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

Aside from serious cash flow analysis, take your product or idea into the market and test it. Everyone will tell you that you have a good idea, but actually trying to get people to part with their money in exchange for it is another thing. You have almost nothing to lose by doing it, but a lot of information and insight to gain.

MakeMySummer.com launched last year as a way for students from the UK to find jobs in American summer camps. I recently had the opportunity to ask the founded Jacqueline Cole some questions about her business.

What is MakeMySummer.com?

MakeMySummer.com is a website where students can gain information and inspiration about how they can spend their summer months proactively through meaningful work and travel. I like to think of it as a Virtual Recruitment Fair where employers can showcase their opportunities and students can browse their options.

There is increasing pressure on students to gain work experience and involve themselves in additional activities outside of their degree because academic achievement is no longer enough in the quest for graduate employment. The summer months provide an ideal time for proactive students to really make a difference to their chances of getting a job upon graduation.

I started MakeMySummer.com last year and have so far focussed entirely on summer camp opportunities which was the obvious starting point since I have worked in that industry for 10years including time as a freelance recruiter for the industry. In the last year I have received overwhelming support for my ideas from students and businesses within the summer work industry and I have developed a number of partnerships and opportunities. The challenge now is to convert these ideas into a profitable business.

Where’d the idea come from?

I was working as a freelance recruiter for summer camps and every day I came into contact with students saying the same things – how they knew they had to do something with the summer but didn’t know what to do or where to go for advice. Additionally within the summer camp industry there was a big shift towards social media for promotion and yet no one was seeing how social media could also benefit recruitment and training. MakeMySummer.com was therefore designed to meet the immediate needs of the summer camp industry but with the capacity to grow to encompass other opportunities such as travel, volunteer work etc.

How does the site make money?

With summer camps we earn $400 per person hired as a commission from the camp for finding their staff and preparing them for camp. Students pay their visa and flight costs. Additionally, I have recently formed partnerships with a number of key organizations who have granted permission to sell or advertise their products for a percentage of any sales made. This will provide secondary income. Future income for other types of work will depend on whether we offer it directly ourselves or through a third party.

You recently won a business opportunities grant from British Airways that gives you free travel for a year. What was that process like?

It was really easy to do. I am signed up to a funding newsletter and it had the grant advertised in it. I simply had to complete a web form with questions such as ‘how would your company benefit from free travel’ and ‘what are your objectives for this year’ and that was that! I submitted the form and thought nothing of it and then 3 months later I received an email saying I was selected as a winner. It is an amazing opportunity that I hope I don’t waste. Unfortunately just because I have the flights doesn’t mean I can afford the hotels and food…

You’re looking for additional funding? What would you do with more capital?

The concept of this website is broad and so the scope for development is huge. The problem I have right now is that I am trying to do everything myself and I physically cannot be everywhere and do everything all at once. I am looking to use investment money to set up a regional network of representatives who can promote and recruit students from Universities. I would also spend a proportion of money on the necessary web development to put in the affiliate marketing opportunities I outlined above and lastly I hope to utilize the free flights for brand awareness and development overseas.

photo credit: mr_magoo_icu

I didn’t realize that February was National Start a Business Month, but LegalZoom.com did. To celebrate they surveyed 1001 Americans at random to learn about their dreams of financial freedom. The results are interesting:

The Perfect Business

• When asked what their perfect business would be, the most popular response (20% of the survey) was to own a restaurant or bar.
• The self-employed professional consultant, such as an architect or accountant, is the next most desired business start-up option (getting 12% of the vote).

Great Idea!

• Nearly one in ten people surveyed still dream of marketing their own invention.

All in the Family

• As for ownership, nearly all, 88%, of the survey respondents plan on keeping their business in the family; as a sole-proprietorship,

husband and wife team, or with grown children.

I love made up holidays. There’s something uniquely American about celebrating holidays that were created purely to sell products.

via a press release.

Although ever man finds an occasion to wear an undershirt, most men will continue to have their wives purchase them white t-shirts in plastic bags at the discount store.

It takes a special kind of man to spend $36 on a white undershirt. For those men, Tommy John makes the crew neck and v-neck stay tucked white undershirts. Once you pull this shirt on, it will stay down against your waist by tightly gripping your lower body. It will never ride up, bunch up or come untucked.

