Business Idea of the Day

Gregg Fairbrothers wasn’t born into business, he was actually raised in an academic household, reports Fortune . “I didn’t know a debit from a credit,” he admits. Fairbrothers studied earth sciences at Dartmouth in the ’70s, got his master’s at Rutgers, and eventually moved to Tulsa, where he joined Samson, a gas driller, and earned his chops at the right hand of the company’s “hard-nosed founder.” He picked up an MBA, but that was “just to get the toolkit,” he says. “I learned my business on the job.” Today, as founding director of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, Fairbrothers teaches a wildly popular course on entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business. As befits the professor’s background, Introduction to Entrepreneurship is all about learning through experience.

Curtis Desselles is a sucker for science, according to ArkLaTexhomepage.com . His latest and greatest work comes in the form of a three millimeter chip. He calls it the “Eddy Current Analyzer.”…which blends old technology with new innovation

I’ve always wanted to send one of my children’s favorite stuffed animals on a round the world trip. The idea of getting back emails and photos from “Clifford” or “Puppy” showing them propped up in front of a variety of famous international landmarks always seemed like a great idea. At least it was until I casually mentioned it to my children

If you enjoy the kinds of businesses we profile here on Business Opportunities Weblog, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that you’ll enjoy the book Starting from Scrap by Stephen Greer. In 1993 at the age of 24, American Stephen Greer gave up his steady back office job in Germany and moved to Hong Kong without a return airline ticket, a plan, or even a real place to stay. He’d lined up a couch to crash on from a friend of a friend and lured by the booming economy he gave up his entire life and moved. He had no idea what kind of business he was going to start once he got to Hong Kong, only that his dream was to build a great company and see the world in the process. Once there, he formed a corporation and with $500 in the bank he began faxing a letter (no email in those days) to almost everyone he’d ever met of business significance

photo credit: friedtoast If you’ve only ever eaten a Kit Kat in the United States , you’d have no idea that an entire world of candy goodness awaits you beyond our shores. Kit Kats in the USA do not taste like those in the rest of the world, because they are produced under license by The Hershey Company instead of by Nestle, like in the rest of the world. In the US they have more sugar and less milk in the chocolate. The Kit Kat was invented in the UK in 1935

When Vanessa Troyer and Chris Farentinos first hit on the idea that would change their lives, they were thinking big — a little too big, actually, according to a story in The New York Times . It was a mail receptacle/guest house,” Farentinos jokes, describing an oversize, locking mailbox nicknamed the Elephant Trunk. His wife agrees.

It all started last year when Jennifer Reyes was trying to clean the gunk out of a sippy cup straw, reports kvue.com . “I had pulled out a moldy, icky cup from in the car that had been there for probably 2-3 days that I didn’t know had rolled underneath the seat,” she said. She tried cotton swabs and pipe cleaners, but the muck stayed

For those who spend all day at screens, how to protect your eyes, by Celine Roque at Web Worker Daily. One of the more common risks of extensive computer use is eye strain.

A reader wrote: Dear Dane, Does my small business need a website, or can I just a Facebook Fan Page to promote my services? If recent big television commercials are any indication, some very large companies think that they can do business online without a website . During Super Bowl 44, for example, many of the ads didn’t include the company’s website URL, instead they pointed viewers to either a Facebook fan page or Twitter page

ABC News 4 reports finding a way to save food that’s still good for those in need. “It’s a chamber that we designed to do a non-destructive test on a can that was potentially suspected of having a leak or a seem violation,” said Rich Dabruzzi, a five year volunteer with the Lowcountry Food Bank and inventor of the Can Reclamation Vacuum Chamber.