From Police Work To Sauerkraut

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http://willsvalley.com/

Tom forrest, owner of Wills Valley & Forrest Acre Farm in Lancaster, maintains that sauerkraut, done right, doesn’t need refrigeration or a warehouse. “There’s not a whole lot of equipment that we use,” he explains of Wills Valley, his minimalist organic vegetable fermentation production. “We’re taking [the product] right out of the crock, putting it in a jar and putting a lid on it.”

Raw food fermentation, the art of processing using microorganisms, preserves fresh vegetables, dairy, and dried meats by enabling healthful bacterial strands and yeasts to break down food in the absence of oxygen. This process alters flavor and texture while increasing the available nutrient content. The aging process can take weeks – in some cases months – giving craft foods like cheeses, beer and chocolate distinct and subtle flavors.

Forrest ferments vegetables the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch way, with 52 original stoneware crocks, each holding up to 65 pounds of vegetables. The farm workers pack the produce weekly with sea salt and water, sourcing certified organic vegetables by the truckload from small organic farms, mostly within the immediate region. In addition to kraut, Wills Valley makes salty, sour, and slightly sweet pickled beets, kimchee and ginger carrots.

Forrest, a former policeman, quit the force in 2000 at the age of 30 to start his first farm in Salem, N.J. He bought Wills Valley from Tim Bock, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer and retired engineer, whom he had met at a farmers market. Bock, who began work at the farm by making sauerkraut from a family recipe, was ready to retire.

Acquiring an old-fashioned fermentation practice proved to be a solid business move, but also spoke to Forrest on a gut level. The traditional fermenting method is, in all likelihood, older than fire and is practiced by most native cultures. In recent years, fermentation has been popularized by food activists, including Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions) and Sandor Katz (Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved).

Forrest, an avid follower of Fallon and professional acquaintance of Katz, believes in traditional methods of processing foods, which do not include preservatives, stabilizers or refrigeration. When he brought the Wills Valley product to the Kutztown market, he found older patrons were nostalgic, recalling kraut-making as their first job. With current culture putting more focus on avoiding frozen and commercially-processed foods of the post-World War II era, Forrest sees his products playing an important role in both our culinary history and future.

[Via - GridPhilly]

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Million Dollar Ideas - Canopy Tours

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http://www.navitat.com/

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ken Stamps spotted a business idea thousands of miles from his Michigan home, in rainforest-rich Costa Rica, where a popular tourist attraction sends travelers soaring through the treetops on a pulley.

"There are far fewer Costa Rica-type canopy tours in the U.S.," said Stamps. In contrast, most American zip-lining companies are at manmade attractions, such as theme parks or water parks and not in a tree canopy.

After 27 years in the architecture and engineering industry near Detroit, Stamps was hungry for a career change. In 2009, he launched -- with partners Sam and John Walker, a father-son team -- Navitat Canopy Adventures, a zip-lining-tour company in densely wooded areas it leases in Asheville, N.C.; and Wrightwood, Calif.

The company set up cables atop sloped areas of the woods. Participants are strapped into a harness that's attached to a pulley, then gravity sends them sailing among the treetops.

In October 2010, just six months after opening its first facility (242 acres in Asheville), Navitat passed over the $1 million in revenues mark. "We all celebrated," said Stamps. "We had a little Champagne." By the end of November, 16,000 guests had visited the Asheville facility. Last year, the number increased to 22,000, which included visitors to the Wrightwood, Calif., facility that opened in July.

Zip-lining tours are on the rise in the United States, with the first few arriving only a decade ago. "We were the first builder that I was aware of in 2002," said Dave Gustafson of EBL Canopy Tours -- which installed canopy lines until 2005 and now operates zip-lining tours in several U.S. cities.

"We believe there's about 250 courses in the U.S. and about 36 million zips were taken last year," Gustafson said. Familiar with Navitat, he praised the design, which was built by John Walker's other company, Bonsai Design.

