When Leslie Rees’ granddaughter was diagnosed with Raynaud’s Syndrome, he decided to have a look into the condition. When he didn’t like what he had found, Leslie created a solution instead. Heatbands are wrist bands that are made specifically for suffers of Raynaud’s Syndrome, although it can be used by anyone who needs an effective way to keep their hands warm. Instead of using an alternative form of heat, the bands make use of the heat within your own body.

What are HeatBands?

HeatBands™ are an innovative new type of handwarmer originally designed for Raynaud’s sufferers, they are very thin, ultra light and unobtrusive they are worn around the wrist to leave the hands and fingers free and warm.

How does it work?

HeatBands™ work by insulating the blood vessels that lie close to the skins surface at the wrist thus preventing heat loss, and by virtue of the products heat reflective core, heat is directed back to the area which has the effect of promoting a better flow of warm blood into the hands and fingers.

What inspired you to create it?

One of my grandaughters Laura Allen had very cold and painful hands and was diagnosed with Raynaud’s disease, she was told by the Doctor there is no cure, just wear gloves. I had previously designed and produced the Mediwrap range of products for patient thermo regulation for the emergency services and for in hospital use during surgical procedures, so I was very interested to research the condition and the products available. I was surprised to find other then invasive surgery and dangerous drugs, only bulky chemical handwarmers and a range of unsightly cumbersome items most requiring some form of activation or warming procedure. My plan was to design a no drug no chemical no activation product that would bring warmth and relief to users without any risk or side effects, I believe I have achieved that with HeatBands™.

What separates you from the competition?

HeatBands™ is the only product that offers a true natural remedy because it does not introduce heat it better utilises the body’s own heat.

How have your HeatBands evolved since your business was first started in 2005?

We have improved the product and the fastening and have seen HeatBands™ evolve from a medical product into a much wider and more versatile product as it has entered the sports market, the sponsorship and promotional market and the commercial market as HeatBands™ are now used by staff of some major food preperation companies and many outdoor workers.

Do you have any goals that you hope to reach over the next few years?

We plan to create a world-wide distribution network, introduce new products based upon the HeatBands™ technology. Make people more aware of safer more natural remedies for many ailments, and to make those remedies more readily available.

What are some of the lessons that you have learned from creating, launching, and running your business?

We have learnt many lessons, one is that generally a contract cannot be relied upon especially if you are a small company with little resources, the major companies and organisations will take advantage of your weekness. Keep your overheads as low as possible. Use your gut instincts. If it seems to good to be true it usually is.

What has been the hardest part of balancing time for your business and time for your personal life?

Your private and business life seems to role into one when you are very enthusiastic about what you are doing, our business is very rewarding as we know our products are bringing relief to many people and their comments and testimonials encourage us, we involve our family and our friends conversationaly in what we are doing most of the time.

What advice would you give fellow entrepreneurs hoping to launch their own business now?

You are never too young or too old. There is no wrong or right time if you wait until the time is right you will be too late. Don’t trust Banks. Get all the free help you can from central and local government run organisations.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

“People constantly complained about the hospital gown,” said Harley Richards, who came up with what he calls the EZ-Gown, a robe he patented which doesn’t have ties, instead uses plastic snaps that close the gown for privacy.

The idea was born out of frustration from patients and people who like him have worked in the medical field for decades.

“They were always having their back side showing,” Richards said referring to patients, whom he said felt they needed more privacy from their gowns.

It took Richards almost four years to get a patent. Then he had to find a place to make his gowns.

A good fit for USNER Products, Inc, said Jim Slonecki, the owner of a small sewing factory in North Charleston.

“It fits our production perfectly and it’s incredibly expandable,” Slonecki said.

Richards said his creation is picking up steam here in the Lowcountry, but he is hoping it gets some national attention.

“You take five or six hospitals that would pick up on a deal and go with it. We could probably employ 16, maybe 20 people,” Richards said.

“If you’re making 50,000 [gowns] you can be much more cost effective and you’ll be much more productive so you can sell it at a much more competitive price,” said Slonecki, who feels like being competitive is key in an industry barely surviving because most of it has gone overseas.

Aside from tapping into private hospitals, Slonecki and Richards goal is to snatch up a government contract. They’ve been working with politicians at the federal level with the hope they can help land a major deal.

Photo by WMBFNews.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Deborah Lowe was putting her baby girl in the car when the metal piece of the seatbelt touched, and slightly burned, her daughters leg. From that moment Deb decided there had to be a way to keep it from happening again. In 2002 she sewed up her first car seat cooling pad. From there she started to make cooler pads for friends and family. Word spread and the orders started to roll in. In 2003 BabyBeeCool was born.

Tell us a little about your car seat cooler pad and what it does.

