WorldChanging: There's no quicker way to show somebody that energy is abundant than taking them out to fly a really big kite. My favourite is a five metre, two-lined parafoil, and with lines only 20 metres high, ten knots of wind will throw you all around the park. Yet from a distance, the kite is merely a tiny speck on the horizon.

So imagine my delight when I learnt that the Beluga Shipping Company will use a massive SkySail to tow a 132 metre MV container ship across the Atlantic Ocean in January.

Ships are a great example of the difficulty in putting abundant energy to use. As the world's 50,000 merchant container ships cross the ocean they are constantly surrounded by energy: waves soar past, ocean currents channel massive volumes of water (and temperature) around the globe, winds swirl overhead, and of course, the sun bears down. Despite this, most ships carry and burn fossil fuels to reach their destination. Piggy-backing on the plentiful power from one of the abundant forces is an engineering dream, and constitutes an economic and environmental breakthrough.

The breakthrough is that despite being at the peak of oil extraction right now, it's already cheaper to move the 'My Beluga Skysail' vessel with wind power than it is to move it on diesel. To be precise, Beluga expects to save around $1600 on fuel every day - a saving that will have funded the system's deployment costs in three years.

Kite Powered Ships: Harnessing Abundant Energy [WorldChanging]

Triple Pundit: Surprisingly, the two largest components in a landfill are food and paper, both biodegradable substances. In fact, statistics clearly show that nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste is consistent of only food and paper products. The EPA clearly states that food waste is the #1 least recycled material.

A bright inventor and waste removal expert has developed upon an old idea and created a more simple solution for the home and office environment to eliminate food scraps the smart way.

Welcome Nature Mill, invented by Russ Cohn through a series of stinky trial and error R&D stents. The Nature Mill is an indoor composter for the unwanted pounds of food discarded daily. IT works like this: You can deposit food scraps into the unit at any time, up to 120 lbs per month. For the most efficient results only discard small pieces of food or cut it up accordingly. Freshly disposed food scraps rest in the upper chamber under a high temp composting condition. The process involves mixing air flow, moisture and heat to break down the food efficiently. The high temp conditions destroy odors, seed germination and pathogens. The compost is sifted into a lower chamber via a trap door where the waste continues to compost.

Roughly every two weeks, or when the indicator light bears its signal the cure process is completed and the removable curing tray in the sub compartment is ready to be disposed of. The composted material left over is a rich mixture of concentrated compost fertilizer for your planter or garden bed. From the initial dump into the receptacle to the cured compost discharge nearly seventy percent of the waste will have disappeared into thin air.

By by fertilizer, let your waste work for you. [Triple Pundit]

Strange New Products: Fruit Stickles are wooden skewers used for sticking together chunks of fruit. Except the skewers are seasoned with cinnamon and tropical fruit flavors that leach into the fruit chunks.

The idea is that gives fruit an extra boost of flavor to tempt children into eating more fruit.

The seasoning contains no sugar, just pure seasoning. It's similar to the cinnamon toothpicks that restaurants used to give out in the 70s, except for making fresh-fruit shiskabobs.

I'm sure this can be extended into meat seasoning skewers, for real shiskabobs.

Fruit Stickles - Flavored Fruit Skewers [Strange New Products]

Advertising Lab: "A Japanese company Tuesday unveiled a new device that will allow people "speak" through their ear so they can use their mobile telephones in noisy places. The device -- named "e-Mimi-kun" (good ear boy) -- doubles as an earphone and a microphone by detecting air vibrations inside the ear, developer NS-ELEX Co. said."

What a wonderful idea! This "quiet" speaking may give rise to new age military communications, or even being able to talk freely while disco-ing away in your favourite pub. It should serve well to many occupations and the elderly may be able to find themselves speaking clearly and loud again!

New Phone Allows Speaking With Ears [Advertising Lab]

Copenhagen Capacity: In October this year, Copenhagen launched its first floating hotel. Named CPH LIVING, and it is located beside a floating restaurant in Copenhagen harbour.

The CPH LIVING hotel is a designer hotel, And all the furniture and almost all the equipment in the hotel have been designed by Waterliving's architects.

