Archive for July, 2006
This site brings in $2 Million a Year
When he lost his job during post-Sept. 11 downsizing, Young began working free of charge at QuickGifts. He arrived just in time for the kiosk gift certificate business to close its doors at the end of 2001 because of financial challenges.
He began working on a way to eliminate the middle man along with the process of physically going to a store to buy a gift card.
“Our cards are just like the store’s regular gift cards,” he says. “We’re just an additional sales channel.”
It’s a channel that he’s developed into a multimillion dollar business with four employees.
Add comment July 29, 2006
A $500 start in pursuit of some sweet dough
We would be so ready to write off Brad Messinger right now, except that by some weird logic the 26 year old is actually making money. He just signed the lease on his third store in three years and has his eye on moving into franchising.
He spent about $100,000 to get things running, drawing on small bank loans, his personal savings and $40,000 in credit-card debt. “I would just keep getting six-month interest-free cards, one after another,” he said.
Add comment July 29, 2006
$900 to start $50,000 a month in 1 year
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060701/bootstrapping-l3.html
year later, Shortt has 25 regular accounts, averaging $2,150 a month. She now has five full-time employees, who, like Shortt herself, work from home. “My business is virtual,” says Shortt, “and I hope to God it will always be that way.” But don’t you dare call Shortt a “lifestyle entrepreneur.” Though her original goal was to spend more time with her kids, she is also highly ambitious. In 10 years, she hopes to have a $25 million firm “with New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles on the letterhead,” she says. At that point, she figures she’ll buy the house next door and, zoning regulations permitting, run the company from there
Add comment July 20, 2006
30 Entrepreneurs Under 30
http://www.inc.com/slideshow_INC/slideviewer.cgi?list=30under30&refresh=10
America’s coolest young entrepreneurs are making their mark in a wide range of industries — and making millions in the process.
Youth, we’ve been told so many times, is wasted on the young. Not this group. A generation ago, when many of our entrepreneurial whiz kids were still in diapers, starting your own business was considered akin to career loafing, occupational flailing. The kind of thing your parents would frown upon, and encourage you to find work in, say, plastics.
Add comment July 19, 2006
30 Entrepreneurs Under 30
America’s coolest young entrepreneurs are making their mark in a wide range of industries — and making millions in the process.
Youth, we’ve been told so many times, is wasted on the young. Not this group. A generation ago, when many of our entrepreneurial whiz kids were still in diapers, starting your own business was considered akin to career loafing, occupational flailing. The kind of thing your parents would frown upon, and encourage you to find work in, say, plastics.
Add comment July 19, 2006
Dersert Only Restaurants
The newest addition to the niche restaurant scene is the dessert bar. Room 4 Dessert (New York), Espai Sucre (Barcelona) and our most recent spotting, ChikaLicious, limit their menus to creative concoctions that satisfy even the most ardent sweet tooth.
A tiny 20-seat eatery in New York, founded by husband and wife team Don and Chika Tillman, ChikaLicious offers a 3-course menu for USD 12, consisting of a sweet amuse, the customer’s choice of main course dessert, and petit fours to top it off. The menu features dishes such as Honey Parfait in Blackberry Soup with Tarragon and Lace Crisp, and the signature Fromage Blanc Island Cheese Cake (described as ‘heaven on a plate’ by a customer on the restaurant’s TurnHere video).
The owners explain: “The idea behind an all dessert restaurant was something that we’d been thinking of for quite a while. Here in New York City, if you want a really fine dessert that’s taken seriously, you have to go to one of those fine restaurants. We wanted to create a place that would allow you to go have noodles across the street and then come here for a very nominal price to have a wonderfully treated dessert.”
Add comment July 18, 2006
A nasty fall inspired Yogitoes’s Susan Nichols to invent a fast-drying nonslip towel
The towels, priced from $20 to $70, initially scored placement at 20 yoga stores and sold out within a few weeks. “I was surprised when I got a request from a studio in Nova Scotia,” says Nichols, who relies solely on word of mouth.
Annual revenue went from $123,000 in 2004 to nearly $1 million last year, Nichols says. With sales set to hit $3 million in 2006, she no longer has to worry about falling on her face.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/07/01/8380219/index.htm
Add comment July 18, 2006
$45 Million Selling Blinds
- Little technological savvy but now his Web site is generating $45 million in sales.
Entrepreneur says he is sold on the merits of online retail
Add comment July 9, 2006
Dersert Only Restaurants
The newest addition to the niche restaurant scene is the dessert bar. Room 4 Dessert (New York), Espai Sucre (Barcelona) and our most recent spotting, ChikaLicious, limit their menus to creative concoctions that satisfy even the most ardent sweet tooth.
A tiny 20-seat eatery in New York, founded by husband and wife team Don and Chika Tillman, ChikaLicious offers a 3-course menu for USD 12, consisting of a sweet amuse, the customer’s choice of main course dessert, and petit fours to top it off. The menu features dishes such as Honey Parfait in Blackberry Soup with Tarragon and Lace Crisp, and the signature Fromage Blanc Island Cheese Cake (described as ‘heaven on a plate’ by a customer on the restaurant’s TurnHere video).
The owners explain: “The idea behind an all dessert restaurant was something that we’d been thinking of for quite a while. Here in New York City, if you want a really fine dessert that’s taken seriously, you have to go to one of those fine restaurants. We wanted to create a place that would allow you to go have noodles across the street and then come here for a very nominal price to have a wonderfully treated dessert.”
Add comment July 8, 2006
Dinner in The Sky — Hmm . Yes its a business
You can nowhave your dinner whille floating in the air
Add comment July 8, 2006
www.thriftbooks.com sells books for 1 cent
Hector Rivas has found out that a penny can go a long way. His company, Thrift Books LLC, sells more than 1,500 used books a day online. And 30 percent to 40 percent of those books cost only 1 cent.
Add comment July 6, 2006
