http://www.requiemforyou.com/
Grand funerals and eloquent eulogies are all very well when it comes to marking the demise of the wealthy and well-respected, but as the royalty and nobility of days gone by can attest, there's nothing quite like a requiem to cement one's name in the annals of time. Fortunately for today's moneyed elite, there's Requiem for You, an Austrian firm that can compose a personal requiem on demand.
Just launched last year, Requiem for You offers services on three levels, the most basic of which is the composition of an individually tailored requiem. The firm represents a network of composers, librettists and musicians who will write an individual requiem in advance, capturing the client's unique personality and accommodating preferences for balance among vocal, instrumental and textual components. Styles available include baroque, classical, romantic, jazz or Broadway musical, with text in German, Latin or English. A personal laudatio is also available.
In addition to composing the piece, Requiem for You can also produce an audio recording of it using a team of freelance artists, orchestras and recording studios, once again honouring the client's personal tastes in the CD's cover art. Finally, upon request the company can arrange a performance of the requiem, using anything from an audio presentation of the recorded version to a live performance with orchestra and choir. Prices reportedly range from EUR 20,000 for the requiem's composition to EUR 400,000 for the all-out live performance.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Custom Made Energy Bars
http://www.youbars.com/
Customers of You Bar can choose every ingredient that goes into their nutrition bars: the base, protein powders, nuts and seeds, fruits and berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains and infusions. One consumer might select cashew butter with shredded coconut, organic molasses and nutty rice cereal, for example; another might choose dates, soy protein, walnuts, ground cinnamon and dried banana. Special requests such as for organic ingredients or "extra crunchy" can also be accommodated. Consumers can choose a name for their specially designed bars, and You Bar will print it on each wrapper. For those feeling overwhelmed by the list of choices, on the other hand, You Bar offers three popular bar styles—"Honey Cashew," "Great Date with Chocolate" and "Breakfast Bar"—that are still customizable, but based on set ingredients. All bars are freshly made to order in You Bar's kitchens; pricing is USD 40 plus shipping for 12 fully customized bars, or USD 30 plus shipping for 12 of one of You Bar's popular styles.
Los Angeles-based You Bar was founded about two years ago by a mother-and-son team frustrated with the limited choices on the retail shelves. They're certainly in good company, as consumers have begun to expect having it their way, all the time. Because the bars fall into the realm of snack foods, they also lend themselves particularly naturally to use as gifts—promotional or otherwise. It's hard to imagine a health club, for example, that couldn't delight its members with specially concocted and self-named nutrition bars.
Customers of You Bar can choose every ingredient that goes into their nutrition bars: the base, protein powders, nuts and seeds, fruits and berries, sweeteners, seasonings, grains and infusions. One consumer might select cashew butter with shredded coconut, organic molasses and nutty rice cereal, for example; another might choose dates, soy protein, walnuts, ground cinnamon and dried banana. Special requests such as for organic ingredients or "extra crunchy" can also be accommodated. Consumers can choose a name for their specially designed bars, and You Bar will print it on each wrapper. For those feeling overwhelmed by the list of choices, on the other hand, You Bar offers three popular bar styles—"Honey Cashew," "Great Date with Chocolate" and "Breakfast Bar"—that are still customizable, but based on set ingredients. All bars are freshly made to order in You Bar's kitchens; pricing is USD 40 plus shipping for 12 fully customized bars, or USD 30 plus shipping for 12 of one of You Bar's popular styles.
Los Angeles-based You Bar was founded about two years ago by a mother-and-son team frustrated with the limited choices on the retail shelves. They're certainly in good company, as consumers have begun to expect having it their way, all the time. Because the bars fall into the realm of snack foods, they also lend themselves particularly naturally to use as gifts—promotional or otherwise. It's hard to imagine a health club, for example, that couldn't delight its members with specially concocted and self-named nutrition bars.
Friday, June 5, 2009
How An Ex-Prisoner Makes $2 Million A Year, Selling Frozen Water.
Carl Rupp Story
http://www.snowie.com/
In the late 1970s, Rupp, a Salt Lake City teenager at the time, launched a wildly successful snow cone business, only to lose it all 15 years later to drug addiction. After a bitter divorce, a year in prison, and buried in debt, Rupp cleaned up and began rebuilding his life. Last year, Snowie, a second snow cone business he and his brother started from scratch, grossed over $2 million.
"There are a lot of things that will knock the wind out of your sails," Rupp says. "But you just have to keep plugging away."
Like many great ideas, Sno Shack, Rupp's initial venture, started with a simple question. On a hot summer day back in 1979 in St. Louis, Mo., Rupp, a young Mormon missionary who was the fourth oldest of seven brothers and a younger sister, came across a crowd lined up at an outdoor snow cone stand. "Why would anyone line up for a snow cone?" he asked dismissively. After hours of pounding the hot pavement all day, he tried one and soon had his answer. Rupp immediately went back to Salt Lake City and built his first shack out of old cedar boards.
For the first few years, Rupp not only built the shacks and ice shaver machines himself, he often manned them, too. But business, as they say, was snowballing. By the time he'd setup 13 outlets around town and hired a crew of local teens as attendants, things were getting unmanageable, he says. Luckily, by then, others were approaching him with offers to buy a single shack and shaver to run it themselves.
"It went from me thinking I was going to own and operated a ton of shacks, to me setting folks up to run their own business," Rupp recalls.
At its peak, Rupp had rolled out some 150 shacks, all with his custom-built shavers and stacks of containers with several dozen home-made flavors--from blue raspberry and cotton candy to a sweet red concoction called Tiger's Blood, all developed in his own experimental kitchen. At about the same time, Rupp--a born tinkerer--developed carpal tunnel syndrome building a new house for his wife and kids. Eventually, he got hooked on the pain killers prescribed by his doctor. When those ran out, he turned to heroin. "I started playing with it and played with it too much," he now says.
After failing to complete a court-appointed stint in rehab, Rupp was sentenced to a year in prison. There, he says, he had plenty of time to reflect on everything he'd lost: "I woke up one morning and thought 'hey, I remember Carl, I liked him and want him back.'"
In 1996, with his time served, Rupp tried working for his now ex-wife back at Sno Shack. When that didn't work out, he started rebuilding his own business with help from his little brother Gordon--this time calling it Snowie.
Concentrating on special events, like the local weekly farmers' market and nearby college football games, Rupp and his brother have sold almost 500 shacks--many outfitted with air-conditioning, hot and cold running water, and a retractable roof to load supplies.
Rupp also includes "Tips and Tricks," a 40-page booklet that walks operators through everything from scouting out locations to getting a business license. "These are the baby steps," says Rupp. "We do as much as we can to help make it work."
Today, Rupp's entrepreneurial advice, which might otherwise sound trite coming from anyone else, resonates with a kind of hard-earned wisdom: "You gotta hang in there and be persistent," he says. "Don't get knocked down by a mistake."
http://www.snowie.com/
In the late 1970s, Rupp, a Salt Lake City teenager at the time, launched a wildly successful snow cone business, only to lose it all 15 years later to drug addiction. After a bitter divorce, a year in prison, and buried in debt, Rupp cleaned up and began rebuilding his life. Last year, Snowie, a second snow cone business he and his brother started from scratch, grossed over $2 million.
"There are a lot of things that will knock the wind out of your sails," Rupp says. "But you just have to keep plugging away."
Like many great ideas, Sno Shack, Rupp's initial venture, started with a simple question. On a hot summer day back in 1979 in St. Louis, Mo., Rupp, a young Mormon missionary who was the fourth oldest of seven brothers and a younger sister, came across a crowd lined up at an outdoor snow cone stand. "Why would anyone line up for a snow cone?" he asked dismissively. After hours of pounding the hot pavement all day, he tried one and soon had his answer. Rupp immediately went back to Salt Lake City and built his first shack out of old cedar boards.
For the first few years, Rupp not only built the shacks and ice shaver machines himself, he often manned them, too. But business, as they say, was snowballing. By the time he'd setup 13 outlets around town and hired a crew of local teens as attendants, things were getting unmanageable, he says. Luckily, by then, others were approaching him with offers to buy a single shack and shaver to run it themselves.
"It went from me thinking I was going to own and operated a ton of shacks, to me setting folks up to run their own business," Rupp recalls.
At its peak, Rupp had rolled out some 150 shacks, all with his custom-built shavers and stacks of containers with several dozen home-made flavors--from blue raspberry and cotton candy to a sweet red concoction called Tiger's Blood, all developed in his own experimental kitchen. At about the same time, Rupp--a born tinkerer--developed carpal tunnel syndrome building a new house for his wife and kids. Eventually, he got hooked on the pain killers prescribed by his doctor. When those ran out, he turned to heroin. "I started playing with it and played with it too much," he now says.
After failing to complete a court-appointed stint in rehab, Rupp was sentenced to a year in prison. There, he says, he had plenty of time to reflect on everything he'd lost: "I woke up one morning and thought 'hey, I remember Carl, I liked him and want him back.'"
In 1996, with his time served, Rupp tried working for his now ex-wife back at Sno Shack. When that didn't work out, he started rebuilding his own business with help from his little brother Gordon--this time calling it Snowie.
Concentrating on special events, like the local weekly farmers' market and nearby college football games, Rupp and his brother have sold almost 500 shacks--many outfitted with air-conditioning, hot and cold running water, and a retractable roof to load supplies.
Rupp also includes "Tips and Tricks," a 40-page booklet that walks operators through everything from scouting out locations to getting a business license. "These are the baby steps," says Rupp. "We do as much as we can to help make it work."
Today, Rupp's entrepreneurial advice, which might otherwise sound trite coming from anyone else, resonates with a kind of hard-earned wisdom: "You gotta hang in there and be persistent," he says. "Don't get knocked down by a mistake."
Thursday, June 4, 2009
How To Make One Million Dollars A Year Selling Ecosystems In A Bottle.
Dan And Michelle Harmony Story
http://eco-sphere.com/
Ecosphere Associates sells what appear to be plastic eggs full of bilge water. But look closer. Inside each Ecosphere you'll find a self-contained ecosystem - replete with shrimp, algae, and bacteria -that requires only sunlight to thrive.
The average Ecosphere lives for three to five years, says Dan Harmony, 53, who runs the Tucson company with his wife, Michelle, 51.
The Harmonys created Ecosphere Associates in 1986, after Dan - a former technical designer - learned that NASA was developing ecosystems that could survive in space and bought the right to commercialize the technology.
Last year they sold $1 million worth of Ecospheres - which retail at $58 to $450 - on their website, eco-sphere.com, and through retailing partners such as Brookstone. The Harmonys sell Ecospheres in Europe and are looking to grow the business in Asia.
http://eco-sphere.com/
Ecosphere Associates sells what appear to be plastic eggs full of bilge water. But look closer. Inside each Ecosphere you'll find a self-contained ecosystem - replete with shrimp, algae, and bacteria -that requires only sunlight to thrive.
The average Ecosphere lives for three to five years, says Dan Harmony, 53, who runs the Tucson company with his wife, Michelle, 51.
The Harmonys created Ecosphere Associates in 1986, after Dan - a former technical designer - learned that NASA was developing ecosystems that could survive in space and bought the right to commercialize the technology.
Last year they sold $1 million worth of Ecospheres - which retail at $58 to $450 - on their website, eco-sphere.com, and through retailing partners such as Brookstone. The Harmonys sell Ecospheres in Europe and are looking to grow the business in Asia.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
How To Make $130,000 A Year As A 'Screenplay Coach'
Lloyd “Skip” Press Story
http://www.skippress.com/
As a screenwriter, Lloyd Press has known only modest success. He has written scripts for children's TV shows and instructional videos since the late 1980s. His biggest claim to fame is a matter-of-fact 1987 video called A Woman's Guide to Firearms.
Nonetheless, he has had better luck in his second act as a guide to the masses who yearn for stardom. Some 4,000 students have taken his $129 online screenwriting course, offered through 1,040 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe. Bookstores have sold 40,000 copies of his Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting. Aspiring writers pay him to edit their scripts and offer tips for selling them. A basic read-through costs $250, but an extensive rewrite goes for about $5,000. If a project seems promising - like the recent television pilot by a former Senate staffer about life on Capitol Hill - Press will cut a deal: a lower fee for a piece of the action.
But even if his clients never get their films produced, they can still make a living - or at least supplement one - when their scripts get optioned, sometimes over and over, every 18 months, for as much as $2,000. Clay Heery, a former comedy-club owner in Philadelphia, at Press's urging retooled a script he had been working on for years. Since then, Heery says, several producers have optioned it.
For Press, 55, coaching is a lucrative niche. In 2005, he says, he pulled in about $130,000, triple what he was making in the 1990s when he wrote children's books and magazine articles for Boy's Life and Disney Adventures. Then, in 2001, his Complete Idiot's Guide was published in the U.S., then in Russia. The book listed his personal e-mail address: skippress@charter.net. Weeks after the book hit store shelves, pleading messages started pouring in and his career as a coach took off.
http://www.skippress.com/
As a screenwriter, Lloyd Press has known only modest success. He has written scripts for children's TV shows and instructional videos since the late 1980s. His biggest claim to fame is a matter-of-fact 1987 video called A Woman's Guide to Firearms.
Nonetheless, he has had better luck in his second act as a guide to the masses who yearn for stardom. Some 4,000 students have taken his $129 online screenwriting course, offered through 1,040 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Europe. Bookstores have sold 40,000 copies of his Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting. Aspiring writers pay him to edit their scripts and offer tips for selling them. A basic read-through costs $250, but an extensive rewrite goes for about $5,000. If a project seems promising - like the recent television pilot by a former Senate staffer about life on Capitol Hill - Press will cut a deal: a lower fee for a piece of the action.
But even if his clients never get their films produced, they can still make a living - or at least supplement one - when their scripts get optioned, sometimes over and over, every 18 months, for as much as $2,000. Clay Heery, a former comedy-club owner in Philadelphia, at Press's urging retooled a script he had been working on for years. Since then, Heery says, several producers have optioned it.
For Press, 55, coaching is a lucrative niche. In 2005, he says, he pulled in about $130,000, triple what he was making in the 1990s when he wrote children's books and magazine articles for Boy's Life and Disney Adventures. Then, in 2001, his Complete Idiot's Guide was published in the U.S., then in Russia. The book listed his personal e-mail address: skippress@charter.net. Weeks after the book hit store shelves, pleading messages started pouring in and his career as a coach took off.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
How To Make $300,000 A Year With Card Stunts.
Joe Kivett Story
http://www.cardstunts.com/
Have you ever wondered who's the brains behind those nifty card stunts at big stadiums-where each member of the audience holds up a card to create massive pictures and messages for the world to see? Joe Kivett, 40, organizes these fan-friendly events with his company, CardStunts.com. Kivett learned the card-stunt business as an employee of another company and branched out on his own in 1991 when word about his successful Super Bowl card stunts started to spread.
Armed with less than $1,000 in startup cash, he landed his first client by virtue of his reputation. Kivett says most of his startup money was for travel expenses to examine the site in Minneapolis where he was doing the card stunt.
His serious startup-cash coup was drafting an agreement with the organizers of Super Bowl XXVI to pay him half his fee upfront and half on the day of the event-this way, he was able to organize the event with no out-of-pocket costs. "I paid all my bills and had my little profit left over," he says. "I took that profit and used it to market my company."
Word-of-mouth is still a key element of his marketing efforts, and the years have seen him grow CardStunts.com from planning one to two big card stunts per year to about 10 yearly today. In addition to doing card stunts for two Super Bowl half-time shows, he's coordinated events for the World Series and the Daytona 500. With about $350,000 in annual sales, Kivett is definitely playing his cards right.
http://www.cardstunts.com/
Have you ever wondered who's the brains behind those nifty card stunts at big stadiums-where each member of the audience holds up a card to create massive pictures and messages for the world to see? Joe Kivett, 40, organizes these fan-friendly events with his company, CardStunts.com. Kivett learned the card-stunt business as an employee of another company and branched out on his own in 1991 when word about his successful Super Bowl card stunts started to spread.
Armed with less than $1,000 in startup cash, he landed his first client by virtue of his reputation. Kivett says most of his startup money was for travel expenses to examine the site in Minneapolis where he was doing the card stunt.
His serious startup-cash coup was drafting an agreement with the organizers of Super Bowl XXVI to pay him half his fee upfront and half on the day of the event-this way, he was able to organize the event with no out-of-pocket costs. "I paid all my bills and had my little profit left over," he says. "I took that profit and used it to market my company."
Word-of-mouth is still a key element of his marketing efforts, and the years have seen him grow CardStunts.com from planning one to two big card stunts per year to about 10 yearly today. In addition to doing card stunts for two Super Bowl half-time shows, he's coordinated events for the World Series and the Daytona 500. With about $350,000 in annual sales, Kivett is definitely playing his cards right.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Making A Profit From Sleepy Co-Workers
Arshad Chowdhury Story
http://www.metronaps.com/
While working grueling hours as an investment banker in New York City three years ago, Arshad Chowdhury noticed his colleagues' heavy eyelids and bobbing heads during meetings.
"Everyone was tired all the time," he says. "Some people were even sneaking off to the bathrooms to take a nap."
Knowing there must be a better way to combat workplace drowsiness than sleeping in a toilet stall, Chowdhury created MetroNaps.
Located inside the Empire State Building, MetroNaps (http://www.metronaps.com) offers rows of futuristic-looking sleeping pods, specifically designed for 20-minute "powernaps." From a $14 one-day pass up to a $65 one-month unlimited pass, sleep-deprived New Yorkers can refresh during their workdays in an individual pod, which features ergonomic design and an upper hood for privacy. Nappers are gently awakened by a combination of light and vibration. Patrons can also opt to order lunch to be ready when they wake.
"When all of your employees are tired, your workforce is losing productivity," Chowdhury says. "But most people don't have the real estate or the culture to have a separate area for resting. So employers can send their employees here."
Neuroscientists agree. In a recent study at Harvard, researchers found that adults who take short midday naps experience heightened mental performance, better alertness and improved mood.
Chowdhury hopes to expand the business by selling the pods to offices that don't have a lot of extra room, but want to offer a way to boost productivity.
But until MetroNaps pods become a widespread phenomenon, heavy eyelids will continue to flutter in cubicles across America.
http://www.metronaps.com/
While working grueling hours as an investment banker in New York City three years ago, Arshad Chowdhury noticed his colleagues' heavy eyelids and bobbing heads during meetings.
"Everyone was tired all the time," he says. "Some people were even sneaking off to the bathrooms to take a nap."
Knowing there must be a better way to combat workplace drowsiness than sleeping in a toilet stall, Chowdhury created MetroNaps.
Located inside the Empire State Building, MetroNaps (http://www.metronaps.com) offers rows of futuristic-looking sleeping pods, specifically designed for 20-minute "powernaps." From a $14 one-day pass up to a $65 one-month unlimited pass, sleep-deprived New Yorkers can refresh during their workdays in an individual pod, which features ergonomic design and an upper hood for privacy. Nappers are gently awakened by a combination of light and vibration. Patrons can also opt to order lunch to be ready when they wake.
"When all of your employees are tired, your workforce is losing productivity," Chowdhury says. "But most people don't have the real estate or the culture to have a separate area for resting. So employers can send their employees here."
Neuroscientists agree. In a recent study at Harvard, researchers found that adults who take short midday naps experience heightened mental performance, better alertness and improved mood.
