Archive for January 13th, 2007
kingsizebows.com = $1,000,000 A Year
How hard is it to make Giant Bows ? Some people are just business savvy .
Whether it be a luxury Lexus or clunker from the classifieds, the gift of a car just isn’t the same without a big bow on top of the hood. That was Lynda King’s thinking when she started King Size Bows five years ago, after she was unable to find a bow for a car she bought for her teenage daughter’s birthday.
“People always ask about it,” King said. “People always wonder about it, where they come from. It’s every wife’s fantasy to run outside and find a new car with a big bow on it.”
The idea stayed in the back of King’s mind for a while, and after consulting with some of her area car dealers, she began developing a bow that would ship and assemble easily. This year, she expects her Newport Beach, Calif.-business to sell about 15,000 to 20,000 bows, which sell for $48 each and come in a variety of designs.
Many of the bows go to car dealerships, especially Lexus dealers, which feature even larger bows in their holiday advertising.
The company also sells the bows to real estate agents, who put them on doors of homes before handing the keys over to new owners, and big screen TV stores. Individuals can also order the bows through the company’s Web site,
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Shieldzone.com $2,000,000 A Year
It all started for Phillip Chipping with a new watch. In early 2005, after receiving the watch for Christmas, Chipping began looking for something that would keep his brand-new gift looking brand-new for years to come. “I just didn’t want it to get scratched,” says Chipping, 30. Luckily, he stumbled upon a urethane film that had originally been developed to protect military helicopter blades. He got a sample and managed to cut out a crude shape to apply over his watch’s crystal face. “It worked incredibly well,” Chipping says.
His operation quickly moved out of his backyard and took over part of his father’s electrical contracting shop. Chipping recruited friends and neighbors to help keep up. The iPod Nano’s flaw took his sales to a new level, and the InvisibleShield went from being sold online to being sold in more than 100 retail locations nationwide, as well as in stores in Canada and Europe. With online sales alone projected at more than $2 million this year, Chipping is looking to open his own ShieldZone stores later this year.
Listen to Podcast here http://podcast.streetiq.com/streetiq?ChannelID=5176&GUID=620163&Page=MediaViewer
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Webcastmywedding.net
Webcastmywedding.net broadcasts weddings to a couple’s friends and family unable to come over from (or to) far flung places. Customers need a video camera, laptop, and high speed online access. The company then charges USD 395 for setting up a live stream of the event, support for up to 25 simultaneous viewers (who are sent a url and password), and an on-demand archive of the wedding for 10 days. More streams and an annual archive account can be had for an extra fee.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-07-17-wedding-webcasts_x.htm
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82ask.com = $4,000,000 A Year
The service allows users to text absolutely any question to 82275 (82ASK). Costing just £1, an impressive 85% of questions are answered within five minutes.
82ASK is the offspring of Oxbridge graduates Sarah McVittie and Thomas Roberts. Both were working as financial analysts for investment bank UBS Warlberg when they struck on the idea.
82ASK is now based in Cambridge, has six full-time employees and 150 trained ‘texperts’. With contracts from Guinness World Records and the Association of Football Statisticians on board, a book of the most interest questions, which sold 5,000 copies in its week, and a £2m turnover forecast for 2007, the future looks bright.
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Bookkeeping In A Box
Pat Dutched had been a bookkeeper more than 25 years when she got a bright idea. Everything important to a small business should be in one place, easily reachable, and organized alphabetically and by dates. She started with her own 25 clients, filling for each a banker’s box with receipts, invoices, payments, payroll, and insurance and lease documents. In recent months, Ms. Dutched has expanded her idea into a business, Bookkeeping In A Box, and has an Internet site and displays in two Sylvania bank branches. She said she has put nearly $60,000 of her own money into the start-up, but it’s starting to pay off. It’s getting rave reviews from some of her initial customers.
See Full Story
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20070112/BUSINESS08/701120357
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