Top business ideas 2011 - best Russian startups

It becomes a good tradition to celebrate the end of the year by making a summary and posting the top of best business ideas that started and boomed for the past 12 months. Lets keep it up this year as well! Top 10 best Russian web startups who raised millions in funds and earned millions for their owners is under cut. 1. Oktogo.ru Startup that collected the largest online database of Russian hotels and combined it with hotel reviews from one of the leading travel sites – TripAdvisor.com. This project gained huge popularity, becoming nr. 1 on Russian online travel market and raising $5 millions in venture capital from European investors. 2. ZeptoLab.com Gaming site that reached 60 million game downloads without any investments. ZeptoLab also makes money on branching their games into comic books and toys. 3. Biglion.ru This coupon service is an extremely successful project that skyrocketed from 0 to a monthly income of $15 millions in less then two years. Biglion was funded by Tiger Global and Ru-Net. 4. Metabar.ru A service similar to Conduit that offers browser toolbar creation. For faster growth project raised $1 million in funds. 5. Nginx.ru A web server, reverse proxy and e-mail proxy software provider that showed phenomenal growth of traffic and profits, becoming Nr. 2 on the Web. Project raised $3 million from global venture capital investors. One of the main challengers for title of Best Business 2011. 6. Lamoda.ru Online shoe store Lamoda.ru is the first project launched in Russia by Samwer brothers' Rocket Internet with funding from various companies. Showed significant growth in 2011 and proved to be a truly promising internet startup 2011. 7. Surfingbird.ru Surfingbird.ru – an internet startup that delivers a web recommendation and discovery service to end-users. Lets see if this project, backed up by $3 million funding will kick Stumbleupon's ass. 8. GridGain.com A co-project of Russian and American entrepreneurs - cloud computing software vendor. 9. BabyBoom.ru Kids' goods online retailer BabyBoom.ru competes on an overcrowded children goods market. This project is backed up by Index Ventures'. 10. KupiVIP.ru Online commerce is booming in Russia. This online shopping club was in top businesses 2010 and made headlines in April 2011 when it closed $55 million round from Bessemer, Balderton and Russia Partners, the largest internet startup funding in Russia.

Source - Business Ideas

Interesting business niche - personalized drinks

During this year we were watching how business is turning its face to the customer, learn to be flexible and follow the changing demands of clients. These demands are very different, but there's one thing that unite them all – customers look for personalized service and personalized products. This applies to all business markets, especially to food business market. UFlavor is an Indianapolis based company that follows one of the hottest consumer trends 2011 – use-generated content. But this company brings it to a completely new level. UFlavor in cooperation with with flavor company Flavors of North America (FONA) launched an online beverage marketplace where users can create a personalized drink, mixing up 42 ingredients, choosing color, name and even label. Drink will be produced and shipped directly to user's home address. UFlavor is currently available only in BETA version, but company already revealed their ambitious plans for 2012 – vending machines. Customers will be able to select flavor combination or a combination created by someone else and the drink will be mixed and bottled on the spot. Following latest consumer trends along with choosing an interesting business niche is an easy and quick way to business success!

Source - Business Ideas

Winter business idea - mountain rentals

I'm a passionate skier, but, unfortunately, there are no decent mountains in my country. So, when winter comes I start searching the web for interesting skiing offers abroad to book myself at least one skiing holiday. This time I have stumbled upon an offer that has caused a lot of discussions and attracted attention of mass media. Liftopia, the US based discount ski ticket site, has launched a unique winter business – entire mountain rentals. Liftopia in cooperation with Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, New York; Mt Abram in Greenwood, Maine; Camden Snow Bowl in Camden, Maine; and Whaleback in Enfield, New Hampshire offers to rent an entire mountain (or just a part of even and even a dedicated tubing hill) exclusively for yourself. You can use all slopes to enjoy skiing or snowboarding and to hone your technique without anyone getting in the way. This pleasure is not cheap and the rental price varies from $900 for one slope up to $3000 for entire mountain and more. I'm a bit surprised that European companies do not have any similar offers so far. There are so many skiing resorts and so many skiing fans who can easily afford a pleasure of renting a mountain. Due to the lack of foresight these companies lose potential profits that this winter business idea would surely bring. To keep being on top entrepreneurs should always be open to new business ideas! Flexibility in business always pay off.

Source - Business Ideas

Vending ideas - vending machine to swap things

In Christmas Eve, when all molls are crowded with people, running around with bulging eyes and hung with shopping bags, it's good to remind what this day is really about. It's not about spending all your savings in shopping centers and it's not about hunting dicounts, it's about giving away and doing something for someone's good! The business idea below is a great example of how to do it in a nice and burdensome way. The Swap-o-matic is a new vending machine which reminds us unconscious consumption, which became a true religion of XXI century should be replaced by recycling. The machine allows users to donate and receive items, instantly and for free. Though items in the machine (donated by users) do not cost the recipient any money, to get them he or she should have "credits". A credit is earned when the user donates to the system, and a credit is required to retrieve an item from the machine. New users receive 3 credits to start. Machine is easily controlled by the touch screen interface on the front of the machine. Swap-o-matic is a great invention and is absolutely essential in big cities, where people had long and firmly forgotten, that reusing and recycling can be just as fun as buying something new. Yet MUCH more correct and responsible.

