Smart Ideas 12/05 Lucky wishbones, MP3 loading services and more

Wishful Thinking
What: Synthetic wishbones
Who: Ken Ahroni of Lucky Break Wishbone Corp.
Where: Seattle
When: Started in 2004

Imagine celebrating as your company's products aredestroyed. Ken Ahroni, founder of Lucky BreakWishbone Corp., does just that-and he even joins in on the fun.He has personally snapped a few hundred of his company'ssynthetic wishbones. "There are literally no defectives,"he says. "They are meant to break!"

Ahroni, 53, comes from a family that understands holidaytraditions. After college, he joined his family's importbusiness, which manufactured Christmas lights in Taiwan. Later, hecreated World Masters Inc., a consulting firm that aided factoriesin product development, working on such projects as increasing thecapacity of Christmas-light strings from 50 to 200 lights."When I'd go to a party, I never met anyone who did what Idid," he jokes.

After 20 years of operating World Masters, Ahroni was ready fora change. In 1999, he had an epiphany at the Thanksgiving tablewhen he noticed a "wishbone shortage" and wanted to solveit. "Two lucky people make a wish, and that's it foranother year," he explains. What if there were more wishbonesto go around?

Ahroni experimented with plastics until he could replicate thesnapping of an authentic dried turkey wishbone. He relied on acavity injection mold and 3-D digital files for testing. Five yearsand $75,000 later, Ahroni had a successfully test-marketedsynthetic wishbone--and closed World Masters.

In just the first six months, Ahroni sold $50,000 worth of theproduct. Today, custom design and imprinting encourage corporateand personal use at catered events and for ad campaigns. A set offour wishbones retails for $3.99 at the company's website,BridesVillage.com, iParty.com, TrueBlueChristmas.com and even VegBay.com (theproduct's mostly recycled plastic composition appeals tovegetarians). Now producing 30,000 wishbones daily, Ahroni expects2005 sales to reach $1 million.
--Sharon Tang-Quan

Fully Loaded
What: An MP3 loading service that transfers CD catalogs ontoiPods
Who: Catherine Keane of HungryPod
Where: New York City
When: Started in 2004

Apple Computer's iPods are everywhere these days, andthey're hungry. Just ask Catherine Keane, 24, who started herbusiness, HungryPod, shortly after an acquaintance offered her$500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Keane took the offerand determined that with two more customers paying similar prices,she could launch a business for $1,500--enough to buy a computerthat could handle large volumes of data transfer.

Loosely based on what its first client paid, HungryPod charges$1.75 per CD for the first 50 CDs, and $1.50 for each additionalCD. Keane will pick up both the CDs and iPods at her clients'homes or offices in Manhattan for an extra $15--unless they havemore than 100 discs, in which case pickup is free.

Keane, who interned at a top 40 radio station in Florida priorto starting HungryPod, also recommends music to clients based ontheir collections for a fee. According to Keane, 1 in 4 customersrequests this service.

Thanks in part to a small story in The New York Times,Keane's advertising efforts on Craigslist and word-of-mouth,HungryPod has expanded to three employees and four computers, andexpects 2005 sales to reach $100,000. Now others want to getinvolved, so Keane has hired a marketing/sales employee and hopesto start HungryPod centers nationwide in the near future.
--Jeran Wittenstein

The Bright Side
What: Landscape and seasonal outdoor lighting and decorationcompany
Who: Bob Martin of BrightIdeasInc.com
Where: New Lenox, Illinois
When: Started in 1996
How much: $2,500

Bob Martin and his employee-turned-partner, Larry Jones,couldn't help but notice the attention they were receiving asthey put up their first client's Christmas display. "Wehad 25-foot toy soldiers, a 40-foot arch going across the driveway,a 36-foot-long Santa's Express in the front yard, and about400,000 lights going throughout the property," says Martin,45. The extravagant display even attracted the attention of thelocal media in New Lenox, Illinois.

That was in the winter of 1996. Martin got the creative sparkfor his company, BrightIdeasInc.com, when he realized most peopledread the yearly task of hanging holiday lights. Confident thatpeople would pay for the convenience, Martin launched the businessfrom his garage. He spent just $2,500 at startup, purchasingsupplies such as advertising signs, ladders, lights, timers andother equipment. Thanks to free consulting help from his localSmall Business Development Center, Martin developed a solidbusiness plan and even got help with marketing and financing. Bysponsoring the local TV station's toy drive and giving awayfree lighting displays through radio shows, he was able to scoremuch-needed exposure in his community for next to nothing.

In 1997, BrightIdeasInc.com also began offering year-roundlandscape lighting services along with its seasonal decorations.Now with two showrooms and four warehouses in Illinois, the companyprojects nearly $2 million in sales for 2005.
--James Park