Chowdhury hopes to expand the business by selling the pods to offices that don't have a lot of extra room, but want to offer a way to boost productivity.
But until MetroNaps pods become a widespread phenomenon, heavy eyelids will continue to flutter in cubicles across America.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The Wooden Doll Millionaire
Alexander Krilov Story
http://www.newcrafters.com/
Alexander Krilov was a medical doctor by trade, but when he emigrated from Ukraine 15 years ago, his thoughts turned to entrepreneurship. After running a variety of businesses, ranging from athletic shoes to international distribution for online florists, Krilov landed on the idea for sports-themed Russian nesting dolls while working as a business manager for Los Angeles Lakers star Stanislav "Slava" Medvedenko.
Krilov, 40, and his wife, Julia Butler, 45, noticed sports fans would buy anything featuring their favorite player's likeness, so the pair decided to create a traditional-looking Russian nesting doll with the modern twist of a superstar's face. Obtaining licenses from the NBA took perseverance, but in the end, Krilov and Butler were able to make dolls with the renderings of Kobe Bryant, Rick Fox and Shaquille O'Neal.
Manufacturing the dolls in high-quality plastic with almost portrait-quality artwork, Krilov and Butler have since secured licenses from the NHL and Major League Baseball, in addition to Elvis Presley and I Love Lucy properties. With these unique collectible alternatives to bobblehead dolls now being sold nationwide in arena stores, specialty stores and online, sales passed $1 million in 2004.
http://www.newcrafters.com/
Alexander Krilov was a medical doctor by trade, but when he emigrated from Ukraine 15 years ago, his thoughts turned to entrepreneurship. After running a variety of businesses, ranging from athletic shoes to international distribution for online florists, Krilov landed on the idea for sports-themed Russian nesting dolls while working as a business manager for Los Angeles Lakers star Stanislav "Slava" Medvedenko.
Krilov, 40, and his wife, Julia Butler, 45, noticed sports fans would buy anything featuring their favorite player's likeness, so the pair decided to create a traditional-looking Russian nesting doll with the modern twist of a superstar's face. Obtaining licenses from the NBA took perseverance, but in the end, Krilov and Butler were able to make dolls with the renderings of Kobe Bryant, Rick Fox and Shaquille O'Neal.
Manufacturing the dolls in high-quality plastic with almost portrait-quality artwork, Krilov and Butler have since secured licenses from the NHL and Major League Baseball, in addition to Elvis Presley and I Love Lucy properties. With these unique collectible alternatives to bobblehead dolls now being sold nationwide in arena stores, specialty stores and online, sales passed $1 million in 2004.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
How To Make Millions From Happy Campers
Ari Ackerman Story
http://www.bunk1.com/
Happy memories from his childhood days at summer camp inspired Ari Ackerman to come up with the idea for Bunk1.com. He originally wrote the business plan for the company for his MBA training, but it seemed like too good an idea to pass up.
His initial concept was to provide a Web service that parents could use to watch their children's camp activities online, with camp administrators posting photos for the parents to peruse. Ackerman then added an e-mail service (called BunkNotes) and an online newsletter service, as well as a search engine to help parents find a camp for their kids.
At first, says Ackerman, 33, the camp directors were difficult to persuade. "To sell them on this concept wasn't easy," he says. But with his camp background, he knew the market well. He knew parents would be willing to pay for this convenient connection to their kids—and he was right. The first camps he sold his service to got good response from parents immediately—and the number of concerned phone calls from parents (the "What's my child doing?" sort) to the camps decreased, as moms and dads had tangible evidence that their babies were alive and well.
Word-of-mouth started to build demand for the concept, and, to date, the Bunk1.com service is offered to close to 2,000 camps nationwide. Camp directors either purchase the service and include it in the price of the camp or simply offer parents the option to purchase Ackerman's Bunk1.com service a la carte.
Revenues are projected to reach more than $3 million, and Ackerman has already expanded into other Web services, like CampAlumni.com (a service to reconnect old summer camp friends).
http://www.bunk1.com/
Happy memories from his childhood days at summer camp inspired Ari Ackerman to come up with the idea for Bunk1.com. He originally wrote the business plan for the company for his MBA training, but it seemed like too good an idea to pass up.
His initial concept was to provide a Web service that parents could use to watch their children's camp activities online, with camp administrators posting photos for the parents to peruse. Ackerman then added an e-mail service (called BunkNotes) and an online newsletter service, as well as a search engine to help parents find a camp for their kids.
At first, says Ackerman, 33, the camp directors were difficult to persuade. "To sell them on this concept wasn't easy," he says. But with his camp background, he knew the market well. He knew parents would be willing to pay for this convenient connection to their kids—and he was right. The first camps he sold his service to got good response from parents immediately—and the number of concerned phone calls from parents (the "What's my child doing?" sort) to the camps decreased, as moms and dads had tangible evidence that their babies were alive and well.
Word-of-mouth started to build demand for the concept, and, to date, the Bunk1.com service is offered to close to 2,000 camps nationwide. Camp directors either purchase the service and include it in the price of the camp or simply offer parents the option to purchase Ackerman's Bunk1.com service a la carte.
Revenues are projected to reach more than $3 million, and Ackerman has already expanded into other Web services, like CampAlumni.com (a service to reconnect old summer camp friends).
Friday, May 29, 2009
The Incredible After-Prom Business That Generates $1 Million A Year
Yoel Silber Story
http://www.promtix.com/
Ah, remember the prom—the limos, the dresses, the late nights spent wandering around town looking for after-prom fun? Well, Yoel Silber has found a way to cash in on that market with Promtix (www.promtix.com), his one-stop shop for after-prom adventures. He sells tickets to cruises, comedy and dance clubs, and the like—and has made many a prom-goer happy with set plans for after prom. Says Silber, "In New York, especially, kids went to Manhattan for their after-prom partying, but they couldn't get into the nightclubs because they didn't have ID."
Silber combats this common problem by booking clubs and cruises specifically for the underage high school crowd. "Now they have a place to party, and the parents know where they're going," Silber explains. Parents can sleep even better knowing that all Promtix events are nonalcoholic.
With a background in party promotion, Silber knew there was an underserved market of high school students who spend big bucks on prom night. He markets his events via fliers at local malls—where he's likely to find lots of prom-goers—but he's also found that word-of-mouth really helped to grow sales to $1 million a year.
He notes that teenagers were fast to buy into the Promtix concept—and luckily, Silber's received nothing but positive responses from club owners. He's currently in New York City and Philadelphia, and would like to make Promtix a presence in 10 major U.S. markets, including Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles.
http://www.promtix.com/
Ah, remember the prom—the limos, the dresses, the late nights spent wandering around town looking for after-prom fun? Well, Yoel Silber has found a way to cash in on that market with Promtix (www.promtix.com), his one-stop shop for after-prom adventures. He sells tickets to cruises, comedy and dance clubs, and the like—and has made many a prom-goer happy with set plans for after prom. Says Silber, "In New York, especially, kids went to Manhattan for their after-prom partying, but they couldn't get into the nightclubs because they didn't have ID."
Silber combats this common problem by booking clubs and cruises specifically for the underage high school crowd. "Now they have a place to party, and the parents know where they're going," Silber explains. Parents can sleep even better knowing that all Promtix events are nonalcoholic.
With a background in party promotion, Silber knew there was an underserved market of high school students who spend big bucks on prom night. He markets his events via fliers at local malls—where he's likely to find lots of prom-goers—but he's also found that word-of-mouth really helped to grow sales to $1 million a year.
He notes that teenagers were fast to buy into the Promtix concept—and luckily, Silber's received nothing but positive responses from club owners. He's currently in New York City and Philadelphia, and would like to make Promtix a presence in 10 major U.S. markets, including Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Helping Former Military Personnel Find Civilian Jobs Can Be A Six Figure Business
Karin Markley Story
http://www.militaryexits.com/
Finding a job is one of the biggest challenges for people coming out of the military. Karin Markley, founder of Military Exits, knows this well—she has 15 years of experience working in a civilian employment agency. She knows companies value employees with military backgrounds, and she wanted to provide a one-stop link between the two.
Setting up MilitaryExits.com out of her home, Markley, 40, contacted the Department of Defense for permission to use its seal on her Web site. It took months to get it, but MilitaryExits.com is now linked to all the military bases.
It costs nothing for servicemen and women to post their resumes and search for jobs; employers pay for the listings, which reach service personnel in the United States and overseas. The site also includes information on relocation and education, as well as military support chat groups.
Markley, who projects annual sales of $600,000, points to her biggest reward: "Helping the military. Getting the letters and phone calls from these people thanking me so much for what I'm doing for them."
http://www.militaryexits.com/
Finding a job is one of the biggest challenges for people coming out of the military. Karin Markley, founder of Military Exits, knows this well—she has 15 years of experience working in a civilian employment agency. She knows companies value employees with military backgrounds, and she wanted to provide a one-stop link between the two.
Setting up MilitaryExits.com out of her home, Markley, 40, contacted the Department of Defense for permission to use its seal on her Web site. It took months to get it, but MilitaryExits.com is now linked to all the military bases.
It costs nothing for servicemen and women to post their resumes and search for jobs; employers pay for the listings, which reach service personnel in the United States and overseas. The site also includes information on relocation and education, as well as military support chat groups.
Markley, who projects annual sales of $600,000, points to her biggest reward: "Helping the military. Getting the letters and phone calls from these people thanking me so much for what I'm doing for them."
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
$300 Hot Sauce
Nick Lindauer Story
http://www.hotsauceblog.com/
Hot sauce enthusiast turned entrepreneur Nick Lindauer is on fire. In 2001, while still in college, he launched the online store Sweat 'N Spice out of his Springfield (Ore.) apartment. He sold a few dozen types of hot sauces, packaged each order by hand, and shipped everything from his local post office, barely eking out a profit during his first year of operation.
Today, Lindauer sells over a thousand products from some 300 manufacturers. His inventory goes beyond sauces to include seasonings, relishes, and snacks with clever names, oddly-shaped collectible bottles, celebrity-endorsed offerings, along with concoctions that are so blisteringly hot customers must sign a liability waiver upon purchase.
Prices run from $4 for El Yucateco brand sauces to $300 for hand-signed, limited-edition bottles of Blair's 16 Million Reserve, the hottest chili powder extract known to man. Lindauer and his two full-time employees operate out of a Midtown office in New York City. In 2005, the business grossed around $130,000. He forecasts $200,000 in 2006.
Lindauer says he owes much of his success to his blog (http://www.hotsauceblog.com/) where he dubs himself "Sultan of Sauces," and offers the hot sauce community news, reviews, recipes, contests, and interviews with prominent vendors.
He explains that the blog is a separate entity from his online shop—it has its own domain name and advertising—but it helps build his credibility and drives traffic to his store through a few strategically placed links on its navigation bar. Lindauer also establishes relationships with many of his vendors in person at industry events and helps in the creation of smaller manufacturers' sauces before they go to market.
Making a living from hot sauce wasn't his original goal, says Lindauer, a longtime champion of spicy foods and an avid collector of exotic hot sauces. The whole enterprise was more a labor of love. "I got really into collecting and decided if I'm doing this, there's got to be other people out there doing it," he says. He figured they'd want a place to trade opinions, and perhaps order a hard-to-find bottle.
Lindauer was right. At industry gatherings like the annual National Fiery Foods and Barbeque Show, in Albuquerque, N.M., he discovered a subculture of superhuman eaters who call themselves "chileheads;" a class of connoisseurs with a passion for rare and intense hot sauces.
Lindauer felt right at home. He had also stumbled onto an industry that is worth close to $2 billion, according to the estimate of leading spicy foods authority Dave DeWitt, editor of Fiery-Foods & BBQ magazine.
Lindauer is now making plans to open a brick-and-mortar shop, even though he and experts in the industry acknowledge that the niche market is too small to make it a sure success. "You've got to sell a lot of hot sauce to pay rent in Manhattan," says Dave Hirschkop, owner of hot sauce and specialty foods manufacturer Dave's Gourmet, one of Sweat 'N Spice's premier brands.
http://www.hotsauceblog.com/
Hot sauce enthusiast turned entrepreneur Nick Lindauer is on fire. In 2001, while still in college, he launched the online store Sweat 'N Spice out of his Springfield (Ore.) apartment. He sold a few dozen types of hot sauces, packaged each order by hand, and shipped everything from his local post office, barely eking out a profit during his first year of operation.
Today, Lindauer sells over a thousand products from some 300 manufacturers. His inventory goes beyond sauces to include seasonings, relishes, and snacks with clever names, oddly-shaped collectible bottles, celebrity-endorsed offerings, along with concoctions that are so blisteringly hot customers must sign a liability waiver upon purchase.
Prices run from $4 for El Yucateco brand sauces to $300 for hand-signed, limited-edition bottles of Blair's 16 Million Reserve, the hottest chili powder extract known to man. Lindauer and his two full-time employees operate out of a Midtown office in New York City. In 2005, the business grossed around $130,000. He forecasts $200,000 in 2006.
Lindauer says he owes much of his success to his blog (http://www.hotsauceblog.com/) where he dubs himself "Sultan of Sauces," and offers the hot sauce community news, reviews, recipes, contests, and interviews with prominent vendors.
He explains that the blog is a separate entity from his online shop—it has its own domain name and advertising—but it helps build his credibility and drives traffic to his store through a few strategically placed links on its navigation bar. Lindauer also establishes relationships with many of his vendors in person at industry events and helps in the creation of smaller manufacturers' sauces before they go to market.
Making a living from hot sauce wasn't his original goal, says Lindauer, a longtime champion of spicy foods and an avid collector of exotic hot sauces. The whole enterprise was more a labor of love. "I got really into collecting and decided if I'm doing this, there's got to be other people out there doing it," he says. He figured they'd want a place to trade opinions, and perhaps order a hard-to-find bottle.
Lindauer was right. At industry gatherings like the annual National Fiery Foods and Barbeque Show, in Albuquerque, N.M., he discovered a subculture of superhuman eaters who call themselves "chileheads;" a class of connoisseurs with a passion for rare and intense hot sauces.
Lindauer felt right at home. He had also stumbled onto an industry that is worth close to $2 billion, according to the estimate of leading spicy foods authority Dave DeWitt, editor of Fiery-Foods & BBQ magazine.
Lindauer is now making plans to open a brick-and-mortar shop, even though he and experts in the industry acknowledge that the niche market is too small to make it a sure success. "You've got to sell a lot of hot sauce to pay rent in Manhattan," says Dave Hirschkop, owner of hot sauce and specialty foods manufacturer Dave's Gourmet, one of Sweat 'N Spice's premier brands.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Small Houses Can Make Your Rich?
Jay Shafer Story
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
Bigger isn't always better. Just ask Jay Shafer, founder and owner of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com), who lives in a 70-square-foot freestanding home. No, that's not a typo-his entire house has less space than most people's bathrooms.
"I had a hard time finding a place that suited my needs without exceeding my needs," says Shafer, who built his first tiny house in 1997. "So many American houses are so huge-they're oversized for the actual needs of the occupants."
Longing for less space, Shafer first designed a 100-square-foot house that was recognized in a home of the year contest by Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Exposure from the award prompted Shafer to go into business-suddenly he found a market for miniature mansions. Today, Tumbleweed offers more than 20 floorplans ranging from 70- to 500-square-feet. Half the customers use the buildings as their primary residences. Others buy them as freestanding additions to their existing homes, for use as an office or studio.
"Almost no assembly is required," says Shafer. "The houses arrive in one piece. All you have to do is connect the utilities."
A bonus to living so little: It forces you to be neater, says Shafer, who even works out of his 70-square-foot abode. Downsizing also makes you reevaluate your concept of home sweet home.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
Bigger isn't always better. Just ask Jay Shafer, founder and owner of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com), who lives in a 70-square-foot freestanding home. No, that's not a typo-his entire house has less space than most people's bathrooms.
"I had a hard time finding a place that suited my needs without exceeding my needs," says Shafer, who built his first tiny house in 1997. "So many American houses are so huge-they're oversized for the actual needs of the occupants."
Longing for less space, Shafer first designed a 100-square-foot house that was recognized in a home of the year contest by Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Exposure from the award prompted Shafer to go into business-suddenly he found a market for miniature mansions. Today, Tumbleweed offers more than 20 floorplans ranging from 70- to 500-square-feet. Half the customers use the buildings as their primary residences. Others buy them as freestanding additions to their existing homes, for use as an office or studio.
"Almost no assembly is required," says Shafer. "The houses arrive in one piece. All you have to do is connect the utilities."
A bonus to living so little: It forces you to be neater, says Shafer, who even works out of his 70-square-foot abode. Downsizing also makes you reevaluate your concept of home sweet home.
Monday, May 25, 2009
How A $4,200 Domain Name Investment Brings In $900,000 Each Year.
John Drummond Story
http://www.unicycle.com
Unicycling enthusiast John Drummond, a technical writer at IBM, decided it might be fun to sell a few cycles over the Internet. Seven months after unicycle.com debuted in 1999, Drummond, of Marietta, Ga., was so overwhelmed by demand that he enlisted the help of his wife, Amy.
The pair soon sped sales up from $150,000 in 1999 to $900,000 in 2006. No, there wasn't an inexplicable uptick in the clown population. They attribute their success to a straightforward Internet domain name.
"Customers found us at the top of their Google searches," he says. So in 2003, when Drummond looked to profit from his other hobby, banjos, he naturally sought to pluck banjo.com. He had paid $4,200 for unicycle.com, but the owner of the banjo address wanted $150,000.
Drummond won't say how much he ultimately paid, but he's happy with the deal. Banjo.com pulled in $120,000 in sales in 2003.
http://www.unicycle.com
Unicycling enthusiast John Drummond, a technical writer at IBM, decided it might be fun to sell a few cycles over the Internet. Seven months after unicycle.com debuted in 1999, Drummond, of Marietta, Ga., was so overwhelmed by demand that he enlisted the help of his wife, Amy.
The pair soon sped sales up from $150,000 in 1999 to $900,000 in 2006. No, there wasn't an inexplicable uptick in the clown population. They attribute their success to a straightforward Internet domain name.
"Customers found us at the top of their Google searches," he says. So in 2003, when Drummond looked to profit from his other hobby, banjos, he naturally sought to pluck banjo.com. He had paid $4,200 for unicycle.com, but the owner of the banjo address wanted $150,000.
Drummond won't say how much he ultimately paid, but he's happy with the deal. Banjo.com pulled in $120,000 in sales in 2003.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
How Broken Arm Led To A $2 Million A Year Business
David Reynolds Story
http://www.showersleeve.com/
David Reynolds, a contractor by trade, had broken his arm while remodeling a bathroom in 1998. Keeping the cast dry proved to be very difficult, and when he tried looking around for a product to help, he was unable to find anything that was both effective and affordable. That's when the light bulb went on.
After doing a patent search for such a product and finding nothing, Reynolds, an inventor since childhood, designed a plastic covering with an adjustable fastening mechanism on one end to keep arm and leg casts dry. He enlisted the help of his longtime friend and fellow contractor, Marty Ceccarelli, to build Mar-Von LLC and the brand.
But even with their innovative product in hand, it wasn't easy to get it on store shelves. "I just started going to the local drugstores," says Reynolds. "I had a real hard time. Most people don't want to give you the time of day."
Determined to succeed, Reynolds and Ceccarelli continued to develop the Cast Cover and sales strategies for two years, and eventually landed their product on the shelves of Albertson's/Osco Drug and 12 local Walgreens stores. The reaction from consumers spoke volumes-their product was a fast seller.
