Page 31 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

20 Your Idea, Inc.

A Brand-New Product

If you think of a completely new product that you have never seen
before , you might wonder why it's not in the marketplace already. It
might seem like such a simple idea that you think, "Someone must
have tried to invent this product before; it's so obvious." But that
may not be the case-you may be the one that has to develop it!

Liquid Paper is a good example of a brand-new product unlike
anything else when it hit the market. Originally called "Mistake
Out" in 195 1 , it was developed by a secretary named Bette Nesmith
Graham. Liquid Paper was her own concoction used to cover up her
typing mistakes. I bet other secretaries had wished for such a thing
as well, but Bette took action and found a way to make correct­
ing her mistakes easier and more professional looking. She mixed
batches of white tempera paint, applied it to paper, and it worked
perfectly. She sold it out of her house for many years. Gillette bought
the company from Graham in 1968 for $47.5 million plus royalties.
She wasn't a scientist; she was an everyday problem solver.

So taJ1. f, ou(

I n 1 960, two b rothers, Tom and James Monaghan, borrowed
$900 from a local bank to purchase a pizza store in M ichigan
called "DomiNicks." They a lso bought a VW Beetle car so they
could make deliveries. A year later, James traded his half of the
b usiness to Tom for the VW (oops!). Tom renamed the store
Dom i n o's. Seven years later, the first Domi no's franchise opened
i n M ichigan, and the rest is h i story. In 1 998, Tom Monaghan
announced his retirement and sold 93 percent of the company
for nea rly a b i l l ion dol lars and reta i n ed a small non-controll ing
percentage of the compa ny. Today Domi n o's ope rates ap proxi­
mately 8,500 franchises in more than fifty-five co untries.