Tommy John’s patent pending Tailored Stretch Technology combines a unique stretch fabric, longer length, and tailored cut design that conforms to your torso.

From fighting forest fires to laying carpet in day care centers, CNNMoney.com takes a look at what 5 small businesses that got stimulus-funded contracts are doing with taxpayers’ dollars.

This Oregon fire-prevention company won stimulus-funded contracts totaling more than $700,000 to “lop and scatter” the branches in two densely populated forests. Thinning a forest slows the burning when a forest fire starts, giving rescue teams more time to contain the fire before it spreads to residential areas.

The contracts PatRick Environmental won allowed the family-run business to hire two new full-time employees and bring 20 “call when needed” employees on for six months of paid work that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

Paul Solarz, the operations manager for the company, also appreciates the training benefits the additional work brought.

“We hired a few new people, but the people that we had might have been just a little experienced in the use of a chain saw — and now they are very experienced,” Solarz says.

Photo by PatRick Environmental.

How’s this for a niche business?

DaLuca Straps is a manufacturer of high end watch straps. They create one-of-a-kind custom straps for expensive watches like Panerai, Bell&Ross, Patek, IWC, and JLC. Each strap is uniquely handmade, so you’ll never run into someone else with the same strap. Dan also creates vintage watch straps that are truly stunning and made out of WWII leathers and custom straps that are made to the customer’s exact specifications.

I don’t know why, but I just assumed that all watch straps were made on an assembly line in China somewhere, but DaLuca has videos on their website of their young owner, Dan, demonstrating how he makes the straps from premium leather.

Here’s the first of six.

Trendspotter Springwise reports that there’ s a new kid on the flat-pack furniture block, offering a portable high chair solution.

Made from recycled cardboard, the Feedaway from Melbourne-based Belkiz is an easy-to-assemble, lightweight version of the traditional feeding chair. It’s designed to be used away from home, wherever baby or toddler feeding chairs aren’t available, and otherwise folded away.

Designed for infants aged up to 20 months or weighing up to 20 kilograms, the Feedaway comes with a three-point safety harness. Its non-toxic food-grade coating can be cleaned with a wet cloth. It weighs approximately one kilogram (2.2 lbs), and Belkiz claims it will last for around 30 assemblies. After that, it’s 100% recyclable.

Retailing for AUD 39.95, the Feedaway is a convenient piece of ‘take away’ toddler furniture and should fold nicely into the increasingly mobile lifestyles of parents with an eye for eco-iconic design. Belkiz is currently seeking stockists for the Feedaway in Australia, and distributors in the US and EU.

Photo by Belkiz.

Paul King was headed to the airport in Pittsburgh in 2006 when he suffered an ill-timed communications blackout. His cell phone died and he realized he still had his roommate’s house key in his pocket, according to a story at CNNMoney.com.

If he didn’t call her to arrange a return, she would be locked out all weekend. But without access to his electronic phonebook, he didn’t know her number.

On his return trek, King drove past a number of ATMs and convenience stores. That’s when the idea struck him: You get cash anywhere. Why can’t you charge your phone anywhere?

Two years later, King decided he’d try to invent an automated charging machine — ACM for short. Then he learned that someone had beaten him to the punch. A Chinese company called TCN had already developed a public machine for charging cell phones and sold thousands of them in China.

King didn’t give up. Instead, he approached the company and asked to be its exclusive distributor in the United States, Mexico and Canada. They ended up cutting a deal: King’s New York-based business, Hercules Networks, raised $1.5 million from investors, including Miami real estate developer Michael Gold and a group led by serial entrepreneur David Walke. TCN agreed to add a screen to its machine, which would display advertising messages while users — paying $2 to $5 apiece — waited for their phones to charge.

Photo by CNNMoney.com.

Gina Roberts-Grey over WalletPop says if you couldn’t resist buying a box or two of Thin Mints or Samoas from a Girl Scout recently, don’t feel bad.

These pint-sized dynamos have honed sales skills that rival those of some of the most savvy adult professionals. If fact, some Scouts sell thousands of boxes per year.

Want to know how they do it? Here’s a look inside the minds of some of the most successful cookie sellers in the country.