"John tends to be an artistic, flair kind of guy," said Gustafson. "His courses are pretty."

Stamps' goal is to inject an eco-friendly aspect into the tours, such as schooling in local flora and fauna, to make these more than "thrill rides in the forest," he said.

Fueled by the vision of a gorgeous, conservation-minded course, Stamps and the Walkers put $1.5 million of their own money into the business. Still, there were challenges. The welcome center they designed from the ground up was too cramped to serve visitors' needs, and they were forced to expand it.

Another problem was underestimating how many employees they'd need to keep the courses running. Because of the highly specialized skill set, a lot of time, money and thought are put into staffing and training. Stamps will often look at competitors to find employees already familiar with zip-lining.

Training in groups of between eight and 10, potential employees complete 70 hours of required technical training, plus an additional 30 hours of interpretive training on local plant ecology, culture and history. Guides are then required to complete an additional four hours of technical and interpretive training each month they are on the job.

"If they didn't pass all of that training they aren't offered a job," said Stamps. Individuals who manage each location are treated as partners. There are about 40 guides at each location, in addition to managers and sales staff.

Turning to outside help was a lifesaver. An environmental-planning employee hired by Stamps helps design the courses -- making sure the environment does not get destroyed in the building process. The staffer also trains tour guides in interpreting flora and fauna. Wanting to offer a top-notch experience, the Walkers attended Disney Institute to learn how to replicate the storied Disney experience provided to guests at Walt Disney World.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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Making Million Raising Wild Buffalo

Book of the day - The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions


http://wildideabuffalo.com/

Dan O'Brien, the owner of a 3,200-acre ranch in Rapid City, S.D., had been raising a few buffalo with his wife since 1997. But the hobby was proving costly.

"We wanted to make this a better place for our (buffalo) herds," said the 64-year-old, a wildlife biologist. "The way to do that was to play the business card."

Dan decided to farm buffalo for commercial consumption.

In recent years, bison has become more popular as a healthier alternative to other red meats, because it is leaner and has lower cholesterol.

Demand for the meat grew 10 percent in 2011, the sixth straight year of double-digit growth, according to the National Buffalo Association.

Wild Idea Buffalo Co. -- which raises and processes meat from herds of bison in South Dakota -- started on a small scale in 1997.

"The first year we slaughtered three or four buffalo and sold them to family and friends," Dan said. "We sent out 50 or so boxes."

In December, Wild Idea, bolstered by the opening of their processing plant in May, crossed over the $1-million-in-revenues mark, essentially doubling its business from the year prior. To staff the new plant, they hired 10 more employees, bringing the total to 14.

"We set $1 million in 2011 as our goal," said Jill, 48, his wife and business partner. "In November, we were thinking 'Are we going to make it?'

But by December, they were sure that they would hit their goal, because of the number of gift boxes that were ordered, said Dan. Afterwards, "we did a little happy dance," he said.

Jill met Dan when he made a sales call to her Rapid City restaurant 14 years ago to sell bison. She was impressed with the quality of the meat and taste. Today, Jill, who grew up on a prairie, helps Wild Idea by developing recipes. She's also working on a cookbook.

In the past 15 years, the O'Briens have grown their herd from 13 baby buffalo to 300. They also process buffalo sourced from five other ranchers and Native Americans at a nearby reservation.

South Dakota has the most bison producers in the country. But the O'Briens are not too worried about competition. Their bison are grass-fed, free-roaming, antibiotic- and hormone-free, as well as humanely treated, creating a high quality meat, Jill said.

One of the company's largest roadblocks is shipping.

"The biggest challenge was finding out how to get it to people in an affordable fashion. That remains the one thing that we continue to work on," said Jill, who constantly checks rates for refrigerated shipments via FedEx, UPS and other means.

Enduring long days is also a challenge. "My phone starts ringing at 6:30 a.m.," said Dan, who then pursues morning chores while Jill runs over to their retail store in Rapid City. Their day is spent caring for the buffalo and managing office tasks like invoicing and marketing. It wraps up around 8 p.m.

