1. Rent-A-Green Box
Entrepreneur: Spencer Brown *
Product/Service: Environmentally friendly moving supplies, delivery and pickup
Start Date: 2005
Startup Costs: $7 million
Revenue: $2.6 million in 2009
2. Mabel's Labels
Entrepreneur: Julie Cole
Product/Service: Personalized, permanent labels for kids' stuff
Start Date: 2002
Startup Costs: About $10,000
Revenue: $4 million in 2009
3. Fatheadz
Entrepreneur: Rico Elmore
Product/Service: Sunglasses for large people
Start Date: 2004
Start-up Costs: About $500,000
Revenue: Estimated $2 million in 2010
4. Stave Puzzles
Entrepreneur: Steve Richardson
Product/Service: Hand-made wooden jigsaw puzzles.
Start Date: 1974
Startup Costs: About $5,000
Revenue: $2.5 million in 2009
Ranging in price from $125 to $5,000, these puzzles are made of cherry wood, covered with a dry-mounted image drawn by one of 100 licensed artists, and individually hand-cut into as many as 2,500 pieces. Bill Gates has one, and Barbara Bush gave another as a gift to Queen Elizabeth. "We try to make them hard to put together," said 71-year-old Richardson, who calls himself the company's chief tormentor.
5. Texas Driving Experience
Entrepreneur: Dawn Stokes
Product/Service: High-performance driving lessons and retreats
Start Date: 2004
Startup Costs: About $500,000
Revenue: Estimated $1.8 million in 2010
6. Litecubes
Entrepreneur: Carl VanderSchuit
Product/Service: Fake ice cubes that glow
Start Date: 2001
Startup Costs: About $100,000
Revenue: $1.3 million in 2009
7. Smarter Fuel
Entrepreneur: Dave Dunham
Product/Service: Biodiesel fuel from restaurant frying oil
Start Date: 2004
Startup Costs: $50,000
Revenue: $3 million in 2009
8. Sky Zone
Entrepreneur: Rick Platt
Product/Service: Arenas covered with trampolines
Start Date: 2009
Startup Costs: About $2 million
Revenue: $3 million-plus in 2009
9. Sanidoor
Entrepreneur: Gale Lemrand.
Product/Service: Sanitary, touchless restroom-door openers
Start Date: 2009.
Startup Costs: About $3.5 million
Revenue: Estimated $2.2 million in 2010
10. Geese Police
Entrepreneur: Dave Marcks
Product/Service: Geese abatement using collies
Start Date: 1987
Startup Costs: About $3,000
Revenue: Estimated $2.5 million in 2010
11. Neuberg & Neuberg
Entrepreneur: Larry Neuberg
Product/Service: Importing gold for gilding
Start Date: 1962
Startup Costs: Virtually none
Revenue: Estimated $3 million in 2010
12. Deeplocal
Entrepreneur: Nathan Martin
Product/Service: Promotions mixing the digital and physical
Start Date: 2006
Startup Costs: Financed out of initial $30,000 contract
Revenue: Estimated $1 million-plus in 2010
13. BlackSocks
Entrepreneur: Samuel Liechti
Product/Service: Sock subscriptions
Start Date: 1999
Startup Costs: $30,000
Revenue: $5 million in 2009
14. DNA 11
Entrepreneurs: Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed
Product/Service: DNA artwork
Start Date: 2005
Start-up Costs: $2,000
Revenue: $1.4 million in 2009
15. The Fiero Store
Entrepreneur: Matthew Hartzog.
Product/Service: Parts and accessories for the Pontiac Fiero
Start Date: 1991
Start-up Costs: $5,000
Revenue: $2 million in 2009
16. Heritage Link Brands
Entrepreneurs: Selena Cuffe and Khary Cuffe
Product/Service: African wine
Start Date: 2005
Start-up Costs: $75,000
Revenue: $1 million in 2009
17. Jimmy Beans Wool
Entrepreneur: Laura Zander
Product/Service: Knitting and crochet supplies
Start Date: 2002
Startup Costs: $30,000
Revenue: $2.8 million in 2009
18. PetRelocation.com
Entrepreneur: Kevin O'Brien and Angie O'Brien
Product/Service: Pet travel
Start Date: 2004
Start-up Costs: $97,000
Revenue: Estimated $4 million in 2010
19. Murray Associates
Entrepreneur: Kevin D. Murray
Product/Service: Eavesdropping detection and counterespionage
Start Date: 1978
Startup Costs: $5,000
Revenue in 2009: $760,000
thank you so much. I was interested in the article, but couldn't continue reading past the labels. I'm surprised that forbes.com (ostensibly a reputable magazine) has gone with a "2leep" style layout.
Adsense "clickbombs" everywhere and completely unreadable.
This is 'content farm' quality at best, which is a shame because it seems an interesting article.
