Uncommon Business
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A $12 million boost from savvy marketing
Link of the day - How PickyDomains.com Changed The Domain Game For Good
http://www.buffalowingsandrings.com/
The cuisine he sells isn't exactly what he grew up eating in his native Paris, but Philip Schram knows he can add panache to anything he peddles. After he launched a new marketing campaign for his Cincinnati-based restaurant chain, Buffalo Wings & Rings, sales jumped from $8 million in 2006 to $20 million in 2007.
Schram, 44, worked in France until his employer, auto-parts maker ZF Friedrichshafen, transferred him to Cincinnati in 2000. "Ever since I was a young boy, I dreamed of owning a business," he says. When he heard that a co-worker's father was planning to sell an underperforming chicken wings and onion rings franchise, Schram saw opportunity and bought the six-restaurant chain in 2005.
To boost foot traffic immediately, Schram insisted that franchisees spend about 3% of their sales on neighborhood advertising such as direct mailings and flyers. Then he tackled the bigger problem: "Each shop looked completely different. There was no branding," he says. So he hired a design firm to create an appealing look for the stores, which includes galvanized-sheet-metal furnishings and a green, red and yellow palate. He also introduced more menu options.
As revenues grew in 2007, Schram opened 13 new locations, bringing the total to 43. He expects to open about 25 Midwest restaurants by the end of 2008. Schram also landed a deal with a Korean restaurant supplier to open locations on U.S. Army bases in Kuwait, selling wings, onion rings and a distinctly American image to soldiers abroad.
Explosive success: Loveland entrepreneur's iFartMobile is top-selling iPhone app
World’s Smallest Postal Service
Profiting From Exotic Popcorn Flavors
Explosive success: Loveland entrepreneur's iFartMobile is top-selling iPhone app
Link of the day - Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
http://www.joelcomm.com/
Loveland author and entrepreneur Joel Comm has added a hint of hilarity to this holiday season and likely ensured many iPhone owners will no longer endure Silent Nights, thanks to his newest iPhone application.
Comm announced this morning via Twitter that his iPhone application — iFart Mobile — is the No. 1 paid application at the iPhone store. It sells for 99 cents.
“Yep. We’re No. 1,” Comm said during a telephone interview with LovelandConnection.com.
Created after members of the executive team at Comm’s Infomedia Inc. brainstormed new and different applications for the popular iPhone, iFart Mobile features a variety of digital sounds sure to bring smiles to the faces of teenage boys and uncertain girls around the world.
With names like Jack the Ripper, The Wipe out, and Howard the Duck, the application offers a true symphony of sounds. Already there are plans for upgrades to the application to include the Sneak Attack or Fart a Friend options.
“Our executive team is largely male and we just sat around brainstorming the idea,” Comm said. “This is one of those ideas where we were laughing so hard as we talked about it, we knew we had a hit.”
Other Weird Biz Stories:
How Two Tech Guys Created A Viral Food Sensation
Pee Farming
Leo Nordine - The King Of Foreclosures
Don't Touch My Beer!
Link of the day - How PickyDomains.com Changed The Domain Game For Good
http://www.lapuertaoriginals.com/
Scott and Melissa Coleman see profit in faded paint, nail holes, and rust stains. Their company, La Puerta Originals, turns antique and reclaimed wood and scrap metal into custom-made doors for high-end homes. More than 6,000 doors, collected from around the world, jostle for space on their four-acre property in Santa Fe, and each slab comes with its own provenance.
"The process for our customers is more involved than simply opening a catalog," says Scott, an architect by training. "I walk with them, take them to the wood, and tell them the story behind it."
A recent La Puerta project - an $8,000 hammered-tin door for a house in Santa Fe - features a metal disc stripped from an antique farming tool that the Colemans found while driving through Mexico's Sierra Nevada.
"The collecting of materials is a passion unto itself," says Scott, whose company pulls in annual revenue of $4.4 million. "There is no piece of wood too small."
P2P Camping
Profiting From Exotic Popcorn Flavors
Magic As Business
Weird Businesses - Lightning Photography
Demographic Winter: Decline of the Human Family
Link of the day - Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
http://www.singlespotcamping.com/
Camping, an ancient form of holiday accommodation, is now going peer-to-peer: Single Spot Camping connects anyone who owns a suitably sized piece of land (‘even your garage entrance’, says the site) with those looking for a place to pitch their tent.
Like the more established concept of couch surfing, the Swedish startup aims to create travel experiences that are more unique and personal than staying at a regular camping ground. Additional benefits are the small stream of income created for hosts, and the fact that—unlike with couch surfing—both guests and hosts can maintain a sense of privacy.
As the site’s still very new, all listings made before 31 December 2008 will be displayed for a year free of charge. In 2009, listings will cost the landowner EUR 40 per year. Any plots of land sitting empty in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Australia or the United States can currently be registered, with the site aiming to become popular with campers and site owners in Europe, North America and Australia. We’ve covered similar concepts for spare bedrooms and off-street parking spots—what’s next?
Young Millionaires - Sticks And Stones Success Story
Young Millionaires - Anne Pawsat-Dressler
How a pet project became a money-making business
Mom Turns Love For Making Brownies into $1 Million Dessert Gifts Company
Profiting From Exotic Popcorn Flavors
Link of the day - Who Is Shawn Casey? Is He For Real?
http://www.479popcorn.com
After witnessing the makeover given to traditional foodstuffs like cupcakes and popsicles, it seems it's now popcorn's turn. 479° Popcorn is handmade, made-to-order popcorn in flavours such as Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt, Ginger Sesame Caramel and Black Truffle & White Cheddar.
Taking a leaf from the book of gourmet wine tasting establishments, 479° offers 'Samplers' and 'Collections', all linked by theme. Samplers' five boxes feed 2-4 people, and the Collections' three canisters are enough for 4-8. Prices range from USD 33 for the Purist Sampler to USD 52 for the Caramel Collection.
Aware that posh flavours and presentation aren't always enough to ensure premium status, 479° Popcorn stresses its green credentials. The majority of its organic fair trade ingredients are sourced from farms close to its San Francisco kitchen, with the popped corn packaged in 90% recycled paper canisters that are also sourced from local suppliers. 479° Popcorn--named for the ideal Fahrenheit temperature for popping corn--is currently available in select Californian stores and via its website for delivery throughout the US. One for boutique cinemas to partner with?
Peegly.Com - Share Your Feelings.
Service Lets Drivers Lock In Gas Prices
Here is a brilliant idea - clothing rentals for people who are losing weight
Put-In-Cups As A Business
How To Get Media Attention? Just Say ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret’ Or ‘Fat’
Taxi Offers Unlimited Rides For 48 Euros Per Month
Link of the day - Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
http://www.taxmobil.ch/
Gyms use it, broadband providers use it, DVD rental schemes use it, subways use it… Now it’s time for taxis to adopt a flat-rate charge. Swiss start-up Taxmobil is planning to offer unlimited taxi use for a EUR 48 monthly fee. Customers will be able to buy a Taxmobil card online or from sales points around the city, and can call for a car to pick them up at whatever time they choose, travelling to any destination in the city. If two strangers are travelling in the same direction, Taxmobil may combine their journeys.
The key to Taxmobil’s strategy is the fact that it doesn’t own the cars it uses. Instead, it buys the time of idle taxis that are already out and about, creating a service that’s affordable and convenient for customers, and could decrease congestion and parking problems if city dwellers trade in their cars for a Taxmobil card.
Böblingen in Southern Germany is likely to be the first town offering the service, starting early 2009, with other towns across Europe to follow. Travel is only permitted within a city, although members will be able to catch a taxi in other participating cities, too. As well as expanding the service’s reach, Taxmobil will soon be extending its package options by complementing its standard EUR 48 subscription with cards for businesses and families. Discounts and member benefits will be made possible with the cards in future, too.
While public transport and bicycles are usually pitched as the green alternative to car ownership, there’s something to be said for adding affordable taxis to the mix, offering people the option of individual door-to-door transport around the clock. How the system will work on rainy days, and whether EUR 48/month will leave any room for a profit, remains to be seen. One to watch!
