Regular readers will know that we’re very fond of subscription based services,  and so we were interested to see a  new service, Spice Madam, which offers curated  Spiceboxes together with recipes and fact sheets to enable cooking without  the hassle of going to a specialist food shop.

For $20 subscribers receive a spice box containing three or four spice samples which are inspired by different culinary cultures each month.

So what other food niches are there which would lend themselves to a subscription based service?

Driving to work this morning, I heard an interview on local radio with a lady who makes and markets nose warmers. At first I thought this was a bit of a pocket money enterprise until she revealed that she was looking for an apprentice, sells her products around the world and currently produces over 3,000 nose warmers a year.

When I googled the company, I found that it has been featured on national TV a number of times with the likes of Lorraine Kelly, Alan Titchmarsh and Doctor Hillary have been pictured wearing the products. I suspect they’re mainly bought as a novelty gift and rarely used for their purpose, but that’s what’s interesting…if you can come up with something newsworthy, there’s an opportunity to make money on the back of free publicity.

I notice the company has already expanded into beard warmers. Is there anything else that needs warming…or maybe even cooling? I’ll leave you to think about it.

http://nosewarmer.com/

Kris Sanchez joined Twitter in 2009, primarily to follow Britney Spears! Short of anything interesting to tweet himself, he started tweeting interesting facts he’d found online. This mushroomed into Uber Facts, a business that now makes half a million dollars a year by building galleries and tweeting links. The operation now has a presence across Twitter (9.4 million followers) Facebook (1.27 million likes)  and Instagram (468,000 followers).

Not everyone can (or will) make a fortune on Twitter, but it costs absolutely nothing to try. What other business could you start from your mobile phone for nothing and turn it into half a million dollars a year within 5 years?

Ask a millionaire what’s the most satisfying thing to spend money on and he won’t say Ferrari’s or mansions…he will say experiences. That’s the market being targeted by Special Operations Agency, who offer James Bond-style luxury adventures, complete with special forces and secret service training.

The company is  run by ex-military personnel who offer customers a range of packages aimed at adventurous individuals and groups, as well as businesses looking for team building activities. Experiences are flexible and can be tailored to the customer’s needs, but they all incorporate training in four key skill sets — weapons, demolition, espionage and sere (survival, evasion, resistance and extraction). Customers can opt for a day-long hostage rescue mission in an Eastern European city or an explosives training day at a UK elite forces facility.

Is there a unique experience you could offer to companies and well-heeled  thrill-seekers?

Website: www.specialopsagency.com

We often see ideas on Dragon’s Den that we’ve featured here months…and sometimes years..earlier. The first two businesses last week were ideas we saw in the United States a couple of years ago. The first was a subscription based gourmet food delivery service, and the second was a company that had got UK distributorship for a Segway style personal transportation device.

So is it a case of great minds thinking alike…or are our readers picking up ideas here and then taking them to the den? Let me know if you know the answer.