The main purpose of The BABYBEECOOL Car Seat Cooler is to COOL a car seat for a infant/child or adult while out of the car. The temp inside of a parked vehicle can soar up to 185 degrees F in as little as 15 mins parked in the sun. Look under FAQs on my web “HOT Faqs”.

What inspired it?

The inspiration came from my own child not being able to stay cool in her car seat and a buckle just barely touching her inner leg and turning it red. I’ve since heard from many parents that this has happened to them and their child.

What are the other products sold by your business, BabyBeeCool?

BABYBEECOOL sells window shades to help prevent the sun from coming in and it helps keep the car a little cooler too. We sell the LOGO Stuffed Gracie the Bee plus blankets and bibs.

What colors does the cooler pad come in?

The Original comes in All American Denim and The Universal comes in a beige color.

Do you have any plans to add more color options?

We may, but we found that Parents like the denim and neutral color since it matches most car seats. (QVC was the one that suggested the BEIGE, however we never went on QVC. We were in the AZ Republic, Phx., AZ with Marilyn Montrose from QVC in 2007).

How long will it keep the seat cool for?

Approx. 10 hours in 115 degree shut up. See The Toy Man report [on my website].

How far has your car seat cooler pad come since you made the first one in 2002?

From an idea to being in stores and sold internaional, also Made In China. I use to make them at my kitchen table!!! then here in The USA and finally China.

In what ways has it changed?

We came out with the Universal Cooler Pad in the Spring of 2008 which covers an infant or adults car seat. Prior to that we only had the “Original BABYBEECOOL Car Seat Cooler”.

What are your goals do you hope to reach over the next year?

To maintain through this economy and continue to grow.

What are your long term goals?

To sell BABYBEECOOL, any offers are welcome.

What are some of the lessons you have learned from your business?

I started from the ground up, not knowing how to do one thing in this industry. It is very competitive. People can steal your idea and even if you have a patent change it up 30% and redesign your product. I attend tradeshows where you will see people come out with a very great product only to come back the next year to see them ripped off and someone else with somehing similar. However, this has been a great journey for me and I have learned so much about small businesses, met so many great people, learned to be on TV without being nervous(Ha!), and to just enjoy what I have and take the next day as it comes.

Do you have any advice that you would like to offer other inventors that are hoping to launch a business out of their invention?

If I would have read “Moms Inventors Handbook”, prior to my business starting I could have saved myself the journey of having to dig and look for all the anwers. That book is worth every penny. I think the auther of that book came out with a product in 2005 and her book, my business started in 2002.

I think all inventors should believe in their products, do the research and just don’t give up but be real and accept advice from a mentor, if possible. I have a wonderful mentor that has helped me every step of the way. Elaine Collins Shaw, she lives in Scottsdale, AZ. She is a friend but will tell me just like it is. Listen to the truth and grow. Life is a journey.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Small businesses are always looking for ways to innovate and bring new products to market that can help expand their reach and boost sales.

But expansion of any kind in a down economy is risky, so if you’re looking to add new products, you need to make sure you’re not overextending or undercutting your core brand or resources.

“You want to make sure that whatever you’re doing to expand on your core product line doesn’t contradict it or hurt it in some way,” says Ed Geiselhart, director of product development and planning at Insight Product Development in Chicago.

New product lines, particularly product enhancements, can cannibalize sales of existing products and divert valuable resources into products that may or may not reap any return, he notes.

On the other hand, your existing product line may be past its prime and a product extension may be just what your company needs to boost profits.

In any event, you won’t be able to assess whether a new product line makes sense without doing careful market research, notes Ken Morrelly, president of the Long Island Forum for Technology in Bay Shore, which assists local manufacturers in their growth and development.

“You need a good understanding of the market,” he explains. “You need to assess your strengths and take a look at cost and viability.”

Continue Reading: “Do The Homework On New Products”

Photo by erkinsahin .

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Even if Trevor Schultz weren’t the inventor of the Swing Heeler, he’d likely be a fan.

And he certainly would’ve tried the product that looks like a sci-fi cross between a spatula and a bee stinger and is designed to provide golfers weight resistance on their hind leg, so they stay planted and produce more power during their swings.

“I have tried just about everything,” said Schultz, who played at UC Riverside. “So I guess that would be a reason why I’ve come to the conclusion about the lower body being so important. The fact that I’ve done just about everything is why I’ve really honed in on what’s really important with the proper golf swing: If the lower body works properly, the rest follows along.”

“He was going through a tough time, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life,” friend Paul Rothchild, who helped develop the Swing Heeler, said by phone. “We were brainstorming, and he showed me this idea he had, and I said, ‘Well, this is something tangible, this is something you could really make a go of.’ ”

Schultz and Rothchild, who as a prosthetist makes a living developing prosthetics, hunkered down in Rothchild’s Pasadena garage to build one crude prototype after another. Eventually, they brought a model to another prosthetist, Kevin Mohlman. A golfer and biomechanics expert, Mohlman developed the final prototype for the Swing Heeler that Schultz is busy exhibiting at free demos at courses and ranges around the Inland area.

