Category: BRAINSTORM

Stella Aldridge selects five of the weirdest business ideas that have actually become successful

In today’s competitive business climate, businesses need to be more creative and innovative than ever to succeed. Do you have a business idea, but fear it might not do well because it’s a little too ‘out there’?

Well, before you get on to the essential stuff like creating a website for your business and managing your social media presence, there’s something you should do. Why not weigh up just how weird your business idea is to the five strangest business ideas that became massively successful?

Rent-A-Chicken

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to raise chickens in an urban farming environment, but aren’t sure if you’d be up for the task? Well, Rent-A-Chicken solves this puzzle for you. For £190 ($250), you can rent two chickens for the summer, along with everything you need to care for them.

From the feed to the nesting box, mother hen Leslie Suitor will hook you up. If you decide that the chicken-owning life is for you, you can buy the very same chickens you rented. Could this service be ‘eggsactly’ what you need in your life?

The Baby Mop

If you have internet access, you’ve probably seen countless images of the controversial product that has caused outrage in the parenting community: The Baby Mop. The team over BetterThanPants was inspired by a spoof of a Japanese commercial promoting a similar product.

As the name implies, the Baby Mop is partly a traditional baby onesie and partly a mop. Microfiber mop material is attached to the onesie, and as the baby crawls, it cleans the floor. The company lists the benefits of The Baby Mop as teaching babies strong work ethics, saving money on household cleaning costs, and better sleep promotion. BetterThanPants reportedly receives up to 60 orders per day.

Cuddle Party

Who doesn’t need a good cuddle with a complete stranger every now and then? Cuddle Party will allow you to get your cuddle on in professionally facilitated cuddle parties for a price, of course. Reid Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski founded the company in 2004 and the enormous demand that ensued, surprised even them.

The Cuddle Party crew claims that while most of their customers are singles, couples can also benefit from the boundary and communication workshop that starts each event. Enjoy hours of freestyle cuddling time, spooning, and nuzzling with your fellow cuddlers. One might doubt the popularity of such a service, but judging by the 46 upcoming Cuddle Party events that are almost full, you better believe it.

Doggles

One day Roni Di Lullo noticed her dog, Midknight, squinting in the sun and decided she needed to step up & protect her pup’s precious eyes. And thus, the idea of goggles for dogs was born, and the Doggles product went on to sell millions – but don’t think that they are merely fashion accessories.

Doggles are used to protect U.S Army dogs’ eyes from the effects of the sun and desert sandstorms, to prevent dogs’ eyes from drying out and more. These days Doggles offers much more than goggles for dogs. Included in their products list are backpacks, boots, bandanas, and other gear your canine will love.

I Do, Now I Don’t

I Do, Now I Don’t is a peer-to-peer eCommerce site that sprouted from one man’s heartbreak experience. Siblings Mara and Joshua Opperman founded the company in 2007 after Joshua’s fiancé left him & he experienced immense difficulty selling her engagement ring for anywhere near its purchase price.

It’s estimated that 1.7 used engagement rings are sold via the platform yearly. In addition to engagement rings, the site has expanded its offering to include wedding bands, wedding dresses, and bridesmaid dresses. Don’t people know the meaning of commitment anymore?

What a weird world we live in: These business ideas should not have been successful, yet went on to make millions.

Stella Aldridge is a marketing executive with a passion for the weird and wacky.

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‘The Sun’ offers a ‘dead or alive’ style reward for alleged madam to Jeffrey Epstein and daughter of ‘Bouncing Bob’ Ghislaine Maxwell

Bounty hunters have a new target in their sights – Ghislaine Maxwell – with The Sun offering a reward of £10,000 to “FIND HER.”

Anyone with information should contact them on +44 (0) 20 7782 4104 or email [email protected]

Their terms and conditions are as follows:

THE Sun’s offer of a total reward of £10,000 is subject to the following terms and conditions and will only be payable in accordance with them.

To be eligible to claim the reward, you must provide information exclusively to The Sun which directly results in The Sun successfully making contact with Ghislaine Maxwell in person. The reward will automatically cease to be available if the information otherwise comes into the public domain.

You must be over 18 and in no way connected with any inquiry by authorities into Mr Jeffery Epstein or related matters and/or in any position of trust or confidence or related to Ghislaine Maxwell.

You must not do anything dangerous, or that would put yourself or others at risk and you must at all times act legally and the information provided must have been lawfully obtained.

If more than one person provides information that fully meets these criteria, the reward will be divided equally between the claimants.

If Ghislaine Maxwell voluntarily reveals her location the reward will not be payable.

The offer of reward will, unless renewed by The Sun, automatically terminate on 01.12.2019.

