Ide Bisnis Unik

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It only takes ONE creative idea to take someone from the outhouse to the penthouse - Unknown -

IBU Report 2008 - Best Unique Business Ideas
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You might consider Twitter for tweeting your business profit. “The only overhead is your time, therefore you need to pay attention.”

Facts: Surveys show that the number 1 dilemma for people who want to be in business is "lack of ideas" closely followed by "where should I start once I've got an idea?"

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. - John Steinbeck -
How to get unique business ideas? When you noticed a problem ... thought up a solution in your own unique way. - IBU Team -

Ide Bisnis Unik (Unique Business Ideas) - June 2009

Pizza Butler

Necessity really is the mother of invention. Do you wish you could fit more tables in your pizza restaurant but are held hostage by the size of the pizza tray? The owner of Formaggios Pizzeria Restaurant in Tampa, Florida was, until he came up with the idea for the Pizza Butler. Here’s his story: Six years ago my family and I moved to Tampa, Florida where for the first time in my life, I got involved in the restaurant business. As the owner of an extremely well known and popular 80-seat restaurant called Formaggios Pizzeria Restaurant, I quickly realized that owning a restaurant was a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week business that demanded tremendous attention. One Sunday evening at Formaggios I saw one of my waiters struggling to balance an 18″ pie with one hand while trying to reposition items on the dinner table with his other so that the additional pie would fit. I have 42″ square tables yet my wait staff still had difficulty finding room for two pies on the table. This was a regular occurrence.

That particular day while watching my waiters jockey for table space, I was struck with an idea for a space-saving tray. It was a vision I knew I could produce back in New York at my business, Hi-Tech Metals, which manufactures high-end metals. So I flew back first thing Monday morning, quickly designed and fabricated a prototype, and shipped it back to Florida the next day. As soon as we tried it in our restaurant, we all knew the headaches of our space issues were over. I immediately pulled it from use and went to a patent attorney. This little “Z” pan was perfection. I decided to call it “THE PIZZA BUTLER.” I have already changed the tables in my restaurant. I switched all my two top, six top and four top tables, which were 42″ in depth to 30″ which has allowed me to successfully add 5 more tables to my restaurant. I am now turning over 22 tables instead of 17.

Source: Business Opportunities

Credit Card Creativity

Plenty of people know the routine of cutting up a credit card. Whether it be because you maxed it out or you’re just not using it anymore, we cut it up and throw it away. However, a clever group of people think you should make beautiful music with your debt. Credit card guitar picks are making their way into hands of musicians who lose picks regularly (it’s hard not to, they’re so small!) and don’t want to keep spending money on replacing them. A few different sites have come out with DIY instructions on how to make the perfect credit card guitar pick, and one is even selling a hole punch-esque pick maker. Take a look at these fun eco guitar picks.

Source: Trend Hunter

Free Pianos Beg People to be Played

As part of this month’s Sing London festival, thirty pianos—part of artist Luke Jerram’s “Play Me, I’m Yours” traveling art tour—have been dispersed throughout the city, encouraging spontaneous pedestrian music. The instruments, either donated or purchased on the cheap off eBay, are free to use and available to anyone who wishes to take a seat—and each piano comes with a songbook of location-inspired music. The project even retains a bicycling piano tuner to keep each in shape. The concept has been executed in Sao Paulo and Sydney, and Jerram plans to repeat it in Bristol next.

Source: PSFK

The Shoe Purse

If there's anything in fashion that accessory loving women would kill for it's shoes and purses. Get ready ladies, your dreams are about to come true, because now your two favorite fashion accessories are about to collide!

The Loop Handle Heel Bag by Azumi and David is a fashion hybrid, combining women's favorite fashion accessories. The high-heeled shoe comes to life in the form of a unique and fashionable handbag. It doesn't necessarily function as both a purse and a shoe, since the accessory only uses the sole of a heeled shoe, while the upper shape takes the form of a functional handbag. We know that shoes look great as an accessory at the bottom of an outfit, but how do they function as something to be carried?