Navigation By Mood
World’s Smallest Postal Service
A New Sport and a Startup
Link of the day - Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
http://www.ifeellondon.com/
Guidebooks and recommendations are all very well, but there’s very little point in discovering a new activity, restaurant or shop if you’re not in the right headspace to enjoy it. Enter I Feel London (or Toronto, or New York as is appropriate), a site that lets users search for things to do based on their mood.
Currently in beta, the I Feel sites bring a new spin to Google Maps. There’s a map for each one of nine moods, covering such feelings as naughty, hungover, girly, sophisticated and broke. Andy Whitlock, I Feel’s London-based founder, has kick-started each map by populating it with a handful of activities, with future contributions to be made by anyone who requests an invite. We’re hoping each map won’t be bombarded with contributions, though: we like the limited, curated choice currently on offer.
Whitlock is tapping into the zeitgeist: map-based concepts are popping up everywhere. Why? As explained in trendwatching.com’s latest briefing (which covers mapmania and five other trends for 2009): “Geography is about everything that is (literally) close to consumers, and it's a universally familiar method of organizing, finding and tracking relevant information on objects, events and people. And now that superior geographical information is accessible on-the-go—from in-car navigation to iPhones—the sky is the limit.”
Photomoney
Dumping Startbucks Can Be A Good Thing For Your Business
Don't Touch My Beer!
Easing Death's Sting While Turning A Profit
The Business Of Hats
Annual family squabbles over the turkey bone sparked this entrepreneur's profitable big idea.
Link of the day - The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
http://www.luckybreakwishbone.com/
Each Thanksgiving, my household brims with abundance and gratitude. But after dinner my family always squabbles over who gets to break the wishbone. One year I had an idea that would solve the problem for my family and, I was sure, many others on Turkey Day.
I was familiar with plastic manufacturing because I ran a consulting firm that helped Christmas-light makers meet quality standards. So I called eight plastic companies and requested samples of breakable plastic. They wondered why I wanted them, but I didn't tell. After a year of testing we launched our product in 2004: a plastic wishbone with the feel and satisfying snap of a real turkey bone.
Given my background with seasonal products, I was confident enough of this one to wind down my consulting business and focus on bringing the wishbones to market. We began in a few Seattle-area novelty and grocery stores. By 2006 we had hit almost $1 million in sales, and our four-packs were selling in nearly 1,000 outlets, such as the Party Store chain, in 40 states.
The previous year we had gotten a call requesting a product sample from Sears Roebuck's ad agency, Young & Rubicam. Next Y&R asked for a quote on millions of wishbones custom-packaged for Sears. We were thrilled, and created a design for it. But then Y&R abruptly went silent. We assumed the deal had fallen through.
Days before Thanksgiving 2005, I spotted a Sears ad insert in our local paper. On its top left corner was a photo of our product! I drove right to Sears and saw that it was using our wishbone and packaging as a marketing tool: Customers got a free wishbone redeemable for $10 off a $100 purchase. My blood boiled as I stood with the product in my hand.
We promptly sued Y&R and Sears for copyright infringement. The case went to trial 2Ѕ years later. Thanks to our patented design and our packaging's copyright warning statement, we were awarded $1.7 million in damages. (Sears spokesperson Kim Freely notes, "We're disappointed by the verdict.")
We lost 50% of our business in 2007 because of the time and money we spent in court. But we are moving on with new wishbone design ideas, such as colorful and custom-printed lines. The wishbones are a hit with vegetarians and even internationally - turkey is also a Christmas staple for many families.
At the end of the day, breaking a wishbone is a lot like blowing out birthday candles. There's a renewed sense of hope and optimism when it snaps.
Pee Farming
Leo Nordine - The King Of Foreclosures
Dumping Startbucks Can Be A Good Thing For Your Business
The junk boom: Profiting from foreclosures
Link of the day - How PickyDomains.com Changed The Domain Game For Good
http://www.rockandrepublic.com/
A little over five years ago, Michael Ball looked at his then-girlfriend's expensive jeans and decided he could design a much better pair himself. Not long after, Ball, who had no fashion design experience, did just that, creating an ultra-slim fitting line that caught on with the celebrity set in Los Angeles. Having stirred interest, he got financial backing, suppliers, and manufacturers together and began selling his high-end jeans for $300 from specialty stores within the city. A cult following soon developed.
Since then, Ball has turned his idea into Culver City (Calif.)-based Rock & Republic, a $300 million brand of men's and women's jeans that now includes cosmetics, accessories, shoes, and other clothing lines that are sold in 86 countries. His long-term goal is to create a far-reaching lifestyle brand that includes boutique hotels and restaurants and a domestic airline. Ball says he is far from done.
From the start, Ball, 43, a former television commercial actor and professional long-distance cyclist, concluded he had to do more than just design cool jeans to be successful in the cutthroat denim market. He had to create a new version of cool. Although he began by planning to construct a high-quality product as a foundation, Ball says: "I was clear about who we were as a brand and who we were going after. The market was clean, edgy, rock-and-roll. I was very confident, take-no-prisoners."
A Life-Changing Purchase
According to market researcher NPD Group, denim is an $11 billion industry in the U.S. and has been growing at around a 5% to 7% clip in recent years. Premium labels such as Rock & Republic now account for a 7% chunk of the total market. "Consumers will pay $300 for the right pair of jeans," says Marshal Cohen, NPD's chief industry analyst. "They see it as an investment."
Moreover, Cohen says, "certain denim brands have made it their focus to be a game-changer. They make you feel really great and you will pay twice as much for those. What [Ball] is able to do is get the consumer of many different age segments and deliver on the implied promise that these jeans will make your life better, you will feel better."
Even in an economic downturn, Cohen calls denim "recession-resistant." "People are going to make significant changes," he says. "They don't have a lot of money in their pockets. They may not buy three pairs, but they will buy one pair and it has to be about who has the right message."
Timing is Everything
At the time of Rock & Republic's debut in 2002, premium jeans (those with price tags that start at $75) were on the rise. Brands like True Religion (TRLG), Citizens for Humanity, Diesel, and 7 for All Mankind had recently hit the market and were catching on. Ball acknowledges that his timing was spot on. "7 was exploding and buyers were looking for the next big thing," he says.
The rest of his success came down to branding and marketing. Following a strategy to create a niche label within a tight space of niche labels, Ball and his partner, Andrea Bernholtz, unveiled the line at fashion shows primed to grab attention. They had models careen down the runway drinking beer, flipping the bird at photographers, and lifting their skirts. "We did things that no one did," Ball recalls.
At the same time, Rock & Republic worked to heighten interest among consumers and retailers by creating scarcity. According to Ball, when Barneys came to him and said it wanted an exclusive deal to sell his line, he turned the luxury department store down. In the beginning he says he also turned away Bloomingdale's. "My ability to say no made our brand," he says. "I had a twofold strategy about where I placed the brand and leverag[ed] its exclusivity."
Hit With Lawsuits
As he built his brand, Ball earned a reputation for brash arrogance, taking digs at his competitors and blithely forecasting triple-digit growth. Last year, he told the Los Angeles Times that his company would reach $400 million in sales, eclipsing the combined total of revenue of his two closest competitors. (Annual sales are over $300 million, he now says).
Last year, Ball was served with a handful of civil suits, alleging defamation, extortion, assault, and sexual harassment. However, at least two of the suits alleging extortion and harassment were dismissed and the defamation suit was voluntarily withdrawn. (Currently, the extortion suit is being appealed.)
Ball, who holds the view that all publicity is good publicity, cites Sir Richard Branson, and his Virgin Group empire as a business role model. "He was able to market and brand himself and his various products very well," Ball says. "I learned [from watching him] that those businesses that he is completely attuned to became extremely successful and those that were kind of a throwaway, kind of failed." Ball learned the latter lesson the hard way over the past year when he says he neglected his new handbag and footwear categories and their sales slipped.
Moving Away from Top Tier
Ball says that sales during the first half of 2008 were up 14% but have fallen flat in the second half. With consumer spending slowing to a trickle, Ball says he's had to put some of his grand plans on hold, recalibrate, and retrench, including repricing his luxury jeans which had catalyzed the denim market. Going forward he says, "we are not developing jeans above $280. The top-tier has fallen off—there is no point in sitting there."
If any luxury brand has a shot at staying aloft during this downturn it very well might just be Rock & Republic. "We know very well from our data that strong brands hold up better than weak ones," says Nigel Hollis, chief global analyst at Millward Brown, a branding firm. "And by strong I mean those that have a distinctive position and a real perceived differentiation in the market. Rock & Republic seems to fit that bill even in a fairly competitive market."
