Take It And Run! Think your idea is already spoken for? Maybe not . . .

Mark Terao, 38, and a friend were brainstorming business ideaswhen they thought of making college football calendars--an ideathey concluded was so great, someone else must surely be doing it.But rather than just forget it, Terao, of Seattle, decided to do alittle research. Checking with both the University of Washington inSeattle and Washington State University in Pullman, he found outthat not only was no one making football calendars, but the schoolswere hungry for such a product. "That opened the door,"he says.

Terao formed Pure Image Inc. in 1997 (of which his friend owns asmall part), producing a 16-month wall calendar for bothuniversities, including a photo of the stadiums, pictures of formerplayers, statistics and a game schedule. The next year, he expandedto 10 schools. "This year, we're doing 23 schools,"Terao says. "Next year, we're set to do 30 to 35." Inaddition to football, he also does basketball calendars for someschools.

The college calendar has sparked a number of other products,including promotional calendars for private companies andprofessional sports teams--and even a computer screensaver thatplays schools' fight songs. Terao expects sales to top $500,000this year--and to double in 2000. Not bad for an opportunity thatseemed too obvious to be true.