"We dropped all brass and maritime equipment and chose instead to stick to a style that suits the lightness that naturally occurs through the interplay of light and water," explains Mikkel Stewart, a leading architect on the project.

The barge Viva, located alongside the new hotel, is a gastronomic mecca with star chef Paolo Guimaraes at the helm. Paolo and his team will also provide the new floating hotel with food and service.

Floating designer hotel [Copenhagen Capacity]

The FASTForward Blog: Dove (Unilever) is taking social networking to a whole new dimension as it relates to campaign development: they’re letting customers not only create ads (which they did last year) but vote on them and then announce the winner at the Oscars. Someone has looked at every angle of cross-integration for this (including mobile voting).

I can’t even feel comfortable calling it either a promotion or an event — it’s both and more. It’s synthesis in a decidedly different way that is a mashup of sorts, but focused on reframing and repurposing existing methods in unexpected ways. It introduces an interesting leap from incidental product positioning in productions (actor drinks well-displayed Coke during scene) to intentional co-event creation.

What’s also interesting is how significant a role the metrics played to reinforce additional investment this year.

“…last year’s campaign leading up to the Oscars resulted in over 1.5 million people visiting the official entry site at dovecreamoil.com, and the company got more than 1,200 ad submissions.”

Advertising + Social Networking = New Equation by Paula Thornton [The FASTForward Blog]

Business Wire: With over six months in development, The p.i.n.k. Spirits Company announced today the launch of a new website that incorporates a level of design and functionality that has yet to be seen in the distilled spirits category.

The website, www.pinkspirits.com, enables the visitor to participate in the excitement that is inherent in the p.i.n.k. Spirits Brand by providing an exciting interactive experience. The site not only incorporates new educational tools for retail store owners, bartenders, account managers, and consumers, but it also provides up-to-the-minute details on p.i.n.k. events, breaking news, and latest happenings. The site also provides an enhanced search feature to locate p.i.n.k. spirits in any account in the country that sells the product, as well as enabling the visitor to purchase specially designed merchandise at the p.i.n.k. store.

David Mandell, President & CEO of p.i.n.k. Spirits says, “We’ve once again raised the bar in the spirits industry by developing a site as revolutionary as our products. We’re now bringing the ‘p.i.n.k. experience’ directly to the customer.” The new, enhanced site will be updated daily and will also feature the latest p.i.n.k. events and national promotions.

The p.i.n.k. Spirits Company Launches “Caffeinated” Website [Business Wire]

Four Ways to Save Time When Working From Home

Do you ever feel like twenty-four hours in a day isn’t enough? I frequently find myself wishing that I had an extra hour or two each day to get done all of the things on my task list. With small children still at home, I am constantly getting distracted from my home-based business to attend to their needs. It has become imperative....

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 59 >>>

- Kangoo Jump
- All Things Renewable
- ClayValet Shops For You
- Mobile Greetings From Cellyspace
- Glucoboy Glucose Meter
- Book Swap
- Restickable Glue

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

- Pricing Strategies
- The Missing Profit Link
- The Art of Schmoozing and Winning Friends
- They Just Don’t Have The Time
- Socially Challenged?
- How Do You Define Success-Failing Forward
- Merchant Account 101: Newbie Questions

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

Can't stand your demanding boss anymore? Start your own business! Before that, be sure to subscribe to our free informative newsletter. BIZNESS! is jointly published by CoolBusinessIdeas.com and GetEntrepreneurial.com What you get in BIZNESS! - the latest new business ideas, small business advice, business tips and info and entrepreneur resources. Everything you need for your brand new business!

Free 145-pages PDF report (worth $75) - "2006's Best Business Ideas" - included with your subscription. Learn more here.

We see and hear about a large number of franchises and Multi-level Marketing (MLM) businesses and I am often asked if these are good for the retired person. So let us take a look at them one at a time.

Franchises are frequently larger companies having numerous employees, a fixed retail location with the high overhead associated with this, require high up front fees, normally require a full marketing plan and budget as part of the commitment and most are year around full time businesses. That is in direct opposition to everything I have tried to warn seniors of in my book “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income”. While franchises may make good sense as a business, it is not normally a good idea for a part-time or seasonal business for a retiree. But I spend time each week looking over the business models of any new franchise that I can find on the Internet.