Moreover, Hollis says one should not underestimate the cachet that Rock & Republic jeans continues to confer on its wearers. "Yacht manufacturers are suffering," he says. "But let's face it, someone that is willing to shell out $200 to $300 on jeans is not going to run out to the Gap (GPS) for their next pair. There is tremendous badge value in this sort of luxury and if Rock & Republic has it, that is what people will buy."
Retail Plans Moving Ahead
For now, the Ball's boutique airline is on hold. The hotels and restaurants, however, are moving forward, he explains, because he is using "other people's money" to finance them. Plans to open the first Rock & Republic branded supper club in Los Angeles is on tap for third quarter of next year, and a hotel in Las Vegas is planned by 2011.
The one area that is moving ahead more or less as planned is the expansion of his Rock & Republic retail stores. "Freestanding stores means control of our own destiny," says Ball. He has, however, reconsidered locations. "Rodeo Drive [in Beverly Hills] or Fifth Avenue [in New York City] are not as important anymore."
When asked about his future plans for his brand given the state of the economy, Ball says, without irony, "global dominance."
A well-heeled business
Sneaker Art As A Business
Buying and selling usused brands
Link of the day - Who Is Shawn Casey? Is He For Real?
http://autumnseed.com/
They look like pumpkins in the field, and the end product is marketed as "pumpkin seeds," but technically they are squash and squash seeds.
Despite the elastic terminology, Autumn Seed Inc. has firmed up its grasp on the market in the past 60 years. Howard Ropp's father started the business back in 1943, producing 100,000 pounds of seeds. Now Howard and his son Greg oversee a company putting out 2.5 million pounds in a good year.
"We're the only ones in the U.S. doing this," Greg Ropp said. "Our only competitor is China. And they can't match us for quality."
The Ropps contract with farmers in Oregon's Willamette Valley to grow Golden Delicious, a variety of squash with high seed yield. They credit the valley's hot summers and cool autumns for the sweetness of the seeds.
"Normally we have about 30 different guys growing about 2,000 acres for us," Greg Ropp said. "This year a lot of them went to wheat, so there are fewer acres growing. We'll turn out about 1.6 million pounds this year."
He said he settles contracts on a handshake. The farmer agrees to plant and tend the crop; Autumn Seed harvests the seeds, cleans and dries them, ships them to processors, and cuts a check for the farmer based on dry weight.
"We keep each grower's batch separate, and we send the check by Dec. 20. A farmer can make about $1,200 per acre, which is about 1,000 pounds. Yields usually range from 900 to 1,300 pounds per acre."
Autumn Seed's machinery and techniques are proprietary, to the point of fabricating its own equipment.
"We build our own harvesters, which handle up to 60,000 pounds a day," Howard Ropp said. "We've got nine of them, and run six at a time, but we don't sell them."
"The Chinese would love to have these machines," Greg Ropp added.
"Our harvest runs from September through about the second week of November," he said. "We've got about 15 full-time workers right now, and four full-time year-round - two full-time fabricators and two in the warehouse. A lot of retired guys come work for us during harvest, driving and whatnot."
The dried squash seeds are shipped to several roasters, "David and Sons being one you'd recognize," Greg Ropp said. Once the seeds are roasted and ready for market, then they can be called pumpkin seeds, he said.
In the field
The harvesters extract the seeds from the squash, with the flesh either dumped out the back as fertilizer for the next crop or used as cattle feed.
"You never follow squash with squash," Greg Ropp said. "It's a three- or four-year rotation. Most growers follow squash with wheat, then with grass or corn."
Autumn Seed also has about 25 acres in organic hull-less seeds. "This one is actually a pumpkin," he said.
After harvest is over and the last batch of seeds is out the door, Howard Ropp heads for warmer climes.
"We've got a ranch down in West Texas, raising alfalfa and a few cows," he said.
Greg Ropp and his wife and three kids stay in the Willamette Valley, raising sweet corn and grass seed.
He has also coached the basketball team at Santiam Christian School - "this will be my 18th year."
Greg Ropp said he is concerned about how the economy will affect his niche market. "When times are tight, people don't buy pumpkin seeds. They're a snack food, so at the convenience store, you may not want to spend a dollar on a bag of seeds.
"We'll be fine for next year. The year after that, I don't know. My dad and I look three or four years down the road to see what we'll need to replace in tractors and forklifts and other equipment. Any new investments depend on tax incentives.
"Our business has been doing wonderful until the high prices of fertilizer and fuel hit. People look for easier-to-grow crops, with lower risk.
"As for that $1.20 per pound, we've never had to drop our prices to our growers, and we sure don't want to."
Photomoney
Dumping Startbucks Can Be A Good Thing For Your Business
Magic As Business
The junk boom: Profiting from foreclosures
World’s Smallest Postal Service
Link of the day - Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/
Lea Redmond runs the World’s Smallest Postal Service, a teeny tiny letter transcription service.
She sets up shop in cafes and stores, and is now available online. Here’s how it works: You write a letter (up to 12 whole sentences!) and Lea transcribes it onto tiny stationary (1 x 1.5 inches) with a magical transcription device. It then goes into a tiny envelope which gets addressed, stamped, and sealed with a miniscule wax seal with your initial on it.
The letter then goes into a see-through folded coin case and is packaged up with a magnifying glass in a larger glassine envelope, finished off with a large “World’s Smallest Letter” wax seal. Lea can send your letter directly to a recipient of your choice, or to you if you would like to distribute it yourself.
Lea also offers some new products, World’s Smallest Birthday Cards, Winter Holiday Cards, Valentines, and cards from the Tooth Fairy! Or write a letter from one of Santa’s elves! Or to welcome a new baby into the world.
The King Of Foreclosures
The Business Of Deer Pee
Voicemail Blasts from Your Computer
Voicemail Blasts from Your Computer
Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
http://www.phonevite.com/
Just after his daughter, Nova, was born in June, Dinesh Singh couldn't wait to tell upwards of 40 friends. But e-mail felt too impersonal, texting too clunky, and making that many calls personally too time-consuming. So Singh used Phonevite to record a message about his new daughter and send it to phone numbers he had entered on Phonevite's Web site.
John Nahm, 34, the company's co-founder, points out that the service isn't limited to birth announcements—it works just as well for last-minute barbecue rain cancellations or practice reminders from Little League coaches. Nahm and Kalvin Kim, 35, both technology startup veterans, launched their San Jose business in mid-2007 with $15,000 of the pair's savings. Although revenue is just $4,000 a month, they secured $600,000 in seed funding last January.
In July the company premiered Phonevite To Go, which enables users to input everything over a phone. Nahm's driving mission? "To make this service dumb simple, for the average Joe."
The Kid-Friendly Tongue Depressor
Barter Exchanges Catch On as Credit Tightens
Lending, With a Twist
Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
http://freelineskates.com/
What do you get if you cross a skateboard with Rollerblades? If you're Ryan Farrelly, it's a new sport and a startup that could pull in $5.5 million in revenue this year. Farrelly, 29, invented Freeline Skates in 2002 while bumming around from one odd job to the next, surfing in the morning and skating at night. The skates are like a polished metal skateboard that has been cut in two, with the wheels mounted sideways. Riders balance one foot on each half.
He then spent three years living on friends' couches as he and surfing buddy Jason Galoob tinkered with the design and raised money for a first batch of 500 skates. Based in Carlsbad, Calif., Freeline Sports sold 5,000 pairs in 2006, and 20,000 in 2007, thanks largely to buyers in South Korea and Japan. He predicts sales of 40,000 this year, at $134 a set, through freelineskates.com or 40 sports shops mostly in California. Farrelly says he has turned down Wal-Mart Stores as a retail outlet. Why? Bad for Freeline's street cred.
Photomoney
Dumping Startbucks Can Be A Good Thing For Your Business
Don't Touch My Beer!
Easing Death's Sting While Turning A Profit
An entrepreneur lures aspiring miners to an old gold-rush town.
Link of the day - Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
http://www.goldgold.com/
The northern California town of Happy Camp (pop. 1,000) was founded in 1850 when an estimated 15,000 people converged here, pitching tents and building rickety lean-tos. They came to work on a nearby stretch of the Klamath River dubbed the Million Dollar Mile because, legend has it, that was the value of the gold extracted on an average day.