Today, the pair sells not only Cast Covers, but also the waterproof Shower Sleeve-open on both ends, they are designed for patients with IVs. Today, the products are sold via wholesalers and distributors and on their Web site. Reynolds, who expects $2 million in annual sales by the end of the year, has this advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs: "I had a vision of inventing something, [but] it didn't happen overnight. Don't give up, and don't take no for an answer."
http://www.showersleeve.com/
David Reynolds, a contractor by trade, had broken his arm while remodeling a bathroom in 1998. Keeping the cast dry proved to be very difficult, and when he tried looking around for a product to help, he was unable to find anything that was both effective and affordable. That's when the light bulb went on.
After doing a patent search for such a product and finding nothing, Reynolds, an inventor since childhood, designed a plastic covering with an adjustable fastening mechanism on one end to keep arm and leg casts dry. He enlisted the help of his longtime friend and fellow contractor, Marty Ceccarelli, to build Mar-Von LLC and the brand.
But even with their innovative product in hand, it wasn't easy to get it on store shelves. "I just started going to the local drugstores," says Reynolds. "I had a real hard time. Most people don't want to give you the time of day."
Determined to succeed, Reynolds and Ceccarelli continued to develop the Cast Cover and sales strategies for two years, and eventually landed their product on the shelves of Albertson's/Osco Drug and 12 local Walgreens stores. The reaction from consumers spoke volumes-their product was a fast seller.
Today, the pair sells not only Cast Covers, but also the waterproof Shower Sleeve-open on both ends, they are designed for patients with IVs. Today, the products are sold via wholesalers and distributors and on their Web site. Reynolds, who expects $2 million in annual sales by the end of the year, has this advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs: "I had a vision of inventing something, [but] it didn't happen overnight. Don't give up, and don't take no for an answer."
Saturday, May 23, 2009
How To Make Money Selling School Spirit
Linda McMahan Gunning Story
http://www.bagalogos.com/
Linda McMahan Gunning was inundated with compliments on the University of Texas handbag she used to carry to university events. Though the bag, which she picked up at a local store, was roughly made and not properly licensed with the college, it drew a lot of attention from other women and fans.
As an attorney, McMahan Gunning soon realized that if she could obtain the licensing rights for collegiate logos and design her own line of high-end handbags emblazoned with school emblems, there would be quite a demand for her products. She decided to cold-call the University of Texas to pitch her unique concept.
"They said, 'If you can do all this, we think it's a great idea. We'll take a chance with you,'" recalls McMahan Gunning, 55. With those encouraging words in mind, she enlisted the help of her sister-in-law and avid fashion lover, Sue Craft McMahan, 36, to join her in the logo handbag venture.
Interestingly enough, obtaining licensing agreements wasn't the biggest challenge during start-up; finding a manufacturer and researching what women really want in a handbag proved to be the major hurdles. They canvassed not only college-age women, but also alumni and families of students.
When the pair designed four different types of bags—a large tote bag, a smaller baguette bag, a crescent-shaped handbag and a bolder game-day bag—all marked with the University of Texas emblem, the favorable responses they received were overwhelming.
Today, with sales into the mid-six figures, Bagalogos! bags can be found at www.bagalogos.com and at high-end boutiques and college bookstores. Schools on the company's roster include the University of Alabama, Oklahoma State University campuses, Texas A&M University campuses and Texas Tech University. They've also set their sights on other big-name schools with high-profile and loyal alumni. Talk about higher learning.
http://www.bagalogos.com/
Linda McMahan Gunning was inundated with compliments on the University of Texas handbag she used to carry to university events. Though the bag, which she picked up at a local store, was roughly made and not properly licensed with the college, it drew a lot of attention from other women and fans.
As an attorney, McMahan Gunning soon realized that if she could obtain the licensing rights for collegiate logos and design her own line of high-end handbags emblazoned with school emblems, there would be quite a demand for her products. She decided to cold-call the University of Texas to pitch her unique concept.
"They said, 'If you can do all this, we think it's a great idea. We'll take a chance with you,'" recalls McMahan Gunning, 55. With those encouraging words in mind, she enlisted the help of her sister-in-law and avid fashion lover, Sue Craft McMahan, 36, to join her in the logo handbag venture.
Interestingly enough, obtaining licensing agreements wasn't the biggest challenge during start-up; finding a manufacturer and researching what women really want in a handbag proved to be the major hurdles. They canvassed not only college-age women, but also alumni and families of students.
When the pair designed four different types of bags—a large tote bag, a smaller baguette bag, a crescent-shaped handbag and a bolder game-day bag—all marked with the University of Texas emblem, the favorable responses they received were overwhelming.
Today, with sales into the mid-six figures, Bagalogos! bags can be found at www.bagalogos.com and at high-end boutiques and college bookstores. Schools on the company's roster include the University of Alabama, Oklahoma State University campuses, Texas A&M University campuses and Texas Tech University. They've also set their sights on other big-name schools with high-profile and loyal alumni. Talk about higher learning.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Bald Is Beautiful?
Rick Mikles and Joe Acebal
http://www.idealimage.com/
Chiropractors Rick Mikles, 49, and Joe Acebal, 48, sensed that they could build a business with staying power by focusing on laser hair removal. After all, the process for removing hair permanently is the top nonsurgical cosmetic procedure for folks under 35. In 2005, Ideal Image's sales grew to $50 million from $8 million the year before.
The co-founders had been selling Ideal Image franchises one by one since 2004. That approach "now seems about as smart as selling individual sticks of chewing gum instead of the whole pack," says Acebal. The Tampa entrepreneurs soon switched to a cluster strategy requiring franchisees to simultaneously open numerous stores--a more efficient use of marketing dollars.
The former school pals expect franchisees to nearly double the number of units, to 75, this year. Company-owned units will grow from six to 25. Bald really is beautiful.
Media is Ideal Image's highest expense at a whopping 25 percent to 30 percent of sales. It has a five-person creative department that can produce TV and radio spots and marketing collateral.
The company does extensive market analysis and demographic research. It wrote software to tell it where to place locations. It's more than just census data. It focuses on buying habits and other details and uses Arbitron TV ratings.
"We know where they hang out and what they do," Akers said. "But it's really important to have points of sale open to cover that media buy."
To get the locations open, the company spends a lot on infrastructure, dropping $200,000 on hardware to support its homemade proprietary clinic management software. It has developed detailed training systems and manages its own financial group.
http://www.idealimage.com/
Chiropractors Rick Mikles, 49, and Joe Acebal, 48, sensed that they could build a business with staying power by focusing on laser hair removal. After all, the process for removing hair permanently is the top nonsurgical cosmetic procedure for folks under 35. In 2005, Ideal Image's sales grew to $50 million from $8 million the year before.
The co-founders had been selling Ideal Image franchises one by one since 2004. That approach "now seems about as smart as selling individual sticks of chewing gum instead of the whole pack," says Acebal. The Tampa entrepreneurs soon switched to a cluster strategy requiring franchisees to simultaneously open numerous stores--a more efficient use of marketing dollars.
The former school pals expect franchisees to nearly double the number of units, to 75, this year. Company-owned units will grow from six to 25. Bald really is beautiful.
Media is Ideal Image's highest expense at a whopping 25 percent to 30 percent of sales. It has a five-person creative department that can produce TV and radio spots and marketing collateral.
The company does extensive market analysis and demographic research. It wrote software to tell it where to place locations. It's more than just census data. It focuses on buying habits and other details and uses Arbitron TV ratings.
"We know where they hang out and what they do," Akers said. "But it's really important to have points of sale open to cover that media buy."
To get the locations open, the company spends a lot on infrastructure, dropping $200,000 on hardware to support its homemade proprietary clinic management software. It has developed detailed training systems and manages its own financial group.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
A $2 Million A Year Admobile Business
James Riseborough Story
http://www.turtletransit.com/
Here's something that will catch your eye--a grown man driving a larger-than-life green turtle up the highway. The driver is James Riseborough, owner of Turtle Transit, which brought in $2 million last year by transforming ordinary cars and trucks into promotional vehicles.
Riseborough, is the talent behind a company that specializes in 3-dimensional graphics and mobile display. In short, they transform unassuming cars into eye-popping, sculpted advertisements.
"Anything you can imagine, we can build," says Riseborough. And he's not kidding. To date, the company has created a rhinoceros, a fleet of monster cars, and a mechanical chair-sized hand replete with gaudy fingernails for local rockers Aerosmith.
Only a year from its inception, Turtle Transit boasts a formidable client list that includes among others, Monster.com, Arnold Brand Promotions, Harley-Davidson CafƩ and Stonyfield Farm. The company cleared $500,000 the first year and expects to triple that in the next three years.
"I never think of myself as an entrepreneur. That's more of those guys who drive into Boston and sit behind a desk and call the shots--the guys in three-piece suits," says Riseborough.
As an industry, outdoor advertising includes billboards, wrapped buses, taxi tops and other promotions in public spaces. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates that it's a $4.8 billion industry and growing.
Riseborough pulled together a small-business plan and sought the advice of accountants. He came up with the name Turtle Transit because, "I wanted something with some playfulness--turtles are slow, they creep along and they have a big back for advertising,".
With his own funding and talents, he created marketing materials including "Cecil," their turtle car. Cecil is a Volkswagen Beetle refashioned, or morphed, as the Turtle Transit team would say, with layers of sculpted foam and fiberglass to create dimensional turtle-shell detailing. Add to that myriad green paints and a larger-than-life reptilian turtlehead poking out from the hood, and you've got turtle transportation.
With Cecil on the road, Turtle Transit is turning some heads. "To wrap the graphics is very safe, everyone is doing it. We wanted to take it to the next dimension. The turtles and the monsters are definitely catching people's eyes over any wraps," says Riseborough.
"There is risk in creating a monster or a turtle, but without risk there is no reward. You've got to stick your neck out sometimes."
For a full morph, the company estimates projects at approximately $20,000 to $30,000. That excludes the initial price of the car, which the client assumes. Smaller projects, such as adding a 3-dimensional element to a vehicle can be in the ballpark of $10,000 to $15,000.
That's not a lot of money when you consider the cost of traditional advertising, says Michelle Silk, account supervisor at Boston-based Arnold Brand Promotions. "With the state of the economy, budgets are slashed and people just don't have the money to spend on a 30-second commercial. We try to think of different ways to bring brand to the consumer," she says.
Together with Scott Betty, director of nontraditional marketing at Maynard-based Monster.com, they came up with the idea of a fleet of monster-morphed vehicles. "The program, for us, is a way to localize the brand and bring the brand to life."
The Monster cars are stationed across the country and tow interactive workstations with unique IP addresses. Monster.com can be virtually anywhere, including career fairs, public events and even in neighborhoods that happen to have high concentrations of health care workers, for example.
The program provides Monster with flexibility and something even more cherished by marketing executives and that's data. "We can track it from the broad stroke and look at overall account registrations and resumƩ posting monthly by markets we are present in. We can also go granular and look at specific events," explains Betty.
The cars themselves are real "head-turners" says Silk, who credits Turtle Transit with "A-plus quality." "These guys don't know how to say `no,' " she adds.
Turtle Transit attributes its success to hard work and an intense commitment to quality. All the work is done in-house using foam, fiberglass, auto paint and a variety of creative techniques. The company guarantees its work for the life of the vehicle.
This attention to detail has led to some pretty long hours for the team. Riseborough reflects that the many late nights cost him precious time with his newborn son. "He's the biggest event of my life, and I couldn't be there. But you know, I can put him through college, and that matters too," he adds.
http://www.turtletransit.com/
Here's something that will catch your eye--a grown man driving a larger-than-life green turtle up the highway. The driver is James Riseborough, owner of Turtle Transit, which brought in $2 million last year by transforming ordinary cars and trucks into promotional vehicles.
Riseborough, is the talent behind a company that specializes in 3-dimensional graphics and mobile display. In short, they transform unassuming cars into eye-popping, sculpted advertisements.
"Anything you can imagine, we can build," says Riseborough. And he's not kidding. To date, the company has created a rhinoceros, a fleet of monster cars, and a mechanical chair-sized hand replete with gaudy fingernails for local rockers Aerosmith.
Only a year from its inception, Turtle Transit boasts a formidable client list that includes among others, Monster.com, Arnold Brand Promotions, Harley-Davidson CafƩ and Stonyfield Farm. The company cleared $500,000 the first year and expects to triple that in the next three years.
"I never think of myself as an entrepreneur. That's more of those guys who drive into Boston and sit behind a desk and call the shots--the guys in three-piece suits," says Riseborough.
As an industry, outdoor advertising includes billboards, wrapped buses, taxi tops and other promotions in public spaces. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates that it's a $4.8 billion industry and growing.
Riseborough pulled together a small-business plan and sought the advice of accountants. He came up with the name Turtle Transit because, "I wanted something with some playfulness--turtles are slow, they creep along and they have a big back for advertising,".
With his own funding and talents, he created marketing materials including "Cecil," their turtle car. Cecil is a Volkswagen Beetle refashioned, or morphed, as the Turtle Transit team would say, with layers of sculpted foam and fiberglass to create dimensional turtle-shell detailing. Add to that myriad green paints and a larger-than-life reptilian turtlehead poking out from the hood, and you've got turtle transportation.
With Cecil on the road, Turtle Transit is turning some heads. "To wrap the graphics is very safe, everyone is doing it. We wanted to take it to the next dimension. The turtles and the monsters are definitely catching people's eyes over any wraps," says Riseborough.
"There is risk in creating a monster or a turtle, but without risk there is no reward. You've got to stick your neck out sometimes."
For a full morph, the company estimates projects at approximately $20,000 to $30,000. That excludes the initial price of the car, which the client assumes. Smaller projects, such as adding a 3-dimensional element to a vehicle can be in the ballpark of $10,000 to $15,000.
That's not a lot of money when you consider the cost of traditional advertising, says Michelle Silk, account supervisor at Boston-based Arnold Brand Promotions. "With the state of the economy, budgets are slashed and people just don't have the money to spend on a 30-second commercial. We try to think of different ways to bring brand to the consumer," she says.
Together with Scott Betty, director of nontraditional marketing at Maynard-based Monster.com, they came up with the idea of a fleet of monster-morphed vehicles. "The program, for us, is a way to localize the brand and bring the brand to life."
The Monster cars are stationed across the country and tow interactive workstations with unique IP addresses. Monster.com can be virtually anywhere, including career fairs, public events and even in neighborhoods that happen to have high concentrations of health care workers, for example.
The program provides Monster with flexibility and something even more cherished by marketing executives and that's data. "We can track it from the broad stroke and look at overall account registrations and resumƩ posting monthly by markets we are present in. We can also go granular and look at specific events," explains Betty.
The cars themselves are real "head-turners" says Silk, who credits Turtle Transit with "A-plus quality." "These guys don't know how to say `no,' " she adds.
Turtle Transit attributes its success to hard work and an intense commitment to quality. All the work is done in-house using foam, fiberglass, auto paint and a variety of creative techniques. The company guarantees its work for the life of the vehicle.
This attention to detail has led to some pretty long hours for the team. Riseborough reflects that the many late nights cost him precious time with his newborn son. "He's the biggest event of my life, and I couldn't be there. But you know, I can put him through college, and that matters too," he adds.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Richest Piano Player You've Never Heard About
Lorie Line Story
http://www.lorieline.com/
After ten years of university training in classical piano, Lorie Line finally landed her first job as a professional musician. For $40 a day she was hired to tickle the ivories every afternoon at Dayton's department store in downtown Minneapolis. Wedged between handbags and lingerie, she serenaded shoppers with a seamless stream of pop tunes--and occasionally gave directions to the restroom--without missing a note. But the young pianist in the glamorous black gown was definitely resourceful. After noticing shoppers lingering around the girdle racks listening to her play, she figured she had the start of a fan club. So she cashed in her husband's 401(k) and used the $2,000 to record a CD, which she stacked on a corner of the piano to sell. It proved to be as popular as the push-up bra. Within three years she had sold more than $1 million worth in Dayton's.
From that unglamorous start more than a decade ago, Line has built an unlikely little music empire as the piano phenom of the Midwest. In towns and cities from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Appleton, Wis., the 47-year-old entertainer is packing thousands of fans into concert halls for 80 lavish music and dance productions a year. Since releasing her first CD in 1989, she has sold more than five million through her independent record label. Her sheet-music books are popular too. Released in 2003, Line's $35 Music From the Heart has been a bestseller for two years; her 17th songbook, it features her arrangements of show tunes and movie themes such as "Phantom of the Opera" and "Wind Beneath My Wings." She brings in annual revenues of $5 million, netting about $350,000, working out of her palatial home on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Orono, Minn.
Like many other artists (even gravelly voiced Rod Stewart), Line is cashing in on a baby-boomer craze for lush, soft-jazz versions of classic romantic standards that were popular in the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Without "Moon River," she'd never be such a star in Sheboygan. But Line knows that the music is only half the appeal for her target market, which largely consists of women between the ages of 35 and 70. "Fans aren't coming to my concerts just to hear my piano," she says. "They want two solid hours of spectacle, and we give it to them." The theme for last year's holiday show--her biggest show every year--was Old Hollywood, and it was loaded with razzle-dazzle.
Line wore seven costumes during the two-hour show, including a strapless black sequined gown with a fishtail train, topped off by a ten-foot-long black-fox stole. Even the 12-piece orchestra had five costume changes, from tuxes to velvet smoking jackets. The show's annual costume budget alone comes to $190,000. Line's stage sets are just as elaborate. On every tour she brings one of her two concert grand pianos, as well as a massive ballroom-sized crystal chandelier that hangs over the piano at center stage.
Line has built her business without any help from the music industry establishment, which snubbed her early on, deeming her too square for the big time. She performs, publishes, and produces her CDs through her company, Lorie Line Music. She has a payroll of 30, including a choreographer, musicians, a costume designer, a dressmaker, and a staff of five who run the small retail shop where she sells her music, books, and tickets. Tim Line, her husband of 19 years, is president. Lorie Line is CEO. "I am the talent," she says. "At Christmastime, when we sell a lot of CDs, I'm also a shipping clerk in the backroom if necessary."
Cutting her first CD provided Line with a quick education in the business side of music. When she called to rent time in a recording studio in San Francisco, she innocently asked the manager how much time she would be allotted to make the CD. "Till your money runs out," he said, laughing. "It's your dime, lady." She assured him, "I'm a department store pianist. I have to get it right the first time." She cut the CD in two days. Total bill for studio time: $9,558. When she got back to Dayton's, she asked the department store manager for permission to sell her music. He refused. Undaunted, Line found a higher-up willing to let her give it a try. The deal proved a moneymaker for Dayton's, which got a percentage of sales.
After that success Line decided to stage a concert to test her appeal outside the lingerie department. Several months later she rented a small hall in Minneapolis for $5,000 and sold out all 400 seats. (That's when her husband resigned his sales job to help her manage her business.) Now her shows sell out regularly in 2,500-seat concert halls in Denver, Fargo, Indianapolis, Omaha, and Toledo. She has tried to broaden her fan base by appearing on the East Coast and in Florida, but ticket sales were low, and the concerts were costly missteps--as was an attempt to gain national recognition through a concert on PBS.