Franchises are mostly very successful business and new franchises are in sectors that are growing. These companies do their screening well. Looking at their information, will provide you with typical startup costs of the business and will help you budget your business if you decide to enter the business sector even if you make a number of changes to the business plan. The franchises sometimes provide you the demographic information to locate the business but this is information that you will need to help identify your customers. You can use much of their information to analyze and plan your business.

MLM businesses have gotten a bad name since many of these businesses use high-pressure tactics to make their “members” buy and sell more products. These businesses get their name since a member will get a large commission from product they sell, a smaller commission from products sold by newer members that they have brought into the organization under them and an even smaller commission from sales the people the newer members they have brought in under them and so on. Many even have minimum monthly purchases even when the members are not selling that much in product. So dangerous inventory buildups leave unsuccessful member with a basement full of product. I have seen statistics that suggest that well over 90% of the participants do not make significant money from these ventures. But they do work for the aggressive sales people. The large earners in these systems are ones that bring in people in the organization under them. The large commissions are made by developing a large network organization below you and not by selling the product yourself.

When talking with someone from a MLM organization you will normally hear 2 phrases. The first is that they will deny that they are a MLM organization. They may have some slight change in their organization, such as having customers buy product on-line and they just get a referral fee and fees from their network organization, so they deny they are a MLM organization. Many times they do not provide clear information about the total costs of their products and try to get you to accept that they are “competitive” or below the store price.

So MLM organizations are not all bad but most are bad. So do your research carefully before becoming involved.

This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for CoolBusinessIdeas.com readers by Stan Spector. See all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book website is at StanSpector.com.

TrendHunter: If you’ve always wanted to get a bit more bounce in your step, here’s your chance! The Kangoo Jumps rebound exercise shoes are loaded with springs to help hop higher than ever on your own two feet.

They reduce impact by 80% so they’re really easy on your joints, hips and spine. Vital Juice Daily said, "Thanks to Kangoo’s technically modified boots with springs on the bottom, you too can bounce (with low impact) like Tigger! Check urban gyms near you for classes, or buy your own boots and DVDs to jump on your own."

Spring-Soled Bouncing Shoes - Kangoo Jumps [TrendHunter]

YourHub.com: All Things Renewable, located in Colorado Mills mall in Lakewood, is a one-stop shop for everything from non-toxic and sustainable housewares, toys and clothing to renewable energy systems for the home.

The products sold at All Things Renewable are made from sustainable, organic and non-toxic materials, including some products made from recycled materials. The company's motto, "Energy Independence Starts Here," reflects the owners' goal of helping consumers find products that have a small but positive impact on their consumption.

"All Things Renewable is a store for everyone," said McVay. "Shoppers don't want to make a political statement with the gifts they buy. When they shop here, they can make a difference by purchasing premium-quality products that are made sustainably."

The range of products sold at All Things Renewable is wide, from luxurious towel sets made from bamboo, a high-yield renewable natural resource, to baby clothes made from non-toxic fibers-a favorite with moms who care about the fabrics that touch their babies' skin. Students and road warriors will appreciate the store's range of solar-powered messenger bags and backpacks, which harness the sun's energy to charge iPods and cell phones on the go.

New "All Things Renewable" in the Mills & Online [YourHub.com]

Gizmodo: After decades of popsicle promotions that included prizes printed on the stick, Brazilian ice-cream company Kibon has taken it to a new level by including the actual prize inside the popsicle: they will manufacture 10,000 specially made propsicles, identical in size and color to the actual thing, frozen with iPod shuffles inside.

Bullet Brazil is the company that developed the idea for Unilever's Kibon, which is the Brazilian equivalent of the Good Humor ice cream brand. They started to think about it back in March with the objective of putting the shuffles directly in the hands of the prize-winner. "It works like this: the consumer buys an Fruttare popsicle which comes in 10 different fruit flavors," Neto told us, "and may find an iPod Shuffle inside the package," ready to play.

Ice Cream Company Gives Away 10,000 Frozen iPods Inside Popsicles [Gizmodo]

ClayValet is a Seattle-based startup on a mission to simplify the way people find products online. It is a free personal shopping service that uses real people to find items that best satisfy customers’ individual needs.

