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Another week, another selection of interesting new business ideas from around the world: steam baths for cars, the relaunch of a customer-made magazine, airport weddings, and more. Our next edition is due on 14 November 2006. In the meantime, check out our daily postings on www.springwise.com, send us your tips, and please don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Much appreciated! |
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Dutch Rent-a-Garden has come up with the perfect solution for garden owners in need of a quick garden fix, whether for their own pleasure, or to make a house sell more easily. The company offers a wide range of potted plants and outdoor sculpture. After discussing a client's needs and wishes, Rent-a-Garden draws up a plan and takes care of all details and installation. Pricing ranges from EUR 300 for a makeover lasting 3 months, including upkeep. Akin to changing a home's outdoor wardrobe, customers can switch their garden, patio or roof-terrace's look with every season. Sounds like the perfect solution for transumers – those consumers who have moved beyond the fixed and move from one temporary experience to the other, doing away with the hassle of ownership and maintenance. When it comes down to selling their house, non-transumers will no doubt be interested, too. A transformed, upgraded garden attracts more buyers, who have the option of buying the plants and sculpture from Rent-a-Garden. A similar concept in Australia, operating under the same name, provides instant gardens for home sales, weddings and events. Website: www.rentagarden.nl | www.rentagarden.com.au Forward or comment on this article » |
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A singer, a dancer, a painter – take your pick, these are just some of the creatives that New York parents can hire as their child’s babysitter for the night. Eugenia Bachaleda, a musician, and Kristina Wilson, a performer, combined their talents to devise Sitters in the City for a modern twist on baby sitting. Both Bachaleda and Wilson enjoyed performing but also loved working with children, and so they found a way to use their artistic talents to inspire and entertain children. The benefits of Sitters in the City work both ways – for actors and artists, it’s a flexible job that combines well with auditions and concert rehearsals. For parents, it's a fun and creative childcare option that aims to leave children inspired and entertained. Sitters arrive at the customer's home armed with a ‘tote of toys’ and with an abundance of creative ideas to appeal to every child from bookworm to budding movie star. Sitters in the City charge USD 15/hour with a minimum booking of four hours, and sitters can be booked up to two hours in advance. Nice one for entrepreneurial art and drama students to replicate in creative hubs across the world! Website: www.sittersinthecity.com Forward or comment on this article » |
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In March, we wrote about Prosper, the people-to-people money lending marketplace. Time for an update! Since its launch in February 2006, Prosper has signed up 100,000 memberships and has generated more than USD 20 million in loans. Prosper lets interested borrowers create a loan listing for up to USD 25,000. Lenders can bid on loan listings in increments of USD 50 to 25,000, and often minimize their risk by bidding on numerous loans at the same time. Banks, of course, are cut out of the equation. Instead, Prosper charges borrowers a one-time 1% fee on funded loans, and lenders a 0.5% annual loan servicing fee. For more examples of peer-to-peer lending, check out British Zopa, which plans to launch in the United States soon, and Kiva, which specializes in microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Website: www.prosper.com Forward or comment on this article » |
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Korean Seven CarWash manufactures powerful car washing appliances with steam jets that combine heat and pressure to clean. Eco-friendly, since it uses just one glass of water per wash and no chemical detergents or cleaners. The machines are safe, fully automatic and easy to use. They use high-pressure steam (maximum of 9 bar) to blow and steam off dust and dirt from automobiles, machines, electrical appliances, precision instruments as well as components and parts. The machines are fully automatic and efficient because washing and drying are part of the same process. As there's no water run-off, there's no need for a drain or collection tank. Combined with the fact that the units are relatively small and portable, mobile entrepreneurs can put the machines to work in parking lots of supermarkets, malls and residential areas. Useful for fleet companies, auto dealerships and car rental companies, too. Website: www.7carwash.com Spotted by: Leonardo Mariles Forward or comment on this article » |
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JPG Magazine, a photography magazine that our sister-site trendwatching.com covered as an example of user-generated content, recently relaunched. In its previous incarnation, the magazine allowed photographers to submit photos based on one theme per issue. While anyone could submit, JPG's founders (Derek Powazek and Heather Champ) decided which photos made it into print. Now, for a publication that's even more customer-made, JPG has made some significant changes. Members can upload photos for a variety of themes – three for the mag's 8th issue: Tourist, Intimate and Embrace the Blur – as well as for themes that aren't yet scheduled for an issue. Member participation in these groups helps JPG decide which themes to choose for future issues. While a first selection is performed by contributors themselves, as they're only allowed to submit one photo to each theme, the other major change is that members can now vote for other members' submissions. JPG's editors will continue to make the final selection, but member votes play an important role. If their photo is picked, contributors get USD 100 and a year's subscription to the magazine. Besides becoming more user-generated, JPG has also taken two steps towards 'serious' publishing. While the first 6 issues were printed on demand using Lulu, JPG is now switching to traditional offset printing, mainly to lower the magazine's sale price. The publication will also start featuring full-page ads and offers advertisers the opportunity to sponsor a theme. 'Embrace the Blur', for example, is sponsored by Lensbabies, and contributors whose pictures are selected for this theme are given a Lensbaby in addition to the regular rewards. All in all, the new version of the publication seems like a great inspiration for publishers. While many magazines are shifting from offline to online (following streams of advertising income), JPG's parent company, 8020 Publishing, is moving in the opposite direction, acknowledging that paper has advantages over the web. As Powzaek puts it: "Print is difficult. It's cumbersome and expensive. Highly impractical. But it's also archival, beautiful, and emotive. Print can be intimate in a way the web never can. [...] Now, with an internet brimming with data, magazines are free to skip the data and focus on what they do best: communicate, entertain, and inspire." Combining the two worlds -- using the internet to open up to readers and recognize them as valuable contributors, magazines can only get better. Website: www.jpgmag.com Forward or comment on this article » |
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New at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol: weddings to go. Whether a couple met on a flight to Bangkok or just wants to be able to go straight from ceremony to runway for their honeymoon, Schiphol offers travellers the opportunity to get married at the airport. Brides and grooms to be can pick from several packages, from the all-out 'Ticket to Paradise': get hitched and leave for a tropical destination together with your wedding guests; to 'Say Yes & Go', the budget alternative for couples who want a quick and simple ceremony before flying off together. Schiphol Weddings works with a dedicated wedding planner, who can also help couples plan and arrange their honeymoons. As a travel hub, Schiphol gets the TRANSUMER trend that trendwatching.com wrote about earlier this week. Increasing numbers of consumers are mirroring travel behavior in daily life, valuing transient experiences over fixed possessions. The 'wed & fly' concept could obviously work well in many cities. One for hospitality players and wedding planners to set up together with local airports? Website: www.schipholweddings.nl Forward or comment on this article » |
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