60 Second Ideas

Boomer Space

Here is a perfect example of taking a popular idea and tweaking it for a niche market. Everyone has heard of the social networking site, My Space. My Space and similar sites for the Generation X crowd have proven that they are far more than a fad.

Indeed social networking has evolved beyond hooking up to consumers seeking online connections that land them jobs, find them stuff and keep them entertained. In short, social networking is about marketing too and smart marketers are taking notice.

Well now comes Eons.com - a My Space style social networking site for boomers and matures. Developed by the founder of Monster.com, the site even include a death alert, so members know when online buds have moved on to that space in the great beyond.

According to Eons.com

• A whopping 70% of all new Eons members are between the ages of 50 and 60 years old.
• 45% of new Eons members are women.
• New Eons members are most likely to be from: California, Massachusetts, Alabama, Florida & Illinois.

Eons.com shows us that the possibilities are endless for taking good ideas to new niche markets and as for marketing in general to boomers, Eons makes it a whole new ball game.

Note: We are just a few days away from releasing our Top 10 Small Business Blogs for the 2nd Quarter of 2006. Stay Tuned!

60 Second Ideas - Baby Boomers in Business

In February of 2006 we did a 60 Second Ideas video entitled Boomer Basics talking about the opportunities and pitfalls of marketing to baby boomers.

Did you know, however, that boomers and even seniors are not only buying products and services important to them, but starting their own businesses in big numbers too? For the past 10 years - adults ages 55 to 64 have been the group most likely to start a new business according to a a study released in May by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Indeed, Harlan Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken at 65; Lee Iacocca is introducing a line of electric-powered bicycles at 75. Dr. Robert Ross is a commodities broker, founder of Ross University School of Medicine, and the Ross School of Veterinary Medicine, still in the limelight at 87. Just goes to show you are never to old to reach for the stars and achieve your dreams.

Note: We are taking a week or two off from our regular weekly 60 Second Idea Videos to get ready to release our 3rd Quarter Top 10 Small Business Blogs. The 60 Second Ideas Top 10 small Business Blogs is one of our most popular features. If you have a suggestion for a top 10 small business blog that we should consider, please email us at topblog@60secondideas.com.

Green Clean

We’ve said it before, environmentally friendly products are now mainstream. Green products and services are cool and today’s 60 Second Idea shows us a new twist for Green Entrepreneur.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about eco friendly fashion and today, eco-friendly housecleaning. San Francisco’s Greenway Maid was founded out of the owners frustration with finding reliable cleaning services and her personal interest in using green cleaning products.

What to do? Simple, start a cleaning service using all natural, non-toxic and biodegradable cleaning products because it’s important for our health and the health of our planet. Green products are also healthier, in the long term, for the Green Maid cleaning teams that use them every day.

Green cleaning products are more expensive than their toxic peers making GreenWay Maid a little pricy compared to some of their non green competitors, charging  $88-$146 for a 2BR, 2BA home and $117-$175 for a 3BR, 2BA. But the company has found a profitable market because the human and environmental health cost are lower.

Start something similar in your community and you could be cleaning up with some cool cash.

In a nutshell, green products and services provide opportunities for not only profitable new small business ideas, but a chance to reestablish old ones such as house cleaning.

Today's Show Links
http://www.greenwaymaid.com

QuickTime/ITunes Download Link: Download 60 Second Idea Green_Clean.mp4

60 Second Ideas - Funny Covers

You can’t judge a book by it’s cover…or can you? Here’s a cool little idea that can act as a conversation starter and have you talking and laughing with total strangers in no time.

Conversation starters indeed. Imagine yourself flying on a jet plane and you take out your copy of Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms. But your seat mate does not see the original book cover, instead, he or she sees I Made my Mother a Porn Star or Do it Yourself Liposuction. Talk about playing with someone’s mind. Now, during your flight, one of two things will happen, your seatmate you will begin feeling uneasy, give you strange stares and ask to move their seat…as far away from you as possible or begin laughing and ask you about it. Before you know it, you have a new friend and as the plane lands a long flight seems like it just started. Either way you win and have some fun. 

