Business Idea of the Day

Knoxville News Sentinel : Ironically, when friends complimented Carlene Steenekamp about how good she looked after the birth of her last child in 2007, their words had an opposite effect. “I got so tired of hearing, ‘Oh, you look great to have had three kids.’ I know friends meant well, but that was a backhanded compliment,” says Steenekamp, 32, a personal trainer from West Knoxville. “I wasn’t ready to accept that I would never feel good about my body again.” Steenekamp had always worked hard at staying fit, but after that, her efforts went into overdrive. “People in the gym started asking me what kind of competition I was getting ready for

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.

According to the BBC , the online revolution in Brazil has opened up new opportunities to create small businesses that never existed before. Fabio Seixas is a 35-year-old “serial entrepreneur” whose three previous businesses went bust.

It all started with Barbara Barry’s new hobby, knitting. Whenever she’d learn something new she would find herself shopping at her local craft store for that new piece. Eventually those pieces would find themselves lost at the bottom of her knitting bag. So Barry took to the net in search of an all-in-one kit that would help put all those necessities together into a convenient package, reports the Idaho Statesman . But she didn’t find it.

18wlfi.com : When Lafayette mom, Jenny Reynolds’ young daughter developed eczema, she had no idea it would lead to a new business idea. “We did the steroid creams for a while but we wanted to something more natural,” Reynolds said. After trying a bar of natural soap, she and her husband were hooked. They decided to make the soap from home. She said after her two kids go to bed, they get to work, mixing and pouring

Nothing is more troublesome than trying to find high quality, high end fashions… especially if you’re a plus sized woman. The reality is that there is a growing niche in the clothing market, a niche that many stores are not that quick to fill. A plus sized woman herself, Michelle just wasn’t able to find the fashions she wanted in her size. Together Michelle and her daughter Catherine decided to change that, so they made use of their combined talents and created La Grande Dame . Tell us a little about La Grande Dame and your inspiration for the business

Mobile Crunch : Doodle Jump for the iPhone is something like a developer’s fairy tale: two brothers set out to make a game using only the talents they’ve got at hand, and end up striking gold. They keep pushing out minor updates, and the game just keeps selling. … At 99 cents a pop, this game has pulled in at least $2.97 million in revenue since it launched in March of 2009.

Tim Kehoe believes that there isn’t always one right answer when making something new, reports the Redwood Gazette . Kehoe, an author and inventor, has been inventing toys for 20 years, and his inventions have been successful enough that he now talks to students about how they, too, can be creative. Kehoe has also written a book, “The Unu-sual Mind of Vincent Shadow,” that helps encourage that kind of creativity. “Whether you are making toys or writing a story, the process is the same,” said Kehoe.

Virgin Media and Enterprise UK have joined together to launch Virgin Media Pioneers, states UTalkMarketing.com . This creative new community will help connect young entrepreneurs with business experts. By connecting young entrepreneurial talent to a network of peer support, entrepreneurial contacts and expert business advice, Virgin Media Pioneers aims to help build better businesses and close the gap between the number of young people with a great idea and those who are able to make it happen.

According to Sign On San Diego , a survey states that pessimism has risen among small businesses during the past month. The fallback in confidence is occurring even as the economy seems to have bottomed out, with retail sales picking up nationwide and an increasing number of small businesses preparing to add workers.