Bringing back the buffalo population is the couple's ultimate goal. Bison were killed off in a span of 100 to 150 years, Dan said. Between 40 and 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains prior to 1600. By 1900 there were less than 1,000, and today there are around 450,000 in North America, he added.

"We're working with folks to build the herds and bring the buffalo back," said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association. "Dan has carved out a really strong area: the desire for small-scale, grass-fed production." According to the USDA, 50,000 heads of bison are processed each year, compared to 125,000 heads a day in the beef industry.

Right now "demand exceeds the supply," Carter said.

Wild Idea Buffalo's meat appears on menus at Toro in Boston and Catalyst Restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., and butchers that include Dean & DeLuca and Ottomanelli Butcher Shoppe in New York City.

"It's the only meat I eat. I'd been a vegetarian for 10 years prior to trying buffalo meat," said Steve Gully, owner of Country Meat Market in Goleta, Calif., and a buyer of Wild Idea Buffalo's bison meat for the last year. "It's a little sweeter and has an all-around good, hearty taste. On a daily basis, I'll have two or three phone calls inquiring about the bison cuts I have."

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

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Cool Startups - ScootNetworks.Com

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http://www.scootnetworks.com/

Scoot Networks wants to be the Zipcar of electric scooters. Scoot unveiled its service, still in a closed "alpha" testing period at the Launch conference in San Francisco, the location where Scoot will initially kick off its service.

Scoot is targeted at regular urban commuters who might otherwise attempt to dash around the city via taxi, bus or train, as well as those who might use the service to get around town only once in awhile. What's more, the scooters are controlled by your smartphone—you can reserve a car through an app on your iPhone, and then the phone in effect becomes your key, and dashboard. The scooter starts when you plug in the phone.

The company says it is a hybrid of three new but proven technologies: Chinese electric motorbikes (tens of millions are on the road, growing by over 10 million per year); European bike sharing (hundreds of cities have deployed such systems in recent years); and real-time, mobile transportation services (e.g. GetAround, Uber). The scooters top out at about 30 mph.

Scoot Networks expects to charge about $5 an hour for a trip, though monthly deals will be available for regular riders. At the start, users will only be able to reserve round-trips. Scoot will provide helmets, and handle theft and insurance requirements.

The company comes out of a GreenStart accelerator program, which helps entrepreneurs build clean tech initiatives. Scoot certainly found a favorable audience at Launch. Tim Young, the co-founder of About.me and one of the judges evaluating start-ups at the event, offered to write Scoot a $50,000 check on stage.

[Via - USAToday, НТ - BeerCoupons]

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Doba Review

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Have you ever thought about setting up your own online store but got put off by the necessary paperwork, a need of big financial investment and too much potential risk? Well, have you ever heard of drop-shipping? Exactly. It’s a way of moving goods from the manufacturer directly to the retailer without going through the usual distribution channels. There are many companies on the market offering drop-shipping softwares and solutions; one of them is Doba from the United States, the industry leader.

Jeremy Hanks, the Co-Founder and Chairman of Doba, explains how it works. “We’ve provided a web platform so that small-business retailers that are selling predominantly through e-commerce can come online and access an inventory and fulfillment system. We help retailers find products to sell and help wholesale providers find retailers to distribute their products.”

According to Doba, all you need to do is find the products you want to sell, list products for sale across the web and fulfill orders without having to store, pack or ship anything. They guarantee the lowest drop-ship price. And they also provide a Money Back Guarantee in case you’re unable to recoup on your initial purchase in product sales by the end of your membership.

At the moment, you can choose three different subscriptions depending on various options like supplier access (core or pro), size of your inventory (between 1K and 25K), Pre-Pay possibility (on or off) and Elite Seller Report feature (on or off). There is Doba ($59.95 per month or $599.50 per year), Doba Advanced ($69.95 per month or $699.50 per year) and Doba Pro ($89.95 per month or $899.50 per year.