Internet giants like Amazon and Ebay offer endless product choices but cannot respond to lengthy queries. Many people experience frustration when they cannot communicate their detailed needs to a search engine.

At ClayValet, real people research your shopping inquiries. The company's shoppers scour the Internet to find the best products at the best prices, and you receive a free personalized report with product recommendations, expert opinions, customer reviews and links to purchase within 24 hours of your request. Visitors to ClayValet can also see what other people are shopping for — from digital cameras to dresses to dog leashes — and get inspired to write their own product requests.

ClayValet was officially released to the public on Black Friday, November 23rd, 2007. In the days since its release, hundreds of users have signed up to let ClayValet shop for them.

ClayValet.com

Mobile Weblog: Sending SMS or MMS during holidays is one way to show our affection to our dear family and friends without spending too much. Now, you can customize your greetings with Cellyspace.com

It has launched a do-it-yourself, web-based Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) called "MMS Composer" for users to upload photos or music, edit them to create a unique greeting card, and send them to their family and friend's phones. Impress them with your creativity; make them smile or cry with your heartfelt message; and save money from buying printed cards and paying postage. Visit their tutorial page for details.

Creating your own mobile greeting card is free but sending it to your family and friends each costs about $0.20 in the U.S., $0.50 in the U.K., and $0.15 in India (read the country-specific rates).

Create Your Own Mobile Greeting Cards with Cellyspace.com [Mobile Weblog]

GearLog: The Glucoboy isn't just a standalone blood glucose meter designed for kids and adolescents; it also gives kids access to two full-length video games and a mini-arcade when used with the Nintendo Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS handheld.

Confused? Yes, I was at first. This is how it works: to access the video games, the Glucoboy must be inserted into the cartridge slot of either electric handheld. Then, your blood glucose test results are converted into what's called "Glucose Reward Points" (GRPs), which you can use to unlock games.

The Glucoboy features a 10-second test time, 0.6 µL sample size, automatic shut-off, and 360 glucose result memory. The games included are Lost Star Saga, Knock 'Em Downs, and an arcade full of three games that have to be unlocked.

Never Fear, Glucoboy is Here! [GearLog]

CoolBuzz: If you enjoy capturing attention wherever you go, sling along some funky accessories that are attention grabbers. Check out the Glitzy Watch Tote, a head turner all the way. The dazzling highlight of this black patent-finish bag is the embedded 6” clock face.

The faceted faux gems and silver rivets add a touch of glamour to the chic bag and the generous 12” straps sling perfectly over your shoulder. The two pouch pockets and the generous compartment space takes care of accommodating your personal stuff.

Glitzy Watch Tote: A head turner all the way! [CoolBuzz]

Trendwatching.com: Get ready to welcome honey to the world of PREMIUMIZATION. Most supermarket honey is imported from China and Argentina, and/or blended from many sources, creating a homogenous taste. But, like water, marshmallows, and beer, honey is now striking back with a sweet vengeance, and artisanal honeys are on the rise. Since honey's flavor and color are determined by the source of nectar, there's a huge variety of very local and exclusive types of honey, with floral sources varying from tupelo gum tree and Tasmanian leatherwood to cranberry and orange blossom. The Savannah Bee Company, for example, sells its honeycomb jars with this awe-inspiring description: "Filled with honey equaling the life's work of two bees, each golden cell brims with the concentrated nectar of thousands of rare and remote Georgia flowers.“

PREMIUMIZATION [Trendwatching.com]

NYTimes.com: Mr. Buckman got the idea for BookMooch on a visit to Norwich, England, in late 2005. A local community center had a book-sharing corner, he recalled, “with a sign that said ‘Leave a book. Take a book.’”

“People were bringing in boxes of books and looking at other people’s books to see what they might want to read and talking to one another about books,” he said. “I wanted to see if I could capture that same sense of community online.”

BookMooch now has 40,000 members around the world, according to Mr. Buckman, and people are joining at a rate of 300 a day. Participants create an inventory (the books they want to give away) and a wish list (the books they want to own). The “library” has some 750,000 titles, and Mr. Buckman estimates it will hit one million by the end of December.

