1. Business & Finance
About.com
Entrepreneurs

Reader Stories: Unique Entrepreneurial Businesses & What Makes Them Successful

From , former About.com Guide

See More About:
A business school professor once suggested his students look for the best small business ideas and opportunities in "the space between the elephant's toes." He meant that the best, most profitable businesses are often ones that few people have ever heard of and that are hard to imitate. Start those kinds of ventures, the professor said, and you have a higher probability of charging aggressive prices and achieving robust profit margins -- provided, of course, that you have a legitimate niche with enough customers. So, what's your space between the elephant's toes? And how's it working out?

Success in a Commodity Business

I was 25 at the time I graduated college and, ironically I was placed in a job that I hated by a staffing professional. I hated corporate and knew that I would never make real money there so I quit. …More

Firm Helps Consumers Find Short Sale Solution to Foreclosure

I love real estate and I love helping people. Those two natural desires that I have had my whole life led me to start www.SSHomeSolutions.com. We specifically help this critical mass of homeowners w…More

Good Things Can Happen When You Leave Chocolate in the Car

When my two business partners and I graduated from Columbia University in 2009, the job market looked bleak and we had to reconsider the traditional career options. One day the three of us visited th…More

Improving Air Quality

After the implementation of the Clean Air Act in the early 1990, companies were forced to implement systems to meet the compliance of the Clean Air Act, but the systems failed to meet the full compli…More

Now This is Really the Quicker Picker Upper

Nicole, mother of two, was eager to make her idea a reality and introduce something so helpful to other moms. I was eager to put my marketing background to use and see if I could figure out how to ma…More

Personalized Baby Shoes & Gifts

This baby boomer loves business, has owned 4 businesses, and thrives on creating businesses. I realized that I need to work for myself, as I have most of my working life. I love the challenge creatin…More

Using Expert Knowledge to Fund Your Dream

I realized I was writing for my own enjoyment and loving it. I realized very few people have a thought process that looks anything like mine. I realized people get paid to write unique fiction. There…More

Test Prep Courses On Demand

Frustrated by traditional, outmoded approaches to test prep, former Kaplan executive Jose Ferreira saw an opportunity to provide better, more customized, and ultimately more effective test prep cours…More

Translating the U.S. Market for European Tech Companies

Marketing, product positioning and go-to-market strategies are similar in Europe and North America, but the messaging (value prop, elevator pitch, sales brochure, cold calling) is not done in the sam…More

Redefining the Recreational Vehicle Camping Business

As an industrial designer with two decades of experience designing all kinds of outdoor gear, I was right in the thick of tremendous technical and design advancements in that category. Simultaneously…More

Making Make-Up More Convenient

Depotting is a technique to remove eye shadows, blushes, and other makeup pans from their original containers. I used to put my depotted makeup pans are in a different container (i.e. empty CD cases,…More

A New Set of Threads Suits Entrepreneur Well

Owning my own business was an idea I had going back to my days in college. In fact, my father was a successful business owner for 34 years. The first day at my last “real-job,” the board …More

Keeping the Sands of Time from Slipping Away

I was on vacation in the Bahamas with my husband, and I brought some sand home with me to remember the natural beauty of this place by. Sand from places where special memories were made is so element…More

I've Got the World on a Sling

Ten years ago we found that most baby carriers didn’t give our son, who was born with Down syndrome, support for his low muscle tone. His physical therapist would tell us what was appropriate f…More

Survey Says: If You Want to Succeed, Have No "Plan B"

The three founders had been working in an industry that focused on corporate meetings and used early audience response technology. At the time, the technology was expensive and so complicated that a …More

1 of 7

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.

A part of The New York Times Company.