Once signed in, you’re going to have access to more than one and a half million products consolidated into one catalogue which you can search through by category, brand, price etc. You’re going to create your own Inventory List which you can customize and edit according to your needs. You’re going to be able to Push to Facebook and eBay. You’re going to have access to training materials, special deals and many other available features. It’s too good not to try it.

And you can try it any time and for free! The company is now offering a 7-day trial (here is a coupon for 14-day free trial). You provide your email address (future username) and create a password, fill in your contact and credit card details in case any sales are billed during this period. You can sign in from any country all over the world; however, Doba only operates within the United States. This means that all your activity, i.e. sales, marketing and client service is going to be focused and operating in the U.S. Taking under consideration that the U.S Retail Industry operates in trillions of Dollars, there’s plenty of market share for everybody.

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[Via - Madconomist.Com]

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Unusual Startups - Greenvelope

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http://www.greenvelope.com/

Sam Franklin is not engaged to be married, but he spends most of his time thinking about wedding invitations.

In fact, the Seattle native, a marketing and entrepreneurship major at Washington University in St. Louis, is all about the bridal business. He started Greenvelope, an upscale electronic invitation service for formal events, from his dorm room in late 2010. Franklin, 21, got the idea after reading in USA Today that couples sent 1.2 million electronic wedding invitations in 2008 via Evite.com.

"At the time, Evite was the only big player in the field," he recalls. "It surprised me that people were using it to send wedding invitations."

Confident in the demand for upscale electronic invites, Franklin invested $50,000 in startup funds--half saved from running a pressure-washing business and delivering pizzas during high school and half from a loan from a family member--to create templates and develop software mimicking the experience of opening a traditional printed invitation.

Greenvelope launched in November 2010 with 20 templates for wedding invitations. "I saw the potential in the market, but I didn't put any numbers on paper; there was no formal business plan or sales targets," he says. "I hoped that through a good product and good customer service, the business would grow itself."

Greenvelope eschews ads in an attempt to maintain an upscale feel. Instead, it charges users to send invites: Template packages start at $100 for up to 300 guests; additional invitees can be added for a nominal fee. With the help of Google and word-of-mouth, the site generated $2,000 in revenue in its first month; revenue for the first year topped $70,000. Since going live, Greenvelope has sent more than 300,000 invitations.

When Franklin analyzed the sales data, he realized that engaged couples comprised just a fraction of his client base. To his surprise, businesses were customizing wedding invitation templates for corporate events. Following that discovery, business templates and corporate packages (starting at $10 per month for 50 contacts) were added to Greenvelope's offerings.

Community relations manager Paige Hamp uses Greenvelope to send electronic invitations internally at healthcare IT provider Allscripts. "In a time when we are working to be more environmentally responsible, the invitations are a green option that still feels personal and elegant," Hamp says.

Sales climbed to $10,000 per month in November 2011, allowing Franklin to hire additional staffers and expand offerings to 75 templates for weddings, corporate events and religious celebrations.

As a growing number of sites introduce formal designs and envelope automation, Franklin works to keep Greenvelope ahead of the curve. "The competition is always pushing me to come up with ways to do things better," he says.

Although Franklin plans to introduce new features and additional designs in the coming months, he wants Greenvelope to remain true to his core values: providing a service with a positive impact on the environment.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - NicheGeek.com]

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Social Startups - YouRenew.Com Story

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http://www.yourenew.com/

Founded: 2008
Employees: 21
Revenue 2011: more than $2.5 million

When Robert Casey first learned that the average lifespan of a cell phone is only 15 months, the then-Yale undergrad imagined that refurbishing working phones could keep them out of landfills—and be more profitable than recycling them for metal and parts.