While not every prospector struck it rich, Happy Camp earned its name from the variety of diversions available to both failed and successful miners: gambling, hookers, whiskey, and opium. What happened in Happy Camp stayed in Happy Camp.
Today the town features zero stoplights, only a few businesses (Bigfoot 24-Hour Towing is one), and a handful of houses, mostly hidden among the pines. I'm here to attend a beginner's prospecting weekend, led by an enterprising former Navy SEAL named Dave McCracken.
I check into the Forest Lodge Motel on Friday evening. Early the next morning I present myself at the Lions Hall, the only room in town large enough for McCracken's opening seminar on prospecting techniques. The roughly 100 attendees hail from as far away as Hawaii and Virginia. Among them are entrepreneurs, a railroad engineer, a computer programmer, several retirees, and a contingent of career gold diggers, mostly locals, some of whom work for one or more of McCracken's prospecting enterprises.
The day after Christmas 1979, following a four-year tour of duty, McCracken succumbed to the gold bug. Along with two partners, he headed for the Klamath River in Northern California. The partners lasted just two months. McCracken stayed on, living in a tent for the next three years. On his best days he recovered a few pennyweights of gold (worth roughly $100 back then). For a while he subsisted on an annual income of less than $3,000 - and lots of beans. Over time he won the trust of some old-timers who still worked the region. They taught him their tricks.
Now 54, McCracken has built a Happy Camp mini-empire. He owns the town's prospecting store, where shoppers can purchase anything from a tiny gold-display vial (50 cents) to a big, unwieldy piece of prospecting equipment called a dredge ($4,550).
He is the author of five books on prospecting and has produced three DVDs. He has also staked mineral claims along 70 miles of the Klamath. McCracken pays annual fees of about $50,000 to the U.S. Forest Service to maintain those rights. His stakes enable his biggest moneymaker, a prospecting club called the New 49'ers. For a one-time, $3,500 fee, members can prospect on McCracken's claims, keeping any gold they find. He launched the New 49'ers in 1985 with 500 members and says he now has more than 2,000.
McCracken explains what we can expect during our prospecting initiation. After panning to find promising locations for gold, we'll return to work them hard. The weekend will culminate in a split of the gold among all 100 participants. He stresses that although everyone will find some gold, it's unlikely that anyone will find much. Still, McCracken has a tough time containing himself.
"Hardly anything compares to finding your first gold," he says. "Even if it's just a tiny fleck - it's pure euphoria."
Sifting sediment
At noon on Saturday our group heads over to Savage Rapids, on the Klamath River. The plan is to work a gravel bar in the flat plain between the water and the woods. It's considered an ideal panning location because the river often deposits gold here when it overflows its banks.
Gold panning involves two steps, one land-based and the other water-based. McCracken demonstrates the technique, which hasn't changed since 1849: Using a spade, he flicks away the top layer of gravel, then digs into the rich, wet silt underneath, filling his pan. He walks to the river's edge and dips his pan in the water. Moving it around, he separates out liquid and lighter bits of sediment. After about five minutes he holds out his pan for us to inspect. There's some water, a lot of iron-laden black sand, and a few tiny flecks of gold.
Panning proves a lot harder than McCracken makes it look. Squatting in the chilly Klamath, the pan heavy with dirt and water, I struggle to keep my balance. After 20 minutes of sloshing, I reach the bottom of the pan. To my amazement, I see two minute, glittering specks.
Saturday night we return to the Lions Hall for a potluck dinner of beef stew, corn bread, and potato salad. Country music twangs over the speakers. As the evening draws on, both visitors and locals relax. One after another, the seasoned prospectors reach into their dungaree pockets and show their treasures, special nuggets that they carry in grubby envelopes and little glassine bags. Each lump tells a story. Some are prized for their unusual shape, others for weight and purity.
On Sunday morning I return to the Klamath, where McCracken and his crew are setting up four gas-powered machines, known as high-bankers, in the most promising spots from the day before. These robotic gold pans process dirt much faster than humans can. Drawing river water through a long hose, the high-banker sorts and agitates, spitting out the lighter sediments. At the base of the machine, the heavy stuff (gold, black sand, bits of lead) comes to rest in a removable tray. This weighty yield is then run through a mechanism that separates gold from other heavy material.
Nuggets and flakes
My job is to dig with a shovel and fill buckets with dirt. Other prospectors haul the buckets and dump the contents into the high-bankers to be filtered. We work in the grueling heat from 10 A.M. to noon, when McCracken announces we have processed enough soil. With much ceremony he withdraws the trays from the high-bankers. I can see numerous metallic glints, many of them golden. The next step is to run this yield through another machine that washes away the dross and leaves the gold.
Back at the Lions Hall, the entire day's take is spread out on a single piece of letter-sized paper. McCracken passes a magnet over the sheet. It attracts iron-rich black sand, leaving behind the nonmagnetic gold.
He then pours the precious metal onto a scale. The room falls silent in anticipation. McCracken fiddles with the slider weights and then announces, "We got an ounce and a half of gold - not bad for two days' work." Our haul includes 13 small nuggets among the flakes and flecks. We draw numbered poker chips from a can. The first 13 people will get a nugget. I draw No. 86.
As I line up to claim my small share of gold dust, I run into fellow prospector Linda Wilkinson. Along with her husband, Wilkinson owns Jump Organics, a soap manufacturer in Albany, Ore. She examines her little vial, agitating some $13.50 in glittering flakes. "I won't be retiring on this, but I had a blast," she says, grinning.
Lending, With a Twist
Should you listen to Seth Godin?
The Business Of Hats
http://www.ondeckcapital.com/
As the credit crisis deepens and Wall Street roils, it's getting tougher for small companies to land bank loans. For On Deck Capital Inc., that situation spells opportunity.
The New York-based start-up lends money to small businesses that can't get funding from major banks. On Deck has distributed more than $10 million in loans since launching in May and says the total amount of loans is growing about 35% each month.
To be sure, lots of alternative lenders have popped up lately, with a host of approaches to serve small businesses. But a couple of critical factors set On Deck apart from the crowd.
For one thing, unlike many of the start-up lenders, it has big-name backers. On Deck got funding from several high-profile venture firms -- including RRE Ventures and Khosla Ventures -- and has since partnered with a big hedge fund and a number of community banks.
What's more, the company has an offbeat system of evaluating borrowers. Instead of looking at a snapshot of performance, such as an applicant's tax returns, On Deck uses software to examine a company's daily business activity. The software figures out, among other things, how many customers the business has, how many complaints it gets and how its sales surge and sag. The idea is to gauge cash flow and see if the company is stable enough to pay back a loan.
On Deck's methods of collecting payments are just as unusual. Instead of sending out monthly notices, the company electronically debits small amounts every day from borrowers -- usually about $100 -- to pay back the loan over a year.
A Solid Start
Some prominent small-business advocates like On Deck's approach -- albeit with some reservations. Marilyn Landis, chairwoman of the National Small Business Association, notes that On Deck doesn't provide the personal "feet on the street" relationships banks once had with small businesses, "but at least it's a start" toward helping small companies get funding.
Some traditional lenders echo those sentiments. Bob Seiwert, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association, says On Deck's system provides an "interesting niche product for undercapitalized, cash-starved businesses," but it doesn't provide a personal connection with a banker.
What's more, he says, "for a business that needs a permanent increase in working capital, this probably isn't the best option. If you have a short-term blip due to seasonality and can't get a bank loan, this might work."
On Deck's backers argue that the company's technology helps it get a better handle on the state of a business -- and, potentially, approve more loans. Usually, banks look at "three years of personal tax returns or a credit score," says Josh Kopelman, managing partner of First Round Capital, which has invested in both rounds of On Deck's venture funding. "But those are moment-in-time snapshots. On Deck built an algorithm that looks at the true health of a business."
That ability made On Deck an intriguing investment, Mr. Kopelman says, "especially with credit tightening and everyone talking about how to assess true risk."
Along with RRE, Khosla and First Round, Contour Venture Partners and Village Ventures have poured more than $12 million in equity financing into the company to get it up and running. Community banks are also signing on, according to James Robinson, general partner of RRE, and in June On Deck added $100 million from Silar Advisors, a New York-based hedge fund and asset manager. The money will be made available to On Deck as needed to make loans.
