About Good Business Ideas

TrendCentral: Just like how some apparel e-tailers are adapting virtual sizing applications to help online shoppers find properly fitting clothes with the click of a mouse, we predict that a growing number of beauty retailers and services will harness similar technologies to allow consumers to try out new hairstyles and makeup looks without having to take a trip to the salon or cosmetics counter.

In Japan, Shiseido and Sega teamed up to create Project Beauty: The Nintendo DS game features a scanning device that transfers digital images of the user's face onto a split screen, at which point the user's facial features and coloring are analyzed and different "looks" or makeup suggestions are displayed on one half of the screen.

Digital Beauty Service [TrendCentral]

BusinessWeek: When Unilever (UN) challenged its scientists to come up with a detergent that uses fewer resources, greener materials, and less packaging, few thought it was possible. Yet Small & Mighty, the industry's first super-concentrated liquid detergent, launched in October 2005 in a partnership with U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), 18 months ahead of rivals such as Procter & Gamble (PG). What started as a means to boost Unilever's green credentials now is opening up avenues of innovation that are helping to drive growth in the company's once-lackluster laundry unit. Since rolling out Small & Mighty in Europe in January 2007, more than 30 million bottles have been sold.

The virtue of the product is that consumers can wash the same amount of laundry with one-third the detergent. Smaller packaging means each bottle uses 55% less plastic, enabling retailers to stock three times the number of bottles in the same space, saving on labor and out-of-stock costs. There's big savings for Unilever, too, in manufacturing and transportation. The company says it saves 500 million gallons of water and 150 million pounds of plastic each year. And the smaller bottle means Unilever can transport three times as much product in every truck, saving 26 million gallons of diesel each year. "It's a good example of how good environmental practice is good for the company's bottom line," says Keith Weed, Unilever's group vice-president for home care.

Unilever's Laundry Biz Is Greener, and Growing [BusinessWeek]

HometownLife.com: Who knew that Jill Wylie, a stay-at-home mother in Northville Township, would turn out to be an inventor? But after some research and ingenuity, she now has a billiards-related product on the market - the Junior Shark Guiding Wheel.

The small, white, plastic device's use has two uses: It helps protect pool table felt from scrapes and tears and assists beginners by guiding their use of the cue stick.

She's even created her own limited liability corporation, the Wylie Group LLC, and has a Web site for the product, www.juniorshark.com.

"I am really excited about the Junior Shark Guiding Wheel," she says on her site. "This idea came to me when I saw how much kids really wanted to play pool and how nervous this made the owners of the pool tables."

If a pool table's felt is ripped, it cannot be patched or repaired because that will leave an uneven surface. Thus, the entire pool table cover must be replaced at a cost of several hundred dollars.

"The biggest worry with novice players or children playing pool is the risk of scratching and tearing the felt," Wylie said. But, with Wylie's new device, there are no worries.

She adds that children under age 3 should not be allowed to handle the guiding wheels because they might choke on them.

The Junior Shark Guiding Wheel is placed on top of the cue stick and pushed down to where the ferrule (the white tape-looking part) joins the taper of the cue stick shaft. The wheel can be used on any size cue stick.

Stay-at-home mom turns inventor [HometownLife.com]

Springwise: Launched just in time for the holiday season, I Am Saint Nick lets would-be gift-givers submit the phone numbers of those they're having trouble coming up with ideas for. The company's very own "Santa" will then place a discreet, anonymous call to each challenging person and ask them what they'd like for Christmas. Each such call gets recorded and posted online for access (only) by the gift-giver, who then gets insight into wishes that may not ordinarily get shared with mere mortals. Powered by Twilio phone technology, Kirkland, Wash.-based I Am Saint Nick aims to support itself through advertising and sponsorships.

Santa calls friends and family for gift ideas [Springwise]

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