With less than 20 percent of electronic waste recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, "We’re competing against the trash can," says Casey, now 23. From his dorm room, he and Rich Littlehale started YouRenew.com in 2008, paying consumers for used electronics, such as cell phones and laptops, and reselling them (a customer can get $130 for an iPhone 3GS 16GB in good condition).

Data is cleared from devices, which are tested, refurbished, repackaged, and resold to small retailers and independent authorized dealers. YouRenew later began servicing corporate clients, such as Chicago law firm Jenner & Block. Companies that need to dispose of large volumes of phones, computers, and servers securely now make up most of its business.

Led by Chief Executive Guy Minetti, 60, YouRenew has processed 91,000 orders to date, some involving hundreds to thousands of items. Casey expects the company to handle more than 100,000 devices this year.

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[Via - BusinessWeek.Com]

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Site of the day - PickyDomains.com, world's first risk free naming agency

Regreen Corp

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http://regreencorp.com/

What it does: Energy savings for businesses
Founders: Sean Neman, 25; Kevin Refoua, 25; and David Duel, 24 (Pictured left to right)
Based: Los Angeles
Revenue 2011: $15 million

David Duel and Sean Neman, business students at the University of Southern California, started Regreen with their friend Kevin Refoua in 2008 to convince business owners that going green could be profitable. Backed by $400,000 raised from family and friends, ReGreen audits companies to identify ways they can lower energy costs and then provides engineering and construction teams to install enhancements such as reduced-flow toilets and low-energy lighting. “Most companies don’t have the in-house expertise to understand how to integrate these new technologies,” Duel says. ReGreen has worked with about 3,000 clients, including property managers such as Douglas Emmett and Transwestern. ReGreen now has about 110 full-time employees and Duel says its next big push will be designing, engineering, and installing solar power systems.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - NicheGeek.com]

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How Tyler Johnson Gets Millions, Builing Wilderness Trails

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http://beatenpathtrails.com/

Business Model: Providing manual labor for building trails
Who Did It: Tyler Johnson
Capital Required: $0
How Much It Makes: $3.3 million a year in revenue

Getting to see nature is not an easy task if you cannot gain access to nature. If people don't get to see nature they may never get to truly appreciate it and the role that it plays in their lives. Trails are the paths that hikers and backpackers use to gain access to nature. These trails can however only be constructed without the use of vehicles or machinery according to the law and this has presented a difficult situation to many contractors. There is however a different kind of contractor that has achieved plenty of success building and maintaining these trails.

On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors only started early this year and has already acquired around 3.3 million dollars worth of contracts for the jobs done on the trails. 17 dollars for every hour was an attractive offer to many workers at the ski-resort whenever the season wasn't good for skiing and soon enough even college students started to come in during their summer breaks. In only its first year, On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors already has 63 workers in four states including Colorado and the company is not worried about government cut backs either. According to its founder Tyler Johnson, the support from government officials for both access to nature and job creation will ensure that the contracts keep coming.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Unusual Business Ideas]

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Promethean Power Systems

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http://www.coolectrica.com/

Founded: 2007
Employees: 4
Revenue 2010: $12,000
Revenue 2011 (projected): $36,000


Betting poor dairy farmers in developing countries would benefit from a cheap way to keep their milk cool, the four-year-old business designs, builds, and installs industrial refrigeration systems that run on solar or traditional power. Right now it's selling its $3,000 to $12,000 systems to dairy processors in India, with plans to expand in Southeast Asia in the near future, and eventually Africa and Latin America.

It has sold one system so far to a private dairy processor in Tamil Nadu in southeast India that collects and sells milk from villages. With Promethean's systems it can store milk for longer periods in remote locations, reducing farmers’ expenses. "We saw the opportunity to build a profitable business in India and at the same time do good," improving the market so individual dairy farmers could charge more for their milk, says co-founder Sam White.

Promethean took second place in MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Competition in 2007, has raised around $1 million from investors, and could have up to $1.5 million in revenue in 2012, according to White and co-founder Sorin Grama. In June, the National Science Foundation awarded Promethean a $150,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to "optimize the efficiency of its cold-energy-storage battery," White says.


