With many recent success stories with businesses such as Facebook, YouTube, Groupon and Netflix, everyone thinks they can come up with that special million dollar idea. Here are a few people that actually came up with that idea that will make you say why didnt I think of that?
1. Iwearyourshirt.com: Making money wearing a t-shirt? Why didnt I think of that? Almost everyone at some point in their life has paid at least $15 to walk around toting some companys logo and design on their shirt. That doesnt make very much sense does it? The company receives profit and free advertising. I am sure this is what Jason Sandler was thinking when he started this company. He started this ingenious venture on January 1, 2009 when he charged his first customer $1 to wear their shirt. This continued every day that year incrementally increasing the price. The second day it was $2, third day $3 etc. until on December 31st he received $365. That year he made an astonishing $70,000, 2010 he made over $220,000 and this year he plans to make over $500,000. All that for just wearing a t-shirt and social networking it .
2. Switch Flops: One pair, two pair, three pair, four. These creative flip-flops invented by Lindsay Phillips allow you to interchange the straps (held together with simple Velcro), making a fashionable new sandal every day. This patented design was created by Phillips when she was only 16 years old for a high school project. The flip-flops first appeared in 2007 at a surf expo, and now the annual revenue of the company is $30 million .
3. Boogie Wipes: Snot your average wipe. This is the tagline for the $10 million tissue company that started just back in 2008. These tissues created by two mothers, Julie Pickens and Mindee Doney sell in stores like Target Wal-Mart and Walgreens all across the U.S. Boogie Wipes are hygienic wipes imbedded with saline to help clean up any baby or small childs nose .
These are just a few of the many million dollar ideas that people came up with recently and made large amounts of money from. This goes to show that not all million dollar ideas need to be sophisticated inventions or businesses. These people make it clear that anyone can come up with that ah-ha idea and make a living off of it.
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