Start a food production related business, and you’d better get prepared for a library full of rules and regulations. I’m guessing the restrictions related to pet food production are a lot less stringent, which is why I was interested to read about a business started by Lucas Riley and Riley Wallbank. When they couldn’t find single-ingredient treats with large enough quantities for their dogs, they decided to make their own.

Initially, they were making the dog treats for family members and close friends. Demand grew, and so did their online business.

Their tasty dog treats are healthy, natural and safe with no preservatives, salts, colours, chemicals or fillers. The home-based business can produce 400 to 700 bags of treats a week, with plans to eventually move to a production facility.

As we’ve said here many times before, the pet market is massive. People spend a fortune on their pampered pooches. How might you cash in?

In these days of all-things-digital, it’s easy to overlook the fact that print media is still alive and kicking. Coffee News is a US based franchise business that provides restaurants and food based businesses with informative newsletters for customers that contain everything from news items to jokes. The newsletters are provided free of charge and money is made on advertisements carried within the newsletters.

Is this something you could copy here? And might there be other types of business that would welcome free newsletters for their customers? How about one for garages or hairdressers for example?a

There are myriad places to buy second hand goods online these days, and many items exchange hands for large sums of money. But buyers face a problem – how do they know they’re buying from the rightful owner and the goods aren’t stolen? Perfecto attempts to solve this problem in one market at least – the thriving market for secondhand bicycles.

Sellers first create an account and connect it to Strava , a mobile tracking app for running and cycling. Then they make a listing for their bike, which includes its Strava history, enabling buyers to view the seller’s riding information. Next, sellers must add their bike’s serial number, which Perfecto can use to verify its authenticity, by checking it against databases of stolen bikes. Users can discuss a potential sale through the platform and also give ratings once the sale is complete.

Perfecto is currently available in the US only. Something to copy here perhaps?  Or could the business model be copied and adapted for other categories of secondhand goods?

https://perfecto.bike/

College students are not particularly well known for their cleanly habits. It’s perhaps with them in mind that Beantown Bedding have developed laundry free sheets made from a biodegradable fibre called Tencel. The sheets can be used for a couple of weeks and then thrown out to compost. Other viable markets include hotels, B&B’s and hospitals

This seems to be confined to the United States at the moment, so importing the idea to the UK could be worth investigating. Thinking more widely, might there be other opportunities to extend the disposable idea to other products, using material like this, and thereby reduce, or eliminate, the need for laundry?

All cyclists face the same problem – where do you store your bikes when you’re not using them? If you have a garage, that’s fine, but many people don’t and are forced to keep their bikes indoors. Chilean designer Manuel Rossel  has come up with a different solution.

Chol1, designed by Rossel, is a line of unique furniture that doubles as bike storage space. Instead of leaving bikes in hallways,  users can slot their bikes on top of bookshelves, onto a platform behind the sofa, or on an angular stand. Without the bikes, the pieces look like ordinary, minimalistic modern furniture.
Chile
Chol1 is currently only available in Chile, and with cycling continuing to grow in popularity in the UK, the designs are perhaps something to take inspiration from.