The conditions set out hereunder are subject to variation only by The Sun who will, at all times, have the final decision over the terms and conditions, and payment of the reward. The Sun may vary these terms and conditions if it is reasonable or necessary to do so.

No payment(s) will be made until the Editor of The Sun has received confirmation from Sun staff (or agents representing The Sun) as to the legitimacy of the claim(s) to the reward. Finally, payment of the reward will be at the sole discretion of the Editor of The Sun.

In the event of Ghislaine Maxwell located, as per 1 above, the recipient(s) of the reward will provide an interview for publication in The Sun, at no extra cost, if so required by the Editor of The Sun.

The conditions are subject to English law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. The Sun is published by News Group Newspapers Limited, 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF.

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Bill Gates yet again proves himself to be wise and decent; in conversation at the Dealbook Conference he showed himself to be the polar opposite of the likes of Sir Richard Branson

Bill Gates is the antithesis of self-serving billionaires like Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green. Here is a business titan and philanthropist who uses his wealth to do good and here is someone who doesn’t engage in vanity projects.

Honest and decent to his core, Gates told The New York Times Dealbook Conference yesterday that he had no desire to get involved in the space race. Speaking there of Jeff Bezos’s “competition with Boeing” to “put humans back on the moon,” he pointedly commented: “He can have it. Malnutrition is more important.”

A man who has paid over £7.8 billion ($10 billion, €9.1 billion or درهم36.7 billion) and more than anyone else in taxes, Gates also admitted he’d made an error in meeting with Jeffrey Epstein – whom promised, but failed to deliver anything to support his work towards improving global health. In doing so, the Microsoft Corporation founder yet again illustrated his humbleness and lack of arrogance. For that, we salute him.

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Sir Richard Branson’s woes continue to grow as an artist holds a ‘funeral’ for him in a pub in Sidcup, Kent and his sister ends up with a dead body in her swimming pool

The Branson family and most especially its attention loving head, Sir Richard, aren’t having a good time of late.

Aside from losing their rail franchise Branson’s company, Virgin, aren’t getting good publicity about their plans to move into space travel. Yesterday, The Telegraph suggested that IAG chief executive Willie Walsh “joked” about that and reported he commented: “He won’t have much competition [in his space tourism venture]. He’s not very successful when he does have competition.”

Elsewhere, last month, it was revealed that there were three telephone numbers for the self-declared tycoon listed in the now deceased padeophile Jeffrey Epstein’s address book whilst the job killer Branson’s sister, Lindy Branson, also recently found herself in the news. In September, a 25-year-old was found dead in her swimming pool in Menorca.

Amusingly also this week, an artist, Deborah Hodge, held a funeral for a cardboard cut-out of Branson after she decided “their marriage was dead.” Bizarrely, Hodge had “married her 2D husband in 2015,” but had more recently “put “him in a cupboard” after she felt they’d “drifted apart.” Of the ceremony at The Iron Horse pub, the former deputy headteacher told News Shopper:

“I thought it would be appropriate for us to mourn him in a funeral.”

“The mourners wept and wept and the priest, also named Richard, performed the last rites.”

“I wouldn’t be sad if he was dead in real life to be honest – he’s trying to privatise the NHS – but I had a proper relationship with that cut-out.”

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In ‘Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist’ Vivienne Westwood proves herself to be nothing but a deranged hypocrite and fruit loop

Dame Vivienne Westwood DBE, RDI is definitely an achiever. She singlehandedly made punk and new wave fashion mainstream and she’s made a fortune for herself in the process. The sad thing about this woman, however, and what utterly grates with ordinary people is that she is also a total hypocrite.

First screened on the BBC on 26^th October, Westwood’s personality comes out in Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist and what is shown is far from pleasant. Aside from illustrating herself as utterly batshit crazy, the fashion designer pompously begins by announcing: “My clothes are timeless,” before going on to state: “The Sex Pistols… I invented them.”

Moving on, Westwood bizarrely claims her clothes are inspired by “Greek peasants, bandits in the countryside and the kind of thing you might have seen at the Battle of Culloden.” Back to the Sex Pistols, the diatribe continues: “You’re telling me I’ve got to talk about them? I can’t be bothered with them either… Johnny Rotten: He has unfortunately not changed. He should have changed to something else by now.”

Of why she came to be a designer, Westwood announces: “I did feel I had to be like a knight to stop the people doing terrible things to each other. And I think that has something to do with my fashion clothes.”

Of marriage and society in general, she remarks: “What we was living was the American dream. The housewife, all crisp. And hubby comes home. And that’s it. That’s all you see. But the American dream stops there… What a load of bollocks that is.”