Source - Business Ideas

Cool restaurant business idea - graffiti wall

In "Restaurant business idea" category I usually write about unusual restaurants all over the world. But today my story will be about quiet an ordinary establishment – pizzeria – which attracts customers in a creative and unusual way. Gino's East is a Chicago-based restaurant chain, notable for its deep-dish pizza baked in cast-iron pans. For years it had a tradition to write or carve one's name or other messages on the wooden interior walls, which soon became an important aspect of the Gino's East brand. Now Gino's East pizzeria turned this tradition into an unusual entertainment for their guests - while waiting for pizza, visitors can try their hand at graffiti art, drawing some sketch on the wall specifically allocated for this purpose. Along with tasty pizza, this unique marketing trick has turned Gino's East into a very successful business. When starting a business we usually concentrate on major things, but hardly pay attention to small details which can attract customers and provide you with word of mouth advertising as well as good reputation. And it's difficult to overestimate the importance of these two aspects in a profitability of any company.

Source - Business Ideas

Greeting card business idea - pet cards

Sending holiday cards is a great way to spread holiday cheer to friends and family, to wish them all the best and to show that you remember and care about them. Yet traditional xmas greeting cards are a bit boring and many people are in search of some interesting card designs for this holiday season. Entrepreneurs feel the demand and tend to satisfy it, coming up with new products. Minted is an online store selling greeting cards with stylish designs from independent graphic designers. This year they offered new creative pet-themed designs for animal lovers - holiday dog photo cards. You can upload images of your pets, choose a background, greeting text and add the reindeer antlers for a touch of humor. There are also versions available for 2-3 photos of pets and/or people. You can even purchase a complete set with envelopes, liners, labels and simply put your greeting card into a mailbox. Holiday pet cards is an interesting business idea for those who are in greeting card business or sell handmade xmas cards. That's definitely something new and fresh, a good alternative for people who would like to keep the tradition of sending xmas greeting cards, but want to do it in a fun way.

Source - Business Ideas

Low budget marketing - successful promotion campaign

The majority of new business owners know from their own experience how hard it may be to enter an existing market and get a market share of your business is not unique and there are lots of competitors out there. Only solution is to organize a massive advertising campaign which usually requires significant investments that aspiring entrepreneurs might not posses. Well, actually there are many ways to promote your small business even if you are on a low budget. The story below proves it perfectly. The Spanish marriage agency, whose head office is located in Malaga (Andalusia), held a unique promotion campaign dedicated to the opening of its new online dating site. On October 12, when the whole of Spain celebrates its National Day, several hundreds of balloons were released to the sky above the central city park - a traditional place of public festivals. Each balloon had a little note with a numbers of particular online profile of one of agency's clients: blue balloons had numbers of profiles of male clients and red – of female clients. In addition, each ball was painted in an additional color, signifying the age of participants: up to 35 years, from 35 to 45, from 45 to 55 and over 55 years. Anyone wishing to find a soul mate could choose a balloon and get the number of profile corresponding to the number on agency's site. An unusual promotion campaign of the site was previously announced in local media and on Internet. Organizers invited single people to register on a new dating site, fill out a questionnaire and sign in for participation in this balloon-event. According to online dating site owners, this promotion campaign gathered over 500 people. And fifteen thousand people have registered on the site within next two weeks after the event was held. Successful ad campaigns should be a true public show and Spanish dating specialists did it great. A perfect example to follow!

Source - Business Ideas

Interesting business - online shopping aggregator

There are two major passions of modern society – social networks and shopping. Generation of the 21st century is deservedly called a consumer society that experiences a severe shortage of communication. What conclusions should follow from the above written? New business ideas that will bring together these two passions are very welcomed and will surely get paid off! TheFind.com is a six-year old online shopping comparison site, online retail aggregator and search engine that offers both mobile, Web and in-store shopping. This site helps shoppers to find products from more than 500,000 stores and online shopping sites. TheFind has a very interesting business idea – it unites social network functions (socializing, sharing experience, advising etc.) with online shopping that includes reassuring you about the price, providing additional information like coupons and product reviews, as well as helping locate nearby stores which offer same products. For users' convenience TheFind also has apps for Android smart phones and iPads. Besides working on the two major passions of modern society, TheFind business idea also involves another important factor that guarantees popularity and profitability of this service – the herd instinct. If some of my friends has already bought this or ordered that, then what am I waiting for?! Everyone wants to be on the cutting edge of fashion, have the coolest stuff and the trendiest gadgets. TheFind gives users the opportunity to track the tendencies in shopping and this is what assures it a bright future.

