KISS Labs

We're not mad scientists, by any stretch, but we do have our own little laboratory of ideas, and we try to spend time in the lab every week. Some of our ideas for online businesses are simply silly, and intended merely as a source of fun.

Take, for example, www.5dollarbusinessideas.com. This e-commerce site would sell business ideas for, you guessed it, $5. We are going to load the site with business ideas, and upon credit card payment of the $5, the system would automatically send the customer a business idea. The business ideas would be genuine business notions we had come up with but weren't going to be pursuing ourselves.

Other of our ideas, though, were far more serious, and we've acted on them. Our Rental Solutions Software was one of them. Our Golf Time software for online tee time reservations and Pro Shop sales was another.

At the moment, we have two others in the early stages of development: a Rich Internet Application for the sale of shopping cart accounts to be integrated into an existing web site; and, an online ordering system for take out restaurants, a variation of a shopping cart but for food to be picked up.

The first will be called Cart Solution Software, and will be designed for the small business market. A new small business, just coming onto the Internet, may not have the several thousand dollars to invest in a shopping cart feature for their new web site, but might be able to afford a small, monthly fee for that functionality. Our shopping cart system will be integrated into that new web site for a reasonable monthly fee, without contract, to help that new business get itself started. It will be an easy to run system the business owner will be able to manage on his or her own without needing a web master or software programmer to help - - enter products, write product descriptions, set prices and shipping charges, upload photos, and in all respects run his own business from a password-protected back end. It will be PHP and AJAX powered, with “drag and drop” features for shopper convenience, and a speedy check out process with no lines. It's in the early design stage at the moment, and a Spring 2008 release is anticipated.

The second is a modification of a shopping cart for take-out restaurants that will allow customers to place and pay for their orders online, and then arrive later to pick up their food. It's an online version of the “Call Ahead for your Order” or “Fax us Your Order” service many take-out restaurants offer, but in this instance, the customer will be able to pay for it online as well, receive their receipt and order number immediately, and simply present that upon arrival to pick their food. The restaurant owner will be able to enter their menus on their web sites, along with all of the options (hold the lettuce, no mayo, medium rare, whole wheat bread, etc.) and side dish choices (fries, potato salad, etc.), set the prices, and even put the daily special up on the home page. Orders are paid for at the time they are placed, so the customer is in and out quickly and conveniently. This is in the middle of the design stage, and a late fall release is anticipated.

If you're interested in learning what other ideas are cooking the KISS Laboratory, drop us a note, or sign up to receive an email from us each time a new one is hatched. We'll keep you posted as the list grows, and as new products are ready to be released.