Members are notified by e-mail when a book they would like becomes available. Some get recommendations from fellow moochers, who happily talk up their inventory on the members’ forum, while others browse the site by category, hoping to stumble across a treasure.

Clear the Bookshelf and Fill It Up Again, All Online [NYTimes.com]

We’ve all heard people saying this but do you realize this is an opportunity for a business? Serving a busy customer could be just the thing needed to make your business a success.

Most two-earner families, after taking the children to soccer practice and music lessons just don’t have the time or energy to do many of the things that they think would be nice to do. But many times the do have the disposable income to have the services done by someone they know and trust.

Whether it’s making fruit cakes with their personal label on it, doing their landscaping, cooking specialty dinners for some family member with special dietary restrictions, or cleaning up on the inside or outside of their houses, they may let a trusted neighbor perform a service for them even if they wouldn’t feel right about letting a professional company do this work for them. A friend or neighbor makes the decision to hire someone easier. These people are the easiest groups to market to because they are your family, friends and neighbors. They already know you or will recognize your picture from the neighborhood. Distribute those magnetic business cards with your picture on it listing all of your services to your potential clients to hang on the refrigerator.

But don’t forget about that busy small business owner. He is in the same rut wishing he had a department to do all of those business services that are not essential to day-to-day operations but are robbing him of some of his profits. These entrepreneurs all wish they had the time to bid out some of the services and products that they buy or use but they really don’t have the time to do it. Send out a letter opener, stapler or other desk item with your business card on it calling out what types of services you provide so it will be right in front of them each day. It may be putting together a marketing campaign for them, searching for the lowest cost utility or phone suppliers for their need or checking around to alternative wholesalers for the goods that they sell. All these could make a good part-time business for you and after you develop some specialized knowledge in your areas, you will find ways of saving them more money and doing it quicker for them.

This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for CoolBusinessIdeas.com readers by Stan Spector. See all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book website is at StanSpector.com.

boston.com: The paper version of "Psychology," a popular college textbook by David G. Myers, weighs nearly 5 pounds and costs roughly $90 new and $70 used. The digital version is easy on a backpack and costs $55. Which would you choose?

CourseSmart LLC, a new company backed by the nation's biggest textbook publishers, is betting that many tech-savvy students looking to save some money will select the e-textbook.

The Belmont, Calif., company is still in beta, refining its digital-book format and its business model. It offers about 2,000 e-textbooks now and hopes to have far more by next fall. But already CourseSmart is attracting considerable attention, particularly from college bookstores, which earn most of their revenue selling new and used textbooks and fear the publishers will sell directly to students and elbow them aside.

Frank Lyman, executive vice president for marketing and business development at CourseSmart, said bookstores will continue to play a vital role in the textbook market, but he acknowledged the relationship between publishers and bookstores is changing.

Publishers are "not looking to cut out the bookstores, but certainly there's some shaking out of their relationship that's going to happen as we migrate to digital," he said.

That migration is still in its infancy, but there is a growing belief in publishing circles that electronic textbooks have a real chance of catching on because of the savings, the convenience, and the features they have to offer.

A textbook ending? [boston.com]

Iconoculture: WittFitt wants to harness kids' propensity for movement and improve their fitness and focus by replacing classroom chairs with bouncy stability balls. The program educates students and teachers on benefits of a healthy spine and core muscles, and how to safely sit on stability balls.

Teachers using the WittFitt program report that ball-based students are more attentive than when sitting in chairs because they can fidget without being disruptive. WittFitt is being used in classrooms in nine states. Similar programs are in use in European classrooms.

Evolutionaries like a better mousetrap — and sometimes you don't have to look far to find innovative solutions to common problems. Getting kids to change the way they interact with a classroom can help them change their minds.