Her fans in the heartland remain loyal. Every Aug. 1, when tickets go on sale for her 47 holiday concerts, fans start lining up outside her Wayzata, Minn., store before the box office opens at 8 A.M. Last year police had to be called in for crowd control because the line disrupted traffic downtown. The star served the crowd coffee and doughnuts.
Line has successfully leveraged her fans' passion into a merchandising opportunity. Ten years ago she sent out a mass mailing announcing her holiday concert series. "Be there with bells on!" was the merry tag line on the brochure. Then she had a thought: Why not sell commemorative bells for her fans to jingle during the show? In fact, why not a new bell every year? She ordered up a set of small silver-plated bells with her name and the year engraved on them and sold every one. Last year Line sold 30,000. At $5 a bell, she rang up $150,000.
Shortly after finishing her spring tour, Line began rehearsing for her holiday extravaganza. So what if she never does get to see the klieg lights of Carnegie Hall in New York City or the neon jungle of Vegas? "I could live happily ever after as the most popular entertainer in the Midwest," she says. "If I have to choose between being rich or being famous, I'd rather be rich."
http://www.lorieline.com/
After ten years of university training in classical piano, Lorie Line finally landed her first job as a professional musician. For $40 a day she was hired to tickle the ivories every afternoon at Dayton's department store in downtown Minneapolis. Wedged between handbags and lingerie, she serenaded shoppers with a seamless stream of pop tunes--and occasionally gave directions to the restroom--without missing a note. But the young pianist in the glamorous black gown was definitely resourceful. After noticing shoppers lingering around the girdle racks listening to her play, she figured she had the start of a fan club. So she cashed in her husband's 401(k) and used the $2,000 to record a CD, which she stacked on a corner of the piano to sell. It proved to be as popular as the push-up bra. Within three years she had sold more than $1 million worth in Dayton's.
From that unglamorous start more than a decade ago, Line has built an unlikely little music empire as the piano phenom of the Midwest. In towns and cities from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Appleton, Wis., the 47-year-old entertainer is packing thousands of fans into concert halls for 80 lavish music and dance productions a year. Since releasing her first CD in 1989, she has sold more than five million through her independent record label. Her sheet-music books are popular too. Released in 2003, Line's $35 Music From the Heart has been a bestseller for two years; her 17th songbook, it features her arrangements of show tunes and movie themes such as "Phantom of the Opera" and "Wind Beneath My Wings." She brings in annual revenues of $5 million, netting about $350,000, working out of her palatial home on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Orono, Minn.
Like many other artists (even gravelly voiced Rod Stewart), Line is cashing in on a baby-boomer craze for lush, soft-jazz versions of classic romantic standards that were popular in the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Without "Moon River," she'd never be such a star in Sheboygan. But Line knows that the music is only half the appeal for her target market, which largely consists of women between the ages of 35 and 70. "Fans aren't coming to my concerts just to hear my piano," she says. "They want two solid hours of spectacle, and we give it to them." The theme for last year's holiday show--her biggest show every year--was Old Hollywood, and it was loaded with razzle-dazzle.
Line wore seven costumes during the two-hour show, including a strapless black sequined gown with a fishtail train, topped off by a ten-foot-long black-fox stole. Even the 12-piece orchestra had five costume changes, from tuxes to velvet smoking jackets. The show's annual costume budget alone comes to $190,000. Line's stage sets are just as elaborate. On every tour she brings one of her two concert grand pianos, as well as a massive ballroom-sized crystal chandelier that hangs over the piano at center stage.
Line has built her business without any help from the music industry establishment, which snubbed her early on, deeming her too square for the big time. She performs, publishes, and produces her CDs through her company, Lorie Line Music. She has a payroll of 30, including a choreographer, musicians, a costume designer, a dressmaker, and a staff of five who run the small retail shop where she sells her music, books, and tickets. Tim Line, her husband of 19 years, is president. Lorie Line is CEO. "I am the talent," she says. "At Christmastime, when we sell a lot of CDs, I'm also a shipping clerk in the backroom if necessary."
Cutting her first CD provided Line with a quick education in the business side of music. When she called to rent time in a recording studio in San Francisco, she innocently asked the manager how much time she would be allotted to make the CD. "Till your money runs out," he said, laughing. "It's your dime, lady." She assured him, "I'm a department store pianist. I have to get it right the first time." She cut the CD in two days. Total bill for studio time: $9,558. When she got back to Dayton's, she asked the department store manager for permission to sell her music. He refused. Undaunted, Line found a higher-up willing to let her give it a try. The deal proved a moneymaker for Dayton's, which got a percentage of sales.
After that success Line decided to stage a concert to test her appeal outside the lingerie department. Several months later she rented a small hall in Minneapolis for $5,000 and sold out all 400 seats. (That's when her husband resigned his sales job to help her manage her business.) Now her shows sell out regularly in 2,500-seat concert halls in Denver, Fargo, Indianapolis, Omaha, and Toledo. She has tried to broaden her fan base by appearing on the East Coast and in Florida, but ticket sales were low, and the concerts were costly missteps--as was an attempt to gain national recognition through a concert on PBS.
Her fans in the heartland remain loyal. Every Aug. 1, when tickets go on sale for her 47 holiday concerts, fans start lining up outside her Wayzata, Minn., store before the box office opens at 8 A.M. Last year police had to be called in for crowd control because the line disrupted traffic downtown. The star served the crowd coffee and doughnuts.
Line has successfully leveraged her fans' passion into a merchandising opportunity. Ten years ago she sent out a mass mailing announcing her holiday concert series. "Be there with bells on!" was the merry tag line on the brochure. Then she had a thought: Why not sell commemorative bells for her fans to jingle during the show? In fact, why not a new bell every year? She ordered up a set of small silver-plated bells with her name and the year engraved on them and sold every one. Last year Line sold 30,000. At $5 a bell, she rang up $150,000.
Shortly after finishing her spring tour, Line began rehearsing for her holiday extravaganza. So what if she never does get to see the klieg lights of Carnegie Hall in New York City or the neon jungle of Vegas? "I could live happily ever after as the most popular entertainer in the Midwest," she says. "If I have to choose between being rich or being famous, I'd rather be rich."
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
$5 Million A Year, Selling ‘Ice Towels’.
Mike Fanning And Bill Sammon Story
http://www.himaicetowels.com
There's nothing like a hot product--or, in this case, a cold product with hot sales. Just ask Mike Fanning and Bill Sammon, founders of the Hima Ice Towel Corp., which sells prepackaged cotton towels soaked with refreshing mixtures of essential plant oils that promote evaporation and cooling.
Sammon got the idea after a trip to Asia, where he noticed mothers wiping down their babies with towels dipped in isopropyl alcohol to cool them off. With the help of another partner, Koy Thummaskra, Fanning and Sammon developed their own version of the towels, which come in different sizes and colors. Says Sammon, "It gives your average person an affordable luxury in hot climates."
Fanning and Sammon marketed the towels, which need to be frozen for 12 hours prior to use, to amusement parks and sporting events. The towels sell from $1.29 to $4 each, depending on the venue. The pair also markets to corporate clients. Now that sales are expected to hit $3.5 million to $5 million, it's clear these entrepreneurs have cornered the market on cold relief.
http://www.himaicetowels.com
There's nothing like a hot product--or, in this case, a cold product with hot sales. Just ask Mike Fanning and Bill Sammon, founders of the Hima Ice Towel Corp., which sells prepackaged cotton towels soaked with refreshing mixtures of essential plant oils that promote evaporation and cooling.
Sammon got the idea after a trip to Asia, where he noticed mothers wiping down their babies with towels dipped in isopropyl alcohol to cool them off. With the help of another partner, Koy Thummaskra, Fanning and Sammon developed their own version of the towels, which come in different sizes and colors. Says Sammon, "It gives your average person an affordable luxury in hot climates."
Fanning and Sammon marketed the towels, which need to be frozen for 12 hours prior to use, to amusement parks and sporting events. The towels sell from $1.29 to $4 each, depending on the venue. The pair also markets to corporate clients. Now that sales are expected to hit $3.5 million to $5 million, it's clear these entrepreneurs have cornered the market on cold relief.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Fashionable Fanny Packs
Kristy Sobel Story
http://www.laneigepurse.com/
What began as a solution to her chronic back and neck pain is now a line of purses for women who share Kristy Sobel's condition--or simply want a fashionable fanny pack. After three car accidents that resulted in extensive back and neck surgeries, the 35-year-old entrepreneur realized she couldn't do the traveling her then-job required. That's when "life took a very different direction," she says, and even the simplest tasks, like holding her favorite purse over her shoulder, became a burden.
To ease the weight on her shoulders, Sobel searched for a fanny pack that would accommodate her condition, but realized fashionable ones were nonexistent. So she created one. Before long, family, friends and even strangers were requesting this one-of-a-kind purse. She approached boutiques with her design after successful test runs at her friends' shops, but the door-to-door routine eventually took a toll on her body. Sobel continued her venture from home, found a rep to promote her bags at a trade show and used her and her husband and co-founder Eric's savings to launch LaNeige Purse. Her woven nylon bags appeal to a wide scope of women, from teens to those in their 80s. Sobel has since added larger bags to the collection and, in 2004, she introduced a leather line. With items priced between $54 and $200, LaNeige had sales of $210,000 in 2005.
"The most wonderful thing about LaNeige is being able to help people with chronic back pain," she says, pointing out that the product is also ideal for active women who need both hands free. Her bags are sold in over 60 gift shops and boutiques across the country, and on her website, www.laneigepurse.com.
Despite the physical struggles she faces daily, Sobel's entrepreneurial spirit is anything but broken. "It's a huge challenge for me to get up each morning, let alone run a company," she says. "But I take it one day at a time and create as I go along."
http://www.laneigepurse.com/
What began as a solution to her chronic back and neck pain is now a line of purses for women who share Kristy Sobel's condition--or simply want a fashionable fanny pack. After three car accidents that resulted in extensive back and neck surgeries, the 35-year-old entrepreneur realized she couldn't do the traveling her then-job required. That's when "life took a very different direction," she says, and even the simplest tasks, like holding her favorite purse over her shoulder, became a burden.
To ease the weight on her shoulders, Sobel searched for a fanny pack that would accommodate her condition, but realized fashionable ones were nonexistent. So she created one. Before long, family, friends and even strangers were requesting this one-of-a-kind purse. She approached boutiques with her design after successful test runs at her friends' shops, but the door-to-door routine eventually took a toll on her body. Sobel continued her venture from home, found a rep to promote her bags at a trade show and used her and her husband and co-founder Eric's savings to launch LaNeige Purse. Her woven nylon bags appeal to a wide scope of women, from teens to those in their 80s. Sobel has since added larger bags to the collection and, in 2004, she introduced a leather line. With items priced between $54 and $200, LaNeige had sales of $210,000 in 2005.
"The most wonderful thing about LaNeige is being able to help people with chronic back pain," she says, pointing out that the product is also ideal for active women who need both hands free. Her bags are sold in over 60 gift shops and boutiques across the country, and on her website, www.laneigepurse.com.
Despite the physical struggles she faces daily, Sobel's entrepreneurial spirit is anything but broken. "It's a huge challenge for me to get up each morning, let alone run a company," she says. "But I take it one day at a time and create as I go along."
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fixing Firefighters Boots As A Business
Mike Flood Story
http://www.shoetechinc.com/
Running into burning buildings is hard on the sole. That's where Mike Flood comes in. Though not a physician, Flood is a healer of sorts. As owner of Shoe Tech Inc., Flood heals ailing footwear for firefighters across the country. Wilmington, Del.-based Shoe Tech (http://www.shoetechinc.com) is one of just a handful of shops that specialize in warrantied fire boot repairs. Following pre-established fire-safety guidelines, Flood and two employees re-sole, repair and restore this critical gear.
This business niche resulted from a random drop-in by a salesman for a fire boot manufacturer in the mid-1990s. He asked whether Flood would consider warrantied fireman boot repairs. One job led to another, and the specialty grew. Firemen ship their boots directly to Flood, who repairs, bills the manufacturer and returns the boots to their owners. Repairs range from $20 to $50, depending on the job.
Much of Shoe Tech's boot work is straightforward, except when the waterproof inner bootie must be moved. Flood explains that, after repositioning the bootie, gluing it from the outside is difficult. Through trial and error, Flood discovered that an unlikely surgical instrument-a heavy-gauge hypodermic needle-solves the problem. The needle delivers glue perfectly through the leather upper to the bootie. "The needle looks like the size you'd use on a rhinoceros," says Flood. "I feel like a doctor, sometimes."
Flood admits his process leaves a bit of glue on the upper. "But these guys don't wear their boots to church," he says.
http://www.shoetechinc.com/
Running into burning buildings is hard on the sole. That's where Mike Flood comes in. Though not a physician, Flood is a healer of sorts. As owner of Shoe Tech Inc., Flood heals ailing footwear for firefighters across the country. Wilmington, Del.-based Shoe Tech (http://www.shoetechinc.com) is one of just a handful of shops that specialize in warrantied fire boot repairs. Following pre-established fire-safety guidelines, Flood and two employees re-sole, repair and restore this critical gear.
This business niche resulted from a random drop-in by a salesman for a fire boot manufacturer in the mid-1990s. He asked whether Flood would consider warrantied fireman boot repairs. One job led to another, and the specialty grew. Firemen ship their boots directly to Flood, who repairs, bills the manufacturer and returns the boots to their owners. Repairs range from $20 to $50, depending on the job.
Much of Shoe Tech's boot work is straightforward, except when the waterproof inner bootie must be moved. Flood explains that, after repositioning the bootie, gluing it from the outside is difficult. Through trial and error, Flood discovered that an unlikely surgical instrument-a heavy-gauge hypodermic needle-solves the problem. The needle delivers glue perfectly through the leather upper to the bootie. "The needle looks like the size you'd use on a rhinoceros," says Flood. "I feel like a doctor, sometimes."
Flood admits his process leaves a bit of glue on the upper. "But these guys don't wear their boots to church," he says.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
How To Make A Few Million Dollars Transproting Kids Luggage From Summer Camps
Stuart Seller Story
http://www.camptrucking.com/
This week, thousands of kids will be returning home from summer camp -- without suitcases, duffel bags, tennis rackets, or even their dirty clothes.
Much of the baggage will be delivered back to their homes by small firms that have made a business of transporting campers' bags to and from the camps.
Typical is Camp Trucking, based in Denver. Employing an army of college students on summer break, the firm picks up baggage at the homes of campers and delivers it to camp just before a session begins. It charges a flat rate, with no restrictions on size or for bulky athletic equipment and duffel bags that sometimes weigh more than 100 pounds. At the end of the session, bags are returned -- with some parents even arranging drop-offs at laundries and dry cleaners along the way.
"We really are service companies that happen to be trucking companies," says Camp Trucking's 39-year-old owner, Stuart Seller.
The service is useful to the camps, too. They receive bags for a session all at once, a few days before the kids arrive, allowing the camp staff to focus on getting kids settled in, rather then keeping track of arriving luggage. The services often deliver the bags directly to a bunkhouse and the bunk assigned each camper.
For younger children, the camps have a chance to unpack the bags, and make "them feel like they're coming home," says Cole Kelly, director of Camp Wicosuta, a girls' camp in Bristol, N.H., which uses R&B Camp Baggage, of Plymouth.
There are 10 million children attending about 12,000 resident summer camps around the U.S., according to the American Camp Association, a nonprofit industry group, but Camp Trucking, and firms such as R&B, and Camp Baggage, of Tequesta, Fla., concentrate on serving higher-end camps where parents can spend thousands of dollars for a full summer session.
The camps are concentrated in the Northeast where the population is denser, making it more economic for the firms to serve, especially with the high price of gasoline. Campers from outside the region usually have their bags shipped by other delivery services, but the companies do pick up baggage for a growing number of kids in Florida who attend summer camps in New England.
Although based in Denver, Camp Trucking is the largest camp-delivery operator in the Northeast, and Mr. Seller expects that by the end of summer his company will have transported 30,000 to 35,000 bags for 12,000 to 15,000 kids attending several dozen camps.
With the average delivery price ranging from $120 to $150 a child, Camp Trucking's revenue will be $1.4 million to $2.3 million.
Mr. Seller has seen steady growth since he took over the business in 1998. "It used to be you didn't need to turn on your phones till April and then turn them off in September," he says. "Now it's almost a year-round business," talking to camps and sending out mailers in late November, and starting hiring in January and mapping routes in May.
At R&B, Rick Bogin, 52, started his business 37 years ago with his brother Robert, using the family station wagon and a U-Haul trailer to tote 60 bags. This year, R&B will transport 7,500 bags for 3,200 kids at 14 camps, at a cost ranging from $145 for New England residents to $175 for Florida families. A smaller operator, Camp Baggage, founded by former camp counselor Hal Sheppard, 45, in 1993, will transport more than 2,000 bags for 1,000 kids across eight camps, for an average cost of $150 a camper.
The firms usually have agreements with the camps, and, although campers aren't required to use the services, the camps either recommend them exclusively or include information to the campers in their packets. The firms don't charge camps anything; in fact, says Camp Baggage's Mr. Sheppard, shippers give the camp owners a commission in exchange for exclusive access to camp rosters. The other companies didn't disclose contractual arrangements.
With nearly all of the delivery work in the summer, the companies mainly use temporary employees. At Camp Trucking, much of the work is done by college students. Camp Trucking starts first-year drivers at $115 a day. Mr. Seller has a summer crew of 120 to 150, of which a quarter are women. Camp Baggage pays college students $115 to $200 per day depending on experience.
R&B's main staff of 35 is made up of educators, former executives and other professionals who have been with the company for a decade or more.
All three companies place a driver and navigator in trucks rented from companies such as Ryder System, Penske Truck Rental and Budget Truck Rental.
For camp haulers, one hurdle for the businesses has been streamlining the baggage-tracking process with its mounds of paperwork trailing from doorstep to bunk and back again.
Technology has made the process easier over the years, with computers, walkie-talkies and cellphones, to software and GPS systems to map out the runs.
It used to take R&B workers four days to pick up bags for 40 campers, but now they can pick up 80 to 90 campers' baggage per truck each day.
As the season nears an end, the work at R&B provides a separate benefit. Yesterday, Chuck Lenahan, head football coach at New Hampshire's Plymouth Regional High School, and his assistant coaches, put aside their game plans to direct nearly 100 football and baseball players on loading camp-baggage trucks. They'll receive a $4,000 check for their only fund-raiser, and, Mr. Lenahan says, they know that today he'll give them an easier practice.
http://www.camptrucking.com/
This week, thousands of kids will be returning home from summer camp -- without suitcases, duffel bags, tennis rackets, or even their dirty clothes.
Much of the baggage will be delivered back to their homes by small firms that have made a business of transporting campers' bags to and from the camps.
Typical is Camp Trucking, based in Denver. Employing an army of college students on summer break, the firm picks up baggage at the homes of campers and delivers it to camp just before a session begins. It charges a flat rate, with no restrictions on size or for bulky athletic equipment and duffel bags that sometimes weigh more than 100 pounds. At the end of the session, bags are returned -- with some parents even arranging drop-offs at laundries and dry cleaners along the way.
"We really are service companies that happen to be trucking companies," says Camp Trucking's 39-year-old owner, Stuart Seller.
The service is useful to the camps, too. They receive bags for a session all at once, a few days before the kids arrive, allowing the camp staff to focus on getting kids settled in, rather then keeping track of arriving luggage. The services often deliver the bags directly to a bunkhouse and the bunk assigned each camper.