The idea for these funny covers comes from Canada’s Michelle Watters. Her husband suggested the idea to her one day and Michelle ran with the idea and founded FlapArt. Just 9 months old, FlapArt has 23 titles and has sold thousands of book covers with titles like How to Murder a Complete Stranger and Get Away With It and Fast Track to Prison - Exploring the Many Benefits of Life Behind Bars. Each FlapArt has text on the back cover, that is just as funny as the title. Best selling titles include The Nutritional Benefits of Nose Picking and Perfecting the Art of Fart Projection.

So for all you comics and funny people out there, put on your thinking caps and brainstorm ways to use your sense of humor to create a funny product or two. Do that and you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Everyone loves to laugh and Michelle Watters is proving there is money in funny and there can be for you too with the right idea.

Today’s Show Links
http://flapart.com

QuickTime/Itunes Download Link: Download 60 Second Ideas Funny_Covers_1.mp4

Video Correction. The 60 Second Ideas Video recorded Michelle Watters name as Walters. We apologize to Michelle, her family and our viewers for the mistake.

Earth Friendly Fashion

Green is very cool these days and we are not talking about the color of money. Green has also come to mean what is good for the environment, even Walmart is getting into green with their recent announcement that they will offer organic foods. but green garments?....yes,  now even what you wear can send a fashion statement and help out good ole mother earth.

We’ve all heard of tofu and soymilk, but I bet most people have not heard of SoySilk. SoySilk Fiber is made from the residue of soybeans from tofu manufacturing.  This process is a 100-percent natural renewable resource and free of petrochemicals, making it extremely earth friendly.

You might think that wearing something this good for the environment, looks and feels like burlap. Nope. SoySilk fiber has the feel of cashmere, is beautiful to look at and has excellent wearability. It’s even machine washable.

Here’s the key to opportunity. At the moment, SoySilk Fiber is mostly sold wholesale to higher end fabric stores across the country. There are few outlets either online or offline, selling ready to wear clothing made from SoySilk. The best part is that SoySilk can be bought wholesale online from SouthWest Trading Company, the nation’s leading wholesaler of SoySilk.

So for all you sewers, knitters, crocheters, and fashion design people out there…what not start your own eco friendly fashion design company online by making hand made ready to wear SoySilk garments?....even plush toys are a possibility. See SouthWest Trading Company’s tofu bear. There is green to be had here and we are talking about the color of money.  Carpe Diem.

Savy entrepreneurs can use Eco-luxury materials like SoySilk to give consumers a no-sacrifice, looking and feeling great save-the-Earth style.

Today's Show Links
http://soysilk.com
http://www.tofubear.com

QuickTime/ITunes Download Link: Download Earth Friendly Fashion.mp4

Park My Car, California Style

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Cars with pretty girls is always an interesting combination and can apparently be quite profitable too. No, we are not talking about some sort of mobile brothel or Indy Car sensation Danica Patrick.

Beverly Hills, California based Girls Valet Parking hires struggling models, actresses, and college students dressed in bikinis, miniskirts even Santa hats to park the cars of the rich and famous and others in the Los Angeles area.

Given the choice of the usual teenage boys in red or yellow vests vs, beautiful women trained in safety and hospitality parking cars at restaurants, boutique hotels, clubs and private parties, company founder Brad Saltzman was betting they would prefer the later. Turns out that was a good bet. Just about a year old now, Saltzman expects revenues of 3 million by the end of 2006. The company is now starting to expand – seeking to license the brand around the country.

It’s not a huge stretch to duplicate something similar in your city or partner with Girls Valet Parking. Either way you could be driving home a lot of cool cash.

Cars, girls and money, now there is a dream job for a lot of people. This is an awesome idea, especially in areas where parking close is a problem. Contract with a restaurant or two, hire and train some college girls, make sure your company is insured and your in business.

Today's Show Links
http://www.valetgirlsparking.com/

QuickTime/ITunes Download Link: Download Park My Car.mp4

60 Second Ideas - Birthday Fun

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Remember the movie Big with Tom Hanks where he reversed roles and took on the mind of a child and ended up testing products for a toy company? Today’s idea has taken this concept to heart in a big way.