For more unusual ways to make money, read how PickyDomains.com helps find a business name.

[Via - BusinessWeek.com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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Magnetic Pots

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http://www.myurbio.com/

From bottle caps to spiral tubes, regular readers may have noticed the recent wave of innovative ideas for urban dwellers to grow plants and herbs in limited space, and the latest seed of inspiration comes from US company Urbio with their “magically magnetic urban vertical garden”.

Urbio is a collaboration between Beau Oyler and Jared Aller of Enlisted Design and Tim Cui of Volare Studio. They aim to enable those living in apartments and lofts or working in offices to exercise their green fingers by utilizing wall space. Pots made of eco-plastic contain a large neodymium magnet which attach them to each other as well as to the modular magnetic back plates which can be mounted onto walls or ferrous surfaces, creating a vertical garden. The magnets are strong enough to hold the pots to the wall when filled with plants, and pots can be removed with a firm tug to be watered. Designed with affordability in mind, back plates are USD 10 and pots start at USD 20. Urbio are taking pre-orders and expect to start shipping early October.


For more unusual ways to make money, read how PickyDomains.com helps find a business name.

[Via - SpringWise]

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Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You

No Packaging Groceries

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http://in.gredients.com/

Today’s grocery stores may feature more items with recyclable packaging than they used to, but the fact remains that there’s still enormous waste involved in the way individual goods are typically packaged and sold. So argues Brothers Lane, an Austin, Texas, company that’s gearing up to launch in.gredients — the first package-free, zero-waste grocery store in the United States.

The new store aims to be “a different kind of grocery store – one that is responsible to the environment and community and one that facilitates a healthy lifestyle,” in the company’s own words. Toward that end, shoppers at the store will bring their own reusable containers to fill with local and organic groceries ranging from dry bulk and dairy to wine and household cleaners. “Truth be told, what’s normal in the grocery business isn’t healthy for consumers or the environment,” in.gredients co-founder Christian Lane explains. “In addition to the unhealthiness associated with common food processing, nearly all the food we buy in the grocery store is packaged, leaving us no choice but to continue buying packaged food that’s not always reusable or recyclable.” Due to launch before year’s end, the store will exclude packaged and overly processed foods altogether as well as offering cooking classes, on-site gardening activities and a variety of community events.

For more unusual ways to make money, read how PickyDomains.com helps find a business name.

[Via - Springwise.com]

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BioLite Stoves

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http://www.biolitestove.com/

Founded: 2009
Employees: 7
Revenue 2010: $24,000
Revenue 2011 (projected): $250,000
From left to right: Matt Nowicki, Alec Drummond, Clay Burns, Whitney Goodwin, and Jonathan Cedar

Half the planet cooks on wood fires that give off smoke responsible for about 2 million deaths a year from respiratory disease, says Jonathan Cedar, 30, founder of fuel-efficient cook stove maker BioLite. Its $40 stoves use cogeneration technology to capture waste heat to generate electricity. The electricity powers fans that cut toxic smoke emissions by 95 percent, Cedar says. It can also charge cell phones and LED lights. He says production at BioLite's contract manufacturer in China is scheduled for April 2012 (the stoves are being tested in India now). Cedar plans to introduce two higher-margin camping versions for around $100 and $120 targeted at outdoor enthusiasts in the U.S. around the same time and use profits to offset research and development costs for the developing markets’ stove. The business was conceived with Alec Drummond while working together at New York product development firm Smart Design. "While indoor air pollution reduction is obviously why we're doing what we're doing … we also want a product that delivers what users really want: fast, easy-to-use cooking," says Cedar. He says BioLite raised $1.1 million in venture capital in April and expects $1.5 million in revenue in 2012.

