Your invention could be sold in Bed Bath & Beyond®

Edison Nation is seeking new product ideas to acquire that could be sold in Bed Bath & Beyond stores!

Going away to college or university means squeezing your whole world into a room the size of a closet. Bed Bath & Beyond has teamed up with Edison Nation to host the “Students of Invention” Search to find solution based product ideas that will help students conquer the challenges of dorm room living: space, organization, storage, cleaning, lighting, comfort and decorating.

Click here to learn more about the Bed Bath & Beyond “Students of Invention” Live Product Search

Deadline: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 11:59PM – Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Editor’s Note: Everyday Edisons require a $25 submission fee.

Photo by Everyday Edisons.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Your invention could be sold through the World’s Largest Online Store!

Amazon Green has partnered with Edison Nation to find innovative home products that save time, money or energy.

Keep in mind the range of product categories available on Amazon Green:

• Landscaping equipment to power without air pollution
• Lighting and electrical solutions to save energy and energy bills
• Plumbing fixtures and toilets to save water
• Indoor and outdoor furniture utilizing bamboo fibers and sustainable materials
• Green storage and organization solutions
• Eco-friendly home and garden appliances

Click here to learn more about the Amazon Live Product Search

Deadline: Monday, September 14th, 2009 11:59PM – Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Editor’s Note: Everyday Edisons require a $25 submission fee.

Photo by Everyday Edisons.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Your invention could be sold through major retailers nationwide!

Do you have a great idea for the next big floor care product? Edison Nation is seeking new product ideas or patents to acquire and sell through household cleaning product giant O-Cedar.

For this search, your innovative floor care product concepts must:

• Be patentable
• Appeal to O-Cedar’s primary consumers (women age 25-54, especially young mothers and pet owners)
• Provide a low-to-mid-range priced solution which makes consumers’ lives better
• Appeal to the end user’s desire for time-saving convenience and effectiveness to get the job done.
• Offer alternatives to competing brands’ current product solutions
• Be intended for home use (not commercial)

Click here to learn more about the O-Cedar Live Product Search

Deadline: Monday, September 28th, 2009 11:59PM – Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Editor’s Note: Everyday Edisons require a $25 submission fee.

Photo by Everyday Edisons.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Candyholics rejoice! BestSweet, a top confectionary manufacturer, is turning to you for creative, new ideas for products to add to one of their deliciously notable candy brands.

BestSweet is now turning to our Edison Nation members to this leading ice cream brand’s next hit candy item that will appeal to the lucrative ‘tween consumer (ages 8-13).

For this Live Product Search, BestSweet wants you to think outside the box of established candy varieties, such as Junior Mints® or Milk Duds®. BestSweet is looking for your product concept ideas in sweet new flavors and in any shape or size.

Whether its minis or bite-size squares, consider the whole package concept and your buyer. What new candy would grab the hard-to-catch attention of ‘tweens?

For this Live Product Search, your product concepts must:

• Retail in stores for $2.00
• Appeal to the ‘tween consumer
• Fit within a leading ice cream manufacturer’s line of branded candy
• Be unique and patentable

Click here to learn more about the BestSweet Live Product Search

Deadline: Monday, September 21st, 2009 11:59PM – Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Editor’s Note: Everyday Edisons require a $25 submission fee.

Photo by Everyday Edisons.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Carolina Pad, a leading supplier of fashion school, office and organizational products, is one of the fastest-growing stationery companies in the world. Its school, office, and arts and crafts products can be found at mass merchant, office supply, grocery, and drug stores, including leading nationwide retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Meijer, Fred Meyer, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Office Max, Staples, Kroger, Food Lion and more..

To further its mission of providing extraordinary fashion and innovation through its everyday products, Carolina Pad is currently looking for the next top innovative school, office and organizational supplies.

Click here to learn more about this Live Product Search

Deadline: Monday, Sept 14th 2009 11:59PM – Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Editor’s Note: Everyday Edisons require a $25 submission fee.

Photo by Everyday Edisons.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Squeezed between Moe’s Coffee Shop and the Shop N Go minimart on hardscrabble Frankford Avenue, in the heart of working-class Northeast Philadelphia, lies the Philly Pretzel Factory. With its algae-green sign bolted to the building’s khaki stucco exterior, it looks more like a takeout joint than the headquarters of a $40 million empire. The truth is, it’s both.

At eight o’clock on a brisk Friday morning, neighborhood folks — in all shades and shapes, from two burly guys in courier uniforms to a bottle blonde impatiently jingling her keys — stand eight deep inside the Factory. The crowd is starting to spill out of the building, while customers near the counter watch like kids peering into the oven window, urging on a batch of Christmas cookies.

