This entrepreneur has made it her business to provide classy clothes for kids.

Cristina, 36, can still see her and her big sisters when they were children dressed in crisp, A-line shift dresses.  She says that her mom dressed her and her sisters in timeless outfits.  Cristina and her sister Victoria figured that a lot of parents today would also want to dress their kids the same way.  So the two put together $20,000 in savings to create a well-tailored and fashionable children’s clothing line.

Cristina threw a launch party for the company in her own home.  As hoped, friends and family bought all the pieces.  She says the reaction was incredible.  So she held another party, and word of mouth began.

Last year, sales at her company hit the $1 million mark.

Cristina’s personal payoff is that she helps moms enjoy that small window in time when their kids will still dress adorably.  “If you’re lucky, you have until they’re six years old,” she says.  “Then they want to wear jeans and a T-shirt like the rest of us.

For more details on the story and other business ideas go to:
http://businessfastlane.com

The next time you want to give your significant other a romantic gift, how about giving him or her something made out of aluminum? Or what about paper? It doesn’t sound romantic?  Well, think again.

Roses are the ultimate symbol for love and affection.  A new website offers handcrafted roses in materials that follow the traditional anniversary gift list. The top 10 are: paper, cotton, leather, fruit, wood, candy, wool, bronze, pottery and aluminum.

Mark, the founder of the website, became interested in the traditional anniversary gift list after managing a Christmas and anniversary gift site for several years.  He received a lot of emails requesting help in finding a gift that followed the gift list, and he was always looking for cool gifts made from the materials.  However, it wasn’t very easy to find a romantic gift made from aluminum or wood.  But he thought of making roses from the different materials on the list.

This story is a great example of someone who discovered a niche and sought to fill it with the one-of-a-kind roses.  When Mark couldn’t find romantic gifts in materials that follow the anniversary gift lift, he could have easily done nothing.  Instead he took the initiative and chose to act by creating the roses.  Mark is a great example to all wanabee entrepreneurs.

For more details on the story and other business ideas go to:

 

http://businessfastlane.com

Brady has always been passionate about biking. At age 3, the training wheels came off his BMX bike. At age 18 he competed in his first bike race. Now 22 years old, Brady is on his way to combining his passion with business.

Brady had the idea to start a courier service on bikes for a couple of years. But it wasn’t until the annual Missouri University New Venture Idea competition that he actually decided to go through with it.

“I never saw myself as an entrepreneur,” he said, “but the opinions of the judges at the competition convinced me this was a doable thing.”

After winning MU’s annual entrepreneurship competition, Brady started a bike courier business.

There are currently 3 couriers, Jason, Stephen and of course, Brady. All three men are biking enthusiasts and feel lucky to be paid to ride their bikes.

The business is growing as people become acquainted with their service. The bikers don’t think they’ll get rich doing this, but they hope to leave a lasting corporation in Columbia.

For more details on the story and other business ideas go to:

http://businessfastlane.com

Even while growing up, Lynn loved her grandmother’s antique shop. So when her ailing grandma needed help running the store, Lynn took on the responsibility.  But there was a problem.  Her grandmother’s medical bills were growing faster than the shop’s sales.  In 1998, hoping for some quick cash, Lynn posted items on eBay.  Before long, a rare teapot went for $1000 and a chess set for $300.  Even though her grandmother could barely speak from being sick, her face lit up when Lynn showed her the money they’d made.

Lynn learned the ropes of the new electronic marketplace by spending hours tracking eBay auctions and reading trade magazines.
Lynn’s online sales averaged $15,000 per month by 2000.
Her transactions started to grow rapidly, so Lynn created a way to organize them.  She published her smart system in a book which the cite now offers in its official store.

She has also written six books about making money on eBay and teaches online courses for wanabee eBay entrepreneurs.

Lynn once bought a small wooden bird for $2, later reselling it for a whooping $2,000. She says, “I know my grandmother was watching over me then and that she’s still looking out for me now.”

For more details on the story and other business ideas go to:

http://businessfastlane.com

At age 29, Darren knows a few things about bachelor parties.

He also knows that bachelor parties were becoming routine and not very much fun.

“We showed up at the airport and we would drink all weekend, and Sunday go home, and we were still feeling bad on Wednesday because of too much intoxication,” he recalls. “My parents would ask me how was so-and-so, and I wouldn’t know because we’d been drinking too much.”

But for his friend Mike’s bachelor party, Darren had an idea.  He thought that they should go white-water rafting.  So they picked a location they could all fly into and went rafting.  It went really well.

Things went so well that Darren put up a Web site for bachelor trips.   It turns out that other guys were tired of the traditional drinking parties too and wanted guy-adventure trips in the great outdoors instead.

This year his business has 40 bachelor trips planned to 30 locations around the U.S.  All are outdoor adventures—horseback riding, rafting, mountaineering . . . And, no, there won’t be any strippers.

Darren thinks it’s funny that brides are now calling him to book the grooms’ bachelor trips.  He says they see it as a safer alternative to a traditional bachelor party.

For more details on the story and other business ideas go to:

http://businessfastlane.com