"The market for small business and small financial companies to move upstream into the traditional bank lending space has grown," says Robert Leeds, founder and chief executive of Silar. "That's opened up huge opportunities for specialized small businesses and specialized finance businesses, and we're really excited about that."
The recent Wall Street crisis only helps On Deck by showing the dangers to investors of previous modes of loan underwriting, says On Deck founder and Chief Executive Mitch Jacobs. "The current turmoil raises the awareness of the problem and the need for our solution," Mr. Jacobs says. He adds that the liquidity crisis hasn't affected the $100 million from Silar Advisors.
On Deck's business model faces a couple of big questions. One is defaults. So, far On Deck has seen "very few," says Mr. Jacobs. But it's still early, and he expects higher default rates from businesses with high cash-flow volatility. "Small businesses are volatile -- they are subject to shifts in the economy, and there is significant potential for losses," Mr. Jacobs says. "For a certain subset of our portfolio, losses could be as high as 10% if not potentially more."
Another question for On Deck: How tough will its competition get? A host of alternative lending options have gained traction in the wake of the credit crisis, including Web sites where private individuals bid on loan requests from borrowers and services that provide small, very short-term loans at high interest rates.
Mr. Jacobs expects the field to get a lot more crowded. Small businesses that can't receive a traditional loan make up "a $160 billion financing hole in the U.S. economy focused on trying to fuel the American dream," he says. "We have to anticipate that a lot of other parties are going to enter the market."
A Stitch in Time
For now, On Deck is betting there are a lot of entrepreneurs who will seek out its services as credit gets tighter. For one indication of how tough the lending picture has gotten, consider a recent survey by the National Small Business Association. The group found that 55% of small businesses reported difficulty securing credit in the previous six months.
Along with showing a healthy cash flow, potential On Deck borrowers must meet some other criteria. They must hold a separate business bank account, they must have been open for business for more than a year, and they must process at least $3,000 in credit-card transactions per month.
On Deck approves about 70% of eligible applicants, says Mr. Jacobs, and provides funding within two days of receiving an application. Interest rates range from 18% to 36% -- higher than traditional loans but significantly less than those at other alternative lending sources, which can run as high as 200%.
For some small-business owners, being judged on actual day-to-day performance and not tax returns is a relief. So is the daily micropayment system, which allows them to avoid large monthly bills that can sneak up and become crushing if one cycle is missed.
"We know exactly what is coming every day, and the exact amount that is going out," says Nancy Ebker, president of New York clothing company Montagerie LLC, who approached On Deck for financing in May.
Ms. Ebker's company had struggled through a difficult first year, and a potentially make-or-break season loomed. She and her partner had to find financing to tide them over until clients made their fall purchases. Knitters had to be paid up front to create sample outfits to show to customers. Skeins of yarn had to be purchased. "Big banks were telling us, 'We don't do that start-up thing,' " Ms. Ebker says. "All the credit was freezing up. What were we going to do?"
Ms. Ebker called On Deck, and was relieved to hear that the lender was interested in seeing Montagerie's growth trends -- which were positive, she says. "Banks don't want to hear any of that, of course," Ms. Ebker says. "They just want to see where you are at a given moment, not where you might be going."
Ms. Ebker got the money she needed to keep her business moving. Now she's looking ahead to a "totally booked" season for Montagerie and expects the company to be profitable this year, with about $500,000 in revenue.
Should you listen to Seth Godin?
Pee Farming
Photomoney
Don't Touch My Beer!
Easing Death's Sting While Turning A Profit
How Two Tech Guys Created A Viral Food Sensation
Link of the day - Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
http://www.baconsalt.com/
Bacon Salt was the invention of Dave Lefkow and Justin Esch, two former employees of Seattle startup Jobster. The idea for Bacon Salt came over dinner one night. This is how they tell it:
“While on a business trip together, we had the chance to sit down for dinner and eventually, the conversation turned to our mutual love of bacon. It was then that Justin told Dave and another coworker named Kara about his idea for Bacon Salt. Kara, who is a vegetarian, loved the idea. Dave, a card-carrying carnivore and Midwesterner, loved it even more. Even the waiter at the fancy restaurant loved it.”
Working in a startup gave them a strong understanding of what was required to get a business off the ground, but venture capital for untried food products isn’t as easy to find as funding for a Facebook application.
Lefkow and Esch needed some seed capital to get the idea rolling, so they turned to the most unlikely source: Amercia’s Funniest Home Video Show. A video of Lefkow’s daughter took home $5,000 in prize money, and this kick started the company.
Along with a traditional website and blog, Bacon Salt was promoted strongly across social networks. Along with Lefkow’s YouTube account, Bacon Salt created groups on Facebook and MySpace. Thrown into the mix was a Twitter account and even a Zazzle store.
The aim was to build viral brand awareness while keeping costs low. None of the accounts I visited had huge numbers, but from what I’m told, they were enough to plant a viral seed.
Word of Bacon Salt grew, and within 3 months of launching the product Bacon Salt was popping up in the strangest of places. WWE magazine ran a story on Bacon Salt, along with some mens magazines, PC Gamer and even The New Yorker.
Initially Bacon Salt didn’t have any distribution deals, offering their wares by online order only, but this soon changed as the press continued to build. What started as a viral internet campaign turned into positive mainstream media coverage, and consumer demand for Bacon Salt in their local supermarkets.
Badconomy - Economics Of The Bad Times
As America Crumles, It’s Pay Day For Pawnshops
The Day The Credit Died. How Americans Will Have To Live Without Visas And MasterCards
The Craziest Taxi In The World
http://www.ultimatetaxi.com/
The Ultimate Taxi was born on Halloween night, 1983, Jon’s vision started modestly with a few flashlights, some dry ice, a Star Trek light on the dash, a good sound system, and some strategically-placed tin foil.
The rest is history. Today Jon Barnes from The Ultimate Taxi bills his cab as the only music studio, nightclub, planetarium, toy store, and Internet taxi on the planet!
It's a rock & roll concert, roller coaster ride, magic show, movie ride, laser light show, and photo shoot.
From the front seat of his 1978 Checker Cab, Barnes orchestrates a sophisticated in-taxi light show, complete with 9 lasers, 14 miniature stage lights, a revolving disco ball, and a $2,000 haze machine.
The ride also includes toys, rainbow glasses, and a photo page on his world-famous web site www.ultimatetaxi.com
Famous celebrities like Ringo Starr, George Lucas, Jimmy Buffet, Clint Eastwood, Bob Dole, Michael Eisner, Michael Douglas, and Kevin Costner are among the many notables who have enjoyed this magical, mystery tour.
In this interview you are going to learn and travel along with Jon as he describes his journey from novice taxi driver in Aspen, providing an entertaining ride, to purveyor of an other worldly, high-tech experience of a lifetime.
You’ll hear how Jon successfully leverages free media attention and his cutting-edge technology to brand an unforgettable experience in the mind of his customers.
You’ll also learn how this not so ordinary taxi diver markets his business using these universal business building lessons…..These are lessons that anyone can use for their own business. For instance how to…
• Develop relationships to build repeat business – Jon made friends with other cabbies, the dispatcher, and cops by helping them meet their needs; he treated customers like friends, giving free rides, leaving the meter off, and knowing where they lived, and where they wanted to go.
• Focus on the unique – instead of just a ride, Jon sells fun and entertainment, always trying to boost his smileage (smiles per gallon). His guarantee: either you have fun or there’s no charge.
• Leverage your core business into multiple revenue streams – the Ultimate Taxi is central to the Trunk Boutique memorabilia, the web site, and media fees.
• And much, much more!
http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/audioclips/Ultimate_Taxi_Marketing_Interview.mp3
[Via - Mike Senoff]
Dig finds camp of 'real Crusoe'
Weird Businesses - Pee Farming
Dumping Starbucks For Profit
Sheriff: Family cremated mom on BBQ, kept benefits
Small Is Beautiful. And Profitable, Too.
Link of the day - Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
http://www.ci-cin.com/
Name: Contract Interiors
Industry: Office furniture
Employees: 18
2007 revenues $15 million
Deni Tato serves a market that spends less when the economy languishes. But Tato isn't sweating the current slowdown. Ever since she chopped an arm off Contract Interiors, her Cincinnati-based business, the CEO runs a leaner, more profitable operation.