Source: Inventor Spot

Umbrella Changes to Multi Colour

Deutsche Bank award finalists Viviane Jaeger and Emma-Jayne Parkes have launched their initial product collection, which comes in the form of an umbrella at Spitalfields Market. SquidLondon’s umbrella changes into a walking piece of art as soon as the rain falls onto the panels – revealing a colourful design in an imaginative way. SquidLondon’s 100 limited umbrellas sold out in 11 days, as featured by The Sunday Times. This is the first of many pipeline products waiting to break into the market.

Black umbrella with a white London skyline from Squid London. When water hits the the umbrella the skyline changes to multi-colour. These bright creative pioneers aspire to set the trend rather than follow it, linking the gap between science, design and marketing. Their core passion lies in paving the way in future material technology and innovative collaborations. As said by BBC Radio 4: “SquidLondon are the entrepreneurs to watch in the future”.

Babyglow - The Changing Colour Baby Suit

Six years ago Chris Ebejer conceived a way to stop babies from overheating. Now, proudly, he is delivering his fully-formed creation to the world. The father of one has signed a £12.5million contract with a manufacturer to take his 'Babyglow' babygrows global. The garments change colour with baby's temperature - meaning they can tell parents when their child is getting too hot and help prevent catastrophic illness. 'Mothers are going to find these invaluable,' said Mr Ebejer, who lives with wife Jane, 44, and son Aaron, 17, in Long Melford, Suffolk. 'Heat is invisible. The suit changes that and makes it visible. 'It communicates to the mother where a baby can't.' Overheating can cause a baby's brain to shut down and is also an indication of illnesses such as meningitis. Mr Ebejer, who had his idea while watching a documentary about babies, began the search for an ink pigment with heat-sensitive molecules. He spent six years and £700,000 working with scientists to develop-the pigments to embed into cotton babygrows.

The Babyglows come in pink, blue and pastel green, all of which turn white as soon as the baby's temperature rises above 37c. They will be available from October for £20 a pack. The worldwide patent has been bought by manufacturers Quality Workwear 4 U, in Milton Keynes. Mr Ebejer has signed sales deals in a number of countries including the U.S. and is negotiating with High Street stores. He added: 'It has taken over my life but I'm very passionate about it. I believe that this is a product that will save lives.'

Source: Daily Mail

Juice Boxes Packaging

Product packaging in Japan is known for being wasteful at times, but also for being functional and eye-catching. These juice box designs from designer Naoto Fukasawa, not only tell you what’s inside by sight and touch, but they make you taste it. far as we know, the Takara Banana is the only one that has made it to market at this point. With the growing eco movement in Japan, perhaps we’ll be seeing organic packages made from the product inside in the near future. Banana skins are used more and more in textiles, but kiwi’s and strawberries may prove to be more of a challenge.

Source: CScout Japan

Toilet Bag

It's a sobering fact that a full 40 percent of the world's population—some 2.6 billion people—lack regular access to a toilet. Add to that the fact that one child dies every 15 seconds from water contamination, and it's not hard to see the motivation behind the Peepoo Bag. One of the UN Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000, is to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation, but so far progress has been minimal. With that in mind, Swedish Peepoople created the Peepoo bag to serve as a personal, portable and low-cost latrine for all the many people who don't have one.

Designed for use sitting, squatting or standing, the single-use, biodegradable plastic bag measures 14 by 38 cm and is lined with a urea-coated gauze layer that disinfects all waste. Used bags are odour-free for at least 24 hours and are safe for burial underground. Within two to four weeks after use, however, their contents get converted to high-quality fertiliser—something that's also rare in many areas and so could become a source of income and further enrichment for an individual or village. Following field tests last year in Kenya and India, the Peepoo bag is scheduled to begin production this summer. Along with such efforts as distributing free insect nets to children in malaria-ridden areas and abolishing fees for school uniforms in poor countries, the Peepoo bag qualifies as a quick-win project that could rapidly improve the lives of many people. One to get in on, help out with, or be inspired by!

Source: Springwise

Bath Gadgets

It's been a long day at the office, and it's time to treat yourself to a bath time like no other. The Happy Savon gently floats bubbles through the room, relaxing and calming you. Using ordinary shampoo or soap, the stylish, compact unit can create small, playful bubbles, or big ones that drift lazily through the air. Either way, it's a great accessory for bath time, and also makes an excellent gift. A little more far-out, but in tune with other bath gadgets is the Hanabi de Spa, which basically means “spa by fireworks”. This bath fountain floats in the tub and creates firework-like effects by beaming multicolored LEDs into the spray.

