Business Idea of the Day

Need inspiration? Need mechanical knowledge for a project? Want money making ideas? 137 years of Popular Mechanics are now freely available online here .

Like peanut butter and chocolate, many different services from very different business go well together. Could you team up with another entrepreneur, like the two women in this story and combine your products into something completely new? Daily Commercial : Mud pies and pizza pies — two things kids love to get their hands on. Throw in a few party hats and you’ve got the makings of a great little birthday celebration

Whether you’ve lost weight, gained it, or you’re somewhere in between, I’m willing to bet that you’ve experienced ill-fitting pants at least once in your life. Short of wearing a bulky belt or having them tailored to fit you, there isn’t much that you can do. For Dana Contey the temporary fix to loose jeans was safety pins. She’d just had her third child and she found herself wrestling with her loose fitting pants daily

Whether you’ve lost weight, gained it, or you’re somewhere in between, I’m willing to bet that you’ve experienced ill-fitting pants at least once in your life. Short of wearing a bulky belt or having them tailored to fit you, there isn’t much that you can do. For Dana Contey the temporary fix to loose jeans was safety pins

Who needs months of planning to start a business? According to Vindy.com , not Maria Elena Ibanez. The decision to start Intermark Foods even came to her quickly, on a Saturday while she was at the beauty parlor. Ibanez had already built two successful international computer distribution companies, selling the second one just before the tech bubble burst. So in 2002, after failing at her second try at retirement — she was bored — Ibanez knew she wanted to start a low-tech company where her tech skills would be a competitive advantage.

He may not have the power that Ben Bernanke wields or the kind of money that Donald Trump has, but the advice Bill McKown shares with business owners can mean the difference between surviving the recession and closing their doors forever, says Tampa Bay Online . “Due to current economic conditions, many businesses are looking for help. Their needs revolve around two basic areas: technical assistance and financial assistance. The SBDC specializes in providing technical assistance to small business,” said McKown, whose wide smile and approachable demeanor reflect his certifications in training and facilitation.

Approximately 2 years ago Brian Ohnemus create a boat rack that would carry his boat so he could still pull his camper. The idea worked so well that he decided to turn it into a business, reports the Quincy Herald Whig . “While getting all the gear ready for a weekend family camping trip, I realized I had a problem,” he said.

Anthony Ghattas has the life that many dream about; great wine, beautiful art, and friends in high places, reports The Sydney Morning Herald . In only six years, this serial entrepreneur has managed to build up a successful lifestyle brand United Lifestyle Group – including two galleries in Perth and Sydney and a burgeoning wine group – at a time when many galleries and wine outfits have crumbled under the financial pressure. However, his business wasn’t without casualty. When the GFC hit, his horse breeding business bit the dust; fortunately, the wine business sailed forth with a 42 per cent growth in revenue in 2009, given that people were prepared to buy more wine, and eat out less

When Jennifer Dowler was looking for the perfect birth announcement to tell the world about the birth of her son, what she found was less than inspiring. As he got older and she went in search for the right birthday card, she soon found that her choices were just as thin as they were when he was born. The next announcement she made became the one for her business, reports the Calgary Herald . She searched stores and online websites, but was only able to find American companies that made custom announcements, and the cost to ship to Canada was more than she was willing to spend.

For Jane Grant, creating the perfect dog bowl meant not only making her dog happy but helping dogs all over the world, according to her article on Sky News . Travelling worldwide with work, I searched in vain for a bowl that would make it easy for my family dog to eat with less mess and less noise. So I created one from a pet’s perspective, investing my own cash alongside a grant from Invest NI. Working out designs with the University of Ulster and TrufflePig, we had a brainwave.