Business Opportunity
Book Update: Finding Your Niche 2017
New book brochure available for download Midwest Book Review Excerpt This updated edition contains more than fifty revisions. New links for educational content are sprinkled throughout chapters. You’ll find an article reprint on work-life balance and time management issues. And fifteen book titles have been added with an asterisk to the bibliography. A children’s book, […]
Starting a Restaurant on a Shoestring
The Great Food Truck Race The second season of Food Network TVs program inspired many budding restaurant owners short of cash to ease into the industry by starting with a truck. However, it’s a crowded field, and unless a prospective entrepreneur has an angle or is planning to work for someone else who’s already in the […]
Good Indexing
A Profession in which Good Workers Can’t be Replaced with Technology If you have ever repeatedly thumbed through an index in frustration, trying and failing to find the correct page number for an important passage which you forgot to plaster with a sticky note, highlight, or dog ear, then you know the value and importance […]
Unique Gel Candles
Missed Opportunity Lynn Thomas was awestruck by the unusual artistic candles that she discovered at an outdoor market. She was curious about the production method, but the vendor refused to answer questions about how the product was made, explaining that her brother created the products. Thomas bought a candle, and through lengthy trial and error […]
Making Money in Hollywood
Spotting a Unique Niche In the 1970s, Rick Washburn wanted to be an actor and landed minor roles as a hitman and an FBI agent in several movies, according to business editor Paul Barrett. But Wasburn discovered that he could make a lot more money in Hollywood by using specialized knowledge from his childhood. While […]
Turning a Hobby into a Business
The Nature Company, Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company, & Famous Amos Cookies are a few examples of early startup companies that were inspired by leisure time activities. Using a pastime as the basis of a business won’t work for everyone, but some budding entrepreneurs successfully turn their leisure time activities into profitable ventures. Important questions to think about […]
Food Industry Gossip: American Government Bans Canadian Bacon
Bacon lovers who favor the Peameal brand were hit last March with a distressing new policy from the USDA, which issued FSIS Directive 95008.8, which states that consumers interested in personal consumption of any “meat, poultry, shell eggs, or egg products can no longer import those items into the USA by Postal Service or courier.” […]
Tea for Nobody
Strange Business When the North American division of the Kraft Corporation bought out a small company, one of the divisions in the acquisition manufactured and sold a popular tea, with a profit of a million dollars annually. However, someone in upper management decided to close the tea company, despite protests. There is a popular brand […]
Building a Hair Care Business
Finding Their Niche In the early 1900s, while her competitors focused on products that straightened African-American hair, Sarah B. McWilliams, who changed her name to Madam C.J. Walker, developed products that helped women of color to grow healthy hair. In the 1980s, Paul Mitchell and John Paul Dejoria started a company that focused on selling […]