The Printed Blog

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.

http://www.theprintedblog.com/

By now, we all know that the Internet is tomorrow and the printed media are yesterday. So when, to borrow from Lost, is Joshua Karp? The 36-year-old former consultant from Chicago is publisher of the Printed Blog. The content buzzes like the World Wide Web: Every bit comes from the blogosphere or photos snagged from Flickr (with creators' permission).

But the format is undeniably 20th century: ink on paper, or to be more specific, four-color ink on eight sheets of 11 by 17 glossy stock bound by staples. The free weekly debuted in late January in Chicago and San Francisco, where volunteers and some of Karp's 14-person staff handed out 3,000 copies to commuters at train stations. It expanded to New York and Los Angeles in February and Karp hopes to add Washington in March. The paper is a huge money drain.

Karp says he's bringing in $500 to $600 a week from advertising. But it's cost him more than $15,000 to print the first three editions. Add in payroll and office rent and the $30,000 that Karp says he's pulled out of savings to start his venture will be spent before the publication can roll into D.C. No worries, says Karp. He says he's negotiating loans for as much as $50,000. Besides, his credit cards aren't maxed out yet.

Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants

Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success

Streetwise Small Business Book Of Lists: Hundreds of Lists to Help You Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues, and Boost Your Profits

The Manhole Cover Picker-Upper

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.


http://www.rockmillsent.com/

Opening manhole covers, which weigh up to 400 lbs., is difficult at best and dangerous at worst. Dave Roberts, 51, who spent 25 years lifting them while working for waste-water authorities in Minnesota's Twin Cities, decided to find a better way.

A perpetual tinkerer, Roberts designed a machine to remove the heavy cast-iron lids using a powerful magnet and a hydraulic hoist that attaches to a back of a vehicle.

He assembled the first device in his garage five years ago and sold seven of them to his employer. Roberts quit his job in 2005 and financed the business with more than $100,000 borrowed against his house and from credit cards. Last October, he and business partner Rick Carlson, 53, relocated to Rock Valley, Iowa, after economic developers there connected them with a group of 12 local investors who invested an undisclosed amount in the company, which they renamed Rock Mills Enterprises. The patented device, called the Lifter, sells for $3,595, and they have shipped about 90 so far, with $63,500 in revenue in 2008.

Roberts and Carlson pitch their tool as a way to save time and reduce the risk of injury to workers, and they see a vast market for the product in municipalities, utility companies, and institutions like military bases and universities.

Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants

Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success

Streetwise Small Business Book Of Lists: Hundreds of Lists to Help You Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues, and Boost Your Profits

Owen Claw Inventor

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.


http://ovenclaw.com/

On a visit to Portland, Ore., about three years ago, Bill Leikam watched curiously as his brother used an odd piece of plywood to pull a hot rack from of the oven. "I said: 'What was that?'" recalls Leikam. It was the family's "oven buddy" he was told.

Like every inventor, Leikam believed that he could design a much better version. For about six months, the retired chief of a Silicon Valley high-tech firm ruminated on the idea and then headed to a local lumberyard to try his hand as a toolmaker. After devising five different iterations and plowing $12,000 of his own savings into the new venture, Leikam launched the Oven Claw in Palo Alto, Calif. Last Christmas he began selling the hardwood utensil online and at seven specialty stores.

Although there are other similar devices on the market, Leikam, 68, says the Oven Claw is sturdier and better designed. The 18-in.-long grabber can easily extract a cooked turkey from the oven without making a cook reach her arm inside. Eventually, he hopes his "high-end" Oven Claw will be sold in stores like Crate & Barrel privcapId= and Williams-Sonoma. By May, Leikam expects to be profitable and says the company will pull in $50,000 in sales this year.

"People tell me that I should come up with other utensils," says Leikam, whose cooking interests tend toward casseroles and Italian foods. "But for the moment I am focusing all of my energy and money on this one before I branch out."

Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants

Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success

Streetwise Small Business Book Of Lists: Hundreds of Lists to Help You Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues, and Boost Your Profits

Better Clothes for Babies

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.


http://www.newforbaby.com/

In 2005, when Leigh Rubio, a Portland (Ore.) stay-at-home mother of two, saw her infant daughter accidentally scratching her face, she wished for a simple solution that she couldn’t find: baby shirts with fold-over sleeves. That only added to what she disliked about the little kid clothes on the market. Baby pants were too high so their waistbands pressed into tender, healing belly buttons. Some shirts lacked neckline snaps and were painful to stretch over soft heads. And cloying pastels and duck patterns were everywhere. So Rubio, now 34, and women’s apparel designer Lyn Huffman, 32, teamed up to design a fitted and stylish layette. Targeting newborns also helped them carve out a niche in the crowded children’s apparel market. They scraped together $75,000 in savings, a $50,000 bank loan, and, says Rubio, “supportive husbands who never second-guessed us” to create their first line. Since August, they've expanded to offer clothing made in the U.S. for toddlers up to 24 months old. Within a year they turned a profit and now bring in $5,000 to $10,000 monthly through their online store, newforbaby.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

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

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

10 Books That Take An Alternative View Of The Economy And How It Functions.

1. The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers

This tart takedown of fashionable management theories is a refreshing antidote to the glut of simplistic books about achieving high performance. Rosenzweig, a veteran business manager turned professor, argues that most popular business ideas are no more than soothing platitudes that promise easy success to harried managers. Consultants, journalists and other pundits tap scientifically suspect methods to produce what he calls "business delusions": deeply flawed and widely held assumptions tainted by the "halo effect," or the need to attribute sweeping positive qualities to any company that has achieved success. Following these delusions might provide managers with a comforting story that helps them frame their actions, but it also leads them to gross simplification and to ignore the constant demands of changing technologies, markets, customers and situations. Mega-selling books like Good to Great, Rosenzweig argues, are nothing more than comforting, highbrow business fables. Unfortunately, Rosenzweig hedges his own principles for success so much that managers will find little practical use for them. His argument about the complexity of sustained achievement, and his observation that success comes down to "shrewd strategy, superb execution and good luck," may end up limiting the market for this smart and spicy critique.

2. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

If the prescriptions for getting rich that are outlined in books such as The Millionaire Next Door and Rich Dad Poor Dad are successful enough to make the books bestsellers, then one must ask, Why aren't there more millionaires? In Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a professional trader and mathematics professor, examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill. This eccentric and highly personal exploration of the nature of randomness meanders from the court of Croesus and trading rooms in New York and London to Russian roulette, Monte Carlo engines, and the philosophy of Karl Popper. Part of what makes this book so good is Taleb's ability to make seemingly arcane mathematical concepts (at least to this reviewer) entirely relevant in evaluating and understanding everything from the stock market to the success of those millionaires cited in the aforementioned bestsellers.

3. Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development

"Conventional MBA programs train the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences," states this academic and author, who here examines and proposes drastic change in our traditional form of management education. He believes MBA programs are schools of business that pretend to develop managers, and he addresses such issues as what can be done to develop managers in a serious educational process, offering a critique of MBA programs and an analysis of the practice of management itself. Mintzberg's recommendations include program changes, as well as his observations on faculty tenure, prima donnas, and entrenched thinking. He believes MBA programs have failed to develop better managers who should be improving their organizations and thereby creating a better society. This book offers an important perspective for the global MBA community, which serves its students, business, and society in general.

4. The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence

"...forty years after I started battle on the subject, most economists now acknowledge that prices do not follow the bell curve, and do not move independently. But for many, after acknowledging those points, their next comment is: So what? Independence and normality are, they argue, just assumptions that help simplify the math of modern financial theory. What matters are the results. Do the standard models correctly predict how the market behaves over all? Can an investor use Modern Portfolio Theory to build a safe, profitable investment strategy? Will the Capital Asset Pricing Model help a financial analyst, or a corporate financial officer, make the right decision? If so, then stop arguing about it. This is the so called positivist argument, first advanced by University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman."

5. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street

Justin Fox has a great blog and writes for Time magazine, having previously written for Fortune magazine. So it was not a surprise that his book is well written and fast paced. Better yet, he has chosen to cover the most critical topic in all of finance: does the market correctly price stocks, bonds and real estates? In delivering a masterpiece he has either killed himself in thoroughly researching the subject or someone talented has directed him to all the right issues. He correctly dates the emergence of the efficient markets theory to the early twentieth century, then covers the contribution of Paul Samuelson, who is oddly enough always forgotten in any coverage about the efficient markets doctrine. He then goes through the sequence of Markowitz, Miller, Modigliani, Fama and Michael Jensen (an odd insertion indeed, since Jensen sweared by efficient markets theories but made his name emphasizing firm level inefficiencies, ones profitably eliminated by buyout funds, but whose profits would not be so impressive if the market could correctly price their coming contribution). He then introduces Richard Thaler and Robert Shiller, and thus downplays Amos Twersky and Daniel Kahneman, which is a failing of the book.

6. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

If, as Socrates would have it, the only true knowledge is knowledge of one's own ignorance, then Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the world's greatest living teacher. In The Black Swan, Taleb's second book for laypeople, he gives a full treatment to concepts briefly explored in his first book "Fooled by Randomness." The Black Swan is basically a sequel to that book, but much more focused, detailed and scholarly. This is a book of serious philosophy that reads like a stand-up comedy routine. (Think Larry David...)

7. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

Economists, in pursuit of mathematical precision, seem to have forgotten that not everything can be easily counted. Traditional economic theory centers on the premise that people make perfectly rational decisions. People, however, are not so rational. Despite many attempts, not every variable that goes into our decision-making process can be easily quantified, weighted, and stuffed into a formula. As any non-economist knows psychology -- and its hard to measure variables -- plays a large role in how people make decisions.

George Akerlof and Robert Shiller's book, Animal Spirits, offers an accessible look at how traditional economics can be expanded by incorporating some basic concepts from psychology. The term "animal spirits," originally coined John Maynard Keynes in the 1930's, describes how impulses and emotions naturally lead to economic boom and bust cycles. Traditional economists seem to have ignored even the most primitive of these spirits.

8. Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Fortune's Formula is a fascinating study of the connections between such seemingly unrelated topics as gambling, information theory, stock investing, and applied mathematics. The story involves the stunning brainpower of men such as MIT professor Claude Shannon, who single-handedly invented information theory, the science behind the Internet and all digital media; Ed Thorpe; and John Kelly of Bell Laboratories, who developed the "Kelly criterion," a now-legendary investment strategy for maximizing growth while controlling risk. Initially, Shannon and Thorpe took Kelly's theory to Las Vegas and applied it to roulette and blackjack. Later, they took it to Wall Street and cleaned up--Shannon made a personal fortune while Thorpe created the highly successful hedge firm Princeton-Newport Partners. They both discovered that Kelly's system was particularly effective when applied to arbitrage (minute price differences that result from market inefficiencies). As Poundstone ably demonstrates, the merits of Kelly's criterion are still hotly debated today.

9. A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression

Posner (How Judges Think) is uncharacteristically dry in this dense book that states flatly that we are in a recession only because we are too frightened to call it a depression. He makes a near-heroic attempt to delve into the roots of the current crisis, citing some of the harder questions: how did it happen? why was it not anticipated? how is the government responding? A great deal of ground is covered, and the book takes the form of a high-altitude survey, assessing all the major points without getting bogged down in detail. Quickie explanations of subprime mortgages and the credit crunch orient the reader, and Posner addresses the takeaway lessons about capitalism and government, the puzzling lack of foresight from the economist community, the apportioning of blame and the resulting future of conservatism. All good topics, thoroughly and thoughtfully presented, but much of Posner's material is already woefully out of date. This book will make a serviceable study of the current crisis, but it does not serve its intended audience well in the meantime.

10. Outliers: The Story of Success

The main tenet of Outliers is that there is a logic behind why some people become successful, and it has more to do with legacy and opportunity than high IQ. In his latest book, New Yorker contributor Gladwell casts his inquisitive eye on those who have risen meteorically to the top of their fields, analyzing developmental patterns and searching for a common thread. The author asserts that there is no such thing as a self-made man, that "the true origins of high achievement" lie instead in the circumstances and influences of one's upbringing, combined with excellent timing. The Beatles had Hamburg in 1960-62; Bill Gates had access to an ASR-33 Teletype in 1968. Both put in thousands of hours-Gladwell posits that 10,000 is the magic number-on their craft at a young age, resulting in an above-average head start.

So, you want to open your own bakery?

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.



Tells the story of Adrienne Braxtons struggle to turn her Brooklyn bakery business from a weekend sidewalk stand to a real storefront. The film follows Adrienne as she chases the American dream of owning her own business while facing the demands of providing for her grandson and the difficulties of navigating New Yorks complex social service system.

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

Eat Stop Eat: The Only One Realistic Way to Start Eating Less and Finally Lose Weight

Lefty's San Francisco profits by selling to an overlooked market niche.

Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.

http://www.leftyslefthanded.com/

President Obama and his fellow southpaws have cause for celebration this week: Thursday marks the 18th annual International Left-Handers Day. But for entrepreneur Margaret Majua, founder of Lefty's San Francisco, every day is an occasion to give thanks for lefties.

Majua spotted an ad two years ago for a strange-looking writing instrument called the Yoropen. Shaped like a grasshopper, the pen was touted as a writing boon for left-handed people because its design allowed lefties to see what they'd just written without smearing it.

"At first I thought it was pretty creepy-looking," she says. "Then I thought it might just be weird enough to sell."

Her instinct paid off. The Yoropen is now one of the bestselling items at Lefty's San Francisco: The Left Hand Store, which Majua opened in March 2008 on San Francisco's iconic Pier 39, adjacent to Fisherman's Wharf.

Lefty's is one of the world's only brick-and-mortar stores catering to the left-handed. It continues a San Francisco tradition: Thirty-one years ago, Left Hand World pioneered the market, opening on Pier 39 in a tiny 350-square-foot space. The store closed a decade later, but it spawned a solid fan base. The landlord searched for a tenant to continue the store's theme in the original location, but found no takers -- including Majura, a serial retailer who opened her first Pier 39 enterprise, a refrigerator-magnet store, in 1986. Since then, she's created more than 20 themed specialty stores in tourist destinations such as Las Vegas, Hawaii and Disney World.

Armed with that experience, Majua decided it was time to take the left-handed leap. Fueling her commitment was the discovery that the very few retailers selling left-handed products stocked only items that were already commercially available.

"No one had developed a product line," she says, adding that she wasn't impressed with what was already on the market. "I knew I had to fill the store, but I also wanted the stuff to look good together. I'm fascinated by merchandising."

As part of her reinvention plan, Majua -- who is right-handed -- invested about $100,000 to develop a Lefty's product line of 20 stationery items, such as spiral notebooks, sketchbooks and memo pads, all with the spirals on the right side. She is also developing a dozen kitchen tools, including vegetable peelers, pancake turners, and measuring cups, which are scheduled to be available as gift sets at the end of the year.

"Smaller companies don't have the financial resources to develop products for left-handers, and larger companies don't see this as a big enough market," Majua says. "I saw it as niche I could fill."
Left-handed icons

It's a niche with a star-studded history. Only an estimated 10% to 15% of the population is left-handed, but the roster includes such luminaries as Leonardo da Vinci, Bill Gates, and five of the last seven U.S. presidents. Lining Lefty's walls are framed pictures of left-handed celebrities such as Beethoven, Mozart, Judy Garland and Alexander the Great.

Even pop culture is represented. Sandwiched between Queen Victoria and Mark Twain is Ned Flanders, the left-handed character on The Simpsons who runs his own retail store, The Leftorium. In Lefty's, Flanders has his own 14-inch plush doll, as well as a $5 refrigerator magnet -- and he's been outselling President Obama, who's represented on a t-shirt with the tag line "Obama is a leftie."

"Customers who don't know President Obama is left-handed ask us if the tag line refers to his politics," says Kelly Kempczenski, Lefty's manager. Like Obama, the store's sales staff are all left-handed, and love demonstrating Lefty's products for the curious or the desperate.

"Many left-handers have already adapted to regular products, but half of the people who try one of our left-handed products buy it," says Kempczenski, recalling how her elementary school teacher tried to make her use her right hand. "I use left-handed pens and scissors myself, and they're really useful."

They also sell well. Pens and pencils for lefties account for 25% of Lefty's sales, with that strange-looking Yoropen -- available in four styles in the $6 to $60 price range -- responsible for half of Lefty's pen sales. Notebooks are also popular, especially during back-to-school season. About 20% of Lefty's revenues come from online purchases, where the average order totals $60.

Majua projects that Lefty's 2009 revenues will reach the high six-figures. Early next year, she's planning to move the store to a new location 100 feet away with nearly triple the space. She'll need it to stock an expanded range of left-handed kids' products, including guitars, baseball mitts and golf clubs.

She's also considering selling her custom products to other left-handed retailers. "My ego doesn't want to, but business reality will probably dictate I will," she says.

There's another motivation at work as well, she concedes: "My staff has made me really aware of how customers really appreciate the products, which has inspired me to design and stock more of them."


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