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[Via - BusinessWeek.com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

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Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Car Sharing A Success

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http://www.business-opportunities.biz/GoCarShare.com

A YOUNG entrepreneur is on the road to success after his car sharing business clocked up 5,000 users.
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Drummond Gilbert came up with the idea for GoCarShare.com after seeing queues of cars each carrying just one person.

The 29-year-old, from East Hendred, near Wantage, launched his firm 18 months ago to reduce the number of car journeys on Britain’s road.

Now GoCarShare has linked up with Steventon’s Truck Festival, and its spin-off event, Wood, along with Glastonbury and the Hay Festival of Literature to get visitors sharing their vehicles.

Mr Drummond, a former accountant, said: “Things have really taken off and we have seen a big rise in the number of people who have signed up to the service. It was something I had wanted to do for a while and it’s great to see it becoming a reality.”

Last year the firm was shortlisted for a European best environmental start–up award.

Mr Drummond said the website, which is linked to social networking site Facebook, means people can get to know their co-travellers before setting off.

He said: “If I’m being honest, I would be very reluctant to get into a car with somebody I knew nothing about. That’s why we have incorp-orated Facebook.

“It means that, at the very least, people can see if they have anything in common with the people, or share the same friends, or maybe listen to the same music.

“That is what sets it apart from hitch-hiking.”

With more than 38 million empty car seats on Britain’s roads every day, car sharing can reduce the impact of vehicles on the environment.

And Mr Drummond said a lot of people are signing up because of the soaring cost of petrol.

He said: “Fuel costs went up 16 per cent last year and driving is becoming increasingly expensive.

“Obviously sharing a car makes commuting and travelling to one-off events a lot cheaper in the long run, which is appealing to a lot of people using the service.”

He added that it was “extremely exciting” to be partnering some of Britain’s biggest cultural festivals.

The former Radley School pupil, who runs the website from home, said: “It is a big move forward for us.

“It makes sense really – if you are driving to Glastonbury, then it is very likely that others from where you live will be doing the same. Why not travel down together?”

Truck Festival organiser Drew Brammer said using the service would help reduce the event’s overall carbon footprint.

He said: “I think using GoCarShare is a brilliant idea because it will bring down our environmental impact. Not only that, our festival-goers will get to meet other people on the way up and make new friends.

“I’ve done it before and always found it works fantastically well.”

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[Via - HeraldSeries]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

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How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

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Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Pond Scum Cleaners

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http://www.bluewaterpond.com/

Pond scum, or blue-green algae, is a common sight in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

For Blue Water Ponds, a start-up company operated by two recent college graduates, pond scum is a business opportunity.

The company, which won the student division of the 2010 Minnesota Cup challenge, aims to prevent summer algae blooms with a sustainable solution: barley. The company offers its services placing bales of pelletized barley into ponds in the spring and then harvests weeds in the summer to allow beneficial plants to continue growing. The treatment for the average pond hovers around $400 annually, said Ben Schurhamer, president of Blue Water Ponds.

"Barley straw has definitely shown efficacy," Dave Wright, a scientist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said. But the exact science behind the barley treatment is unknown. Two theories exist:

•The barley might create a competition between harmful plants and other bacteria for nutrient resources that wouldn't normally exist.

•Other bacteria might create a growth-inhibiting compound after feeding on the carbohydrate-rich barley, reducing algal growth.

"We don't know how, but the barley changes the biological composition of the water," Schurhamer said.

The idea of using barley to clear bacteria from water is not a new one.

Though the method has been around for thousands of years, it was modified in the 1990s by researchers in England and became a standard practice for the many lakes, canals and ponds across Great Britain.

The treatment has received a wide following in the past few years as a more environmentally stable means of algal control. Normally, pond and lake owners use synthetic algaecides such as Polyquat or the hypertoxic copper sulfate to control the plants.

Blue Water Ponds is one of the few companies in the area that offers the barley service. Metro area cities have used the treatment in more than 100 ponds in Bloomington, Shoreview, Minneapolis and others.