Photo by Swing Heeler.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

When you walk into Joe Casale’s design studio, one of the first things you notice is a bulletin board filled with sketches.

“When I get an idea for a new product, I do a concept sketch and post it on my bulletin board,” he says, “so I can think about it and let it stew.”

A consummate problem solver, Casale recalls one holiday several years ago when his parents, siblings and their families gathered at his home.

“We all love to cook,” he says, “and we were in the kitchen preparing a big meal. As I watched my brother chop vegetables, I thought there should be a way to get skins and peelings out of the way of the vegetables. The idea stuck with me.”

A few days later, still thinking about the problem, he drew up a cutting board concept that featured hideaway measuring trays, and posted it on the bulletin board. Intrigued by the possibilities, he did some preliminary market research at kitchen stores.

In late 2005, Casale learned about a casting call for a new TV show, “Everyday Edisons.” The Charlotte-produced PBS series chronicles the development of new products and the stories of their mom-and-pop inventors. He had missed the local tryouts. But one was coming up in Nashville, Tenn.

Casale’s cutting board made the final cut, and it was one of 14 inventions featured on the first season of “Everyday Edisons.”

“It was the easiest concept I’ve ever licensed,” he laughs. “I didn’t have to present it to anyone else, and I didn’t have to do any redesigns. They did everything: patent work, engineering, prototypes, market research, packaging.

I felt comfortable working with them because they were affiliated with PBS, and they required many documents that had to be submitted in order to be able to present your idea.”

Photo by KokuBoard.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Kimberly Hess has been an inventor her whole life. She’s also been a gardener, a florist and a seamstress.

Now she’s found a pursuit that allows her to practice all those skills at once.

Hess has invented The Tomato Bag, a hanging, cone-shaped container made of recycled tarp remnants.

“It keeps remnants out of the landfill, it allows me to be creative and it could help to keep the employees here busy,” says the rural Halstad, Minn., woman, who works as an independent industrial seamstress at TRS Industries in Fargo.

Hess is also working on prototypes for a smaller herb bag, a compartmentalized petunia bag and a bag that would showcase dried-flower arrangements – another self-taught specialty of hers. Hess also envisions a deluxe tomato bag, which would come complete with its own water container.

Photo by INFORUM.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

WalletPop:

Did you get a chance to check out the reality TV program Shark Tank Sunday night on ABC?

How did a young nanny with no business training manage to persuade a real estate magnate into investing $50,000 of her own money in her hand-made idea? And what does an Frankenstein costume have to do with it?

WalletPop’s Jason Cochran snagged a video interview with Tiffany Krumins, the nanny from Auburn, Georgia, whose non-threatening medicine applicator Emmy the Elephant (now called Ava the Elephant) was snapped up by real estate magnate Barbara Corcoran.

Editor’s note: Hulu.com is airing repeats of Shark Tank here.

Photo by ABC-TV.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Dr. Scott Augustine wants to breathe fresh air into allergy treatment. More specifically, a bubble of fresh air.

Augustine, a medical device inventor, is raising $5 million to back PureZone Technologies. The Eden Prairie, Minn., start-up is developing a pillow-based air filtration system that creates a bubble of fresh air around allergy patients while they sleep.

Although PureZone’s system doesn’t require approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the company sponsored a clinical study last year that yielded promising results.

Photo by Leader-Telegram.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.

Wired:

They’re bubbles. And they’re in color. And they wash out, rub away or plain evaporate after splattering.

Describing Tim Kehoe’s invention – Zubbles – is simple. The 15-year journey from concept to this summer’s product launch was anything but.

“If you said to me, ‘You’re going to spend a quarter of your life playing with bubbles,’ I’d have said you were crazy,” the 39-year-old St. Paul, Minn. inventor and father of five said. “You’re so afraid of that day you wake up, and somebody else is on the cover of a toy magazine with colored bubbles.”

It really was neat seeing that first colored bubble take shape, ordinary and unnatural at the same time. The Zubbles wands seem designed to create clusters of smaller bubbles which are more vibrant and dense with color. We later used some standard bubble wands with larger rings and did get some nice bigger bubbles, but along with those came a corresponding color fade. (And though the Zubbles web site includes photos of bubbles in other colors, for now there are just the two.)

And truthfully, there’s a certain joy to be had in watching the bubbles pop and splatter on clothes, plants and patio chairs. The impermanence of the splashes was as advertised: Some of the smaller patches simply faded, others rinsed out of T-shirts with a quick swish under the kitchen faucet.

Continue Reading: “Bubbles, Zubbles, Toys And Troubles”

Photo by Zubbles.

From Business Opportunities Weblog.