Little Ideas can mean BIG MONEY

You've seen them. All the stupid little gadgets that sell for a few bucks or less. Sure, some people will buy them but there appeal can't be big enough to make any real money. Or could it?  There on the infomercials, in the stores, in all those little specialty or novelty catalogs you receive.  You think, I could have thought of that or maybe even "Hey, that was my idea." But it was such a silly little niche item you didn't do anything with it. Well, these people did.

The Koosh Ball


You probably don't know who Scott Stillinger is but you probably have one of his inventions – the Koosh ball, which made millions of dollars. He came up with the idea when he tied rubber bands together to create a smaller, easier-to-catch ball for his young children in 1987.  The Koosh ball was born. He founded OddzOn Products Inc. to distribute the small, simple toy, and within just 12 months it was flying off of store shelves as that year's hottest Christmas gift.

The company expanded, and in 1994 Stillinger sold OddzOn to toy manufacturer Russ Berrie and Company Inc., which in turn was bought by toy behemoth Hasbro in 1997 for more $100 million

And it all happened a mere 10 years after the first ball was created.


Lucky Break Wishbones


Are you still a little bitter that, at last year's Thanksgiving dinner, you lost out to your cousin Ned in the annual fight over the lone turkey wishbone? Well, thanks to Ken Ahroni, those days are long over. In 1999, he had something of an epiphany at his family's Thanksgiving dinner table: a family with multiple people would like multiple wishbones. He shuttered his previous consulting business and launched Lucky Break Wishbone Corp. in 2004, in order to sell his one-of-a-kind breakable plastic wishbones. Within two years, the company was generating nearly $1 million in sales through distributors in more than 40 states nationwide.


Antenna Balls

You've seen them; maybe you even sport one on your car. Those ubiquitous, yellow smiley-faced balls perched atop antennas in parking lots nationwide have made Jason Wall a very wealthy man. Inspired in 1997 by a commercial for the fast food chain Jack in the Box, Wall created some antenna ball designs and began selling them locally through auto stores in California in 1998. Within a year, he had earned more than $1.15 million in sales and quickly won major accounts to sell his product through national chains, including Wal-Mart. In 2009, the multimillionaire is president and CEO of In-Concept Inc.

 
You don't have to be a genius or an engineer to have a million dollar idea.  If it is something you would use, then chances are so would a few hundred thousand others.  I always have a pen and paper with me some I can make notes when I have an idea or when I see someone else's idea I like.  Chances are, if you don't develop your idea. Then you will one day see it on the store shelf or on TV or maybe in your favorite catalog with someone else's name on it.  Keep reading and one day you may read the story on my Blog.