For younger children, the camps have a chance to unpack the bags, and make "them feel like they're coming home," says Cole Kelly, director of Camp Wicosuta, a girls' camp in Bristol, N.H., which uses R&B Camp Baggage, of Plymouth.
There are 10 million children attending about 12,000 resident summer camps around the U.S., according to the American Camp Association, a nonprofit industry group, but Camp Trucking, and firms such as R&B, and Camp Baggage, of Tequesta, Fla., concentrate on serving higher-end camps where parents can spend thousands of dollars for a full summer session.
The camps are concentrated in the Northeast where the population is denser, making it more economic for the firms to serve, especially with the high price of gasoline. Campers from outside the region usually have their bags shipped by other delivery services, but the companies do pick up baggage for a growing number of kids in Florida who attend summer camps in New England.
Although based in Denver, Camp Trucking is the largest camp-delivery operator in the Northeast, and Mr. Seller expects that by the end of summer his company will have transported 30,000 to 35,000 bags for 12,000 to 15,000 kids attending several dozen camps.
With the average delivery price ranging from $120 to $150 a child, Camp Trucking's revenue will be $1.4 million to $2.3 million.
Mr. Seller has seen steady growth since he took over the business in 1998. "It used to be you didn't need to turn on your phones till April and then turn them off in September," he says. "Now it's almost a year-round business," talking to camps and sending out mailers in late November, and starting hiring in January and mapping routes in May.
At R&B, Rick Bogin, 52, started his business 37 years ago with his brother Robert, using the family station wagon and a U-Haul trailer to tote 60 bags. This year, R&B will transport 7,500 bags for 3,200 kids at 14 camps, at a cost ranging from $145 for New England residents to $175 for Florida families. A smaller operator, Camp Baggage, founded by former camp counselor Hal Sheppard, 45, in 1993, will transport more than 2,000 bags for 1,000 kids across eight camps, for an average cost of $150 a camper.
The firms usually have agreements with the camps, and, although campers aren't required to use the services, the camps either recommend them exclusively or include information to the campers in their packets. The firms don't charge camps anything; in fact, says Camp Baggage's Mr. Sheppard, shippers give the camp owners a commission in exchange for exclusive access to camp rosters. The other companies didn't disclose contractual arrangements.
With nearly all of the delivery work in the summer, the companies mainly use temporary employees. At Camp Trucking, much of the work is done by college students. Camp Trucking starts first-year drivers at $115 a day. Mr. Seller has a summer crew of 120 to 150, of which a quarter are women. Camp Baggage pays college students $115 to $200 per day depending on experience.
R&B's main staff of 35 is made up of educators, former executives and other professionals who have been with the company for a decade or more.
All three companies place a driver and navigator in trucks rented from companies such as Ryder System, Penske Truck Rental and Budget Truck Rental.
For camp haulers, one hurdle for the businesses has been streamlining the baggage-tracking process with its mounds of paperwork trailing from doorstep to bunk and back again.
Technology has made the process easier over the years, with computers, walkie-talkies and cellphones, to software and GPS systems to map out the runs.
It used to take R&B workers four days to pick up bags for 40 campers, but now they can pick up 80 to 90 campers' baggage per truck each day.
As the season nears an end, the work at R&B provides a separate benefit. Yesterday, Chuck Lenahan, head football coach at New Hampshire's Plymouth Regional High School, and his assistant coaches, put aside their game plans to direct nearly 100 football and baseball players on loading camp-baggage trucks. They'll receive a $4,000 check for their only fund-raiser, and, Mr. Lenahan says, they know that today he'll give them an easier practice.
Friday, May 15, 2009
How A Starving Musician With 78 Cents Started A Million Dollar Business
Billy Cuthrell Story
http://www.progressivepercussion.com/
In 1992, Billy Cuthrell says, he was starving and had 78 cents to his name. He knew he needed to find a steady income since he wasn't making any money being in a band. Teach-ing drum lessons seemed like a smart way to capitalize on his talents.
After a breakfast of pork and beans one morning, Cuthrell walked to Kinko's, where a friend printed copies of his hand-drawn fliers decorated with magazine clippings. "This thing was ragtag," says Cuthrell, 32, of his business's first ad.
Despite its looks, the ad drew several responses. At first, Cuthrell drove to students' homes, loading his run-down Isuzu Trooper with drum equipment. "I was like the musical ice cream man," Cuthrell says. "The only thing I didn't have was the music playing outside the truck."
Eventually, Cuthrell rented space from a local music store and found he could teach more students at a physical location, so he opened his own. As business grew, Cuthrell hired instructors. He now has two locations offering lessons in guitar, bass, piano, drums and percussion, with 2006 sales projections of $1 million.
Despite Progressive's growth, Cuthrell still relies on word-of-mouth marketing, though he's branching out with a commercial that will run like a preview in local movie theaters. And his marketing materials have come a long way: The hand-sketched fliers have evolved into brochures-which Cuthrell hires someone else to design.
http://www.progressivepercussion.com/
In 1992, Billy Cuthrell says, he was starving and had 78 cents to his name. He knew he needed to find a steady income since he wasn't making any money being in a band. Teach-ing drum lessons seemed like a smart way to capitalize on his talents.
After a breakfast of pork and beans one morning, Cuthrell walked to Kinko's, where a friend printed copies of his hand-drawn fliers decorated with magazine clippings. "This thing was ragtag," says Cuthrell, 32, of his business's first ad.
Despite its looks, the ad drew several responses. At first, Cuthrell drove to students' homes, loading his run-down Isuzu Trooper with drum equipment. "I was like the musical ice cream man," Cuthrell says. "The only thing I didn't have was the music playing outside the truck."
Eventually, Cuthrell rented space from a local music store and found he could teach more students at a physical location, so he opened his own. As business grew, Cuthrell hired instructors. He now has two locations offering lessons in guitar, bass, piano, drums and percussion, with 2006 sales projections of $1 million.
Despite Progressive's growth, Cuthrell still relies on word-of-mouth marketing, though he's branching out with a commercial that will run like a preview in local movie theaters. And his marketing materials have come a long way: The hand-sketched fliers have evolved into brochures-which Cuthrell hires someone else to design.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
From Zero To Twenty Millions In Four Years
Founder Mike Fitzsimmons Story
http://www.deliveryagent.com/
Those coveting the latest fashions worn by the casts of Desperate Housewives or General Hospital need look no further than Delivery Agent Inc. Founder Mike Fitzsimmons saw a need for an easy way to sell products seen on TV, sports shows and films, so he built a business to do just that. Now, four years after its 2002 inception, sales are projected to reach $19.3 million for 2006.
Essentially, Delivery Agent enables TV show production crews like wardrobe and set designers to catalog the products used in shows. Delivery Agent then makes contact with the vendors of said products and provides the e-commerce platform to sell them through each show's official website. When viewers desire Martha Stewart's crocheted poncho or a particular Swarovski crystal ring worn by Teri Hatcher's Desperate Housewives character, the show, the vendor and Delivery Agent all profit. The company hopes to make it even easier for viewers to find on-screen fashions with the recent launch of its consumer brand, SeenOn.
Getting his foot into the entertainment universe, says Fitzsimmons, 32, was possible largely because he brought on team member Kim Marder, now chief marketing officer, who had an entertainment industry background and serious connections. Creating an advisory board full of entertainment industry veterans helped open even more doors. "We're sort of a slow-growth, high-growth story," says Fitzsimmons. "For the first three years, we got to $1 million in revenue on three full-time employees and six [contract workers]. The challenge in that phase was sticking with it--there were so many temptations to quit." The company secured a round of financing last year and has since grown the business to 44 employees.
Continuously adding to its already high-profile roster of 70 properties such as Will & Grace, The View and even Monday Night Football, Delivery Agent's big challenge now is training employees quickly enough to handle the growth. Says Fitzsimmons, "You need to find people who are self-sufficient and can hit the ground running."
Ever up for a challenge, Fitzsimmons and his crew are looking for even more growth and revenue opportunities. "We take a balanced, score card approach to how we set strategy and measure ourselves," he says. With plans to increase awareness of SeenOn shopping and roll out applications for the mobile market to allow consumers to purchase from their cell phones, Fitzsimmons sees a stellar future for Delivery Agent. Good thing--he's used to life among the stars.
http://www.deliveryagent.com/
Those coveting the latest fashions worn by the casts of Desperate Housewives or General Hospital need look no further than Delivery Agent Inc. Founder Mike Fitzsimmons saw a need for an easy way to sell products seen on TV, sports shows and films, so he built a business to do just that. Now, four years after its 2002 inception, sales are projected to reach $19.3 million for 2006.
Essentially, Delivery Agent enables TV show production crews like wardrobe and set designers to catalog the products used in shows. Delivery Agent then makes contact with the vendors of said products and provides the e-commerce platform to sell them through each show's official website. When viewers desire Martha Stewart's crocheted poncho or a particular Swarovski crystal ring worn by Teri Hatcher's Desperate Housewives character, the show, the vendor and Delivery Agent all profit. The company hopes to make it even easier for viewers to find on-screen fashions with the recent launch of its consumer brand, SeenOn.
Getting his foot into the entertainment universe, says Fitzsimmons, 32, was possible largely because he brought on team member Kim Marder, now chief marketing officer, who had an entertainment industry background and serious connections. Creating an advisory board full of entertainment industry veterans helped open even more doors. "We're sort of a slow-growth, high-growth story," says Fitzsimmons. "For the first three years, we got to $1 million in revenue on three full-time employees and six [contract workers]. The challenge in that phase was sticking with it--there were so many temptations to quit." The company secured a round of financing last year and has since grown the business to 44 employees.
Continuously adding to its already high-profile roster of 70 properties such as Will & Grace, The View and even Monday Night Football, Delivery Agent's big challenge now is training employees quickly enough to handle the growth. Says Fitzsimmons, "You need to find people who are self-sufficient and can hit the ground running."
Ever up for a challenge, Fitzsimmons and his crew are looking for even more growth and revenue opportunities. "We take a balanced, score card approach to how we set strategy and measure ourselves," he says. With plans to increase awareness of SeenOn shopping and roll out applications for the mobile market to allow consumers to purchase from their cell phones, Fitzsimmons sees a stellar future for Delivery Agent. Good thing--he's used to life among the stars.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
How To Make $100 Million Selling Other Peoples Stuff On eBay
Rick And Elise Wetzel Story
http://www.i-soldit.com
It's no secret--eBay has become tremendously popular, and strategically positioned right alongside the world-famous online auction site is eBay drop-off store iSold It LLC. Elise Wetzel and her husband, Rick, founded the Pasadena, California, business in December 2003 and started offering franchises just a few months later. They have already sold more than 800 units and expect 2006 gross sales to exceed $100 million. The numbers speak volumes; their story explains how they did it.
Elise was trying to raise money for her children's school by selling items on eBay when she was struck by what she calls "the big aha!" She had been buying on eBay for years, but soon realized that the process of selling an item was much more complex than buying. So she went in search of a business that would sell merchandise for her. When she came to a dead end, she knew she had stumbled on something big.
Selling other people's secondhand items for a fee is a golden idea with endless potential, but how this husband-and-wife team is managing the company's growth is what landed them on this year's Hot 100 list. Aware that the business could take off if given the chance, they knew when to step aside and pull in outside resources.
"We needed somebody who knew how to run this business at the speed it could run at," explains Rick, 47, who already had extensive franchising experience as the founder of fast-growing pretzel franchise Wetzel's Pretzels. "You have to set your ego aside. It was challenging to sit there and say, 'This is too big for me; we need a stronger team.'"
Rick singled out Ken Sully, former executive vice president of Mail Boxes Etc., for his impressive track record of building solid company infrastructures. Rick brought Sully onboard as iSold It's CEO in 2004. Thanks to this decision, the operation is running at top speed. A complex coding system for the stores is in place, and the build-out of each location is impressively standardized, enabling a store to be installed and set up in a mere 48 hours.
The company continues to grow strong with 3,000 franchise applications flooding in every month and recent international expansion to Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The future promises limitless opportunities, and the Wetzels are ready for it. "We've created this brick-and-mortar interface to the internet," says Elise, 40. "E-commerce will continue to evolve, and I think our stores are in an excellent position to capitalize on that."
http://www.i-soldit.com
It's no secret--eBay has become tremendously popular, and strategically positioned right alongside the world-famous online auction site is eBay drop-off store iSold It LLC. Elise Wetzel and her husband, Rick, founded the Pasadena, California, business in December 2003 and started offering franchises just a few months later. They have already sold more than 800 units and expect 2006 gross sales to exceed $100 million. The numbers speak volumes; their story explains how they did it.
Elise was trying to raise money for her children's school by selling items on eBay when she was struck by what she calls "the big aha!" She had been buying on eBay for years, but soon realized that the process of selling an item was much more complex than buying. So she went in search of a business that would sell merchandise for her. When she came to a dead end, she knew she had stumbled on something big.
Selling other people's secondhand items for a fee is a golden idea with endless potential, but how this husband-and-wife team is managing the company's growth is what landed them on this year's Hot 100 list. Aware that the business could take off if given the chance, they knew when to step aside and pull in outside resources.
"We needed somebody who knew how to run this business at the speed it could run at," explains Rick, 47, who already had extensive franchising experience as the founder of fast-growing pretzel franchise Wetzel's Pretzels. "You have to set your ego aside. It was challenging to sit there and say, 'This is too big for me; we need a stronger team.'"
Rick singled out Ken Sully, former executive vice president of Mail Boxes Etc., for his impressive track record of building solid company infrastructures. Rick brought Sully onboard as iSold It's CEO in 2004. Thanks to this decision, the operation is running at top speed. A complex coding system for the stores is in place, and the build-out of each location is impressively standardized, enabling a store to be installed and set up in a mere 48 hours.
The company continues to grow strong with 3,000 franchise applications flooding in every month and recent international expansion to Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The future promises limitless opportunities, and the Wetzels are ready for it. "We've created this brick-and-mortar interface to the internet," says Elise, 40. "E-commerce will continue to evolve, and I think our stores are in an excellent position to capitalize on that."
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
How To Makes $2 Million From College Interns
Jason Engen Story
http://www.corporateinterns.com/
When Jason Engen was an undergraduate student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, he and his friends knew the challenges students faced in finding worthwhile internships. So for one of his business classes, Engen wrote a business plan detailing a concept for an internship placement service--one that would interview and screen students and match them with local companies that needed interns. "We hit a nerve in terms of the marketplace and focused 100 percent of our efforts on students," says Engen. "We started a week after we graduated, and it took off."
Still, it wasn't easy to peddle the service to local firms in the beginning. For one thing, it was a challenge to uncover how different companies structured their internship programs and how Engen and his partners could sell their service to these firms. "I don't think we were approaching companies the right way," says Engen. But as he began to spend more time learning about the companies' needs, he felt more confident in selling his service. "It's win-win," he explains. "The student gets the experience, and the company gets eager talent."
The real success came in carving out a niche--Corporate Interns Inc. specializes in placing interns only--so the company doesn't compete directly with large staffing firms. "Specialization is important," says Engen. "You have to stay focused on that niche." Especially when that specialization propels you to $2 million in yearly sales.
http://www.corporateinterns.com/
When Jason Engen was an undergraduate student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, he and his friends knew the challenges students faced in finding worthwhile internships. So for one of his business classes, Engen wrote a business plan detailing a concept for an internship placement service--one that would interview and screen students and match them with local companies that needed interns. "We hit a nerve in terms of the marketplace and focused 100 percent of our efforts on students," says Engen. "We started a week after we graduated, and it took off."
Still, it wasn't easy to peddle the service to local firms in the beginning. For one thing, it was a challenge to uncover how different companies structured their internship programs and how Engen and his partners could sell their service to these firms. "I don't think we were approaching companies the right way," says Engen. But as he began to spend more time learning about the companies' needs, he felt more confident in selling his service. "It's win-win," he explains. "The student gets the experience, and the company gets eager talent."
The real success came in carving out a niche--Corporate Interns Inc. specializes in placing interns only--so the company doesn't compete directly with large staffing firms. "Specialization is important," says Engen. "You have to stay focused on that niche." Especially when that specialization propels you to $2 million in yearly sales.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Making $700,000 A Year By Letting Customers Design Their Own Jewelry
Lindsay Cain Story
http://www.femmegems.com
Nothing can take away the glow a woman gets when she sees that perfect piece of jewelry-nothing except for an exorbitant price tag, that is. But when customers come to Lindsay Cain's Femmegems store, they're able to bring in pictures of exquisite designer pieces and replicate them at a fraction of the original cost.
Initially, Cain designed and sold jewelry herself, but this 29-year-old found her niche when she realized that other women not only liked to design their own jewelry, but also enjoyed emulating the jeweled adornments they'd see in fancy, high-end department stores. "They'll come from [the department store] across the street and design a piece like the one they just saw," explains Cain, who offers her patrons a wide selection of semiprecious gems. "People feel the value they're getting."
With her Femmegems idea in mind, Cain went hunting for retail space in New York City's NoLIta neighborhood. After finding the perfect location, Cain opened her store's doors in November 2002, and just six weeks later, the store was featured in an article in the "Style" section of The New York Times.
The resulting business kept Cain and her staff busy for weeks-and even garnered attention from buyers at upscale department store Henri Bendel who asked Cain to open a similar setup in one of their boutiques. Now with two locations, Cain expects about $700,000 in sales this year.
http://www.femmegems.com
Nothing can take away the glow a woman gets when she sees that perfect piece of jewelry-nothing except for an exorbitant price tag, that is. But when customers come to Lindsay Cain's Femmegems store, they're able to bring in pictures of exquisite designer pieces and replicate them at a fraction of the original cost.
Initially, Cain designed and sold jewelry herself, but this 29-year-old found her niche when she realized that other women not only liked to design their own jewelry, but also enjoyed emulating the jeweled adornments they'd see in fancy, high-end department stores. "They'll come from [the department store] across the street and design a piece like the one they just saw," explains Cain, who offers her patrons a wide selection of semiprecious gems. "People feel the value they're getting."
With her Femmegems idea in mind, Cain went hunting for retail space in New York City's NoLIta neighborhood. After finding the perfect location, Cain opened her store's doors in November 2002, and just six weeks later, the store was featured in an article in the "Style" section of The New York Times.
The resulting business kept Cain and her staff busy for weeks-and even garnered attention from buyers at upscale department store Henri Bendel who asked Cain to open a similar setup in one of their boutiques. Now with two locations, Cain expects about $700,000 in sales this year.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
How A Business Started With A Credit Card Got To $25 Million In Annual Sales
Elizabeth Elting And Phil Shawe Story
http://www.transperfect.com/
Right after receiving her MBA, Elizabeth Elting was ready to put it to use. With experience at a translation company, Elting saw a need for a one-stop translation service in the fragmented industry. After teaming up with fellow MBA student Phil Shawe, Elting started TransPerfect Translations with a $5,000 advance on her credit card. Shawe's college dorm room became TransPerfect Translations' office, and they bought a phone line, a fax machine and office supplies, and they rented a computer. Though the partners focused on marketing in the beginning, their material was minimal and inexpensive.
With no full-time employees for the first 18 months of business, Elting and Shawe handled all aspects of the company except for linguistics, for which they hired freelancers. Taking no real salary in the first year, the founders took only what was necessary to cover their rent, reaching sales of $250,000.