Network, network, network
Erica Kendrick was the first black girl in the Chicago area to wear the crown of top-seller. At age nine, Kendrick built her cookie empire on a basic principle: “I made a pyramid with my grandma at the top, and her marketing/distribution arm was something fierce,” she explains. Kendrick says using all your network contacts, whether they’re from church, the drill team, your school, the local beauty shop or your carpool is essential.

Perfect your sales pitch
“Practice the elevator speech in the mirror until you can recite it in your sleep,” says Kendrick. “I stood in front of mine and used my teddy bears as prospective customers.”

Forgo friends
Shannon Leary, 15, the top-seller last year in Quincy, Mass. with a grand total of 2,254 boxes sold, drops off the social radar during cookie season. “Cookies are my life from early January through mid-March,” Leary admits, “but it’s worth it.”

Plant the seed
“If someone seems unsure about buying cookies, engage them by asking what their favorite cookie is,” advises Leary. “Once they start thinking about the cookies, they often buy them.”

Be professional
Donna Ceravolo, the CEO of Girl Scouts of Nassau County, New York, suggests girls create business cards. “They can use resources from the CEO Tools web page at LittleBrownieBakers.com to create business cards with their first name,” she says. Ceravolo cautions that to be safe, girls shouldn’t include a personal address, phone number or their last name.

For five more cookie selling secrets, go here.

Photo by democratandchronicle.

Making the leap from The Brady Bunch to entrepreneurship, Florence Henderson has started the FloH Club, a membership-based telephone tech support service for seniors, AOL Small Business reports.

Henderson is definitely on to something big. The senior market is over 37 million strong in the U.S. alone and is still “a vastly under tapped market. It’s a huge opportunity and a perfectly wide open field,” says David Lindeman, director of the nonprofit Center for Technology and Aging. For tech entrepreneurs, having a senior moment can be a good thing.

Seniors are looking for technologies that are simple to use but not dumbed down. It has to work right out of the box and not require extensive setup procedures. That goes for everything from Web sites to digital cameras. Tech support is another major point. “People really benefit from concierge services. They gravitate to technologies that have support and have very accessible help on the technical side,” says Lindeman.

Max Drucker is putting a spin on technical support as a partner with the FloH Club. The idea for FloH Club started when Henderson was trying to learn her way around her cell phone and turned to Drucker, who helped her figure out how to use email on her phone. “She felt empowered. She said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if people like me had people like you who they could call all the time?’” says Drucker. The FloH Club took that idea and launched in October 2009.

Photo by FloH Club.

Google is preparing an online store in which it will sell third-party business software to Google Apps customers, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal says that Google’s store could arrive as early as March with the works of third-party developers available as enhancements to Google’s office productivity software suite.

It appears the store would allow Gmail and Google Docs users to purchase add-ons for niche features too specialized for the mainstream Google Apps product.

Offering incentives such as this type of store could also help attract more developers to the Google Apps platform, which could be a boost to Google’s hopes of taking a piece of Microsoft’s lucrative hold on the office productivity software market.

Large enterprise customers might be reluctant to switch to Google Apps unless they are able to find a solution to a specific need, such as an inventory management system set up to work with spreadsheets or e-mail.

Third-party developers could fill that hole without Google having to anticipate every such need.

Photo by Google.

If you’ve been thinking about starting your own business then you are not alone, reports the Evanston Review. More and more moms are clawing their way to the top of the entrepreneurial ladder than ever before.

Until she became a mother, BabbaCo’s founder, Jessica Kim, never imagined she would start a baby product line.

Dissatisfied with the infant car seat covers that were on the market, Kim set out to create a cozy, warm, and functional car set cover that would keep infants warm and safe.

As Kim’s daughter grew, so did BabbaCo’s product line as the busy mother soon discovered new needs in the marketplace that fulfilled her desire to have innovative products that are simple, charming, and functional.

Screenshot from BabbaCo

photo credit:

A new study out from Germany indicates that bacteria-killing jets of plasma could soon replace the dental drills currently used to remove the cavities in our teeth making visits to the dentist’s office less painful.

Plasma is the fourth state of matter, after solids, liquids and gases. It is formed when gases are energized to the point where electrons fly off some or all of their atoms.

Researchers recently demonstrated that a small, blowtorch-like device emitting a relatively cool beam of purple plasma can eliminate oral bacteria in cavities, leaving more tooth structure intact than a drill does.

Get ready for this. The first dentist to market himself as a mad scientist wins.