Interchangeable Glasses

The Switch-It is a revolutionary interchangeable system for glasses that allows users to switch out the arms of their specs in seconds. Made by German company EBM Design, these Switch-It glasses come with a number of different glasses arms so that they’re perfect for parties, business events or just relaxing. Why don’t we think of that? The Switch-It system lets you restyle specs in seconds.

Source: Trend Hunter

T-Shirt Pop-Up

McDonalds seems to have much more creative leeway in Japan than elsewhere, perhaps due to the comfort level consumers have with marketing campaigns. The Quarter Pounder Shop is a great example…what would be seen as a cynical marketing ploy by many in the U.S. gets great press as an innovative new concept in Japan. The Quarter Pounder campaign has evolved into another pop-up shop concept for a very limited time. The Bara-Iro (rose color) T-Shirt shop is a pop-up shop within a McDonalds, lasting only from June 11-16. The Shibuya Center-Gai McDonalds has completely remodeled its second-floor eating area into a super-pink, t-shirt-selling wonderland.

Customers who order Quarter Pounders receive metal “bara-iro” pins, but those who are a bit more bold can venture into the Bara-Iro T-Shirt Shop to purchase one of fifty different designs, all printed on rose-colored shirts. Each shirt costs about $10 and is quite limited, as can be seen below. When we visited yesterday nearly half of the shirts were all gone already, and with a surprisingly large number of customers inside. As mentioned previously, this seems like the type of campaign that wouldn’t get nearly the same reception in a major U.S. city. The cool factor would only arise twenty years later when hipsters started wearing them ironically, and by then it’s a bit late.

Source: CScout Japan

Unusual Park Bench

Loop Bench is an artwork derived from the basic form of a usual park bench: It has feet, offers space to sit and a back to lean at. But opposite to the traditional form, the work enlarges the bench form to an absurd degree, forming a long bench loop with crossings and bending, thus creating a kind of mazy structure. The visitor can use it as a bench and sit on it. At the same time, the bench has its own sculptural quality, thus inviting the viewer to look at it and to walk around and through its structure. Jeppe Hein’s Loop Bench is part art piece, part bench, part slide. We bet that you are going to see fantastic time watching people (young and old) interact with it.

Gender Prediction Test

In November 2006 launched the IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test, the first, in-home, urine based, gender prediction test available. You can take the test as early as six weeks (from the first day of the missed period) and results are ready in 10 minutes, indicates whether the baby will be a boy or a girl. The test is affordable, easy and provides quick results in the privacy and comfort of the home so the news can be shared right away. It bridges the curiosity gap between conception and sonogram. Got the idea? Now you can bring them to Indonesia! Or do you find another way to make it better than this?

Avant Garde Bicycle

These custom cruiser bicycles by Jason Battersby are as he calls them the “World’s Coolest.” The windswept aluminum body parts of grasshopper-green model were all hand formed by the designer. The huge triangular red taillights of the bike called ‘Eye Candy’ give it a Batman feel. The retro-inspired orange fiberglass bicycle is aptly named “Tequila Sunrise.” Everything is aerodynamic about this bike, right down to the sharply sliced handlebar tips. Many people surely want this kind of bike, especially when the price is not expensive.

Source: Trend Hunter

Tourism Creativity

If destinations like Disneyland don't excite you, maybe you need more attractive in your itinerary. As Mexico tempts tourists south of the border after the swine flu fiasco with ads that emphasize Mexico’s great deals and rich culture, we couldn’t help thinking of the other ways cities and countries promote tourism. We’ve covered a number of such innovations in tourism, and this slideshow features some of the most viral. From factory phototourism, danger tourism, extreme tourism to voluntourism, everything under the sun is featured—perfect for planning a last-minute summer vacation! Did you get the idea? Make your own tourism theme!