Now as one of the top five translation companies worldwide, TransPerfect Translations has evolved from Shawe's dorm room to 19 offices on three continents and now includes a network of 4,000 freelancers. The firm specializes in the finance, pharmaceutical and legal industries and is also the world's largest legal translation company.
With projected sales of $25 million a year, Elting, 37, and Shawe, 34, now have a small staff to help out with TransPerfect Translations' daily operations, but they continue to run lean in order to ensure profitability and reinvestment. "That's the culture of our company," explains Elting. "We're very much focused on making sure we have money before we spend it, so we never have to lay off people." In any language, that translates to success.
http://www.transperfect.com/
Right after receiving her MBA, Elizabeth Elting was ready to put it to use. With experience at a translation company, Elting saw a need for a one-stop translation service in the fragmented industry. After teaming up with fellow MBA student Phil Shawe, Elting started TransPerfect Translations with a $5,000 advance on her credit card. Shawe's college dorm room became TransPerfect Translations' office, and they bought a phone line, a fax machine and office supplies, and they rented a computer. Though the partners focused on marketing in the beginning, their material was minimal and inexpensive.
With no full-time employees for the first 18 months of business, Elting and Shawe handled all aspects of the company except for linguistics, for which they hired freelancers. Taking no real salary in the first year, the founders took only what was necessary to cover their rent, reaching sales of $250,000.
Now as one of the top five translation companies worldwide, TransPerfect Translations has evolved from Shawe's dorm room to 19 offices on three continents and now includes a network of 4,000 freelancers. The firm specializes in the finance, pharmaceutical and legal industries and is also the world's largest legal translation company.
With projected sales of $25 million a year, Elting, 37, and Shawe, 34, now have a small staff to help out with TransPerfect Translations' daily operations, but they continue to run lean in order to ensure profitability and reinvestment. "That's the culture of our company," explains Elting. "We're very much focused on making sure we have money before we spend it, so we never have to lay off people." In any language, that translates to success.
Monday, April 20, 2009
How To Sell $1.2 Million Worth Of Product In 40 Minutes
Denis Simioni Story
http://www.ojonhaircare.com/
Denis Simioni, 38, had owned an advertising and graphic design firm for 15 years in his native Oakville, Ont., when he first happened upon a substance called "ojon." Seven years later that little word has transformed his life, along with the lives of thousands of indigenous Hondurans, who supply ojon oil to his hair-care company, Ojon. Simioni, whose company employs 32 people full-time and projects $40 million in sales this year, says managing an operation with employees spread all over the globe is both exhausting and rewarding.
Here is his story:
How did you go from advertising to hair care?
My ad agency specialized in the beauty industry, so I learned all about launching a brand in this industry. One Saturday my wife came across a little jar in the bathroom with something in it that looked like peanut butter. It had been sitting on our shelf for two years. She called her grandmother, who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and is always sending us natural cures and native remedies. Silvana's grandma told us that the product was ojon oil she'd purchased from an Indian. Silvana's hair was really brittle and broken from swimming and coloring it, so she put some of this stuff in and with just one treatment the difference was incredible.
So you decided to figure out what exactly this mystery goo was?
We changed our vacation from Disneyland (DIS) to Honduras that year so I could track down this Indian. Turns out he was from the Caribbean side of the country, from a Mosquitia rain forest. I contacted a nonprofit group called Mopawi that helps preserve the rain forest and the indigenous tribes who live there. They agreed to take me to meet the Tawira people, whose name actually means "the people of beautiful hair." You could hardly get a better testimonial. What was even better was that I flew into the jungle and was traveling downriver in a mahogany canoe for 5½ hours. Suddenly, we started to see people who weren't wearing any hats. All the other tribes use hats to protect their hair from the sun, but the Tawira put ojon oil in their hair and don't need hats. I met them, saw the process they've used for centuries to collect nuts from the ojon tree and produce the oil. The women unraveled their long hair and showed me how beautiful it was.
Did you know immediately that you could commercialize this product?
Yes. It took several years to secure intellectual-property protection and collaborate on the formula with some skin-care manufacturers from Italy that I'd known from the ad agency. I had fallen in love with this company, Origin Italian, because they were all about passion and purity of ingredients. They didn't have any experience making hair-care products, but they had a laboratory and a boutique manufacturing facility and they specialized in organic ingredients. We formed a partnership with them covering manufacturing costs, and we self-financed the startup.
How did you get the word out about your new product, given how saturated the hair-care market is already?
I had a friend who had a relationship with QVC. I got me a meeting with them, they loved our story and invited us to launch our first product on Dec. 27, 2004, at 10 p.m. As soon as the show aired, we sold out our initial inventory and had a wait list of 3,100 units. A year later, on the same day, we launched our first one-hour show on QVC, and within 40 minutes we sold out $1.2 million of product.
Why has television been so successful for you?
I realized that TV is the medium we need to tell our story and the story of the Tawira. Being on QVC drives our sales month-to-month. We're now their fastest-growing hair brand.
The story of the indigenous people is key to your sales and marketing. Do people ever wonder if you are exploiting these natives?
Yes, we're always fighting that perception because of all the past exploitation. That's why we've continued to work through the nonprofit organization, whose president is a Tawira himself and speaks their language. Because we are buying so much product from them, at a price about 230% higher than what they used to get, we've provided full-time work for more than 1,000 Tawira in about 30 villages in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. We've also provided them with scholarships, safety equipment, and education. They have elected indigenous committees to negotiate with Mopawi and with Ojon Corp., mostly made up of the women who produce 80% of the oil. Now they are purchasing land in one of the larger villages that has schools and a hospital, so their kids can have better lives.
How much have their lives changed because of your company?
They are still incredibly, incredibly poor and their development is decades behind what we know. But they used to support themselves by subsistence farming and deep-sea diving for lobsters, which was very dangerous. The children used to dive instead of going to school. Now that each of them can earn about $300 a year making ojon oil (they made about $67 annually in the past), a lot of them have switched over to that. I'm looking into building schools in their villages. I want to do that in partnership with the government, so that they'll have qualified teachers and materials.
You could have set up an operation to harvest the ojon nuts and produce the oil with modern technology, bypassing the indigenous producers. Why not do that?
I fell in love with these people. They have absolutely nothing in the world, but spend a week with them and you'll see that they are always smiling, calm, and peaceful. It's difficult because of the language barriers, their lack of education, and their remote locations. There's no telephone in these villages, and everything moves slower there. They're not on any time clock. But they believe that I was sent by God to help them and they've put me on this pedestal. I feel it's my calling to live up to that.
http://www.ojonhaircare.com/
Denis Simioni, 38, had owned an advertising and graphic design firm for 15 years in his native Oakville, Ont., when he first happened upon a substance called "ojon." Seven years later that little word has transformed his life, along with the lives of thousands of indigenous Hondurans, who supply ojon oil to his hair-care company, Ojon. Simioni, whose company employs 32 people full-time and projects $40 million in sales this year, says managing an operation with employees spread all over the globe is both exhausting and rewarding.
Here is his story:
How did you go from advertising to hair care?
My ad agency specialized in the beauty industry, so I learned all about launching a brand in this industry. One Saturday my wife came across a little jar in the bathroom with something in it that looked like peanut butter. It had been sitting on our shelf for two years. She called her grandmother, who lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and is always sending us natural cures and native remedies. Silvana's grandma told us that the product was ojon oil she'd purchased from an Indian. Silvana's hair was really brittle and broken from swimming and coloring it, so she put some of this stuff in and with just one treatment the difference was incredible.
So you decided to figure out what exactly this mystery goo was?
We changed our vacation from Disneyland (DIS) to Honduras that year so I could track down this Indian. Turns out he was from the Caribbean side of the country, from a Mosquitia rain forest. I contacted a nonprofit group called Mopawi that helps preserve the rain forest and the indigenous tribes who live there. They agreed to take me to meet the Tawira people, whose name actually means "the people of beautiful hair." You could hardly get a better testimonial. What was even better was that I flew into the jungle and was traveling downriver in a mahogany canoe for 5½ hours. Suddenly, we started to see people who weren't wearing any hats. All the other tribes use hats to protect their hair from the sun, but the Tawira put ojon oil in their hair and don't need hats. I met them, saw the process they've used for centuries to collect nuts from the ojon tree and produce the oil. The women unraveled their long hair and showed me how beautiful it was.
Did you know immediately that you could commercialize this product?
Yes. It took several years to secure intellectual-property protection and collaborate on the formula with some skin-care manufacturers from Italy that I'd known from the ad agency. I had fallen in love with this company, Origin Italian, because they were all about passion and purity of ingredients. They didn't have any experience making hair-care products, but they had a laboratory and a boutique manufacturing facility and they specialized in organic ingredients. We formed a partnership with them covering manufacturing costs, and we self-financed the startup.
How did you get the word out about your new product, given how saturated the hair-care market is already?
I had a friend who had a relationship with QVC. I got me a meeting with them, they loved our story and invited us to launch our first product on Dec. 27, 2004, at 10 p.m. As soon as the show aired, we sold out our initial inventory and had a wait list of 3,100 units. A year later, on the same day, we launched our first one-hour show on QVC, and within 40 minutes we sold out $1.2 million of product.
Why has television been so successful for you?
I realized that TV is the medium we need to tell our story and the story of the Tawira. Being on QVC drives our sales month-to-month. We're now their fastest-growing hair brand.
The story of the indigenous people is key to your sales and marketing. Do people ever wonder if you are exploiting these natives?
Yes, we're always fighting that perception because of all the past exploitation. That's why we've continued to work through the nonprofit organization, whose president is a Tawira himself and speaks their language. Because we are buying so much product from them, at a price about 230% higher than what they used to get, we've provided full-time work for more than 1,000 Tawira in about 30 villages in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. We've also provided them with scholarships, safety equipment, and education. They have elected indigenous committees to negotiate with Mopawi and with Ojon Corp., mostly made up of the women who produce 80% of the oil. Now they are purchasing land in one of the larger villages that has schools and a hospital, so their kids can have better lives.
How much have their lives changed because of your company?
They are still incredibly, incredibly poor and their development is decades behind what we know. But they used to support themselves by subsistence farming and deep-sea diving for lobsters, which was very dangerous. The children used to dive instead of going to school. Now that each of them can earn about $300 a year making ojon oil (they made about $67 annually in the past), a lot of them have switched over to that. I'm looking into building schools in their villages. I want to do that in partnership with the government, so that they'll have qualified teachers and materials.
You could have set up an operation to harvest the ojon nuts and produce the oil with modern technology, bypassing the indigenous producers. Why not do that?
I fell in love with these people. They have absolutely nothing in the world, but spend a week with them and you'll see that they are always smiling, calm, and peaceful. It's difficult because of the language barriers, their lack of education, and their remote locations. There's no telephone in these villages, and everything moves slower there. They're not on any time clock. But they believe that I was sent by God to help them and they've put me on this pedestal. I feel it's my calling to live up to that.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Poop Scooping Millionaires
Matthew Osborn
http://www.pooper-scooper.com
Matt Boswell
http://www.petbutler.com
The most noted pioneer in the poop-scooping business is Matthew Osborn, who runs Pooper-Scooper.com. He never knew that this business would one day make him a millionaire. Osborn got started back in 1987 when he opened Pet Butler in Columbus, Ohio. "I had been interested in small-business ideas since I was a kid," he says. "My friends thought it was an interesting but far-out idea, and many of them just couldn't grasp the concept. They all said, 'People aren't going to pay you for that.'"
At the time, Osborn was working two full-time jobs and making less than $6 per hour at each. He had a wife, a daughter and a son on the way, and was desperate to make some extra money. Osborn began doing research at the local library, studying the area's demographics and census data. He eventually contacted the county auditor and learned that there were about 100,000 dogs within 15 miles of his home."I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got started with very little money," he says.
The business slowly took off, and despite the dirty work, Osborn says he enjoyed satisfying the customers and working outdoors in some of the nicest backyards in Ohio. However, it wasn't all fun and games. "I didn't enjoy driving around in my little Honda Civic with hundreds of pounds of dog poop in the back," he says. "It sort of gave me nightmares until I was able to buy pickup trucks for the business."
Eventually Osborn employed seven people and owned a fleet of six trucks serving about 700 regular customers. "I was making more money than ever before and spending most of my time with my family doing the things I enjoyed," he says. After a nearly 10-year run, Osborn sold his business in 1998 and started Pooper-Scooper.com, which contains an international directory of pet waste removal businesses. His newest business venture is that of writer. He recently released a book, "The Professional Pooper-Scooper: How to Start Your Own Low-Cost, High-Profit Dog Waste Removal Service."
While Osborn may have put poop scooping on the map, Matt "Red" Boswell is taking it into the future. Boswell owns the Texas-based Pet Butler. He recently moved the business out of his house and into a 1,200-square-foot office just north of Dallas. Today, Pet Butler is the largest pet waste removal service in the country, and serves about 3,000 clients.
"Most of our customers are middle and upper-middle income," says Boswell. "But can you think of anyone who wants to clean up dog poop or cat poop?"
Boswell explains that at an average of just $10 per visit, nearly anyone can afford Pet Butler's services. "Rarely is Pet Butler considered a luxury service by those who use us," he says. "Most consider Pet Butler a mandatory and highly valued staple for their yard maintenance needs."
Boswell, 35, hasn't always been the poop-scoop king he is today. Back in 1997 he was near bankruptcy after his Internet start-up venture crashed and burned. After months of false starts and dead ends, his girlfriend suggested starting a poop-scooping business. "I was quite offended she thought I would even do it," Boswell says. But figuring he had nothing to lose, he launched Pet Butler in 1998. "It failed miserably," he says. "But I was done quitting. I didn't care if everybody on the planet thought I was an idiot. I dropped all pride. I was determined to make it happen."
Two years later Pet Butler was still struggling, but through relentless marketing, a little press, and word-of-mouth referrals, he finally started making some headway.
Boswell, who refers to himself as Pet Butler's "chief excrement officer," is quick to point out that he's not just some executive in a suit, but that he's paid his dues and gotten his hands dirty -- literally. "I have personally scooped over a million piles of poop," he says proudly. "I have had more than a few make me literally gag. Even the dogs wouldn't go near them."
The company has seven employees working in the field scooping poop, and six in the office who help run the day-to-day business operations. Boswell admits it's not what'd you call a glamorous job, and there are some occupational hazards.
"This job has caused some guys to lose more than their share of girlfriends," Boswell says.
And Boswell says that most of his "Fecal Matter Removal Technicians" have to occasionally deal with temperamental "clients." "Most technicians will normally get bitten sometime in their first six months because they get lazy and too trusting," he says. "Fortunately that is all it takes for the tech to never let it happen again."
Boswell is in the midst of launching Pet Butler Franchise Services Corp., and foresees Pet Butler franchises popping up all over the country. And despite his unorthodox and some would say unsavory career choice, Boswell says he has long gotten over any embarrassment he had over his job, and actually relishes the attention. "I love when people ask what I do for a living," he says. "People just can't get enough of the idea that we actually scoop poop for a living."
Of course, when your company is projected to gross over a million dollars and you have nearly 20 franchises sprouting up all over the country, including 10 in the Dallas/Forth Worth area, it helps ease the embarrassment. In fact it was Boswell's success story that landed him a gig as guest speaker at last year's Pooper Scooper Round-Up in Houston. Boswell was also awarded the Golden Shovel for winning the Turd Herding contest. However, there was some controversy over his technique. "He decided to forgo tools, and just grabbed the turds and stuffed them inside his slacks," says aPaws president Ewing, who came in second. "This is not a technique that is used in the field, so I protested his win, but the board voted against me."
Boswell says he's put the controversy behind him and is focusing on the future goals of Pet Butler. In fact they're posted on a big bulletin board in the new office above the printer: "By June 2010 Pet Butler will support at least 100 franchises across North America. We will serve more than 50,000 clients each week, and offer service to over 50 million people in North America and collect in excess of $500,000 each week and donate $100,000 to pet-friendly organizations each year."
"We've got some huge goals," Boswell says. "It's an industry that's untapped. We plan on becoming the Microsoft of dog poop."
http://www.pooper-scooper.com
Matt Boswell
http://www.petbutler.com
The most noted pioneer in the poop-scooping business is Matthew Osborn, who runs Pooper-Scooper.com. He never knew that this business would one day make him a millionaire. Osborn got started back in 1987 when he opened Pet Butler in Columbus, Ohio. "I had been interested in small-business ideas since I was a kid," he says. "My friends thought it was an interesting but far-out idea, and many of them just couldn't grasp the concept. They all said, 'People aren't going to pay you for that.'"
At the time, Osborn was working two full-time jobs and making less than $6 per hour at each. He had a wife, a daughter and a son on the way, and was desperate to make some extra money. Osborn began doing research at the local library, studying the area's demographics and census data. He eventually contacted the county auditor and learned that there were about 100,000 dogs within 15 miles of his home."I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got started with very little money," he says.
The business slowly took off, and despite the dirty work, Osborn says he enjoyed satisfying the customers and working outdoors in some of the nicest backyards in Ohio. However, it wasn't all fun and games. "I didn't enjoy driving around in my little Honda Civic with hundreds of pounds of dog poop in the back," he says. "It sort of gave me nightmares until I was able to buy pickup trucks for the business."
Eventually Osborn employed seven people and owned a fleet of six trucks serving about 700 regular customers. "I was making more money than ever before and spending most of my time with my family doing the things I enjoyed," he says. After a nearly 10-year run, Osborn sold his business in 1998 and started Pooper-Scooper.com, which contains an international directory of pet waste removal businesses. His newest business venture is that of writer. He recently released a book, "The Professional Pooper-Scooper: How to Start Your Own Low-Cost, High-Profit Dog Waste Removal Service."
While Osborn may have put poop scooping on the map, Matt "Red" Boswell is taking it into the future. Boswell owns the Texas-based Pet Butler. He recently moved the business out of his house and into a 1,200-square-foot office just north of Dallas. Today, Pet Butler is the largest pet waste removal service in the country, and serves about 3,000 clients.
"Most of our customers are middle and upper-middle income," says Boswell. "But can you think of anyone who wants to clean up dog poop or cat poop?"
Boswell explains that at an average of just $10 per visit, nearly anyone can afford Pet Butler's services. "Rarely is Pet Butler considered a luxury service by those who use us," he says. "Most consider Pet Butler a mandatory and highly valued staple for their yard maintenance needs."
Boswell, 35, hasn't always been the poop-scoop king he is today. Back in 1997 he was near bankruptcy after his Internet start-up venture crashed and burned. After months of false starts and dead ends, his girlfriend suggested starting a poop-scooping business. "I was quite offended she thought I would even do it," Boswell says. But figuring he had nothing to lose, he launched Pet Butler in 1998. "It failed miserably," he says. "But I was done quitting. I didn't care if everybody on the planet thought I was an idiot. I dropped all pride. I was determined to make it happen."
Two years later Pet Butler was still struggling, but through relentless marketing, a little press, and word-of-mouth referrals, he finally started making some headway.
Boswell, who refers to himself as Pet Butler's "chief excrement officer," is quick to point out that he's not just some executive in a suit, but that he's paid his dues and gotten his hands dirty -- literally. "I have personally scooped over a million piles of poop," he says proudly. "I have had more than a few make me literally gag. Even the dogs wouldn't go near them."
The company has seven employees working in the field scooping poop, and six in the office who help run the day-to-day business operations. Boswell admits it's not what'd you call a glamorous job, and there are some occupational hazards.