Source - Business Ideas

Sustainable business - eco wise vacuum cleaner

Nowadays, when environmental problems get more and more attention in mass media and society, green lifestyle becomes very popular and I would even say trendy. International business responds to this new business trend and companies search for green business ideas to attract more customers. Luckily, many young people, designers and engineers, get involved and enter business market with innovative ideas and creative approach. The 22-year-old industrial design student at Loughborough University Jake Tyler has created a unique eco wise product – cardboard vacuum cleaner. This vacuum is made from corrugated cardboard panels, which can be replaced if damaged and cost few times less then equivalent plastic panels. Vacuum cleaner has -retardant coating and cardboard panels are water repellant. Other components in the vacuum are made from recyclable nylon plastic. It's an absolutely great and inspiring example of sustainable business, which has no negative impact on environment, society or economy. Besides, it's a very customer friendly product - people can personalise their vacuums by drawing pictures on the cardboard. No doubts, that this green business idea has a great future!

Source - Business Ideas

Cool business idea - Facebook and Twitter apps

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are a great source of extra income for creative minds with programming skills. Numerous applications for users of these networks appear each day, but there's still plenty of space for new business ideas on this market. Use the story below as a source of inspiration and start your own small business on Facebook and Twitter apps. The project CrowdedInk Lab was founded by KG Miller in 2008. He developed a software and started to produce cool mugs with photos of clients' friends from Twitter and Facebook. It all works very easy: the user selects from the list of his FB or TW friends those, whom he wants to see on his mug and excludes all others. Then program decorates a mug with photos of selected friends, user puts it in the basket, draws up the order for delivery, pays $15 and gets a custom made mug within few days. Recently, CrowdedInk Lab added another product - a key charm with Facebook and Twitter friends' photos. It costs only $ 4. Both foto mug and key charm are very popular among Internet users and they symbolize their status in social networks. People buy these souvenirs for themselves and as a unique gift for any occasion.

Source - Business Ideas

Cool business idea - pissing games

Online business market offers wide money making opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. Gaming business is among the most rapidly developing and profitable online niche business. New gaming business ideas appear daily, but the majority is quiet ordinary. Yet sometimes companies come up with some really peculiar and I would even say bizarre business ideas. The company Sega cheered up video games market with quiet a strange product – gaming interface for urinals - Toirettsu, which allows men to play video games even in the toilet. There is a small flat screen above urinal, at eye level and the urinal itself is equipped with sensors. Joystick or keyboard is not required, the only "joystick" is brought by player - user controls the action by selectively peeing on different sensors. According to entrepreneurs (mostly restaurateurs) 100 percent of visitors said that the idea is very unusual and interesting. 80 percent of visitors would not refuse to stay in the closet a little longer, and almost every visitor said that he would certainly tell you about this new product to their friends. Seems that pissing mini-games is quiet a promising business idea!

Source - Business Ideas

Niche business ideas - diy food kits

Opening a food business may seem a very attractive idea as this market is huge and highly profitable. But competition is severe and newcomers might find it difficult to get a piece of market share. Yet world food market still has plenty of space for niche business ideas in case they are unique and creative. Need an example? Here it is! Ella Kinloch from Calgary, Canada, was once a school teacher, but left her full time work to devote her time to a true passion – making cheese. She had a 4-month cheese making internship followed by meetings with many cheese makers in North America. Probably that's when she came up with a very interesting small business idea – providing people with a specially designed kits to make cheese at home. Currently Make Cheese Inc. sells two different cheese making kits: Lotsa Motza for making mozzarella (there's everything needed to make 300 grams of cheese for about 30 times), and Proud Poutine which is a traditional Canadian dish of cheese curd served on fries with gravy. Besides, Ella Kinloch also runs cheese making classes where anyone can learn to make mozzarella for a decent sum of CND 20. Company plans to develop further and to bring new kits for other cheese types. Diy food is among small business trends 2012 and diy food kits are very popular gifts both in Europe, US and Australia. The best thing about such kits is that you don't only get a gourmet food you want, but also fun of making it, together with friends or family. So, if you know any good diy food recipes and know how to make necessary supplies – don't wait any longer, catch a trend while it's still hot!

Source - Business Ideas

Bizarre business ideas - men towels

Christmas and New Year's Eve are approaching fast and people all around the world succumb to holiday fever, ready to spend astronomical sums for gifts. But not juts for any gift, the majority is searching for something very special. Business on unique gifts is blooming and bring huge profits so more and more entrepreneurs opt to invest in this business. The owners of the DickTowel company is among them. DickTowel.com site specializes in producing unique design towels for men. A point of these towels design is that they have a print of male ass on the back side and on the front – guess what? Towel is available in two designs – for white and black men and costs $20. I'm pretty sure that my husband wouldn't be happy to receive such gift, but there are many men who are ready to laugh at themselves and who love this kind of funny stuff. So, without any doubts, this cool business idea should be successful.

Source - Business Ideas