WittFitt rolls out Active Sitting 101 [Iconoculture]

Cool Tools: Whereas most glue sticks are designed to permanently stick paper to paper, this glue stick is designed to create instant, repositionable sticky notes out of just about anything (Scotch specifies fabric or paper). A swipe or two (they recommend at least two) with this stick, and your self-printed content/form/memo will stick temporarily to any flat dry surface without residue. I love this stuff and use it to make my various Getting Things Done/43 folders items and tasks stay put in my handheld binder. I jot my items and tasks down on variously colored pieces of paper of whatever size I need, rub the magic stickum on them, and they stay put in my binder until I decide to move them around. My inner child is happy because I get to play with stickers and glue; my inner adult is happy because I can continually and easily refine my GTD system until it is transparent to the tasks at hand; my inner artist is pleased by the happy riot of colors and shapes that my 'organization' system has become; and my inner accountant is happy that I'm not wasting so much money on little pads of sticky notes. And when it's time, it can all be peeled up and recycled. Although this stuff is more expensive than regular glue sticks, a little goes a long way. If any gets where it shouldn't, it washes off with water.

Scotch Restickable Adhesive Glue Stick [Cool Tools]

TrendCentral: Eyelash bars first became a beauty trend when Shu Uemura opened one in Tokyo’s hip Omotesando neighborhood two years ago. Once primarily attracting high end beauty shoppers or outrageously dressed clubbers, the Shu Uemura eyelash bar now attracts teens who go for fun designs like the Yellow Flash and Lucent Sun, which, when hit with light, cast colored patterns on the face. Copycat eyelash bars around the city are also attracting teens, making eyelash bar hopping a popular afterschool and weekend activity.

Eyelash Bar Hopping [TrendCentral]

Nvohk is a community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. Nvohk is now recruiting members via www.projectnvohk.com. Pronounced 'invoke', the company combines the best of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding business models to develop and launch a new lifestyle brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance.

Nvohk is recruiting 20,000 – 40,000 members to contribute $50 a year to develop and shape the Nvohk brand. Members will make major business decisions including logo design, web design, product design, advertising, etc. Members will also receive a free member t-shirt, 35% of Nvohk's net profits in the form of reward points that can be redeemed to purchase products, and 25% off all Nvohk products. Nvohk will donate 10% of net profits to environmental organizations selected by its members.

ProjectNvohk.com

Springwise: Home cooking is a basic pleasure that gets denied by busy schedules all too often, and at least part of the reason is the time that must go into shopping for and preparing ingredients before the cooking can begin.

Customers of the Singapore-based service, which just launched in October, begin by going to ilovemother.net and choosing from a wide variety of menus. Meals are presented in categories, such as "Quick & Easy," "Something Special" and "Comfort Classics," and can include side dishes, desserts and wines. Next, once their selections are made, customers are presented with a list of the ingredients required. After indicating the number of servings needed they can approve the list as is or make modifications to suit their palates and the supplies they already have at home. I Love Mother will then shop for the required ingredients at restaurant suppliers and fresh food markets on the morning before the meal is to be prepared and deliver them in the afternoon.

All items are delivered in exactly the quantities needed, so there's no waste, and for those who desire, I Love Mother will even chop and prepare them so they're ready to throw in the pan. Customers pay just the cost of the ingredients plus a SGD 5 delivery charge, along with variable fees for the optional slicing and dicing. Most recipes can be made in 30 minutes, and I Love Mother provides step-by-step instructions.

Ready-to-cook meals delivered to busy urbanites [Springwise]

Lazybone: If you're the type that decides to get dressed for that special occasion before eating and then have to get changed due the food not quite reaching the point of entry and instead creating a nice stain on your best top, then the Puke Pet is your savior.

Just apply a Puke Pet next to the 'spag bol' stain and you now have a sort of purpose made stain. The stain will not look as though it's meant to be part of your shirt. If you're really clumsy and manage to spill the whole plate all over your nice clean top you might want the triple pack or just be better off with a bib or even eating naked.

So if you know someone that has problems with getting their food from the plate to their mouth then maybe this is the answer they have been looking for.

Puke Pets [Lazybone]

Mass produced services are only economical at a fixed location where installed equipment can be used to save time in the service. The other end of the spectrum is customized service at a location where the customer wants it to be performed.