Once the pride of a few family bakeries in gritty South Philadelphia, soft pretzels have always been big business in the city. But over the past decade, with four pretzel companies supporting more than 160 freestanding retail stores that tempt the taste buds and test the waistlines of locals addicted to the doughy treats, the Philly area market has become saturated, and the Big Four are hoping to turn their soft pretzels from a regional obsession into a national one.

Each of the Big Four dismisses the others’ product and plans for growth, but they all believe that giant vendors like J&J Snack Foods (JJSF) — maker of the ubiquitous SuperPretzel — and Auntie Anne’s have bamboozled the pretzel-eating public into accepting inferior pretzels.

“Philadelphians know the difference between a good pretzel and a horrible pretzel,” says Vince Marinelli, a former electrician who heads A Taste of Philly, which operates 18 stand-alone pretzel stores, mainly in the Philly burbs. “Outside this area they don’t know the difference. So there’s some work to be done educating people.”

Continue Reading: “Pretzel Wars”

Photo by sun-sentinel.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Richard Branson is now accepting “micropitches” via Twitter for new startup ideas. Tweet your business idea to @PerfectBusines and use the hashtag #micropitch. (Unfortunately, that does mean you only have 111 characters left.) It’s all part of The Perfect Pitch 2009 Entrepreneur & Investor Conference

Pitches will be evaluated on clarity, viability, consumer need, growth potential, marketing strategy, team capability, scalability and competitive advantages.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

photo credit: shaymus022

If you are in the process of opening a new business or even just in the early stage of thinking about your own start-up, then I’m sure by now you have at least realized all the many aspects that you have to consider, one being your competitors and potential competitors. I have put together some helpful suggestions below on how you can easily size up your competitors for your new start-up.

• Take a look around you and take notice of the recent trends going around, this tells you what is already out there and being sold to the customers you plan to sell to. Also obviously gives you some idea of what your competitors hold in their stores.
• Always remember to take a close look at not just the monthly growth but the annual growth as well. Yes the monthly can be a pretty picture to look at, but there may be a few months in a row down the line that are bringing in almost nothing which paints a totally different picture when looking at the annual growth, recently stated on Crowdspring.com.
• Cross reference your sources in every piece of information you gather on your competitors and the community. Think of it as getting a second and third opinion from doctors on your health, go with the one that is stated  more than once.

Challenge Your Assumptions. It would be easy to stop here. But if you’re looking for a meaningful comparison, you must challenge your assumptions.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being rebranded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.

Two other stores in Starbucks’ native Seattle will follow suit, each getting its own name to make it sound more like a neighborhood hangout, less like Big Coffee, a Starbucks official told The Seattle Times on Thursday.

“The Goliath is coming at me under a new name,” said Dan Ollis, owner of Victrola Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop on 15th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, about a block-and-a-half from the made-over Starbucks set to open next week.

We tried to ask Starbucks, but got no response Thursday. If the chain — which has been trying to boost profits by experimenting with instant coffee, super-premium coffee and more — does come at the locals in the cafe equivalent of unmarked cars, the locals will be ready.

“They must be conceding something. They must be feeling they can’t compete on a neighborhood level,” said Tony Dreyfuss, an owner of Metropolis Coffee Company, in the Edgewater neighborhood. “It does feel a little bit sneaky to me. But our quality is better than theirs, I feel, and our customers know us. ”

Photo by Starbucks.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

The Maid Brigade Veterans Franchise Giveaway, is a program that will award more than $1.5 million in business ownership opportunities to 100+ veterans, creating more than 1,000 jobs nationwide.

If you are a Veteran, you military experience could come in handy as a franchise owner.

To enter, just tell the judges over at Maid Brigade how your experience and responsibilities in the military would qualify to make you a successful Maid Brigade franchise owner.

To apply for the giveaway, veterans must visit maidbrigadegiveaway.com to complete the form and to submit a short essay by September 30 on how their military responsibilities would translate to successful Maid Brigade franchise ownership.

Maid Brigade will waive its $14,500 Select Market Franchise fee for as many as 100 qualified veteran applicants.

Additionally, one grand prize winner will receive a new Maid Brigade franchise operation at zero cost—a total value of $45,000, which includes waived franchise fees, working capital, training, and equipment.

Second and third place winners will receive similar packages valued at $27,500 and $17,500, respectively.

A Maid Brigade Select Market Franchise is designed for smaller geographical regions.

Photo by Maid Brigade.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.