Yet another Belmont student has put his idea in the mix for ideablob. This month’s entrant is Lee Turley and his new business called TheSilverStreets.com:

TheSilverStreets.com is a social networking site that is aimed at providing a central, national location for automotive enthusiasts to host a personal page, meet other enthusiasts, and network at no cost. It aims to solve the huge communication and organizational barriers in the automotive community. All the while using its position to make changes in communities through local involvement and high ethical standards. It’s more than a website!

Please go to ideablob.com and vote for Lee!!

The cover article for Entrepreneur magazine this month looks at the “people, trends and events that matter most for your business.” They call them “the influencers.”
In the hustle and bustle of starting a growing a business we can lose sight of the big picture. The trends and changes that created the opportunity for the business in the first place can just as quickly take away our economic advantage.
While I am not sure I agree with all of their choices for the top 25, it is worth a read and some careful reflection. Opportunities in the dynamic world in which we live can be quite fleeting.

Three of the eight finalists in this month’s ideablob competition for the best idea are Belmont students offering up social ventures. The winner will receive $10,000 from Avanta to help develop their venture.
Here are Belmont’s three finalists (in alphabetical order of the student’s name):
Noah Curran’s Turning Actions into Good (winner of “Sprint 1”) is a web-based non-profit charity which revolves around the kindness of strangers. The concept allows anyone to participate in a charity, regardless of financial status. Here is how the process works: Become a free member. Print off pre-made TAG-cards. Commit an act of kindness. Give the person a TAG-card which asks the stranger to do another act of kindness and go to the website to report about the deed that was done to them. After submitted, viewers can vote for the most touching act of the month. The leading vote getter would receive a cash prize.
Janice Dotti (winner of “Sprint 1”) wants to create a completely fair trade, completely organic coffeehouse that sponsors social justice causes while taking care with the environment. In addition to serving fair trade coffee, she will also only use fair trade sugar, tea, and cocoa as we educate our consumers on how their buying habits affect the working poor in developing countries. Every month, this coffeehouse would sponsor a social justice cause–promoting awareness to customers about worldwide issues of injustice. This coffeehouse will also have free wifi, live music, local art–all with a community emphasis.
Finally, Megan Lopez (winner of “Sprint 3”) presents an idea to create an informational website about how to raise your child naturally. From recipes to exercise programs to do with your children. Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in our country today. We need to instill habits in our children starting at birth, so they can maintain and carry them through for the rest of their lives. Organic Baby will be a tool for parents to use as a community blog, buy organic clothing and bedding merchandise, research the benefits of healthy organic foods, etc. She would later like to own her own baby organic clothing line.
Please go to ideablob and vote for our three finalists in this month’s best idea contest! You can vote for more than one idea, but you can only vote for each idea one time.

Bill Hobbs sent along a great story that illustrates one of the most important lessons an aspiring entrepreneur can learn. It is the importance of finding a business that satisfies both the entrepreneur’s needs with a true market need that is backed up by hard data.
From Latina Lista:

Carrie Ferguson Weir spent all of her professional life asking the hard questions. As a daily newspaper journalist, this Cuban-American Latina was accustomed to asking the kinds of questions that force honest responses.
However, it wasn’t until she had her own daughter and found herself wrestling with the age-old “working mother dilemma” of either returning to work after maternity leave or being a stay-at-home mom that Carrie found herself on the receiving end of her own interrogation.
What could she do that would give her the freedom to be a stay-at-home mom and a successful businesswoman?
…”The idea came as a lightening bolt out of nowhere,” Carrie said. “I believe in those messages. The research that followed backed up the hunch.”
What Carrie had noticed was a gap in the baby t-shirt business when it came to exhibiting proud Latino roots.

Megan Lopez is the latest Belmont Social Entrepreneur to throw her hat in the ideablob ring.

An informational website about how to raise your child naturally. From recipes to exercise programs to do with your children. Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in our country today. We need to instill habits in our children starting at birth, so they can maintain and carry them through for the rest of their lives. Organic Baby will be a tool for parents to use as a community blog, buy organic clothing and bedding merchandise, research the benefits of healthy organic foods, etc. I would later like to own my own baby organic clothing line.