When Tato, 52, started her business back in 1986, she envisioned a vertically integrated firm that would handle sales, installation, delivery, and service. After she bought a large distributor in 1992, Contract Interiors moved into a 55,000-square-foot warehouse filled with thousands of chairs and desks.
But when the office furniture market dipped in 2000, her high overhead kept her from being as profitable as she should have been. In 2001, Tato forged partnerships with two local installation companies, which bought her warehouse and trucks and also absorbed many of her former employees. She then turned a critical eye on her streamlined staff.
Contract Interiors is now firmly focused on its core competency - sales and marketing. While her staff has shrunk from 50 in 2000 to about 18 today, revenues have held steady at more than $15 million a year.
RapidPSD Review
Magic As Business
The Business Of Homebiz Scams
Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
http://www.mrsdoepee.com/
I didn't set out to become a pee farmer.
I was working as plant manager at a steel-manufacturing facility and running a taxidermy business on the side. One day my wife, Judi, bought me some deer to use as live models. Owning deer is like keeping two rabbits in a hutch in the backyard. It's harmless enough at first, but soon you've got a whole yard full.
As my herd grew, I started collecting urine to use when I hunted. Pheromone-rich urine from a doe in estrus is the strongest buck attractant I know of. So when the does were in heat I would grab a shovel, scoop up their urine and some dirt with a shovel, pour it into a Baggie, and stick it in the refrigerator.
My friends and I had a lot of success hunting with the urine. In 1990 Judi and I built a barn with handling facilities and collection rooms. The next year we started selling refrigerated whitetail urine. Our urine must be refrigerated because it's 100% pure and undiluted. The preservatives that some of our competitors mix into their urine kill the pheromones that make this type of urine an effective lure. Pure deer urine has a shelf life of about 60 days, so we only collect it seasonally to make sure it stays fresh for the fall.
Collecting deer urine resembles a conventional dairy operation. We keep 130 deer and a few elk. The deer come into a barn at night to eat. Their urine drips through grates onto a sloping floor that runs into a collection vat surrounded by a cooling pit. When the vat fills up, workers store it in a walk-in refrigerator. We filter the urine, bottle it, and ship it out in coolers to our customers.
There are 17 million deer hunters in America, and the whitetail-lure business - a $44-million-a-year market - keeps growing. We have four full-time employees, and we hire three or four more to help out during the fall. Our bestselling product is a two-ounce spray bottle that retails for $15.50.
We also sell freeze-dried urine, which has an indefinite shelf life - once you remove the moisture, bacteria can't grow. We sell it with a bottle of distilled water that hunters use to reconstitute it. Initially hunters used tap water, but the chlorine in the water killed the pheromones.
We own a sporting goods store that sells our deer urine along with bow-hunting gear and paintball equipment. We're in the process of moving the whole operation to a new farm. It will be a turnkey operation, with everything in one place: collection, shipping, receiving, and retail.
I love my job, but people cringe when I tell them what I do. When they visit our facility, they assume it's going to be nasty. Not true: Even one kernel of deer feces is enough to contaminate urine. Every day we spray the whole barn with high-pressure hoses and dry it with powerful blowers. You could eat lunch off the floor of our deer barn.
The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure
The Business Of Stock Photography
Dumping Starbucks For Profit
Link of the day - Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things
http://www.nordine.com/
The South Bay's reigning King of Foreclosures runs around barefoot, doesn't own a cellphone and drives an 8-year-old Toyota Tundra pickup.
And without looking the part, Leo Nordine, an affable Hermosa Beach-based real estate broker, expects to average one escrow closing a day this year -- something that would make most agents salivate.
Nordine, a 45-year-old native son and surfer didn't just catch the current foreclosure tidal wave, he has sold 3,500 bank-owned homes during the last two decades. He credits his uncanny ability to time the real estate market's cycles and position himself to reap its rewards as the key to his extraordinary success. And he does it all from the comfort of his home overlooking the Strand in Hermosa Beach.
Little about Nordine's road to riches is typical. He is a case study in how an intense young man without a formal education can be propelled by his drive and work ethic to the height of success -- even when he doesn't live and breathe his job.
"What's important to me," Nordine says, "is family, surfing and work -- in that order."
Born to European parents who immigrated to the U.S. so their son could be born a citizen, Nordine's childhood was far from the American dream.
His insurance salesman dad, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, left when Nordine was 5. His mom struggled to provide for him and his sister. He recalls the family moving from apartment to apartment, staying one step ahead of the eviction notices. Nordine bought 25-cent T-shirts at Goodwill to wear to school and took two paper routes for the Daily Breeze when he was old enough to have a job.
Nordine recalls how his dad reappeared one day and asked to borrow $200; he obliged, but the loan was never repaid.
"It was the best thing that ever happened to me," Nordine says, noting how he opened a savings account with his very next paycheck.
"Ever since," he says, "it always felt better to me to save than to consume."
Even today he doesn't dress, drive or live rich. In fact, his financial success has come as a total surprise to him. "I never figured myself to be someone who would amount to much," he said, recalling how at age 15 he'd drive his Plymouth Duster to Carlsbad with his longboard on the roof. He'd surf all day, sleep in the car and pick the oranges off people's trees come mealtime. After washing up in the Hadley Orchard Cafe, he'd avail himself of its free samples to supplement the fruit.
Then, at 17, Nordine met the woman who would become his first wife. He took a series of odd jobs to help support her and her child and -- encountering difficulties working for someone else -- was summarily fired from each of them.
When she became pregnant again, he set his sights on real estate. Much to his surprise, he had a natural gift for pricing and timing the market. Within three years, he opened his own business and has run things his way ever since. He began specializing in selling bank-owned properties in 1990 because, he says, that's where the market was headed.
Nordine's business model is E.T. Surf, the Hermosa Beach surf shop he frequented as a kid. He recalls how owner Eddie Talbot "always treated us with dignity, let us hang out like little sponges just soaking up the surfing atmosphere."
Nordine treats his own clients with the same respect. He understands that homeowners may regard him as the devil incarnate, the guy tasked with selling their homes -- sometimes out from under them.
He's fine with it. "Whether I sell their houses or not, they are getting foreclosed," he said. "I negotiate the best deal I can for them . . . cash for keys."
Nordine knows that anybody can fall victim to hard times. And the last thing he wants is for his youngest son, 6-year-old Nate, to think things come easily in life.
To that end, when Nate was just 2, Nordine took him on an outing to Watts. On the subway, Nate saw a homeless man whose disheveled appearance and erratic behavior scared him to the point of tears. When the man exited the train, he paused by the boy, put his hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry I made you cry, son."
"Nate will always remember," Nordine said, "that not everyone is as fortunate as him."
Nordine has made his own fortune not only by selling homes but also by investing shrewdly. In the 1980s, he bought about 20 properties, most of them single-family homes in Torrance. He sold them off in 1990 and '91 when he anticipated a bust was coming. He dived back into the market in the mid-1990s -- this time apartments in Santa Monica -- and sold off most of them in 2005.
Today, he and his second wife own a 22-unit complex and a 12-unit complex in Santa Monica; a single-family home and a four-plex in El Segundo; nine bungalows and a four-plex in Torrance; a five-plex in Redondo Beach; and the house-office in Hermosa Beach.
But being a dad and husband is what it's all about for Nordine. His is the first face his son Nate sees every morning when he wakes and the last one he sees at bedtime.
So what advice does Nordine offer those concerned about the real estate market?
Don't sell unless you absolutely have to. Don't buy until 2010, when prices should be at 2000 levels. And apply every spare nickel to paying off your debt, including mortgages.
Photomoney
Dumping Startbucks Can Be A Good Thing For Your Business
Don't Touch My Beer!
Easing Death's Sting While Turning A Profit
The Business Of Hats
Earn big money taking photographs in your spare time!
Link of the day - Guesstimation: Solving the World’s Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin
Earn big money taking photographs in your spare time!
It sounds like a late-night TV come-on for a phony get-rich-quick scheme. But in this case, it might just be true.