"This job has caused some guys to lose more than their share of girlfriends," Boswell says.
And Boswell says that most of his "Fecal Matter Removal Technicians" have to occasionally deal with temperamental "clients." "Most technicians will normally get bitten sometime in their first six months because they get lazy and too trusting," he says. "Fortunately that is all it takes for the tech to never let it happen again."
Boswell is in the midst of launching Pet Butler Franchise Services Corp., and foresees Pet Butler franchises popping up all over the country. And despite his unorthodox and some would say unsavory career choice, Boswell says he has long gotten over any embarrassment he had over his job, and actually relishes the attention. "I love when people ask what I do for a living," he says. "People just can't get enough of the idea that we actually scoop poop for a living."
Of course, when your company is projected to gross over a million dollars and you have nearly 20 franchises sprouting up all over the country, including 10 in the Dallas/Forth Worth area, it helps ease the embarrassment. In fact it was Boswell's success story that landed him a gig as guest speaker at last year's Pooper Scooper Round-Up in Houston. Boswell was also awarded the Golden Shovel for winning the Turd Herding contest. However, there was some controversy over his technique. "He decided to forgo tools, and just grabbed the turds and stuffed them inside his slacks," says aPaws president Ewing, who came in second. "This is not a technique that is used in the field, so I protested his win, but the board voted against me."
Boswell says he's put the controversy behind him and is focusing on the future goals of Pet Butler. In fact they're posted on a big bulletin board in the new office above the printer: "By June 2010 Pet Butler will support at least 100 franchises across North America. We will serve more than 50,000 clients each week, and offer service to over 50 million people in North America and collect in excess of $500,000 each week and donate $100,000 to pet-friendly organizations each year."
"We've got some huge goals," Boswell says. "It's an industry that's untapped. We plan on becoming the Microsoft of dog poop."
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Profiting From Lost Baggage Big Time
Bryan Owens Story
http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/
In Scottsboro, Alabama, Bryan Owens, 44, is CEO of Unclaimed Baggage, a store started in 1970 by his retired father, Doyle. It may be one store, but what they sell brings in more than 1 million customers per year. Unclaimed Baggage is just what it suggests: a store selling airport luggage that has gone unclaimed. There is so much of it, the retail outlet has expanded over a city block and now attracts visitors from around the world.
Owens, who bought the company from his father in 1996 and watched it grow 400 percent, says Unclaimed Baggage has exclusive long-term contracts with airlines around America, Asia and Europe, ensuring his store is the only one of its kind. It's also proof that the word "trash" should be used with wide latitude.
Every year thousands and thousands of wayward suitcases end up in Scottsboro—specifically, at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. Once an airline has tried and failed to reunite suitcase and owner (a process that varies according to airline), it will compensate the owner and sell the suitcase—and all its contents—to the UBC, which buys suitcases by the truckload and hauls them to its 50,000-square-foot complex in Scottsboro. There the UBC staff sorts through the bags and puts their contents in a showroom (or some of them: others are given to charity, still others discarded), where they can be seen and bought by members of the public. But are people really interested in buying other people's, uh, lost stuff? "We'll have close to a million people come to the store this year," says Bryan Owens, the owner of the UBC, "from every state in America and thirty foreign countries. This is kind of the Mecca for lost bags."
Owens's father started the UBC in 1970, with a rented old house, a borrowed old truck, and a $300 loan. Today the center gets nearly 7,000 new items every day, and Owens says that people can't seem to get enough. "It's a treasure hunt," he says. "Every day is like Christmas here—we never know what we're going to find. Just last week we found a twenty-eight-thousand-dollar tennis bracelet and a one-point-six-karat diamond ring. We've had a medicine-man stick adorned with a shrunken head, and a Nikon camera that was in the Space Shuttle. Back in the eighties we got a well-traveled Gucci suitcase that was packed with artifacts that dated back to 1500 B.C. And once we found a guidance system for an F-16 fighter jet, in a shockproof case from the Department of the U.S. Navy. It was labeled 'Handle With Extreme Caution—I Am Worth My Weight in Gold.'" The UBC sent that one back.
http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/
In Scottsboro, Alabama, Bryan Owens, 44, is CEO of Unclaimed Baggage, a store started in 1970 by his retired father, Doyle. It may be one store, but what they sell brings in more than 1 million customers per year. Unclaimed Baggage is just what it suggests: a store selling airport luggage that has gone unclaimed. There is so much of it, the retail outlet has expanded over a city block and now attracts visitors from around the world.
Owens, who bought the company from his father in 1996 and watched it grow 400 percent, says Unclaimed Baggage has exclusive long-term contracts with airlines around America, Asia and Europe, ensuring his store is the only one of its kind. It's also proof that the word "trash" should be used with wide latitude.
Every year thousands and thousands of wayward suitcases end up in Scottsboro—specifically, at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. Once an airline has tried and failed to reunite suitcase and owner (a process that varies according to airline), it will compensate the owner and sell the suitcase—and all its contents—to the UBC, which buys suitcases by the truckload and hauls them to its 50,000-square-foot complex in Scottsboro. There the UBC staff sorts through the bags and puts their contents in a showroom (or some of them: others are given to charity, still others discarded), where they can be seen and bought by members of the public. But are people really interested in buying other people's, uh, lost stuff? "We'll have close to a million people come to the store this year," says Bryan Owens, the owner of the UBC, "from every state in America and thirty foreign countries. This is kind of the Mecca for lost bags."
Owens's father started the UBC in 1970, with a rented old house, a borrowed old truck, and a $300 loan. Today the center gets nearly 7,000 new items every day, and Owens says that people can't seem to get enough. "It's a treasure hunt," he says. "Every day is like Christmas here—we never know what we're going to find. Just last week we found a twenty-eight-thousand-dollar tennis bracelet and a one-point-six-karat diamond ring. We've had a medicine-man stick adorned with a shrunken head, and a Nikon camera that was in the Space Shuttle. Back in the eighties we got a well-traveled Gucci suitcase that was packed with artifacts that dated back to 1500 B.C. And once we found a guidance system for an F-16 fighter jet, in a shockproof case from the Department of the U.S. Navy. It was labeled 'Handle With Extreme Caution—I Am Worth My Weight in Gold.'" The UBC sent that one back.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sport Fans Score $1 Million From A Bright Idea
Dominic And Brennan Latkovski Story
http://www.zooperstars.com
This wacky mascot troupe makes crowds at games laugh, while behind the scenes is a serious effort to run a professional, respected business.
It's not safe coaching third base -- or any base, for that matter -- when the ZOOperstars are in town. Just ask the countless coaches who have been swallowed whole by 10-foot-tall Clammy Sosa, one of the most popular of the ZOOperstars.
In the mascot troupe's signature bit, the impressively tall inflatable clam clad in a Sammy Sosa jersey greedily "devours" opposing coaches, bat boys, or whoever else happens to be around, then spits out his meal's shirt, shoes, and cap, all while Weird Al Yankovic's Eat It plays in the background.
"Yeah, the Eat It skit is a real favorite," says Dominic Latkovski, who founded ZOOperstars with his brother, Brennan, in 1998. "The crowd loves it."
It's just one reason why the Louisville-based ZOOperstars have turned into one of the hottest sideline acts in the sports world. The company's goal is to perform in 300 shows at various events this year -- from the hardwood of the National Basketball Assn. to the fields of Minor League Baseball, the company's biggest sport. Latkovski says revenue from ZOOperstars may hit $1 million this year.
While event attendance in general has sagged as of late, Minor League Baseball continues to surge in popularity, in large part because teams have set out to create a "fan experience" that includes extra entertainment like ZOOperstars. In 2004, minor league teams drew a record 39.8 million fans, up more than 800,000 over the previous year, according to league statistics.
The ZOOperstars have tried to set themselves apart from the competition (and yes, there is competition, such as the Raymond Entertainment Group, out of Newark, Del., best known for Reggy the Purple Party Dude) by taking a serious approach to business -- despite making a living wearing giant, inflatable costumes. Their attitude is greatly appreciated by harried team executives, who would rather not spend time worrying if the guy in the clam costume will show up late.
"They're real professionals," says Jeff Ney, assistant general manager with the Kane County Cougars, a Class A minor league team in Geneva, Ill., which has hired ZOOperstars seven times during the 2005 season. "They return my calls quickly. They send me the right paperwork and documentation. They send us posters far enough ahead of time so we can promote their appearances. Those little things make all the difference."
"Even though this is nothing more than dressing up in funny costumes, we run this like a business," says Dominic Latkovski (he's the family member who speaks about the startup in this story). "We do everything that is necessary to run a successful business, from marketing to customer service. People look at what we do and think it's easy. But they have no idea how difficult it is to run a business like this."
Among the challenges he cites: coordinating travel across the country, juggling scheduling dates, and constantly dreaming up new characters to keep the shows fresh. Staffers also regularly attend sports trade shows.
But the Latkovskis have always had a fondness for mascots. Dominic, for instance, started performing in 1990 as Billy Bird, the mascot for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds. He soon started his own character, BirdZerk (one he still appears as, though the manic bird is a separate entity from the ZOOperstars cast).
Like many entrepreneurs, the Latkovskis can trace their big idea to small beginnings. Dominic, Brennan, and their father were snacking at an area restaurant when the trio began tossing around ideas for mascots based on existing players, with emphasis on humorous animal concoctions. The idea for the ZOOperstars was born.
The act now consists of 30 giant inflatable animal characters, with such names as Ken Giraffey Jr., Shark McGwire, Shaquille O'Seal, Cow Ripken Jr., and Tiger Woodschuck. The company recently introduced its first female character, Mia Hammster, based on soccer great Mia Hamm.
These creative characters have helped give the ZOOperstars an edge over other mascot troupes. They've been a boon, too, to general managers and promotions staffers who need to fill large home schedules with unique acts.
"Visually, to me, the ZOOperstars are the best act and entertainment there is out there," says Mike Nutter, general manager for the Fort Wayne Wizards, a Class A minor league team in Indiana. "Before they even get into their skits, some of the kids absolutely lose it just seeing the appearance of these characters. They're larger than life. It's like a live cartoon."
Adding to the entertainment value, a dozen or so of the performers -- playing Clammy Sosa, Harry Canary, Stallion Iverson, and other characters -- are former gymnasts or cheerleaders who already know how to play to a crowd.
Like the the four-person office staff in Louisville, the troupe members out in the field have received high marks for their customer service -- a lifeline for this small business that, like many, relies on word-of-mouth advertising.
"They're so well organized with what they need, everything from how many breaks they'll need in a game to how many towels or bottles of water they'll need," says Ney. "They'll tell us if they need an umpire's uniform for a skit, whatever it is, so that we'll be sure to have it when the time comes."
The ZOOperstars also take notes while working for a team. That way, when the troupe comes back for a return engagement, they'll already know the names of the team's officials, where the dugouts are located, and where the entrances and exits to the field sit.
"That may not seem like much of a big deal, but believe me it is," Nutter says. "A lot of times you'll have worked with people for years, and they'll come up to you and say: Now, what's your name again? That doesn't happen with these guys."
The ZOOperstars characters can attribute their popularity in part to their high level of detail. Mackerel Jordan, for example, features a tongue that lolls out of his mouth, just like his real-life counterpart, basketball legend Michael Jordan. Dennis Frogman and Stallion Iverson sport tattoos, just like the real Dennis Rodman and Allen Iverson.
And when Ken Griffey Jr., was traded from the Seattle Mariners to the Cincinnati Reds, his ZOOperstars alter ego, Ken Giraffey Jr., also switched uniforms.
This leads to some tough decisions. When Michael Jordan came out of retirement to join the Washington Wizards, the ZOOperstars decided to leave him in his Chicago Bulls uniform. The reason? Far more people associate Jordan with his championship days in Chicago than with his two seasons in a Wizards jersey.
Such attention to detail doesn't come cheap. The average ZOOperstars costume costs $5,000, estimates Latkovski. They're not easy to lug around, either. The inflatable outfits measure a minimum of 6 feet in height. Shaquille O'Seal stands close to 15 feet. The costumes weigh about 35 pounds -- including the battery packs and motors that keep them inflated.
But without such elaborate and intricate costumes, Latkovski says, the ZOOperstars would hardly stick out in the minds of team officials. "People think they can just get a costume and be a success," notes the entrepreneur. "But it's a lot more than that. People are paying us good money to perform for them. You have to be professional, and you have to offer them something unique. That's the real challenge."
http://www.zooperstars.com
This wacky mascot troupe makes crowds at games laugh, while behind the scenes is a serious effort to run a professional, respected business.
It's not safe coaching third base -- or any base, for that matter -- when the ZOOperstars are in town. Just ask the countless coaches who have been swallowed whole by 10-foot-tall Clammy Sosa, one of the most popular of the ZOOperstars.
In the mascot troupe's signature bit, the impressively tall inflatable clam clad in a Sammy Sosa jersey greedily "devours" opposing coaches, bat boys, or whoever else happens to be around, then spits out his meal's shirt, shoes, and cap, all while Weird Al Yankovic's Eat It plays in the background.
"Yeah, the Eat It skit is a real favorite," says Dominic Latkovski, who founded ZOOperstars with his brother, Brennan, in 1998. "The crowd loves it."
It's just one reason why the Louisville-based ZOOperstars have turned into one of the hottest sideline acts in the sports world. The company's goal is to perform in 300 shows at various events this year -- from the hardwood of the National Basketball Assn. to the fields of Minor League Baseball, the company's biggest sport. Latkovski says revenue from ZOOperstars may hit $1 million this year.
While event attendance in general has sagged as of late, Minor League Baseball continues to surge in popularity, in large part because teams have set out to create a "fan experience" that includes extra entertainment like ZOOperstars. In 2004, minor league teams drew a record 39.8 million fans, up more than 800,000 over the previous year, according to league statistics.
The ZOOperstars have tried to set themselves apart from the competition (and yes, there is competition, such as the Raymond Entertainment Group, out of Newark, Del., best known for Reggy the Purple Party Dude) by taking a serious approach to business -- despite making a living wearing giant, inflatable costumes. Their attitude is greatly appreciated by harried team executives, who would rather not spend time worrying if the guy in the clam costume will show up late.
"They're real professionals," says Jeff Ney, assistant general manager with the Kane County Cougars, a Class A minor league team in Geneva, Ill., which has hired ZOOperstars seven times during the 2005 season. "They return my calls quickly. They send me the right paperwork and documentation. They send us posters far enough ahead of time so we can promote their appearances. Those little things make all the difference."
"Even though this is nothing more than dressing up in funny costumes, we run this like a business," says Dominic Latkovski (he's the family member who speaks about the startup in this story). "We do everything that is necessary to run a successful business, from marketing to customer service. People look at what we do and think it's easy. But they have no idea how difficult it is to run a business like this."
Among the challenges he cites: coordinating travel across the country, juggling scheduling dates, and constantly dreaming up new characters to keep the shows fresh. Staffers also regularly attend sports trade shows.
But the Latkovskis have always had a fondness for mascots. Dominic, for instance, started performing in 1990 as Billy Bird, the mascot for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds. He soon started his own character, BirdZerk (one he still appears as, though the manic bird is a separate entity from the ZOOperstars cast).
Like many entrepreneurs, the Latkovskis can trace their big idea to small beginnings. Dominic, Brennan, and their father were snacking at an area restaurant when the trio began tossing around ideas for mascots based on existing players, with emphasis on humorous animal concoctions. The idea for the ZOOperstars was born.
The act now consists of 30 giant inflatable animal characters, with such names as Ken Giraffey Jr., Shark McGwire, Shaquille O'Seal, Cow Ripken Jr., and Tiger Woodschuck. The company recently introduced its first female character, Mia Hammster, based on soccer great Mia Hamm.
These creative characters have helped give the ZOOperstars an edge over other mascot troupes. They've been a boon, too, to general managers and promotions staffers who need to fill large home schedules with unique acts.
"Visually, to me, the ZOOperstars are the best act and entertainment there is out there," says Mike Nutter, general manager for the Fort Wayne Wizards, a Class A minor league team in Indiana. "Before they even get into their skits, some of the kids absolutely lose it just seeing the appearance of these characters. They're larger than life. It's like a live cartoon."
Adding to the entertainment value, a dozen or so of the performers -- playing Clammy Sosa, Harry Canary, Stallion Iverson, and other characters -- are former gymnasts or cheerleaders who already know how to play to a crowd.
Like the the four-person office staff in Louisville, the troupe members out in the field have received high marks for their customer service -- a lifeline for this small business that, like many, relies on word-of-mouth advertising.
"They're so well organized with what they need, everything from how many breaks they'll need in a game to how many towels or bottles of water they'll need," says Ney. "They'll tell us if they need an umpire's uniform for a skit, whatever it is, so that we'll be sure to have it when the time comes."
The ZOOperstars also take notes while working for a team. That way, when the troupe comes back for a return engagement, they'll already know the names of the team's officials, where the dugouts are located, and where the entrances and exits to the field sit.
"That may not seem like much of a big deal, but believe me it is," Nutter says. "A lot of times you'll have worked with people for years, and they'll come up to you and say: Now, what's your name again? That doesn't happen with these guys."
The ZOOperstars characters can attribute their popularity in part to their high level of detail. Mackerel Jordan, for example, features a tongue that lolls out of his mouth, just like his real-life counterpart, basketball legend Michael Jordan. Dennis Frogman and Stallion Iverson sport tattoos, just like the real Dennis Rodman and Allen Iverson.
And when Ken Griffey Jr., was traded from the Seattle Mariners to the Cincinnati Reds, his ZOOperstars alter ego, Ken Giraffey Jr., also switched uniforms.
This leads to some tough decisions. When Michael Jordan came out of retirement to join the Washington Wizards, the ZOOperstars decided to leave him in his Chicago Bulls uniform. The reason? Far more people associate Jordan with his championship days in Chicago than with his two seasons in a Wizards jersey.
Such attention to detail doesn't come cheap. The average ZOOperstars costume costs $5,000, estimates Latkovski. They're not easy to lug around, either. The inflatable outfits measure a minimum of 6 feet in height. Shaquille O'Seal stands close to 15 feet. The costumes weigh about 35 pounds -- including the battery packs and motors that keep them inflated.
But without such elaborate and intricate costumes, Latkovski says, the ZOOperstars would hardly stick out in the minds of team officials. "People think they can just get a costume and be a success," notes the entrepreneur. "But it's a lot more than that. People are paying us good money to perform for them. You have to be professional, and you have to offer them something unique. That's the real challenge."
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The Most Incredible Record Company You Never Heard About
Andrew Rallo Story
http://www.subwayrecords.com/
Andrew Rallo was standing on a New York City subway platform in his nicest suit, waiting for the B train to take him uptown for an interview at a marketing outfit when he heard music in the distance. The guitarist across the platform wasn't much to look at, but his talent was obvious. "People just started coagulating around this guy," Rallo recalls. "They were talking to each other and smiling and giving him money. They were doing things that New Yorkers don't normally do." And so the idea for Subway Records was born.
For the next two years, Rallo worked as a technical sales engineer for an online advertising company while saving money and scouring the subway for musical talent. He finally launched his fledgling record label and Web site in the fall of 2002. His vision is to create a comprehensive search engine -- a "Google for subway musicians" -- to get their music heard and market its energy to the public.