Source: Trend Hunter

Pay What You Want Hotel

The new Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen hotel launched a promotion that lets guests choose the rate they want to pay. Rooms at the 538-room economy hotel, which opens this week in the heart of Singapore, are typically priced starting at SGD138 per room including free wifi. Through March 15, however, the pay-what-you-want competition runs during a designated portion of each day, as announced on the hotel's site. Interested consumers need only sign up as members and make a bid for the price they'd like to pay during one of the announced promotion times. If they're one of the first to bid, they can win a night at the hotel at exactly the price they offered. Bids have gone as high as SGD100, and the first promotional rooms sold out within minutes of the contest's launch last Wednesday, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Through a separate competition, meanwhile, members at the Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen—which is owned by French Accor Hotels—can also compete to become the best "Virtual General Manager" at the hotel by trying to fill an empty virtual hotel with as many friends as possible. Prizes in that competition include a free night at the hotel, while the grand prize winner receives four nights at the hotel along with round-trip airfare to Singapore for two. Pay-as-you-want schemes have become a trendy way for brands to be generous and attract a whole lot of goodwill and attention. One to try out in your next promotion....?

Source: Springwise

Shoe Seen

You're a jet-setter, globe-trotter, international superstar…even if it's just in your head. Regardless, you know that life in the fast lane would force you to answer looming questions such as, "What do I pack for South Beach so I look like Tyra Banks and not Tara Reid?" and of course most importantly, "How do I pack all my shoes?" Well, the latter question is a simple one. With The Shoe Seen, transporting shoes to your holiday destination is as easy-breezy as reading US Weekly on the beach. The Shoe Seen is a shoe bag with an ingenious clear vinyl front panel, making your grab for your favorite pair of Manolos just one reach away. So when you want a pair of shoes, you can get that exact one without having to open up many shoe cloth bags.

The rest of The Shoe Seen is made up of a luxurious heavy velvet with a drawstring closure. The front vinyl section even has grommets to allow air circulation, (you don't want your shoes to suffocate, do you? Or even worse, to smell). The bags are even handy enough so that you never really have to pack your shoes up again. They work perfectly for shoe storage so your precious footwear can easily transition from closet to suitcase to the Ritz in Hawaii, all without getting your clothes dirty or the leather scuffed up. The Shoe Seen bags come in two sizes, small (8.5″x13.5″) and large (12″x13.5″).

Source: Running With Heels

Worldwide Premium Bottled Water

Water is not Water. At first glance, waters may not seem to have the individual characteristics that distinguish wines, but distinct differences become apparent when the attention is focused on water. Like wine water has terroir and it is a natural product that originates from a particular place with unique properties. That is of course if you drink premium bottled water. Here at Fine Waters you can see many premium bottled water of the world listed by country. Btw, we don’t see Indonesia premium bottled water yet, such as Aqua and Equil. Why can’t we be in that list? You tell me!

Stadium Seat Fundraiser

Bleacher Buddies is a stadium seat fundraiser and business opportunity. Bleacher Buddies are plastic stadium seats that are rented to spectators, for a donation, at sporting events by fundraising groups. The group would hands out the chairs at the beginning of the event, and retrieve them afterwards.

The President of Bleacher Buddies wrote in an email: “We have a product that is used as a fundraiser for school groups. It would make an ideal bizop for someone with a metro area that has several schools within a 100 mile area. They would need to be connected to the advertising industry or a real go getter sales type. Should be able to net $70,000 or more. Very small investment. The website is directed to the school group. However, the bizop person could get rewarded greatly by getting the advertisers for them."

Source: Business Opportunity

Wait for the next unique, weird, and just plain crazy business ideas!!

REMINDER:

Be sure to check our Monthly Newsletter for the previous collection of inspiring business ideas!! Remember, when you noticed a problem ... thought up a solution in your own unique way.

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IdeBisnisUnik.com (IBU) was founded in the beginning of the year 2008 as the first Indonesia online source for unique business ideas, new trends and innovation, and new business ideas from around the world. IdeBisnisUnik.com really is jam-packed with unique business ideas that have turned into success stories for the business people who have had the courage to put their ideas into action.

We believed you'll enjoy reading these examples of entrepreneurship with a twist, and we hope that they inspire you in your own business endeavors. We believe ideas inspire more ideas … Create, modified better or even copy these amazing, wild, crazy, exciting and unique business ideas at IdeBisnisUnik.com. Finally, check out the current issue of our IBU Monthly Newsletter.

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