Thanks to the Internet and digital cameras, thousands of semiprofessional photographers are now selling their shots through so-called microstock Web sites to customers around the world. But it’s not like the old days of stock photography — before 2000: the price that each shot fetches is not enough to buy a cup of coffee. Microstock Web sites have turned the pricing structure for picture licensing on its head.
Traditional photographic stock companies charge several hundred to several thousand dollars per image. Microstock prices can be as low as 25 cents, and payments to photographers are even lower, often not much more than pennies per sale.
But some photographers are making significant incomes from their pictures, making up in volume what they have lost in per-shot commissions. And that, in turn, is affecting the business of some mainstream professional photographers.
For small-business owners or others needing images, microstock sites can be an alternative to conventional stock agencies, which base fees on the published size of an image, circulation and other factors.
Microstock sites charge far less, and, with few exceptions, buyers pay a flat fee, no matter how large the image is or where it is used.
“Maybe a $300 photo for a pamphlet distributed to 300 people is not worth $300,” said Jon Oringer, the founder of Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com), a four-year-old microstock agency.
Shutterstock customers, who pay a monthly subscription fee beginning at $199, can download up to 25 pictures a day of the site’s 1.8 million photos, at any resolution. For those who download the maximum, that amounts to 27 cents per shot. Shutterstock photographers are paid 25 cents for a purchased picture; the price rises to 30 cents once $500 worth of their work is bought.
In addition to Shutterstock, other microstock photo agencies include Big Stock Photo (bigstockphoto.com), Fotolia (fotolia.com), Dreamstime (dreamstime.com) and iStockphoto (istockphoto.com).
Each uses a different pricing and payment scheme; photographers have the option to upload the same pictures on multiple sites or, with some of the agencies, become an exclusive supplier for an increased commission. There is no fee to post photos on a microstock site.
Whether the varying approaches matter to customers and photographers is an open question. “The differences to consumers appear to be incremental,” said Bruce Livingstone, who founded an early microstock site, iStockphoto, in 2000.
Microstock sites do not accept all comers or all photographs. Each employs a team of inspectors who check every picture submitted for technical quality, as well as artistic and commercial merit.
Shots of dogs and cats are generally not welcome, while “lifestyle” photographs — pictures of people at work and play — are usually top sellers. Other subjects of interest include food, sports and fashion.
Getting photos accepted for a site is just one part of the battle. Potential buyers can find shots by browsing through a collection and its categories, or by searching using a keyword that describes what they want.
The photographer creates the keywords; most sites have no restrictions on how many, though Fotolia had to stop some photographers who were adding every keyword under the sun in the hopes that someone would stumble upon the shot.
Keeping one’s pictures confined to one site may not be a good idea, if the site attracts few customers, or becomes known for specializing in pictures of sheep while you are hoping to sell shots of toothpaste.
“We did not want to limit the ability of photographers to earn money,” said Tim Donahue, the founder of Big Stock Photo, which does not offer exclusivity.
Some photographers say exclusivity works. The same picture on multiple sites may have different prices. By being exclusive photographers can more easily trace those who might be misusing their work, either by using an image — on, say, a coffee mug — without buying rights to it or by stealing a concept they like, recreating a photograph and selling it as their own.
Those who are doing well selling their work on microstock sites have done their homework: they have figured out what type of photographs a site specializes in, what types of pictures sell and whether the commission is sufficient.
Lise Gagné of Quebec specializes in business shots, one of the most popular genres. Ms. Gagné, who has been shooting commercially for five years, earns more than $100,000 a year selling her work exclusively through iStockphoto.
“I like iStock’s sharing spirit,” Ms. Gagné said, referring to the extensive discussion groups and other client aides the site provides. “It’s a matter of being fair. You don’t have to go elsewhere.”
Because volume matters in microstock sales, a large number of shots must be uploaded. Ms. Gagné currently has 4,900 photographs available for sale on the site and adds 5 to 20 more each week.
Kelly Cline, a Seattle-based food photographer, has uploaded 1,363 images to iStockphoto, and her work has been bought 68,215 times. Significant payments began to arrive once she had 500 to 600 images in her portfolio, Ms. Cline said, adding, “If you upload more, it’s like shooting arrows in the air.”
Ms. Cline, a former food stylist, began shooting food four years ago. At first, she photographed her own work and then began uploading her material to iStockphoto.
Today, she said, she earns about $70,000 a year, 60 percent of her income, from microstock sales, and she remains an exclusive provider to iStockphoto.
But Stephen Coburn, a Web designer at Adobe Systems who began photography a few years ago as a hobby, said he would never use one microstock site exclusively. “I’d feel nervous about putting all my eggs in one basket,” he said.
Mr. Coburn supplies shots to five microstock sites, shooting people, objects and interiors. With 3,500 photos posted to the sites, he earns, on average, $6,000 per month.
Michael Shake, a tool-and-die maker in Toledo, Ohio, uploads pictures to 10 sites and earns $1,000 a month for his work. Specializing in shots of houses and new cars, he sells his work to real estate agents and car dealers looking for appropriate illustrations.
When a tire accessory manufacturer saw his work, he hired Mr. Shake to shoot an advertisement, shipping a tire to his home for the shot. “All I wanted was to earn enough money for new equipment,” Mr. Shake said. “It’s gone way past that.”
Not everyone is enamored with microstock Web sites. Professional photographers see the sites’ growth as diluting their own incomes.
“This is the death of beautiful photography,” said David Skernick, a professional photographer in Los Angeles who does not use the sites. Because of the low prices and large volumes of material, “now clients accept anything.”
Mr. Skernick has seen the value of his own work decrease, from a time when photographs were priced not just on their merit but on their intended use. He said he once sold a photograph that was used on a Brian Wilson album cover for $2,000. “Today I would get $2 for the same use,” he said.
Still, railing against the sites is about as useful as hoping cellphones will go away and phone booths will make a comeback.
“Every month, my income from microstock sales gets better,” Ms. Cline said. “You have to go with it or be left behind. Otherwise you’ll be saying, ‘Woe is me.’ ”
Hands Off My Beer!
Easing Death's Sting While Turning A Profit
The Business Of Hats
Value-added Junk Hauling?
Magic As Business
Link of the day - I will pay you $25, if you come up with a cool domain name for me.
http://www.drinkbouncer.co.uk/
Simon Hartley, 38, invented the Drink Bouncer - a beer mat which is placed on top of drinks when the customer goes to the toilet or when smokers go outside.
The father-of-three created the mat in June last year and after piloting 24,000 across Teesside, he hopes that there will be national interest at the British Inventors Show at Alexandra Palace next week.
Simon said: “I came up with the idea before the smoking ban came in, though I had been thinking about it for a while.
“It’s to stop pints going missing or being collected when you go out for a cigarette or to the toilets.
“Plus it saves landlords having to replace those pints for free.”
Simon will have his own stall at the show for three and a half days and is hoping that big breweries will sign up to the idea by sponsoring the mats which will then be free to pubs.
He will also be promoting his new website www.kidsreunited.co.uk which aims to put kids who grew up in care in touch with each other.
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http://www.thecomfortcompany.net/
Renee Wood says she’s used to weeping at work. She runs an online bereavement-gift outfit, Comfort Co., from suburban Geneva and gets calls all day from people who want to buy something special for someone who has just lost a loved one. Compassion comes naturally to Wood—she was a social worker in a neonatal unit in Little Rock for years before she moved to Illinois—but it was only in 2000 that she figured out how to make money from it. Her sister-in-law’s father died, and Wood couldn’t find a suitable gift. She crafted a pendant out of her daughter’s Play-Doh and took it to a silversmith to make into a necklace.
Wood put a photo of the pendant on the Web and sold 150 of them. After getting a $6,000 home-equity loan from Harris Bank, she went to gift shows and found more items to carry on her site, thecomfortcompany.net, including Christmas tree ornaments to remember lost ones at the holidays. Wood, 42, has added Spanish-language products and would like to expand her pet-sympathy line. Revenue jumped to $625,000 last year, from $53,000 in 2003. “The more I grow, the more people I help feel better.”
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http://www.optimohats.com/
Graham Thompson, owner of Optimo Fine Hats in Beverly, has for years gone to Ecuador to buy toquilla straw for Panama hats and to Italy and Portugal for fancy felts for fedoras. Now the hatmaker wants to reverse at least some of that trade flow—by opening stores in London and Milan. A shop in downtown Chicago is also on the to-do list.
