The Business Ideas We Wish We Had

I've always wanted to go into some kind of business but, unfortunately, business savvy is something I sorely lack in. I'm the kind of guy who'll readily give discounts to most any friend or family member (if not for free), unless of course I get the biting feeling that some kind of abuse is going on.

But I still dream of having my own business, something not directly related to making comics. I've entertained ideas for food cart businesses. While there are a lot of cheap franchises out there in which I can get my feet wet, I still have hesitations over running something that isn't an idea I can fall in love with. Unless, of course, I fall in love with the basic need to earn more money and experience.

Business ideas are a dime a dozen, and a lot of them are deceptively simple. King of Balls comes to mind, with their oh-s0-deliciously-sweet red gulaman, the closest to a cheap and addicting sugar bomb I'll ever get. But here are a few of business ideas I've run across that are just ingenious despite their simplicity.

1) The Million Dollar Homepage. This came up during the earlier years of the Web, and is perhaps one of the first forays into web advertising. The person who came up with this jackpot of a business idea had a great proposition--pay one dollar for every pixel. So if your graphical link is 10 x 10 pixels in area, you pay $100. The novelty of the idea then was too irresistible, I suppose. I don't know if the one currently existing is still that same one that first appeared, but it sure made someone very rich very quickly.

2) Fitdeck Workout Cards. How does one achieve variety in a workout routine? Navy SEAL instructor Phil Black answered this question by having individual exercises printed on standard-sized cards, and selling the cards as a "workout system." All a user has to do is choose a number of cards, shuffle them, and execute each exercise one by one. When I chanced upon the Fitdeck website years ago, there was only one deck available. Now it looks like the creator of this goldmine is making good money, as there are currently different decks--as well as booster packs!--categorized according to age and fitness levels.

3) Piperoids. Winner of a 2007 design award in Japan, Piperoids is one of those ideas that could make a lot of people go, "Why didn't I think of that?" The concept is simple. Take paper tubes. Cut. Make cute robots.

Image by ctechs on sxc.hu.