Please go to ideablob and vote for Megan’s idea! Even if you voted earlier this month this is a new heat and you can vote again! We hope to have three social entrepreneurs from Belmont in the finals this month!!

Everyday Edisons, a PBS reality series chronicling modern inventors and the development of their inventions, announces its 2008 casting call schedule to be held in major cities throughout the nation in search of Season Three participants. The show considers all categories of invention, ranging from sketched ideas and simple concepts to detailed, patented designs and factory prototypes.
The Everyday Edisons panel of judges, including product development and patent law experts, will provide a forum for participants to present and demonstrate original ideas. The judges will select 10 to 12 inventors to be featured in the third season of Everyday Edisons, which chronicles the inventors as their concept is refined, produced, marketed and sold.
The remaining Everyday Edisons 2008 casting call schedule includes:
– SAN JOSE – February 16
– DALLAS – March 15
– CHICAGO – April 19
– NORTHEAST LOCATION TBA – May 17
Participants with factory prototypes or finished products will be reviewed by the judging panel, as well as representatives from major retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, QVC, PetSmart, Staples, The Sharper Image and buybuyBABY. Previous inventions featured on Everyday Edisons range from a convertible baby bag and kitchenware product to a family board game and construction tool.
Interested? Go to their web site here for more details.

ideablob.com has narrowed the January contestants down to the final eight. If you have not heard of it before, think of ideablob.com as American Idol for entrepreneurs via the Internet. People post their ideas on the ideablob.com web site, and visitors vote for their favorite idea. The winner each month with the most votes gets $10,000 for their business.
As some of you know, one of our students here at Belmont, Andy Tabar, is a finalist this month. Andy is a junior, majoring in Entrepreneurship. He has been working on his web development company from his first day here at Belmont. Here is a link to his business web page.
There is now a new round of voting for the finals. Even iff you voted before, you cn now vote again in the finals. If you did not, please take a few minutes to go to their site, register, and VOTE FOR ANDY!!!! It is quick and easy.
Here is where you go to register and vote. If you have voted before, use your same user name and password. Andy’s business idea is titled “Expand my global tech company”.
If Andy wins the final round of voting, he will get $10,000 to help him grow his business!!
PLEASE help out Andy on this. Pass this along to friends and family. The more votes we can get, the better his chances to win. Every vote counts!!
Thanks!!!!!!!

Each year Entrepreneur magazine lists its top 500 Franchises. Click here to see their listing for 2008.
Before you decide to get serious about starting a franchise, take a look at a post I wrote in 2004 about the pros and cons of buying a franchise.

A social enterprise is the latest monthly $10,000 Ideablob winner.
Marci Bossow Schankweiler of North Wales, PA is President and founder of Crossing the Finish Line (CFL), a Blue Bell, PA-based non-profit organization that provides excursions for young adult cancer patients and their families. Schankweiler founded CFL after her first husband passed away from cancer at the age of 30. She plans to use the prize money to help fund a home for cancer patients near Orlando, FL.
Ideablob.com is an on-line community where small business owners and entrepreneurs are sharing business ideas in exchange for feedback, advice and votes from the community. The monthly prizes are sponsored by Advanta, one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers (through Advanta Bank Corp.) in the small business market.
“We are thrilled that the ideablob community picked a non-profit as this month’s winner,” said Ami Kassar, Advanta’s Chief Innovation Officer. “There are more than 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the United States, most of which are small and face the same daily struggles for survival as millions of small businesses.”
“We’ve been talking about securing a home near Orlando for a while and when I heard about ideablob.com I thought I’d put the idea out there,” explains Schankweiler. “There’s such a demand to provide young patients a respite from the traumas associated with cancer. Thanks to the support of the ideablob community, we now have the money to provide additional assistance.”
Go to ideablob.com to put your idea into the mix and to vote on this month’s ideas.