Simple services like automotive repairs are almost always done at a garage or repair center since some of the services require lifts and special equipment. But providing some of the basic car repair services can be done with equipment in your truck and this service can be performed at a health club or a large company’s parking lot while you customer is exercising, working or at their home. Most customers will only hire this type of service if the price is about the same as what they will pay at a fixed location or slightly more. It is easy to meet this condition with certain services since your business will have no rent or utilities to pay. The market for this service may not be huge but it may be large enough to support a loan practitioner.

Computer services become difficult for the customer at a fixed location and certain system problems must be solved in place. So we are seeing a rise in the number of single person computer repair businesses.

As you go through your days and months, look for of what kind of service people or businesses hate going to a fixed location to get the service and then try to start a business around providing that service at the customer’s location. This concept is not new. I remember when I was a child, there was a person who had an old school bus and drove around neighborhoods selling groceries for people who didn’t want to run out. This may no longer be a good business but back then families only had one car and the home keeper needed this since they couldn’t run up to the neighborhood store to prepare dinner. I still have that response mechanism going for the daily ringing of the ice cream man’s bell when he drives through our neighborhood during the summer.

Oil changes and lubrication for cars, computer repair, dry cleaning and laundry delivery services to health clubs or office buildings, personal training at home, lawn mower and snow blower repair in your garage and computer printer inks refills in a truck outside large office buildings on a fixed weekly schedule are all lucrative areas to explore. But don’t let this small list limit your ideas. Think of other ideas. There are hundreds. If you think of a good one, go to the forum on my web site and let me know your ideas so I can spread the word around.

This new weekly column, 101 New Business Ideas for Retirees, is compiled specially for CoolBusinessIdeas.com readers by Stan Spector. See all articles in this column by Stan Spector.

Stan Spector is the author of “Baby Boomers’ Official Guide to Retirement Income - Over 100 Part-time or Seasonal Businesses for the New Retiree”. The book website is at StanSpector.com.

Services For Seniors

You can’t read any magazine without seeing some reference to the effects of the coming retirement of the baby boom generation. That is just the type of opportunity that entrepreneurs are looking for to create a new business around. Think of all of the services these people will need. Some of them will need to have more of the work....

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 58 >>>

- LungAshtray
- Business Networking In Just One Website
- Go Green Christmas Tree
- Hello Kitty Gold
- ClassifEye-d
- Digital Wallet
- Fresh Water For Your Dog

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

- What Do You Need To Pass A Franchisor’s Test
- Attitudes And Behaviors Of Successful People
- Telecommuting - Five Ways To Find Your Next Job
- TV Advertising: Not Just For The Big Guys
- 7 Sure-Fire Ways To Kick Start Your Presentation
- Dead Man Talking
- Dealing With Angry Customers

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

Can't stand your demanding boss anymore? Start your own business! Before that, be sure to subscribe to our free informative newsletter. BIZNESS! is jointly published by CoolBusinessIdeas.com and GetEntrepreneurial.com What you get in BIZNESS! - the latest new business ideas, small business advice, business tips and info and entrepreneur resources. Everything you need for your brand new business!

Free 145-pages PDF report (worth $75) - "2006's Best Business Ideas" - included with your subscription. Learn more here.

ooVoo has a free, real-time video technology that lets consumers experience face-to-face conversations over the Internet. ooVoo’s new video communication service features clear, high-quality video and audio in real-time. By sharing a story, a smile and visible emotions with ooVoo, communication becomes more meaningful and fun.

With ooVoo up to six people can connect on a call at the same time with high-quality audio and video that allows them to see one another, talk and share in the same way they would in person. Consumers only need a broadband internet connection, web camera, speakers and microphone. In addition to video, ooVoo lets consumers send video messages to both ooVoo and non-ooVoo users, Instant Message (IM), and share files, such as documents or pictures — for a complete communication experience.

ooVoo

core77: Finding Cheska's ceramic Lung Ashtray is undoubtedly attractive and elegant... Okay, it's straight-up too pretty to be defaced with raunchy ashes and ciggie butts. The Taiwanese tabletop design group's take on the smoke disposal vessel is a clever and direct correlation of what we do to our real lungs when we inhale those nasty cancer sticks. And a clean Lung Ashtray signifies the path to respiratory health, unless, of course, you've decided to just use one of your other motivational ashtrays.

Lung Ashtray by Finding Cheska [Core77]