Denmark’s Jeannette Domeisen is doing her part to create fun for kids’ birthdays and reduce the stress level of parents at the same time. Jeannette founded flavouritz which sells parties in a box. The birthday party box comes with everything needed including outfits, decoration, games and a shopping list for the themed food. 10 themes are available including princesses, pirates and astronauts.

While this concept in not new, what is new is the company’s children's council where twelve young members give their opinions on everything from recipes and games to design and colors. In short, a brand for children made together with children…what an awesome idea.

As for the party in a box concept, plenty of room for more here. Try something similar, don’t forget to include children in the process, and you could be partying your way to a stash of cash.  What a perfect business idea for a young mother. No matter what business your in, why not create an advisory council of your own customers. Ask what they want and more importantly, what will sell. One way to spin the party in a box concept is a surprise box of goodies arriving in the mail for kids.

Today’s Show Links
http://www.favouritz.com

QuickTime/Itunes Download Link: Download Birthday Fun.mp4

60 Second Ideas - It's a Gas

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With today’s outrageous gas prices, it feels like you have to rob Fort Knox just to fill your tank, but one California company has come up with an intriguing way to give you free gas and make money at the same time.

We all drive. With gas prices skyrocketing above $3 and the summer driving season upon us, free gas sounds to good to be true, but freegashelp.com is making to good to be true…well true. What’s the catch?

In order to get the free gas, you must allow advertisers to use your vehicle to promote their products and services. In exchange you receive a free gas card each month from $5.00 to $200 depending on the type of advertising chosen. Participants can choose from door magnets to complete vehicle ad coverage and everything in between.

Freegashelp.com currently operates in the California counties of San Diego, Orange and Riverside, leaving the rest of the country and indeed the world wide open to this idea. Every area will have plenty of egger advertisers anxious to get their message out for a good price and who does not want free gas?

Freegashelp.com definitely provides Fuel for thought for enterprising entrepreneurs in virtually any city big, small or in between.

Today’s Show Links
www.freegashelp.com

QuickTime/ITunes: Download Its_a_Gas.mp4

60 Second Ideas - This is Your Life

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How do you want to be remembered? What do you cherish in this life? Are you a living legend? Today’s idea once again comes from the Netherlands.
Almost everyone has a strong desire to be remembered for eternity and now thanks to the Internet, you can do it your way.

Eternity4all founded just last month by the Netherlands Bert van Dam allows anyone to immortalize him or herself for the world to see and for all of eternity. For $300, the company lets users post in their own personal web space on the Eternity4all website up to 10 photographs, 3 videos, 3 text areas, and a personal history page. Users can update whenever they wish.

While $300 maybe a little pricy, this idea is wide open for anyone who wants to seize it. Tweak, tinker and put your own stamp on the idea and you could be seeing pennies from heaven. Local or Country specific versions of the eternity4u concept should work well, not to mention, the potential for partnering opportunities with organizations like insurance companies and hospice agencies.

Today’s Show Links
http://eternity4all.com

QuickTime/Itunes: Download This_is_Your_Life.mp4

60 Second Ideas - Quick Study Money

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Here at 60 Second Ideas, we strive to find simple yet brilliant start-up ideas that do not cost an arm and a leg to get started. Information is a hot commodity these days. Today’s idea shows us a new twist on selling and packaging information and it has nothing to do with ebooks or other online distribution methods.

There’s gold in them there hills…or at least in mining information and presenting it as laminated reference guides.

Bobbie Ford created a simple flow chart of what she had learned in her Constitutional Law class – telling husband, John, that it gave her an a roadmap of the course. Bobbie also told John some of her classmates wanted copies. Could Bobbie's quick reference study aid and others like it be sold in law school bookstores? John thought so and six months later, the Ford's published 6 law school study aids. Today, BarCharts is the largest provider in the world of quick study reference materials, selling over 21 million copies on over 250 subjects.

At 250 topics, BarCharts has not even come close to scratching the surface of available information perfect for laminated guides. Get yourself a $250 laminating machine, create a handful of useful subjects and you could be seeing some Quick Study Money.

Laminated reference guides is a wide open idea with endless possibilities. One could even offer custom guides to a variety of businesses, schools or other organizations.

Give it some thought.

Today’s Show Links
http://barcharts.com/

QuickTime/ITunes Download: Download QuickStudyMoney.mp4