Business Idea of the Day

Chad Vail might be young but he is no newcomer to the word of business. Now a successful entrepreneur, he has entered into a new line of work. Chad is training a new generation of entrepreneurs reports The Berkley Independent . Vail, who is president of Junior Achievement’s South Carolina Coastal Region, recently spent a few minutes with the Goose Creek Rotary talking about his organization’s mission and goals and how he got involved. Vail was still a senior at The Citadel when he opened his first business

Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago. He recently posted a list on The New York Times “You’re The Boss” blog of what he believes are the most important success factors in business: 1. Look for opportunities to do something better than just about everyone else

When you walk into the shop created by Debbie and Kristy Yettaw, they want you to feel like animals are people too reports Press-Telegram . Debbie, a laid-off transportation worker, and her 21-year-old daughter Kristy celebrated their grand opening onJuly 10. Inspired by her daughter’s love of animals and a troubled economy, Debbie says they took Kristy’s passion, coupled it with a plan and went after their dream.

The Toy and Game Inventor Expo is the only industry event designed exclusively to help the new toy and game inventor and entrepreneur by providing networking and educational opportunities. Independent inventors are an important source for new products to the Toy Industry, but because the industry relies heavily upon professional toy developers for new products it can be difficult for independent inventors to find a way in.

An entrepreneur from Brunswick is hoping to save a lighthouse and keep it in the hands of the locals reports Mainebiz . Bob Muller, a consultant with a background in IT and high-tech image mapping, is scrambling to crowd fund between $75,000 and $150,000 in individual $49 donations in order to buy the lighthouse in Casco Bay, which the U.S. General Services Administration is currently selling at auction. He launched a website yesterday and has begun a social media marketing blitz. His challenge is raising the money in a matter of days.

Slate : Modern-day squat evangelists make money off the claim that a “more natural” posture wards off all sorts of health problems, from Crohn’s disease to colon cancer. Inventor Jonathan Isbit runs a modest online business selling Nature’s Platform—a homemade, $150 device that fits over toilets to make them more like holes in the ground. * (He also posted the Bockus quote above to the Wikipedia entry on defecation. ) Other entrepreneurs peddle similar products, like the In-Lieu , the Lillipad , the Evaco toilet converter , and, for those who don’t like explaining their squat platform to house guests, a $688 Japanese toilet that lets users switch among different squatting and sitting postures, from the “East Asian squat” to the “aft sit.” (Confused? Watch the video .)

According to a story at CNNMoney.com , after selling his Illinois gourmet food store and moving to Austin six years ago, Chris Miller was anxious to open another food-related business. So he became an early pioneer of one of food world’s hottest trends: mobile food trucks. Miller’s hot-dog trailer transplants a Chicago classic down south

In this episode, Rich Whittle explains the 7 easy steps to getting a provisional patent for your invention. Click here to download the US Patent & Trademark Office Form Cover Sheet for provisional patents.

The dog days of August are almost over and so is National Inventors Month . We covered a lot of inventors and inventions this month. One of my favorites is the look back at inventors from the past who came up with ideas that we use without a second thought.

Tom Swift Wile E Coyote Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts Doc Emmett Brown Q (James Bond) Photos by gizmodo .