Connor McComas, an environmental sciences graduate of Iowa State University, and Schurhamer, a biochemistry graduate from the University of Minnesota, co-founded the company in 2007 after completing internships with an environmental sciences research group.

Blue Water Ponds started officially in 2009 as a two-man operation, but recently added two more full-time employees, and often adds one or two others during the spring. The company expects to complete barley treatments on 200 to 400 ponds this summer, and to generate between $20,000 and $30,000 in revenue, McComas said.

Bloomington used the method last year to clear local ponds of algae, duckweed and other nuisance plants in a more sustainable way.

"We've used herbicides in the past, but we started the barley method to try and identify a more sustainable measure," said Bryan Gruidl, a water resources specialist for the Bloomington Public Works Department.

Dawn Sommers, a public information manager for the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, said that the city has been using the barley method for several years, and said it has been "very successful in helping control algal growth."

Sam Villella, a homeowner in Blaine, lives near a community pond that had serious algal problems for several years. The residents were eager to remove the slime that covered nearly a quarter of the water, but were extremely wary of pesticides that might add harmful chemicals to the water and hurt the wildlife in the area. Villella said after some searching, he discovered Blue Water Ponds, and employed them the next year. Villella said he and his neighbors were thrilled with the results.

"The difference was night and day," Villella said. "We were very happy with the clarity of the water, there was no slime, and there was no stink. Even people that were skeptical were amazed.''

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[Via - StarTribune.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

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Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Solar Cinema

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http://www.thesolcinema.org/

Cinemas around the world are faced with the challenge of recapturing the public's imagination, creating a compelling experience to drag customers away from their smaller-screen rivals. The latest attempt we've spotted has taken a micro approach, creating a tiny cinema from a 1960s caravan to showcase films from the local area.

The Sol Cinema seats just 8 adults or 12 children in quirky surrounds, featuring two tiers of plush seating and an LED projector. A dedicated usher sells tickets and shows the audience to their seats. Furthermore, the entire operation is powered by a 120W solar panel and lithium batteries. The cinema is part of a non-profit project and is available to organisations wishing to showcase short films in their local community. It has already toured a number of music and arts festivals in the UK.

The Sol Cinema has been attracting a lot of attention for its novel approach in the UK. Combining an intimate auditorium with local content and an eco-twist seems to be a winning formula. What lessons can you learn and apply in your local market...?

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[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

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Recycle Match

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http://www.recyclematch.com/

Though they're all important parts of sustainability, the 3Rs of waste management — reduce, reuse and recycle — are not equally effective. Rather, they're intended as a hierarchy, with the goal of first reducing waste as much as one can, then reusing as much as possible, and then finally recycling at the end of an item's useful life. Aiming to extend the “reuse” stage for more industrial materials, Houston-based RecycleMatch helps companies with unwanted waste find companies that want to reuse it.

Similar in many ways to BoxCycle — which focuses specifically on cardboard boxes — RecycleMatch seeks “to create an industrial ecosystem in which the use of energy and materials are optimized, waste is minimized, and there is an economically viable role for every product of a manufacturing process,” in the site's own words. Toward that end, companies with items to dispose of begin by listing them for free on the site, which will accept almost anything but equipment, trucks, salvage or other capital assets. The listing company's name is kept confidential, but other RecycleMatch participants can see descriptions and photos of the materials in question along with the quantities available and their location. When another company is interested and a match is made, the owner pays RecycleMatch a fee of USD 10 per ton for a period of up to three years plus a one-time match fee of USD 1,500. The buyer, meanwhile, pays a one-time finder's fee of USD 250. Users can also post “wanted” listings on the site for a one-time fee of USD 500.

More than 3 million pounds of waste materials have already been diverted from landfills, RecycleMatch says, with obvious benefits for the environment, the companies involved and any zero-waste goals being pursued. Currently, however, RecycleMatch serves only US users. One to partner with or emulate in your part of the sustainable world...?

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You