I'm sorry you feel that way. As a Forbes developer, I can tell you we are trying to make the site as usable as possible. If you have any specific feedback I can pass along drop me an email at buley.reports at gmail
Summarize in as few as pages possible - the less clicks needed the better. Not sure how well that works with the management since they are probably interested more in pageviews than anything else, but it would be a start. Second, the information in this "article" was factual, not pictorial, so why was it in a slideshow? The pictures are second to the numbers - they certainly aid in telling the story, but they aren't THE story.
I don't care so much about the all in one page, but having to roll over the image to see the text was too difficult. Took me a minute just to figure it out. Have the text below the image without having to roll over it. I also had trouble figuring out at the opening shot where to click. Took me forever to find the next button, I found it just in time. I almost left!
Check out the design books:
The Design of Every Day things
Designing the Obvious
Information Dashboard Design
You have a whole heap of space, why would you overlay the text over the image, it also feels like their is more advertising space than content space.
An ideal layout would be all one page, it would have the text nicely under or around the images. Even if the ad in the top and side bars was still there at least they wouldn't seem like the most prominent thing on the page.
The NYTimes does all this quiet well, they page but at least their pages are quiet long. They may even have the same amount of ads on the page but the content is so much more dense that it doesn't feel spammy.
We've still got plenty of room for improvement, clearly, but the editorial team just recently introduced a new version of the gallery slides that get us a bit closer to what you're describing: http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2010/12/08/spacex-gets-ku...
I think the "all one page" idea is a good one, and I'll talk to the right folks about it. My only concern is that such a media-heavy page is going to be pretty rough in terms of page speed.
Yes, that's a gallery where the text is not overlaid on the photo, and the Google ads are not quite as tacky, but I think this is missing the point: the content in the OP doesn't belong in a photo gallery format at all.
Notice how many points the posts summarizing the article received - NOBODY to whom you actually want to advertise has any desire to sit around clicking through a gallery to read text.
Yes, your single page load speed may be good, but imagine how much slower your total gallery experience is. You can always have a load more content on scroll if it's really a problem.
EVERYONE feels that way. I don't bother sending around Forbes links anymore because they require so many clicks. One piece of advice - make a printable page that way we don't have to click so many times
I certainly agree. The real problem is what mandatory interstitials (not in this case, I see), AdSense boxes next to content and tiny amounts of content per page do to a site. They exude an aura closer to desperation than success. I'm guessing Forbes readers can pick up on that better than most.
I know internet publishing is a tough business, but we all know there's a problem here.
Oh wow, I didn't even notice that there was an 'article' behind it. All I saw was a single image and didn't notice the 'next' button and originally thought the posters above put up more examples of these sort of businesses
My sister-in-law sells restaurant equipment. One of her products is a catalyst (some sort of metal mesh, I think) that you put in the fryer to keep the oil fresh--makes it last 3 times as long, I think. That sort of thing will make it harder to find oil for biodiesel.
2. Mabel's Labels Entrepreneur: Julie Cole Product/Service: Personalized, permanent labels for kids' stuff Start Date: 2002 Startup Costs: About $10,000 Revenue: $4 million in 2009
3. Fatheadz Entrepreneur: Rico Elmore Product/Service: Sunglasses for large people Start Date: 2004 Start-up Costs: About $500,000 Revenue: Estimated $2 million in 2010
4. Stave Puzzles Entrepreneur: Steve Richardson Product/Service: Hand-made wooden jigsaw puzzles. Start Date: 1974 Startup Costs: About $5,000 Revenue: $2.5 million in 2009 Ranging in price from $125 to $5,000, these puzzles are made of cherry wood, covered with a dry-mounted image drawn by one of 100 licensed artists, and individually hand-cut into as many as 2,500 pieces. Bill Gates has one, and Barbara Bush gave another as a gift to Queen Elizabeth. "We try to make them hard to put together," said 71-year-old Richardson, who calls himself the company's chief tormentor.
5. Texas Driving Experience Entrepreneur: Dawn Stokes Product/Service: High-performance driving lessons and retreats Start Date: 2004 Startup Costs: About $500,000 Revenue: Estimated $1.8 million in 2010
6. Litecubes Entrepreneur: Carl VanderSchuit Product/Service: Fake ice cubes that glow Start Date: 2001 Startup Costs: About $100,000 Revenue: $1.3 million in 2009
7. Smarter Fuel Entrepreneur: Dave Dunham Product/Service: Biodiesel fuel from restaurant frying oil Start Date: 2004 Startup Costs: $50,000 Revenue: $3 million in 2009
8. Sky Zone Entrepreneur: Rick Platt Product/Service: Arenas covered with trampolines Start Date: 2009 Startup Costs: About $2 million Revenue: $3 million-plus in 2009
9. Sanidoor Entrepreneur: Gale Lemrand. Product/Service: Sanitary, touchless restroom-door openers Start Date: 2009. Startup Costs: About $3.5 million Revenue: Estimated $2.2 million in 2010
10. Geese Police Entrepreneur: Dave Marcks Product/Service: Geese abatement using collies Start Date: 1987 Startup Costs: About $3,000 Revenue: Estimated $2.5 million in 2010