Of her significantly younger and somewhat camp second husband (she’s 78 and he’s 53), Westwood states: “I met Andreas [Kronthaler] in Austria. He was really cheeky. He even had fleas at one point, but it was very romantic… The best compliment I can pay Andreas is that I like being with him as much as I do being on my own.”

“I don’t consider myself a fashion designer at all… I’m a mess and from the mess we can create,” Westwood adds, before suggesting that “everyone in the British media laughed at me.” Admittedly this all round oddity – who was turfed out of the Green Party over her decision to base her companies in the tax haven that is Luxembourg – is financially successful, but the ethics of that do not get a mention here. Instead, viewers get to see this all-round busybody traversing the globe telling others ‘Megain Markle-style’ how they ought to be doing more for the environment yet stupidly pointing out: “I can’t believe how many pairs of fucking plastic shoes we sell.”

No reference to how the Vivienne Westwood Group was ranked 0/36 “don’t buy” on the independent Rank a Brand website (which “assesses and ranks consumer brands on sustainability and social responsibility”) is made in this PR puff piece, but instead the focus is on what can only be described as the “me, myself and I” of this ghastly woman. In announcing “everybody loves me,” the final reveal of the true character of Westwood is shown: Here is someone who is out of touch with reality and simply nothing other than off the scale nuts.

Westwood – described by her bitchy diva-esque husband as being like a “crazy aunty” – has the final word in the show and concludes: “I can’t be bothered. Who wants to listen to all this stuff?” It’s about the only thing she gets right in the entire 78 minutes.

To watch ‘Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist’ click here.

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Sir Richard Branson should be ashamed of himself for cashing in on Virgin Galactic’s flotation given the calamity it has already caused; investors would be advised to steer well clear

When Virgin Galactic floats on the New York stock exchange for approximately £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion, €1.4 billion or درهم5.6billion) later this year, self-declared “entrepreneur” and all-round example of a self-obsessive megalomaniac Sir Richard Branson looks set to cash in some of his investment. He will receive some £178 million ($219 million, €200 million or درهم804 million) according to today’s Mail on Sunday.

Citing only that he and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, are “taking money off the table because they have funded it to date,” potential investors in this particularly loopy project should take note that research for it has directly and indirectly killed four people and seriously injured one another to date. Of the venture also, in July this year, the Guardian warned: “A long history of false starts might deter the cautious investor before rushing to buy shares in Virgin Galactic.”

Another of Branson’s firms, Virgin Trains – a company that is rightly losing its West Coast rail franchise in December – is widely known for its “poor punctuality record” and for the involvement of one of its trains in the 2007 Grayrigg derailment (one fatality, fifty serious injuries). Based on the records of both of these transport firms histories, why would anyone trust Virgin Galactic to run space travel safely or on time either?

Branson himself was convicted and briefly jailed for tax evasion in 1971. In spite of this, this hypocritical “tax exile” is a man who likes to foist his political views on the British public and it should be remembered that he has many failed ventures as well. They include Virgin Brides, Virgin Cars, Virgin Clothing, Virgin Cola, Virgin Publishing and Virgin Vodka.

Considering the evidence, one is simply left asking: Why on earth would investors get involved in this ludicrously overambitious flotation or anything else to do with this ridiculous nightmare of a man?

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Max Clifford’s toxic legacy lives on in the form of his equally mucky daughter and her firm Borne Media

We all thought we’d heard the last of the thankfully dead compulsive liar and paedophile Max Clifford, but with revelations that Jeff Brazier claims that this disgrace turned Jade Goody’s final days “into a circus” we are again sadly reminded of how tawdry this rat truly was.

Clifford – whose daughter, Louise, continues to peddle crap to the press on the behalf of the likes of Georgia Toffolo and Karen Danczuk through her firm Borne Media – now stands accused by Brazier of “doing well off” Goody’s demise.

The television presenter told Channel 4: “[Clifford] was taking something that was really personal and just making it into a circus. He did well off it. Did it add to the quality of her life? No. But again, I had to just take my back seat.”

May the vile piece of scum that was Max Clifford rot in hell and may his tawdry daughter be treated with just as much contempt given she repeatedly tried to defend him as innocent.

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As Prince Andrew faces the possibility of being sued by victims of Jeffrey Epstein, we again join those asking: “Where’s Ghislaine Maxwell?” Suggestions that she’s on a submarine do seem a bit far-fetched, but you never know…

Whilst Fergie’s been busy making a prized prat of herself mopping floors in an attempt to ‘resonate’ with a populous in panic over a pandemic and her ‘selfless’ daughter has had to yet again postpone her wedding and deal with the ensuing “heartbreak,” things aren’t looking that rosy for the ‘House of Dork’ right now.