Thompson, 36, who grew up in Oak Brook, had hat dreams as far back as the 8th grade, idolizing men in hats from 1930s and ’40s movies. As a teen, he hung out with South Side master hatter Johnny Tyus and ended up buying Tyus’ business, paying him $75,000 from cash flow over three years.
Today, Optimo draws locals willing to spend $500 to $20,000 for custom-made hats, though it boasts celebrity clients, too, including bluesman Buddy Guy, comedian Bernie Mac, and actor Andy Garcia. Thompson also has made hats for movies, including Road to Perdition. He’s now working on Michael Mann’s Chicago gangster film, Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. To supply his new stores, Thompson plans to jack up production to as many as 100 hats a week from 36 today. Revenue should hit $1 million in 2008, he adds, up from $700,000 in 2007 and $100,000 when he opened in 1994.
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http://1800junkusa.com/
VALUE-ADDED junk hauling may sound like a questionable product to sell: it assumes that people will pay hundreds of dollars to get rid of ratty sofas and assorted flotsam in professional and socially conscious ways.
Its biggest selling points are friendly employees who presumably look more respectable than the local odd jobber, and who will, unlike the far less expensive city garbage collector, climb into that nasty basement or garage to haul out your junk.
Yet to the bafflement of industry experts, quality junk-hauling sells.
Take Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman, the 26-year-old founders of College Hunks Hauling Junk, based in Tampa, Fla. The pair started the company in Washington five years ago and now employ 25 people there; they also have franchises in 15 metropolitan areas.
Sending out college students in golf shirts and khakis, College Hunks had $2.9 million in business last year. Mr. Soliman and Mr. Friedman said they expected sales of $4 million this year.
The company charges by the size of the cargo: for an eighth of a truck, a quarter and so on, up to $500 for a full load, or $99 for a single item. Extra charges apply for some concrete, dirt, construction materials and other loads. And they will not remove some materials at all, like combustibles and other hazardous waste. The haulers promise to recycle and donate what they can — and say that it’s to their advantage to eliminate as much as possible this way, because they pay by the pound for whatever they drop off at the dump.
More than half of College Hunks’ business comes from homeowners in upscale neighborhoods who discard many items that the company takes to Goodwill Industries instead of to the dump. While some charities offer pickup services, they may be selective in what they accept and may not clean out a space, Mr. Friedman said, adding, “Calling College Hunks gets the stuff out in one sweep.”
About 30 percent of the company’s revenue comes from businesses — property managers, for example, who hire the company to clear rental units.
College Hunks has sold 36 franchises since January 2007, each requiring a minimum investment of $75,600, which includes a $25,000 franchise fee, to get started. “In our minds, we want to have 80 to 125 franchise partners across the country,” said Mr. Soliman, the chief executive. “We think we can do that within three years.”
From the beginning, their business plan called for franchising, as the least expensive way to expand the company. By the summer of 2006, when 12-month revenues were up to about $500,000, Mr. Friedman and Mr. Soliman had enough cash from operations to spend around $250,000 for lawyers and consultants to roll out a franchise plan.
Among the expenses were setting up a call center that could take orders from around the country and software that would allow customers to search online for College Hunks by ZIP code.
They also hired George Palmer, 63, as director of franchise development. “I’ve been in franchising for more than 30 years; that’s longer than the College Hunks have been on the face of the earth,” Mr. Palmer said.
His job is to arrange support for the franchisees, including marketing materials designed for specific customers, like real estate agents, bankers or moving companies. He also hosts conference phone calls with franchisees, where tips are shared — on good insurance rates, for example.
If the College Hunks plan sounds familiar, that is probably because a company called 1-800-GOT-JUNK? has already done it. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? sells the same services as College Hunks, and it has blanketed the United States and Canada with more than 300 franchises in the last nine years. It reported $121.37 million in revenue last year.
Mr. Friedman said College Hunks was already the largest junk-hauling business based in the United States, and that 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was the only competitor with more than a few trucks.
College Hunks — whose phone number is a similar 1-800-JUNK-USA (its Web site is 1800junkusa.com) — is undaunted by the competition. While Mr. Friedman said 1-800-GOT-JUNK? “is the McDonald’s of the junk-hauling business,” he said his company just wanted to be “the Burger King.”
Franchise consultants say there is nothing wrong with that strategy. They point out that Wendy’s did not enter the fast food market until about two decades after McDonald’s invented it.
College Hunks was conceived in the summer of 2003, when Mr. Friedman was a college intern at the International Monetary Fund in Washington and when Mr. Soliman started picking up junk for cash. The two, who have known each other since attending Sidwell Friends School in Washington, hauled junk together on weekends.
They split about $9,000 that summer. Then Mr. Soliman returned to the University of Miami and Mr. Friedman to Pomona College in California for their senior years, but their phones kept ringing for hauling jobs in Washington.
So Mr. Soliman drew up a business plan for College Hunks and entered it in the Leigh Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition at his university. He took first place and won $10,000.
After graduating with a business degree, Mr. Soliman took a marketing job in Washington and used his prize money to restart the junk business on the side. Mr. Friedman helped, but he had an economics degree by then and a job at a consulting company.
“I created spreadsheets, economic research to help billion-dollar businesses make more billions,” he said. Six months later, he left to join Mr. Soliman and the junk business full time.
They recruited haulers from the University of Maryland, in nearby College Park, and area community colleges, paying them $11 an hour, with bonuses of $20 to $50 a shift if a customer called in and complimented their work.
The company’s name notwithstanding, the haulers don’t have to be hunky, Mr. Friedman said, but “clean-cut,” which he defines as well-groomed with no prominent piercings or tattoos. There is also at least one Hunkette, as they call a female hauler, and women also work in the corporate office.
Mr. Soliman and Mr. Friedman designed a logo with a cartoonish muscle man and invented a slogan: “Let tomorrow’s leaders haul your junk today!” They put out fliers and door hangers and handed out business cards.
Shortly before their 25th birthdays, they were ready to franchise, and they obtained a toll-free phone number with the word junk in it, paying a Michigan medical company $13,000 for 1-800-JUNK-USA. The number helped their marketing efforts immensely, they said.
“It was easy to remember and sounds like a national company,” Mr. Soliman said.
Big waste-collection companies might pose formidable competition if they pursued junk hauling, but they haven’t so far, and some of them openly disdain the idea of collecting junk from inside homes.
“I question the need and the appropriateness of companies like 1-800-GOT-JUNK?” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Norcal Waste Systems, based in San Francisco. The company collects garbage for San Francisco and nearby cities, and it recycles about 60 percent of what it collects in its facilities, Mr. Reed said.
Most homeowners get free or inexpensive pickup of bulk items from the curb once or twice a year as part of their city garbage collection, Mr. Reed said. So why would people spend $400?
“Most people are able-bodied and can haul their own stuff,” he said. “You just get a dolly, which most people have in their garage, and pull it out to the curb.”
Those sentiments were echoed at the National Solid Wastes Management Association, a trade group whose members include large trash companies, and in Waste Age, a publication that covers the waste-hauling industry.
But at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Launi Skinner, the president and chief operating officer, said quality hauling services were needed because “everyone in our society has junk.”
And sometimes it takes a sense of humor to move it. Among the College Hunks is Kevin Burns, a 21-year-old student who is also a full-time employee.
Last month, Mr. Burns was working on a job at a small apartment in Tampa. Magazines, notebooks, plastic soda bottles, lamp parts, 1980s electronics and, inexplicably, feathers covered every surface.
While her 10-pound Chihuahua yapped furiously, the resident, Deirdre Blancett, asked the haulers to remove the sleeper sofa, the television, the computer desk — pretty much all of her furniture — and whatever was on it.
When the job was about half done, Ms. Blancett’s nephew, Brian Vans Evers, arrived. Noting the College Hunks sign on the truck, he spat tobacco juice and remarked that college students had time for junk hauling.
Mr. Burns introduced himself and finished filling the truck. Then he slapped a College Hunks magnet on the tailgate of Mr. Vans Evers’s pickup and said he hoped he could work for him again.
Mr. Vans Evers looked at the magnet, just above his “Yur Followeeng a Rednek” bumper sticker. The house his aunt is moving into has more junk than this apartment, he said, adding that “maybe we’ll give you a call.”
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