How does a 26-year-old launch a record company with no experience, no marketing, and no capital behind him? Well, for starters, Rallo has always believed in his mission to bring that unique subterranean energy above ground -- he's committed to helping those who have a surplus of talent but no voice. And he knew he had to take advantage of the most accessible and inexpensive media outlet out there -- the Internet -- while tapping a product that markets itself constantly to the 3 million to 6 million people who ride the New York City subway every day.
Many artists on Rallo's label, like Lorenzo LaRoc, an electric violinist who has played the subway for years, already have their own promotional Web sites. They just need someone to work on their behalf. With Subway Records' backing, LaRoc was able to trade the screech of passing trains for the screams of Madison Square Garden fans. "Playing the halftime show for the Knicks game was a dream come true," he says. "And I got paid $500 for two minutes of work."
To book the performance, Andrew Rallo relied on the age-old practice of cold calling. "To me, it just made sense," he says, "Subway music and Madison Square Garden are the perfect match. I just didn't stop calling until I made it happen."
Believed to be the only search engine for subway musicians, Subway Records delivers its service in tiers. First, it gives musicians Web-based exposure by listing and marketing their music online. Most times, artists have already produced their own albums, and Subway Records sells them on their behalf. However, unlike traditional record labels, the Subway Records musician pays nothing for this service. For its cut, the company charges the consumer an extra couple of dollars on top of the musician's asking price.
Rallo also acts as agent, booking his artists' paying performances at gallery openings and other events for a negotiated fee, generating additional revenue. He's constantly networking to find opportunities for his musicians to perform, and many times event hosts find him via his all-important Web site.
The second tier comes after judging an artist's marketability. If Rallo notices that a musician is working hard to sell CDs online or they're driving a lot of traffic to the site, then he will spend more time and energy on the artist. He'll even fund production of an album for musicians he feels have the potential to sell enough CDs online to be profitable, and the artists take it from there. After all, they're constantly performing -- simultaneously promoting themselves and Subway Records.
Down the line, a select few will be raised to the highest tier -- into the hands of upper-level record executives, who may mold them into bigger sellers. Through his networking skills, Rallo has already seen larger outfits express interest in forming marketing and production partnerships with Subway Records.
Don Gorder, head of the music business/management department at Boston's Berklee School of Music, says Subway Records' model -- using technology to promote a particular niche -- represents "the wave of the future" in the industry. But he warns that the approach remains very much the exception rather than the rule. "We have yet to see a really hot, successful label marketed entirely over the Internet," he says. "But I think it can be done."
Rallo says Subway Records is in the black, and he confesses that much of its growth has come from simply filling a void. "No one else wants to do what we do," he says. "No one has been willing to work with these musicians because of the deep-rooted stigma they carry with them of being bums or beggars."
But Steve Ciabattoni, editor of CMJ, one of the most prominent magazines supporting independent music, says Subway Records shares qualities with some of the most successful indie labels: "They appeal to a loyal fan base because the artists all come from one community and are chosen because the people supporting them really love their music." Ciabattoni, who admits to missing trains after becoming so engrossed by musicians on the platform, adds, "I believe Subway Records will succeed if they keep that spirit." He had been keeping tabs on one of his favorite subway acts, a tribal percussion band called Mecca Bodega, when he learned of its integration into Rallo's growing network.
By the end of 2004, Subway will represent over 200 musicians. And the site's traffic keeps increasing: With no outside marketing, it garners 2,000 to 20,000 hits per week depending on the level of recent media coverage, and fans have purchased almost 200,000 CDs online to date. Rallo is also looking beyond the Big Apple, with plans to sign musicians from Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, and Tokyo over the next few years.
Still, the process remains rooted in simplicity. All subway musicians are subject to the same test: If people interrupt their commute long enough not only to listen but to fork over their hard-earned money, then Rallo knows he has found a winner.
http://www.subwayrecords.com/
Andrew Rallo was standing on a New York City subway platform in his nicest suit, waiting for the B train to take him uptown for an interview at a marketing outfit when he heard music in the distance. The guitarist across the platform wasn't much to look at, but his talent was obvious. "People just started coagulating around this guy," Rallo recalls. "They were talking to each other and smiling and giving him money. They were doing things that New Yorkers don't normally do." And so the idea for Subway Records was born.
For the next two years, Rallo worked as a technical sales engineer for an online advertising company while saving money and scouring the subway for musical talent. He finally launched his fledgling record label and Web site in the fall of 2002. His vision is to create a comprehensive search engine -- a "Google for subway musicians" -- to get their music heard and market its energy to the public.
How does a 26-year-old launch a record company with no experience, no marketing, and no capital behind him? Well, for starters, Rallo has always believed in his mission to bring that unique subterranean energy above ground -- he's committed to helping those who have a surplus of talent but no voice. And he knew he had to take advantage of the most accessible and inexpensive media outlet out there -- the Internet -- while tapping a product that markets itself constantly to the 3 million to 6 million people who ride the New York City subway every day.
Many artists on Rallo's label, like Lorenzo LaRoc, an electric violinist who has played the subway for years, already have their own promotional Web sites. They just need someone to work on their behalf. With Subway Records' backing, LaRoc was able to trade the screech of passing trains for the screams of Madison Square Garden fans. "Playing the halftime show for the Knicks game was a dream come true," he says. "And I got paid $500 for two minutes of work."
To book the performance, Andrew Rallo relied on the age-old practice of cold calling. "To me, it just made sense," he says, "Subway music and Madison Square Garden are the perfect match. I just didn't stop calling until I made it happen."
Believed to be the only search engine for subway musicians, Subway Records delivers its service in tiers. First, it gives musicians Web-based exposure by listing and marketing their music online. Most times, artists have already produced their own albums, and Subway Records sells them on their behalf. However, unlike traditional record labels, the Subway Records musician pays nothing for this service. For its cut, the company charges the consumer an extra couple of dollars on top of the musician's asking price.
Rallo also acts as agent, booking his artists' paying performances at gallery openings and other events for a negotiated fee, generating additional revenue. He's constantly networking to find opportunities for his musicians to perform, and many times event hosts find him via his all-important Web site.
The second tier comes after judging an artist's marketability. If Rallo notices that a musician is working hard to sell CDs online or they're driving a lot of traffic to the site, then he will spend more time and energy on the artist. He'll even fund production of an album for musicians he feels have the potential to sell enough CDs online to be profitable, and the artists take it from there. After all, they're constantly performing -- simultaneously promoting themselves and Subway Records.
Down the line, a select few will be raised to the highest tier -- into the hands of upper-level record executives, who may mold them into bigger sellers. Through his networking skills, Rallo has already seen larger outfits express interest in forming marketing and production partnerships with Subway Records.
Don Gorder, head of the music business/management department at Boston's Berklee School of Music, says Subway Records' model -- using technology to promote a particular niche -- represents "the wave of the future" in the industry. But he warns that the approach remains very much the exception rather than the rule. "We have yet to see a really hot, successful label marketed entirely over the Internet," he says. "But I think it can be done."
Rallo says Subway Records is in the black, and he confesses that much of its growth has come from simply filling a void. "No one else wants to do what we do," he says. "No one has been willing to work with these musicians because of the deep-rooted stigma they carry with them of being bums or beggars."
But Steve Ciabattoni, editor of CMJ, one of the most prominent magazines supporting independent music, says Subway Records shares qualities with some of the most successful indie labels: "They appeal to a loyal fan base because the artists all come from one community and are chosen because the people supporting them really love their music." Ciabattoni, who admits to missing trains after becoming so engrossed by musicians on the platform, adds, "I believe Subway Records will succeed if they keep that spirit." He had been keeping tabs on one of his favorite subway acts, a tribal percussion band called Mecca Bodega, when he learned of its integration into Rallo's growing network.
By the end of 2004, Subway will represent over 200 musicians. And the site's traffic keeps increasing: With no outside marketing, it garners 2,000 to 20,000 hits per week depending on the level of recent media coverage, and fans have purchased almost 200,000 CDs online to date. Rallo is also looking beyond the Big Apple, with plans to sign musicians from Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, and Tokyo over the next few years.
Still, the process remains rooted in simplicity. All subway musicians are subject to the same test: If people interrupt their commute long enough not only to listen but to fork over their hard-earned money, then Rallo knows he has found a winner.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Getting Rich From Dog Manikins
Craig Jones Story
http://www.rescuecritters.com/
To many people in his inner circle, creating life-size models of pets seemed like a silly business for Craig Jones to start. But to him, it made perfect sense.
Jones, 41, sensed a business opportunity after completing a pet first-aid class with the American Red Cross. He discovered that the unrealistic dog manikin they used for training was offered by only one company in the U.S.
Jones, a former emergency response instructor, knew that his background in emergency medicine for humans, coupled with his contacts in the special-effects industry, were the resources he needed to create lifelike animal manikins. Together with his wife and co-founder, Jacqui Pruneda, 39, Jones began designing a true-to-life dog manikin that would fit the training needs of veterinary professionals. "We didn't want it to look like a stuffed animal you would buy at a toy store," he says. "We wanted it to look realistic."
In 1998, Jerry, Rescue Critters' first dog manikin, was born in the couple's garage. The American Red Cross became their first customer, and response to Jerry was so positive that word soon spread throughout the veterinary field. Other manikins quickly followed: Fluffy the cat; Lucky, a life-size rescue training horse; and Critical Care Jerry and Fluffy, more advanced versions of the originals that train students in life-saving techniques such as IV insertion, suturing wounds, intubation, and listening for heart and breath sounds. Primate manikins, birds with real feathers for trimming, and manikins that let users draw blood are in the works.
Rescue Critters has since moved from its garage location to a storefront and now sells its manikins to customers worldwide, including veterinary technician programs, fire departments, U.S. Army canine hospital units and police department K-9 units. Each animal model is made to order, and customers can add features to base-priced models according to their needs. With 20 to 25 requests per year for manikins and projected sales of $1.3 million, it seems like Jones' idea wasn't so silly after all.
http://www.rescuecritters.com/
To many people in his inner circle, creating life-size models of pets seemed like a silly business for Craig Jones to start. But to him, it made perfect sense.
Jones, 41, sensed a business opportunity after completing a pet first-aid class with the American Red Cross. He discovered that the unrealistic dog manikin they used for training was offered by only one company in the U.S.
Jones, a former emergency response instructor, knew that his background in emergency medicine for humans, coupled with his contacts in the special-effects industry, were the resources he needed to create lifelike animal manikins. Together with his wife and co-founder, Jacqui Pruneda, 39, Jones began designing a true-to-life dog manikin that would fit the training needs of veterinary professionals. "We didn't want it to look like a stuffed animal you would buy at a toy store," he says. "We wanted it to look realistic."
In 1998, Jerry, Rescue Critters' first dog manikin, was born in the couple's garage. The American Red Cross became their first customer, and response to Jerry was so positive that word soon spread throughout the veterinary field. Other manikins quickly followed: Fluffy the cat; Lucky, a life-size rescue training horse; and Critical Care Jerry and Fluffy, more advanced versions of the originals that train students in life-saving techniques such as IV insertion, suturing wounds, intubation, and listening for heart and breath sounds. Primate manikins, birds with real feathers for trimming, and manikins that let users draw blood are in the works.
Rescue Critters has since moved from its garage location to a storefront and now sells its manikins to customers worldwide, including veterinary technician programs, fire departments, U.S. Army canine hospital units and police department K-9 units. Each animal model is made to order, and customers can add features to base-priced models according to their needs. With 20 to 25 requests per year for manikins and projected sales of $1.3 million, it seems like Jones' idea wasn't so silly after all.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
How To Make $100000 A Year Uploading CDs To iPods
Catherine Keane Story
http://www.hungrypod.com/
Apple Computer's iPods are everywhere these days, and they're hungry. Just ask Catherine Keane, 24, who started her business, HungryPod, shortly after an acquaintance offered her $500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Keane took the offer and determined that with two more customers paying similar prices, she could launch a business for $1,500--enough to buy a computer that could handle large volumes of data transfer.
Loosely based on what its first client paid, HungryPod charges $1.75 per CD for the first 50 CDs, and $1.50 for each additional CD. Keane will pick up both the CDs and iPods at her clients' homes or offices in Manhattan for an extra $15--unless they have more than 100 discs, in which case pickup is free.
Keane, who interned at a top 40 radio station in Florida prior to starting HungryPod, also recommends music to clients based on their collections for a fee. According to Keane, 1 in 4 customers requests this service.
Thanks in part to a small story in The New York Times, Keane's advertising efforts on Craigslist and word-of-mouth, HungryPod has expanded to three employees and four computers, and has annual sales that exceed $100,000. Now others want to get involved, so Keane has hired a marketing/sales employee and hopes to start HungryPod centers nationwide in the near future.
http://www.hungrypod.com/
Apple Computer's iPods are everywhere these days, and they're hungry. Just ask Catherine Keane, 24, who started her business, HungryPod, shortly after an acquaintance offered her $500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Keane took the offer and determined that with two more customers paying similar prices, she could launch a business for $1,500--enough to buy a computer that could handle large volumes of data transfer.
Loosely based on what its first client paid, HungryPod charges $1.75 per CD for the first 50 CDs, and $1.50 for each additional CD. Keane will pick up both the CDs and iPods at her clients' homes or offices in Manhattan for an extra $15--unless they have more than 100 discs, in which case pickup is free.
Keane, who interned at a top 40 radio station in Florida prior to starting HungryPod, also recommends music to clients based on their collections for a fee. According to Keane, 1 in 4 customers requests this service.
Thanks in part to a small story in The New York Times, Keane's advertising efforts on Craigslist and word-of-mouth, HungryPod has expanded to three employees and four computers, and has annual sales that exceed $100,000. Now others want to get involved, so Keane has hired a marketing/sales employee and hopes to start HungryPod centers nationwide in the near future.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Celebrity Cookies? It Made A Million Dollars For This Person.
Chuck DiRocco Story
http://www.likeums.com
When former investment analyst Chuck DiRocco noticed that cookies were missing from the wide variety of snacks sold in video stores and at theater concessions, he started searching for a way to link cookies to Hollywood. Then the idea hit him: Create cookies in the form of popular movie stars, such as RenŠ¹e Zellweger and Jack Nicholson. One cup of flour, two cups of sugar and three eggs later, the first cast of LikeUms was formed.
DiRocco, 33, spent months surveying moviegoers, analyzing feedback and researching the industry to find out which stars were most popular. Although theater and video chains were initially reluctant to carry his product, he continued to send samples and mass mailings to them in hopes of making his new cookies more recognizable. Before long, in July 2004, DiRocco landed a deal with Regal Entertainment Group, the world's largest motion picture exhibitor, to release LikeUms in select theaters.
As DiRocco continued to market aggressively nationwide, he managed to get LikeUms on the shelves of convenience stores and in amusement parks and gift baskets, pushing sales to more than $400,000 in the first year. Realizing the cookie characters had potential in other venues besides theaters, DiRocco began marketing them to international exporters, school fund-raisers, charity events and corporate offices. Some NBA teams have even sought to create a version of LikeUms to help market their athletes and sporting events.
With sales of more than $1 million in 2005, you can bet DiRocco is enjoying the sweet taste of success. Coming attractions: He plans to expand the line to include more celebrities, including pop singers, radio personalities and entertainers.
http://www.likeums.com
When former investment analyst Chuck DiRocco noticed that cookies were missing from the wide variety of snacks sold in video stores and at theater concessions, he started searching for a way to link cookies to Hollywood. Then the idea hit him: Create cookies in the form of popular movie stars, such as RenŠ¹e Zellweger and Jack Nicholson. One cup of flour, two cups of sugar and three eggs later, the first cast of LikeUms was formed.
DiRocco, 33, spent months surveying moviegoers, analyzing feedback and researching the industry to find out which stars were most popular. Although theater and video chains were initially reluctant to carry his product, he continued to send samples and mass mailings to them in hopes of making his new cookies more recognizable. Before long, in July 2004, DiRocco landed a deal with Regal Entertainment Group, the world's largest motion picture exhibitor, to release LikeUms in select theaters.
As DiRocco continued to market aggressively nationwide, he managed to get LikeUms on the shelves of convenience stores and in amusement parks and gift baskets, pushing sales to more than $400,000 in the first year. Realizing the cookie characters had potential in other venues besides theaters, DiRocco began marketing them to international exporters, school fund-raisers, charity events and corporate offices. Some NBA teams have even sought to create a version of LikeUms to help market their athletes and sporting events.
With sales of more than $1 million in 2005, you can bet DiRocco is enjoying the sweet taste of success. Coming attractions: He plans to expand the line to include more celebrities, including pop singers, radio personalities and entertainers.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Bachelor Party Business That's Anything But Cliche
Darren Hitz Story
http://www.adventurebachelorparty.com/
Darren Hitz knew there had to be something better for bachelor parties than a weekend filled with booze and exotic dancers. Looking beyond this cliche, Hitz, 29, decided to plan a bachelor party around a weekend of adventurous white-water river rafting in West Virginia.
The trip was a blast, and Hitz knew there had to be others looking for the same kind of thrill--and their future wives' approval. After searching for companies that catered specifically to guys' pre-wedding bashes and finding nothing, he took it upon himself to fill the void.
In 2004, Hitz launched Adventure Bachelor Party with about $8,000 of his own money. Hitz's niche market is one he's intimately familiar with--because it's his own. "Guys are lazy," he says. Hitz gives guys nation-wide the chance to do something they may not think to do on their own and also gives his other client base--local adventure outfitters--a chance to be seen on a national level.
Although the cost doesn't include airfare, just about everything else is taken care of once the group lands at its destination: three- or four-star accommodations, lavish dinners, the adventure itself and transportation throughout the trip.
With over 20 adventures, including cattle herding in Texas and fishing off the San Francisco coast, Hitz is looking to expand his trips while keeping them intimate. He has also created three separate businesses under the parent company he formed, Hitz Adventures, for bachelorette parties, corporate team-building trips and weekend adventures.
Not only is Hitz's business taking off--he expects sales of over $300,000 in 2006--but he's having fun, too. Says Hitz, "I enjoy being able to provide a service where everyone has a great time and is happy."
http://www.adventurebachelorparty.com/
Darren Hitz knew there had to be something better for bachelor parties than a weekend filled with booze and exotic dancers. Looking beyond this cliche, Hitz, 29, decided to plan a bachelor party around a weekend of adventurous white-water river rafting in West Virginia.
The trip was a blast, and Hitz knew there had to be others looking for the same kind of thrill--and their future wives' approval. After searching for companies that catered specifically to guys' pre-wedding bashes and finding nothing, he took it upon himself to fill the void.
In 2004, Hitz launched Adventure Bachelor Party with about $8,000 of his own money. Hitz's niche market is one he's intimately familiar with--because it's his own. "Guys are lazy," he says. Hitz gives guys nation-wide the chance to do something they may not think to do on their own and also gives his other client base--local adventure outfitters--a chance to be seen on a national level.
Although the cost doesn't include airfare, just about everything else is taken care of once the group lands at its destination: three- or four-star accommodations, lavish dinners, the adventure itself and transportation throughout the trip.
With over 20 adventures, including cattle herding in Texas and fishing off the San Francisco coast, Hitz is looking to expand his trips while keeping them intimate. He has also created three separate businesses under the parent company he formed, Hitz Adventures, for bachelorette parties, corporate team-building trips and weekend adventures.
Not only is Hitz's business taking off--he expects sales of over $300,000 in 2006--but he's having fun, too. Says Hitz, "I enjoy being able to provide a service where everyone has a great time and is happy."
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