Throw in news that Prince Andrew could potentially face legal suits from victims of Jeffrey Epstein – even after they receive payout deals from the late paedophile’s estate – and frankly 2019’s annus horribilis seems like an Austin Powers-esque party. The fact that ‘MeGain’ and a near global lockdown are keeping this wing of the royal family off the front pages (for now) is the biggest lottery win this tawdry collection could ever have hoped for.

Meanwhile, just as Epstein’s most outspoken victim, Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts), quite rightly carries on calling out her abusers on Twitter, theories about the whereabouts of the ‘missing mucky madam’ and ‘procuring queen’ of this sordid saga, Ghislaine Maxwell, continue to do the rounds.

Quite ludicrously in February, the Mirror claimed ‘Bouncing Bob’s’ bombastic “bitch” of a daughter could be “hiding in a submarine.” Nobody mentioned whether she was playing Yellow Submarine down there or if she had Amelia Earhart and Glenn Miller singing along with her, however. After it was more recently claimed that Miss Maxwell has been sheltering at her late mother’s former home, Chateau de la Malartrie, La Roque-Gageac, 24220 Vézac, France, the journalist Laura Goldman came out claiming to the contrary. Yesterday, this supposed “friend” ‘authoritatively’ tweeted: “#GhislaineMaxwell isn’t at her family’s chateau in France.”

Elsewhere, in an open letter published in the somewhat way-out-beyond-wacky title Politicalite on 2^nd April, Goldman was described by a group of Epstein’s victims as “a dubious source with a colourful history.” They termed her a woman whom they believed The Sun “[should not] consider a reliable source” and added: “Anything said by Ms. Goldman… presented herewith is not trustworthy.”

With no sightings in the UK or America in months, it has been speculated that this pension’s plunderer’s daughter could have taken refuge in Israel. This theory seems more likely than most and whilst another supposed “chum,” Lady Victoria Hervey, described Maxwell as “like a James Bond character,” nobody with half-a-brain would go as far as to argue she’s even close to being on a level with Ernst Blofeld or Max Zorin.

“Not renowned for having much upstairs” Lady Hervey subsequently stated: “I just don’t believe anyone is going to find her,” but, whatever is the case, there are a lot of outstanding questions awaiting Ghislaine Maxwell. It is now jolly well time this wicked wench turned herself in and it’s jolly well time she faced the music – be it accompanied by a Beatles tune or otherwise.

Pictured top: Disgraced media mogul’s spawn Ghislaine Maxwell with currently-still-a-media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

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As Sir ‘Shifty’ Philip Green is charged with assault and his empire flounders, it is now time for him to be finally stripped of his title

Alleged “bottom slapper” and “breast groper” Sir Philip Green has truly hit the rocks. Described as “rude, arrogant and inappropriate” this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme, here now is a man incapable of rescuing any shred of his reputation.

Inappropriately defended as “more Benny Hill than Harvey Weinstein” by one former advisor, the yelling retail tycoon is now not only someone universally loathed, but also a beached whale of a beast now accused of four counts of assault on a pilates instructor.

Sir Philip, elsewhere, faces demands from the Pensions Regulator for an injection of an extra £50 million into the Arcadia pension scheme on top of the £360  million he’d already proprosed as part of the restricting of his somewhat fading empire.

Aside from these woes, that this ratbag and his wife have managed to cling on to their titles is an utter disgrace. It is now time that the Honours Committee listened to the nigh on 2,000 people who have signed a Change.org petition calling for the stripping of his knighthood.

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We join those celebrating ‘Sir Shifty’ Philip Green’s impending downfall; this vulgar man and his beady-eyed wife truly deserve their fate

It hasn’t been a good week for Sir Philip Green and it hasn’t been a good one for his vulgar, title obsessed wife, ‘Lady Tina,’ either.

No longer listed as a billionaire given he didn’t make the grade in today’s annual ‘Rich List,’ published today in The Sunday Times, Green is no doubt chucking plates in anger as he n sits blubbing on his ghastly gin palace. Facing a multi-million pound rent bill in June from his “furious landlords” and battling a £300 million pension black hole at Arcadia, this “cross between Shylock and Al Capone” has problems on other fronts.

Aside from his pig-like daughter having had a kid with a deviant convicted criminal, the Daily Mail reported that his spendaholic wife – a modern day version of Lady Docker (but without the fun) – splurged £190,000 on a bottle of wine last week.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, in an article published today, a fellow Monaco based member of the ‘Rich List’ told the paper: “He looks unwell. I see him walking along the seafront often alone. I see no happy ending to all this.”

We join those calling for Sir Philip Green to be stripped of his title also. May this vile man and his hideous family end up reduced to nothing.

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